PharmaJet, Inc. (http://www.pharmajet.com) offers jet injection technology to deliver vaccines and drugs through skin. The company offers PharmaJet, a needle-free system that delivers liquid medications at high speed creating a ‘liquid jet’ that penetrates the skin and delivers the medicine through the skin in less than 1/3 of a second. It serves individual patients, as well as public health needs internationally. The company is based in Golden, Colorado with operations in

With approximately 23 employees currently,  PharmaJet was founded in 2007 and is currently headquartered in Golden, Colorado with other offices in San Francisco and  Baltimore.

As a privately held medical device design company, PharmaJet has developed an FDA 510 (k) cleared needle free jet injection technology.  It can be used to inject any liquid medicine into the body (human and animal), for fixed dosages ranging from 0.1cc to 0.5cc, into intra-dermal, subcutaneous, and intra-muscular tissue depths.  It is most appropriate for vaccine delivery, which is a standard 0.5 cc dose for nearly all human vaccines.  Since starting its first scientific collaboration 22 months ago, active pre-clinical and clinical testing of PharmaJet’s device is underway in 9 countries, with 18 partners for more than 25 vaccines and therapeutic medicines.

Market Opportunity

History & Genesis

PharmaJet’s technology was developed to address a need for safe and clean delivery of liquid vaccines, without a needle, in view of the massive infection rates caused from within the healthcare system of hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV (and an additional 17 other blood borne diseases) due to syringe needle reuse and needle stick injury during vaccination (estimated at 22 million injuries per year world-wide).   With the World Health Organization’s (WHO) guidelines in mind, the Founders created a needle-free injection technology that is simple, robust, and inexpensive.  Besides getting rid of needles, however, there are a host of other sustainable competitive advantages and attractive features making it a value added device that can improve the lives of people, reduce the cost of healthcare, all the while generating profitability for PharmaJet and its partners.

Product  Potential

PharmaJet’s features help address the developing world problem of re-use (as much as 40-70% in some countries) which contributes to growth in disease and epidemic.  Further, the intra-dermal application (0.1 – 0.2cc volume) may contribute to stretching vaccine supply (reduced dosage, but similar immune response to standard 0.5cc dosage) where there is shortage so that the health net can be spread among a larger population, ultimately benefiting their group welfare and economy.  At the same time, it is perfectly appropriate for the sophisticated healthcare market, and eliminates needle-stick injury which is prevalent everywhere.  As a technology platform, there are a variety of additional product extensions that allow it to be useful in other injection segments, user groups, and processes.

Initial Markets

• Human vaccine market: >1.75 billion needle-syringes being used annually for injection of vaccines, for children and adult populations.
• Animal vaccine market: Even larger by volume than the human vaccine market, PharmaJet’s device has been used successfully in a range of species (mice, rabbits, guinea pigs, dogs, cats, goats, sheep, horses, cattle), making it suitable for:
  • For pre-clinical research and antibody production
  • To keep companion animals from spreading disease to their owners (i.e. rabies), and;
  • To keep animals productive, so that populations do not starve (developing world), industries are not financially devastated (i.e. culling for foot & mouth disease), and producers maintain efficiency (i.e. dairy).

The Position

As PharmaJet, Inc. seeks to substantially expand it’s product user base, exposure and revenues in 2010, the PharmaJet Regional Business Development position plays a vital role in product introduction, demonstration and sales within several key market segments.  Leveraging their industry experience, this sales and business development leader will systematically identify and develop key new market opportunities and represent product sales to all public and private healthcare providers currently utilizing needle injection delivery of vaccines and select drugs to patients and the general public. Based upon a pre-defined region, such product introduction will use a team approach for product adoption and use support, in conjunction with PharmaJet Certified Trainers and Technical Support. This position will thus serve as the overall regional business manager of these services.  The role will be focused on integrating PharmaJet’s product capabilities into all relevant regional public health networks, private clinics, and hospitals, thereby participating in all key mass vaccination events at the city, county and regional levels.  Such efforts shall include attendance and representation at all relevant user’s groups and regional conferences of professional healthcare providers

Financial Backing

PharmaJet has raised a Series A and B equity financing from angels and strategic investors, and is well capitalized to enter their next phase of commercialization.

Compensation

Compensation is competitive with the position’s requirements.  In a performance-based environment, this will include base salary, incentive bonus structure based on both quantitative revenue goals and qualitative MBOs, and a potential stakeholder position in the company.

Dedham, MA-  Tobii ATI is pleased to announce that John Stamatopoulos has joined the company as Vice President, Sales.

“We’re very excited to have John on board.  Tobii is poised for significant growth in 2010, and John will be instrumental in our success in the coming year,” said Tara Rudnicki, Tobii-ATI’s U.S. President.

“I’m extremely excited about joining the team, and feel a real missionary passion to help bring Tobii’s assistive technologies product line deeper into the markets we serve,” stated Mr. Stamatopoulos.

John’s background prior to joining Tobii included Global Director of Sales, Medical Device, Manufacturing, Pharmaceuticals, Capital Equipment, & medical Instrumentation for Fiberoptic Components, a contract manufacturer serving the medical devices and industrial manufacturing industries.  While there, John was focused on developing an international medical marketplace for custom Fiberoptic applications including hand instruments, sensors, and analytical instrumentation. Partner with OEM’s and contract manufacturers.   Before this role, John was responsible for sales leadership at IDEX Health & Science where he was recruited to direct sales for newly launched medical arm of $135M Health and Science division. Other sales roles John played previously included Account Sales Manager at Hill-Rom, a fortune 1000 global provider of healthcare solutions and sales executive at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals where he was #1 in district for total Rx market share and recipient of “Best in ‘03″ and “Best of the Best” for professionalism 2004, including  national contest winner for market share growth.  John started his career in the medical industry  at Schering-Plough Pharmaceuticals, and has received industry-focused certificates at Loyola University of Chicago and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.  John received his BSBA from Northeastern University in Marketing and Management Information Systems.

Tobii-ATI (http://www.tobiiati.com ) is the founding pioneer in the field of assistive technology.  Tobii ATI has released a range of new alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) solutions that help individuals with speech impairments communicate. Tobii-ATI develops both communication hardware and software solutions for people with physical, cognitive, and speech disabilities. Tobii Assistive Technology, Inc. was formerly known as Assistive Technology, Inc.  Tobii Assistive Technology, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of its venture-backed Swedish parent, Tobii Technology AB.

We’re often asked how to establish fair market compensation when it comes to CEOs of privately held companies, often with venture capital or private equity backing.

Below is one method that can be employed as a jumping off point for this calculus:

1)     “De-risked,” how much is a CEO worth?  Is  $500 -$1M a year too much?  For our purposes here, we’re talking about a talented CEO.  Not someone below average, but above the average, one that a retained executive search firm, venture or private equity investor, or board of directors would be proud to put in the role.   Rather than pick some arbitrary number, this should be  ”market set,” by looking at what someone working for any global 2000 company (i.e. General Electric or other similar) earns annually.  From our executive search experience and database of compensation comparables in these companies, base salary is usually between 250K and 400K, depending upon how big the divisional P&L responsibility is, there is usually a bonus that is between 50-100% of base, and an LTIP (long term incentive plan) that-once partial vesting begins-can generate from 100K up to 250K or more a year in cash.

2)     So, the cash component of a comparable, including average base, annual average bonus, and yearly LTIP pay-out looks something like this:

Base ~ 300K

Bonus ~250K

LTIP (cash only) ~ 200K

TOTAL: 750K

* This does not include any meaningful RSUs (restricted stock units) that are usually also part of that package, which could add another 200K or more per year in value to a general manager’s package with true P&L responsibility for their division, group, or sector/segment.

* This is also not indexed to geography/cost of living.  If the position is in New York City tri-state area (New York, northern New Jersey, southern Connecticut), San Francisco, Boston, London, Singapore, Hong Kong, or Tokyo, a multiplier factor needs to be used to level-set for cost of living increase required for those metropolitan areas.

3)      Now, back out the cash portion of a CEO’s compensation for the company that they’re stepping into (say 250K a year in cash in smaller companies as all base, or combination of base + cash bonus).  So you’re left with say 500K that needs to be made up in equity, on a per anum basis.

4)      Over how many years is the liquidity horizon (and/or vesting rate, 3, 4 ,5 years)? Let’s say it’s 4 years, at net 500K, equals ~$2 million

5)      Now, this is with ZERO beta risk factor.  Add back the beta risk of an earlier stage company.  Let’s assume a global 200 company equals “1.”  A CEO role in a privately held, externally backed company is not “1″.  It’s probably a multiplier of 1.5, or 2.  For a pre-revenue, VC-backed company with high burn rate, it could be as much as in the 3 to 5 range.  Note that any illiquid company is inherently risky in terms of cashing in any equity at a reasonable price.  Let’s pick a beta risk multiplier of 2.5 times riskier than “average.” So, 2M * 2.5 = 5M.  Note that when there are preferences for the investors that create an exit hurdle rate before any common shareholders get paid, beta risk goes up accordingly unless the CEO participates in any exit event via cash carve out or other instrument.   As mentioned above, a recent IPO that represents a reasonable market comparable netted a CEO who joined the company 4 years ago $20M.  Using this number, the CEO’s compensation was $5M a year, or a beta multiplier of approximately 5.

6)     Then, are there any combat pay provisions you need to add in (warts that a CEO or executive team member is required to overcome and vanquish in their role that are above and beyond the normal call of duty)-reconstituting the executive team, or raising an outside round of capital because existing investors are tapped out, or starting up an Asia manufacturing capability that will require the CEO to take a dozen 15-hour flights one-way to get up and running.

7)      Finally, you have to look at what likely dilution there is going to be to an initial options grant for the CEO.  If you start with a 6% stake in an early stage company in a Series A funding, and you then raise a series B and C, depending upon valuation for those rounds, the CEO will likely end up below 3% as a “fully diluted” stakeholder.  There is an argument to be made that any of the management team critical to the success of the company will be “topped off” at later funding events in order to keep them motivated.  However, there is no guarantee that this happens.  It’s only good business sense to do it.  For the CEO, it is more important what s/he ends up with, not how much with which they start.

8)     Add water, and stir…

Notes & disclaimers:

• * This is not intended to be biased in any direction, to any party, neither CEO candidate, nor company and/or investor.
• * This is only one way of calculating compensation, indeed there are many others.
• * There is no way an earl- stage emerging/growth company will be able to compensate a CEO in all cash, nor truly be able to offset the risks inherent in this stage of venture.  The CEO either accepts this, or is not truly capable of working successfully in this milieu.
• * Other than the impact of cost of living  adjustments to base compensation, each CEO candidate comes with what we refer to as their own subjective “keep the lights on” cash needs.  We calculate this simply as the amount of cash required on a yearly basis to cover their living/family obligations without having to write checks out of savings to cover it.  Some CEO candidates may have 3 children in private school or college, while others may have no children and no mortgage.  Cash needs therefore may range widely, and need to be adjusted for using equity as a “leveler” (less cash-needy, higher the equity, and vice versa)
• * Alternatives to paying bonuses in cash might be to pay bonuses in equity, upon achievement of key milestones for the company
• * This same calculus can be applied to the Vice President level as well, subject to appropriate adjustments downward in cash and equity
• * In a circumstance where there is a “turn-around” required, equity may not be enough of a certainly to attract a competent CEO for the challenge ahead.  In these circumstances, a cash carve-out may be warranted in addition and/or in substitution for a stakeholder role.  The cash carve-out may be just for the CEO, or for the key management team required to achieve the turn-around.  Often, the cash-carve out structure is a percentage of total sale price over a certain amount, with the possibility for an accelerator depending upon exit/liquidity circumstances/outcome.
• * Often the question of anti-dilution comes up in an effort to assure a CEO of a certain percentage of equity upon liquidity.  Granting 5% equity to a CEO at a Series A financing with anti-dilution would ensure that the CEO retained his or her stake across the growth and additional funding needs of the company.  However, this is rarely a good mechanism, as the CEO becomes less interested in new company valuations at subsequent funding events, and becomes misaligned with the company’s investors.

Below is the hyperlink to our latest CEO peers “speed-survey,” exclusively for growth-stage CEOs.  Topic– “Preparing for Recovery?”

http://surveys.polldaddy.com/s/D3642F14267CCC14/

We at BSG Team Ventures periodically take the temperature of the markets we serve. This speed survey is no more than 10 questions, simple multiple-choice.

Knowledge is power.  Aggregated peer-provided knowledge is “actionable power.”

We make an effort to survey only those who fit the category (in this case, sitting CEOs or board member/founders of technology/science-driven growth-stage companies). [Note, if you don't fit the aforementioned description, please refrain from responding.]

Feel free to forward to the qualified CEOs in your sphere of influence.  The more data generated, the more accurate the trend lines.

All responses are anonymous due to the web-based survey technology employed.

We will forward the survey results within the next two weeks to the email address on file.  Please let us know if there is another email address you wish us to send the results to as well.

Executive Recruiters Boston Search Group and IdealWave Solutions Merge to Form BSG Team Ventures

Bringing Unparalleled Mobility and Social Media Expertise IdealWave Deepens Firm’s Commitment to Building Trusted Advisor Relationships with Clients

Boston – August 1, 2009 - BSG Team Ventures, formerly Boston Search Group, an international retained executive firm serving emerging and high-growth companies, today announced a merger with IdealWave Solutions, a nationally recognized executive recruitment leader in the mobility and convergence sector.  IdealWave couples deep expertise in the enterprise mobility and social media industries with a unique team-based approach that yields quick results with highly personalized service. The combined company, BSG Team Ventures, will be headquartered in Boston, with offices in Silicon Valley, New York and London.

As many other retained search firms are shrinking or closing down, BSG Team Ventures is taking advantage of the opportunity to grow stronger.  The merged entity will be uniquely positioned to identify and recruit top Board Director, C-level and VP-level talent for both emerging and established companies across its now seven practice specialties – mobility and convergence, cleantech, technology and media, medical devices, biotech, education, and not-for-profit.  While the executive search industry has been slow to harness advanced technology to optimize domain expertise, market involvement, and the candidate development process, BSG Team Ventures has turned to innovative social networking technologies to cultivate a large and growing community of mobile industry executives working for some of the most high-profile companies in the world.

“Combining forces to create BSG Team Ventures marks the beginning of an exciting adventure and a natural evolution for our business. With BSG we have found a partner whose commitment to innovation, client service, and results mirrors our own,” said Mathew Corbett, founder and managing director, IdealWave Solutions.  “I look forward to drawing on our combined 17 years experience in retained search and mobile industry expertise to grow the firm, provide increased capabilities to our clients, and expand into new markets.”

INmobile.org: Engaging the Global Mobile Community

The brainchild of Corbett, a longtime social media evangelist, INmobile.org is one of the largest industry-specific social networks on the Web, comprising more than 2,500 mobile industry executives who gather in one place to learn, share ideas, and network with peers.  Combining online networking with offline executive receptions at top mobile industry conferences, INmobile.org is both a key facilitator in helping BSG Team Ventures’ clients stay abreast of market and technology trends, and an invaluable tool in keeping BSG Team Ventures fully engaged with top leaders and decision makers globally.

The mobile industry is especially well poised for continued growth.  “Even more exciting than the internet phenomenon is this mobile phone phenomenon,” according to Dr. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, in a speech given to the Economic Club in 2008.

“Our merger with IdealWave comes at a pivotal time for our firm as we look to expand to new markets and set the highest bar for innovation in the executive search process,” said Clark Waterfall, founder and managing director, BSG Team Ventures.  “With decades of combined executive search and strategic organizational development experience, we’re confident that together with IdealWave we can continue to achieve the highest levels of client satisfaction in the industry.  We couldn’t be more thrilled with the addition of Matthew Corbett and Mark Newhall as partners to the firm.”

About BSG Team Ventures

BSG Team Ventures is an international leader in retained executive search and human capital consulting for emerging and high-growth companies. Its mission is to build deep, trusted-advisor relationships with its clients, and to do so with a keen appreciation for the unique requirements of entrepreneurial ventures.  Via its presence in Boston, New York, Silicon Valley and London, BSG Team Ventures has completed hundreds of leadership searches on behalf of its clients in its practice specialties that include technology, media, cleantech, biotech, medical devices, education and non-profit.

About IdealWave

IdealWave is the leading executive search partner for companies involved in or effected by mobility and convergence. Established in 2001 and headquartered in MA, IdealWave has worked with many of the most exciting companies innovating within mobility and convergence. The company was launched by Matthew Corbett and Mark Newhall.  For more information please visit www.idealwave.com.

Contacts:

BSG Team Ventures

Clark Waterfall: Managing Director cwaterfall@bsgtv.com

Matthew Corbett: Managing Director mcorbett@bsgtv.com

Address: 224 Clarendon Street, 4^th floor, Boston, MA 02116

www.bsgtv.com

Vice President of Sales

The Company

World Leader in Eye-Tracking and Eye-Control

Our client is the founding pioneer in the field of assistive technology.  Being able to speak is something that most people take for granted. However, some are born with Cerebral Palsy, have ALS/MND or may have acquired a disability through an injury or a stroke — all of which can impair their ability to speak. Our client has released a range of new alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) solutions that help individuals with speech impairments communicate. The company develops both communication hardware and software solutions for people with physical, cognitive, and speech disabilities. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Dedham, Massachusetts. Our client  has just launched nine new AAC products that give individuals with communication disabilities a voice and a way to live more fulfilled, integrated and independent lives.

The Position

Reporting to the President outside of Boston, Massachusetts, the Vice President of Sales will be responsible for the planning and execution of sales activities for the U.S. The VP will organize and lead a team of sales professionals divided into three regions, East, Central, and West.  Each of these regions is led by a Regional Sales Manager, focused on direct sales of the company’s products and services to end-user customers located primarily in the USA and Canada.  The current sales and marketing organization is comprised of a sales team of 20 spread across these regions.

Key deliverables include responsibility to create growth strategies and successful business solutions for branding and positioning of the product line as well as organize, develop, and grow the sales organization. Critical to success will be the ability to work closely with Technology business managers and R&D resources around the globe. More…

Although only preliminary, below are the early returns on the February 2009 growth-stage CEO survey for technology & science-driven companies.  The majority of the CEOs surveyed are from venture capital-backed or institutionally funded companies.   The theme remained the economy for the February survey.  The first question was around what the prevailing sentiments were for a recovery.  Unfortunately, although perhaps not unexpectedly, less than 25% of CEOs surveyed expect the economy to improve before Q4 2009, and more than half the CEOs don’t expect the economy to shows significant signs of recovery until 2010.

When CEOs were asked whether they were still seriously considering cuts in Q2, 2009, more than 25% of the early respondents answered affirmatively.

We will post the rest of the survey responses in the next 10 days or so, and will include updates in the interim.

We periodically bring small groups in to our conference room to brainstorm over lunch on a new disruptive technology that has yet to find its market. As executive recruiters focused on the innovation sector, it’s an informal matchmaking that looks a lot like a focus group of sorts, or a technology version of “lunch dates.” In this case, it was a new robotics related technology out of MIT that behaves like “smart skin.” What resulted was a set of free-flowing observations that highlighted possible markets and applications ranging from clinical medical diagnostics, to medical therapeutics surrounding rehabilitation and injury prevention, to consumer applications like in-home health and even consumer gaming applications. All were great observations from a veteran group of a half-dozen venture capitalists, innovation catalysts, and serial entrepreneurs in technology, healthcare IT, medical devices, and software. One of the serendipitous outputs of the brainstorming session was how best to go to market in this economic climate with a new innovation. The opinion that was almost universally held amongst the group was the following:

• Developing a component is really difficult. Developing an end user complete solution is by far the better way to go.
• Components are often harder to visualize as displacing current technologies or sciences. In particular, VERY hard for consumers to visualize.
• Those who may be most interested in the innovation may be so interested because they stand the most to lose. Therefore, to get control of the technology might be important, but to further develop and deploy it may be exactly the opposite of what they had in mind.
• Kevin Johnson, CEO of Manifold Products, mechanical engineer and serial entrepreneur, had one of the best sports metaphors for it-

“It’s not enough to be the Harlem Globe Trotters and show off fancy ball tricks in the back court, expecting that others will notice and say, ‘Hey pass me the ball and I’ll take it to the basket.’ Instead, you have to take it all the way to the hoop yourself and demonstrate the value/viability/feasibility before anyone else will sign on….”

Here is the balance of the survey responses from the VC-backed CEO survey we administered at the end of December 2008 into the first week of January 2009, both responses and a bit of interpretation.

Given survey responses, it appears the bell curve peak is in the 20-40% reduction in headcount.  The group of CEOs who indicated these reductions were approximately half of the 60 CEO respondents.

• •    40% or more staff reductions? ~ 10% of total CEOs surveyed
• •    Less than 20% staff reductions? ~ About 17% of all CEO respondents

Winner on this question was “more than 9 months,” with more than 40% of the CEOs.  Runners-up were the “0-to-6 months of cash” CEOs, evenly split with 25% saying 3 to 6 months, and another 25% saying “less than 3 months.”  What this may indicate is that there is a bimodal distribution of funding in the market –those who are well-funded, with 9 months or more, and those companies who are running out of cash (popular definition = less than 6 months of cash remaining).  This is reinforced by the fact that very few companies responded that they had 7-9 months of cash (less than 10% of companies).  Therefore, one might imagine that those companies who are shortest on cash are also those who are making the deepest cuts in staffing.  In addition, that there may be another round of cuts in store for those low-cash companies if they can’t get another round closed soon.

Top implied answer here?   Don’t raise a venture round in 2009.  And this is what the largest slug of CEOs responded with (33%).  Of those who are going to try to raise in 2009,

• •    one-third of CEOs see a flat round
• •    16% feel they’ll get an up round
• •    and almost half (45%) are predicting a down round

Winner for this question shows some great optimism however, with about 1/3 each of the CEOs responding answering with either “revenues up 1 to 25%”  or “Up more than 50%.”

There was an intentional effort to get a fairly even distribution of venture-backed CEO respondents for this survey, to try to avoid sector bias.  We were fortunate to have at least 10% (6 or more companies) from each of life sciences / biotech, medical devices, and the cleantech sectors.  Software/Internet/telecom was the largest category represented, with 42% of CEOs hailing from this sector.

BONUS SLIDE

Q: If YOU could survey your peer CEOs, what question(s) are both urgent AND important to running your business you’d like us to consider asking in future polls?

This was one of the most rewarding questions for which to see the responses.  Fully half of the CEOs polled had a question they’d like to pose to their peers, and some CEOs had several.  Below is a partial list of questions we’ll choose from in follow-on surveys.  If any of those CEOs would like to respond individually to any of the questions below, feel free to post a comment on this blog entry and we’ll post it for public consumption (clustered by general question subcategory as well as by industry sector).  Of course, the winning question asked by one of you CEOs, just to validate that venture capital-backed CEOs are-if anything-self-aware, pragmatic, and not fatally over-optimistic:

“What will CEOs do if their company fails?!”
1.   Cost-related questions

• •    Approaches or success stories in restructuring debt to the company’s advantage.
• •    Is it better to reduce headcount 20%, go to a 4-day work week, or reduce salaries by 20%?
• •    In addition to headcount reductions (if any), what type of expenses are you reducing?  Are you delaying new projects/initiatives?  How have investors reacted to this?
• •    Will you consider outsourcing some of your product development to make cost variable, at the expense of some know-how then being outside the company?

2.    Sales/Marketing/Revenue-related questions

• •    How are you using the economic downturn to improve your business position/model?
• •    What are you going to spend more money on in 2009 than in 2008?
• •    What changes in the sales cycle are you seeing in the last 6months, 2 months, currently?  What does the resultant trend point to for 2009 and what actions are you taking in response?
• •    How has your visibility into the level of future business changed in the last 3-6 months?Asked another way – what level of confidence do you have in your current forecast of business?
• •    (1) What emphasis do you place on marketing in your organization? (2) What do you consider the top 3 most important elements of marketing to be?
• •    How will you as CEO deal with longer term rate issues if you are a service business as it seems all labor rates are being pushed down?
• •    The number one reason why clients buy your product is? (cost, quality, service, other?)

3.    Funding/exit/valuation questions

• •    Are you finding lending lines out there?
• •    If an acquirer made an offer to buy your company today, but at a multiple less than what it would be in a strong economy, would you consider it, or wait until the economy improves so you could get a higher valuation?
• •    Are you considering merging your company with another? Are you looking at merger partners as a legitimate exit option in 2009?
• •    Are you looking to current investors or new investors for additional rounds of financing?

4.    Board of Directors/investor-related questions

• •    How will venture capital investing change in 2009?
• •    What is your satisfaction with your Board’s ability to fundraise in the future? (I think the current environment highlights a board’s function as protector of value through fundraising and too few board members are good at it)?
• •    Compensation for outside board members?

5.    Staffing/talent questions

• •    How are you balancing full time versus contract employees?
• •    How are you retaining employees during these tough times?
• •    What kind of retention ideas have you considered to make sure your key folks don’t bail for a more stable environment?
• •    What skills are you as CEO still looking to hire?
• •    What do you do to conserve cash? attract customers?
• •    How many of you CEOs have proposed reducing people to part time levels and adding equity compensation instead of releasing them all together?

6.    Economy-related questions

• •    When do you predict the market conditions to take a turn for the better?

There a few industry-specific questions CEOs wanted to ask their peer as well:

Life sciences/biotech-related questions

• •    What kind of deal structures are you seeing in liquidity-directed partnerships? What kind of partnerships, if any, are you envisioning for discovery stage assets?

Medical devices-related questions

• •    How do you expect reimbursement to be influenced during the next administration?