Digital Health Startup (Silicon Valley)
Mentor and advisor to founders of this startup pioneering the concept of digital therapeutics.
“Richard Caro (via TangibleFuture) has become an extremely trusted business partner to myself and the Omada Health executive team. There are very few people who I hold in higher regard, and I can’t tell you how many times the thought “I should ask Richard about this” crosses my mind. He has helped Omada successfully navigate a $4.7MM Series A financing, helped us develop our clinical strategy, and over the course of doing so, has also become a dear friend. If you have the chance to work with Richard, take it. He will provide innumerous value.”
Sean Duffy, Founder and CEO, Omada Health
Health 2.0 Medical Device Business (Australia)
Strategic advisor to CEO on topics including active M&A negotiations; market entry in the USA, and financing.
“Typical of many start up medical device companies we faced significant challenges around strategy, risk management and capital. Our motto is to surround ourselves with the “best in the world” to help us navigate through these challenges. Deciding to globalise our technology was a big step to consider and so in line with our motto, we engaged TangibleFuture to guide us.
The advice and active engagement provided by Richard Caro has been vital to the organisation’s success. Richard brings intellectual rigour and experience in all the areas we need; technical, IP, regulatory, strategic thinking, M&A and so forth. This level of wisdom is rarely found but is absolutely essential for success. Richard provides the experience and skills that ensure we avoid making the traditional mistakes, or overlooking the “obvious”. His disciplined approach is carefully calibrated; he provides the checks and balances which are essential for a fast moving start up.
The most profound challenge which is often overlooked in the start-up environment is the ability to look forward critically and plan a future in a way that is realistic, achievable and sustainable. This is why we engage with TangibleFuture; the smartest way to plan for the future is to draw on experience of the past and Richard has this in abundance”.
Philippa Lewis, CEO, Simavita
NASDAQ-listed Communications Components Company
Helped the CEO develop a strategic plan to transform the company from a low-growth, unprofitable supplier of commodity components into a profitable business focused on an emerging, niche, communications market segment — with great potential for future growth. This repositioning culminated in a successful sale of the company.
“TangibleFuture brought a fresh assessment of our company and the markets in which we compete. This thorough and analytically objective assessment helped us develop a strategic plan and implementation strategy that created a tidal change in the direction we were headed and the ultimate market value of our company. Each step of the process we went through with Tangible Future was executed in a timely manner with disciplined analysis and effective communication among all involved parties.
Richard Caro led our project and was meticulous in assembling needed information and creating a clear path for the company to materially improve our operating performance. All of our requests and requirements for the project were fully met. All engaged parties from management to the Board of Directors to key investors embraced the strategic plan and supported its implementation.
In summary, Richard Caro is one of the most valuable advisors with whom I have worked throughout my career.”
Andy Harris, Former President/CEO, Stratos International
Korean Photonics Business
Deep-dive market analysis, and alignment with planned product development. Recommended strategic redirection.
“Because we saw companies generating substantial revenues from sales of a specific optical transceiver product, our company was about to invest heavily in development of a better/cheaper version of that product, based on a novel opto-electronic platform technology we have developed.
Luckily, we retained TangibleFuture to go out and dig deeply into the market and its future trajectory, and learned that customer requirements and the competitive landscape were changing rapidly. Even though there was a current need for the product we planned to develop, by the time we were able to finish product development the market would have shifted and customers would be buying quite different, next generation products, for which our technology offered no compelling advantage. With the benefit of hindsight, things have played out pretty much as TangibleFuture said they would.
As a result of TangibleFuture’s work we shifted our efforts elsewhere, and have saved a great deal of money.”
B.H. Lee, Chairman, Novatronix.
Neuro-marketing Startup (Australia)
Acted as long term advisor to the founder of a startup, which is developing services and equipment using brainwave evoked potentials to make market research more objective, more precise, and language independent — as he bootstrapped the company from zero to its first $1 million of revenue, and developed plans for the next phase of growth.
“I am very happy with our collaboration and enormously impressed by your capacity to contribute to Neuro-Insight’s development at so many levels. These range from your astute observations regarding basic science issues to the practicalities of translating scientific discoveries into commercial products. Coupled to this is your ability to offer practical and invaluable advice on issues as diverse as business and negotiation strategy, financial structuring, and marketing.
In summary, TangibleFuture comes as close as I have ever seen to constituting the “complete package” in terms of consulting to high tech start-ups.”
Richard Silberstein Ph.D., Chairman & CEO, Neuro-Insight, Pty. Ltd.
University-owned, Nanotech. Commercialization Company
As the commercialization arm of a large, multi-university research effort, whose 50+ researchers are focused on solving the fundamental scientific challenges that lie on the path to quantum computing, this company owns a significant amount of intellectual property in the field of “extreme nanotechnology”. They asked TangibleFuture, Inc. to help them decide how best to exploit several near term commercial opportunities based on that IP; and to help fine-tune the company’s strategic objectives.
As a result of this project, the company significantly altered its strategic objectives; gained a clear understanding of the near term commercial opportunities for its IP, as well as of how best to commercialize it; and has decided on a specific path forward.
Particularly relevant was TangibleFuture’s ability to understand the complex science; to go out and interact with key market participants around the world; and then to help the management team gain a clear understanding of what the commercial opportunities might look like, and what they would need to do to capitalize on those opportunities.
Surgeon / Inventor
On behalf of a surgeon/inventor, who invented a novel approach for transmitting electrical power into the body to power implants (eg defibrilators, or muscle stimulators), we dug deeply into the potential market applications of the technology, the IP position, and the competitive landscape, and guided his engineers in an evaluation of the likely performance of a product based on the invention. Based on a clear understanding of the invention’s likely competitive advantage, target applications and commercial potential, we helped the inventor make an informed decision about the best path forward.
“I found working with Richard Caro extremely rewarding. We found the real obstacles and challenges, opportunities and boundaries, and we were able to more clearly identify the issues which would differentiate our technology. We could not have made the right commercial decisions without his help.”
Dr. Gerard W. Sormann, MBBS, FRACS.
Biodiesel Startup (California)
Mentored (pro-bono) the founders of a US-based biodiesel startup in the UC Berkeley Business Plan competition. This work was featured in a documentary on NPR’s radio program Living on Earth.
“Richard’s philosophy and multidisciplinary approach to value creation enabled us to appreciate the larger picture….. By reorienting our focus from technological features to the core customer needs we were able to craft a much more persuasive argument for both our investors and our customers.”
Chris Carstens, Founder and CEO, Homeland Fuels, Inc.