Exactech, Orthopaedic Implants: Makes Top Company Lists

Guest Post by:

Mike Schmitt, MD

Life Science Analyst and Editor of the Florida BioDatabase

Mike can be reached at M2Schmitt@aol.com

I happened to be at Barnes & Noble a few weeks back savoring my favorite grande Starbucks (yes, “I have to have it”—being the self-admitted caffeine junkie that I am), when the October 27th edition of Forbes, caught my attention.

The cover article, “America's 200 Best Small Public Companies” piqued my curiosity as to which companies made the list—and whether any of those selected were from the life science sector and just as important—were any from Florida?

In fact, there was one company from Florida that I recognized immediately (there may have been others, but unfortunately, they were not sorted by location) and it was even in the life science sector (what luck!).

Located in Gainesville, Exactech was ranked in the middle of the pack at # 105. The ranking was based on ROE (return on equity), sales growth and profit growth over the past 12 months and 5 years compared with industry peers. The company’s metrics are reasonable with a 5 year average ROE of 12% and an increase in sales growth of 15% (5 year average as well). Revenue in Q3 was up 27% compared to Q3 2007.

Exactech is an orthopedic company that develops, manufactures, markets, distributes and sells orthopaedic implant devices, related surgical instrumentation and biologic services to hospitals and physicians in the United States and internationally. One of the distinctive aspects of the company is their product line of engineered bone graft for reconstructive applications. Exactech is one of those unique companies that blends both biotech (use of biologics) with med device applications. This is turning out to be one of the fastest growing areas in the biomedical field (think also, coronary stents—where you have a mechanical device delivering a specific therapeutic in a targeted manner). The company was also recently ranked (by revenue) in Florida Trend at #112 in the Top 150 Florida Public Companies and at #21 in Florida’s Top High-tech Companies.

For the life science golfers out there, Peter Jacobsen (a 32-year veteran of the PGA Tour with seven wins and a five-year member of the Champions senior tour with two wins, both majors) visited the company in September to sign autographs and show off his new Optetrak knee replacement system made by Exactech. According to the October 2, 2008 Gainesville Sun , Jacobsen is ready to return to the tournament playing. Exactech seems to be showing up everywhere these days—and making a difference.

Everybody Loves a Cereal Entrepreneur

Investors, employees, partners...everybody enjoys doing business with an entrepreneur who has successfully built multiple companies. If that serial entrepreneur kicks off a charity contest involving a bathtub full of cereal, even better.

Checkout what Ted is up to now. He's announced a contest to give away a bathtub of cereal (52 boxes) to one lucky participant and, if his post generates 500 comments, another 52 boxes of cereal to his local food bank. To enter, just blog, comment and tweet about the contest -- easy. Like many of the post comments, I also plan to donate anything I win to the local food bank. That's over 100 boxes of cereal for some hungry kids and families as we head into the holidays.

More details are included in this video...he even has a "making of" video over at his post.

So, check out Ted's post, comment, blog about it and retweet it. Everybody loves a cereal entrepreneur...

Team Building: Cultivating Your Greatest Asset

I've said it many times before, but people make or break any company. My "foxhole" post highlighted that teams grow in importance during the tough times. However, team cohesion doesn't just happen, it takes work.

When I first left college as an engineer, I'll admit, team building exercises at IBM seemed hokey and hardly worth the effort. As I grew into management roles and then moved into venture capital, the value of team building became more obvious. As a VC I've had the pleasure of witnessing over 40 different entrepreneurs and senior managers build teams and I can honestly say the most productive teams, after exceeding 10 people, came from concerted senior management attention to build familiarity, values, vision and passion among teammates.

What have you done this year to build team cohesion, and, in particular, what have you done since October, when the economy injected fear and uncertainty into your team? Likewise, as an employee or manager, in small companies and large, what are the best and worst team building activities you've ever seen?

McColo Spam Botnets Taken Down to Chinatown

"I will be watching you and if I find that you are trying to corrupt my first born child, I will bring you down, baby. I will bring you down to Chinatown." -- Jack Byrnes, Meet the Parents

A San Jose, CA hosting company, McColo Corp, that many security experts claim is linked to spam, botnets, cyberattacks and child pornography; was taken offline yesterday by its internet access providers. Another spammer going down wouldn't be big news, but the sheer magnitude of McColo's impact caught my eye.

McColo servers are said to host botnets including Mega-D, Srizbi, Pushdo, Rustock and Warezov; and manage Torpig and Sinowal trojans, among others.

According to MSNBC's coverage:

"Multiple security researchers have recently published data naming McColo as the host for all of the top robot networks or "botnets," which are vast collections of hacked computers that are networked together to blast out spam or attack others online.

Collectively, these botnets appear to be responsible for sending roughly 75 percent of all spam each day, according to the latest stats from Marshal, a security company in the United Kingdom that tracks botnet activity"

Since being taken offline, security experts (and internet users) are reporting significant drops in spam activity. In the near term, this sounds great. However, I wonder how many new, smaller, offshore, and harder to monitor "bulletproof" hosting services this event will spawn.

I've always liked the investment potential of internet security and network management, the value of that sector just ticked up again...

Related posts:
- Alex Lanstein, FireEye
- Susan Hall, ITBusinessEdge
- Jose Nazario, Arbor Networks
- Virtual Blight
- John Biggs, CrunchGear

SEMDA Regional Meeting: Physician Advisors

If you didn't catch the Southeastern Medical Device Association's event earlier this week at Mercer, another is right around the corner, closer to home.  On Tuesday December 9, starting at 5:30pm, you can attend SEMDA's "Working with Physician Advisors - The New Paradigm".  The event is being held at the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce, 300 E University Ave.

The agenda includes networking from 5:30 to 6:30, followed by:

- Video presentation: Jan Heybroak, MSc, MBA, President of The Arcas Group & Jerri Davis, Legal and Regulatory Compliance Manager for Porex Corporation.

- Panel discussion:  Karen Zadarej, MBA, Chief Operating Officer of AxoGen & Stephen Huggard, JD, Partner at Edwards, Angell, Palmer & Dodge.

SEMDA's event description states:
"Physicians accepting large sums of money for their consultative roles with life science companies have become headline news, resulting in national guidelines, proposed regulations and new state laws. Yet companies need the input…and credibility…offered by medical experts.

How can your company stay compliant with FDA regulations while still benefiting from physician advisors? What appropriate role can they play without crossing ethical and regulatory boundaries?"

The event is free for SEMDA members and $20 for non-members.

(via Synogen)

Tough Times are Telling Times

By now you should have read plenty of entrepreneur/VC advice on surviving in the post-mortgage crisis world.  I won't rehash it here, but 2009 will be tough and today's difficult decisions will separate the next batch of startup winners and losers.  One topic I haven't seen covered much is the interpersonal opportunity that these tough times bring -- for entrepreneurs and investors.

At my first couple funds, I was lucky enough to see the upside and downside of the tech bubble.  During that time I worked with a diverse set of entrepreneurs and co-investors.  The way they behaved individually and towards each other, during the tough times, shined a bright light on their strengths, weaknesses and character.

This is when the age-old question "Who do you want in your foxhole?" has real-life implications.  An investor whose only advice is to cut burn without enough company awareness to help entrepreneurs prioritize, can be a dangerous foxhole roomy.  An entrepreneur whose only thought is to request more funding to bridge the tough market, can be deadly.  Investors or entrepreneurs who can't pick up the phone to each other and grow their relationship during times like these, never will.

On the flipside, entrepreneurs and investors who dig-in together during times like these can build lifelong bonds.  Likewise, startup teams that find ways to support each other and build a stronger business, gain a new family and stand to reap the rewards of a category winner when the macro environment clears.

So, if times like these shine a bright light on your weaknesses, strengths and character; what will your teammates, entrepreneurs and investors see in you?

BioFlorida Conference

Guest Post by:

Mike Schmitt, MD

Life Science Analyst and Editor of the Florida BioDatabase

Mike can be reached at M2Schmitt@aol.com

For those involved in the Florida life science industry, if you are looking to “see and be seen”, the annual BioFlorida conference is THE place.  Unfortunately, I was not able to attend this years event, held on Amelia Island at the Ritz Carlton on October 19-21. 

BioFlorida is the statewide trade association for the bioscience industry and provides networking opportunities, statewide industry events, educational forums and a variety of support services to biomedical companies as well as to investors, government entities, academia, tech transfer and workforce development groups.

The conference attracted over 400 attendees from not only Florida, but from throughout the Southeast and US as well.  The roster of keynote speakers was impressive and included some life science “heavy hitters” including:

• Yank Coble, MD, former president of the American Medical Association
  
• James Greenwood, current President of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO)
  
• Bob Ingram, Vice-Chairman, Pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline
  
• Stephen Oesterle, MD, Senior VP Medtronic
  
• Mayor John Peyton, Jacksonville and 
  
• Ken Pruitt, FL Senate President
  

This years program focused on a diverse range of topics that included but was not limited to the following: early and late stage funding issues, the relevance of IPOs in today’s marketplace (difficult at best), drug discovery, marketing as a decision tool for your company, device technologies, controlling rising healthcare costs along with “a vision” for biotech innovation.

This event is certainly one of the best networking opportunities to “meet & greet” all the movers and shakers involved in the Florida life science scene.  I did hear from Patti Breedlove, Associate Director of the University of Florida Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator who said, “ A small dinner hosted by the Burnham Institute gave me a chance to talk to the key Burnham people as well as the head of Max Planck Florida Institute about UF's Biotechnology Incubator along with the Florida BioDatabase and how it can be effectively utilized to develop our life science industry.”

Hopefully, I’ll make it to the conference in 2009...

USB Turntable: Rip Your Vinyl

You might call this an Old-to-NewMediaMonday post, bridging LPs to digital tracks. A couple months ago I found an old LP on eBay, composed by my grandfather (Jules Lavan) who used to be a big band/jazz composer. I hit 'Buy Now' and waited for it to arrive, and waited (it took awhile).

When it arrived, I was proud to show my daughters their great grandfather's name on the album cover, but bummed when they asked to hear it -- we don't own a turntable. Since that time I've been looking for a simple turntable I could plug into my laptop to play LPs and convert them to digital. Beyond Jules' LP, my dad has crates full of vinyl that I'd love to share with my kids. KISS, Bootsy - Funkadelic, Eagles - Hotel California, Styx and even Cheech and Chong sit silent until I can unlock the crackle and pop of their voices on vinyl.

Well, I'm happy to say my kids and I may be singing "Dōmo arigatō, Mr. Roboto" this Christmas. I found this USB turntable thru one of FVB's sponsors. It's going on my Christmas list and I'm guessing my Dad would like one too. If you or your parents have a box of old LPs that are just gathering dust, or you're an aspiring digital DJ who wants to capture some old-school sound, this might also be the answer.

Let me know if you give it a try. Ripping sounds pretty straightforward. I'm curious how the vinyl sound translates to digital...and welcome any tips to retain the original richness.

Related images: convert records, convert lps, rip lps, usb turntable, usbturntable