Andrew Cittadine, CEO of a medical device company, needed help. It was early 2007, and his four-man, Illinois-based company American BioOptics was surviving on little more than a prototype for a new medical device, early drafts of a business plan and an investor presentation, and some very preliminary clinical data.
The seminal idea for American BioOptics—a non-invasive optical device to replace colonoscopies—came from two Northwestern University scientists, biomedical engineer Vadim Backman and gastroenterologist Hemant Roy. Cittadine had limited executive experience in the life science industry, but he managed to attract a small amount of initial funding to pay for patent filing fees and guided Backman, Roy, and co-founder Michael Goldberg through the process of licensing their technology from Northwestern.
Now, Cittadine realized he needed help securing sizeable investments, feeling out opportunities for corporate partnership, and building American BioOptics' visibility and workforce. "I wanted to make a company that would have ...
