Entpreneurial Ventures and Assisting Entrepreneurs

During his early career, Sam increasingly managed projects and then departments including multidisciplinary groups, production, and marketing.  Over the years, he learned what worked and what didn’t in starting, growing, and optimizing innovative ventures.  Sam continued toward an entrepreneurial path while employed by corporations that favored entrepreneurial efforts. Two examples were businesses launched after he had developed catheters and capillary electrophoresis systems. These products were desired by his employers but didn’t fit with the sales of the products they had been selling. Sam convinced the corporations that starting independent companies would generate more revenue than integrating the products into their existing departments. Additionally, these new companies wouldn’t divert resources from their existing product lines. The ventures were funded by his employers, but once started they had to be self-sustainable. They were considered independent companies to produce, and market the products developed. 

With 2 adjunct professors at UC Berkeley, Sam co-founded the Spark Group, LLC.  The Spark Group assistance included market research, business model analysis, business planning, company structure, source senior management, funding sources, legal ramifications, negotiations, and preparation of VC/Board/agency presentations. This experience honed the methods learned over a lifetime of bringing products and services to market.

The following are examples of entrepreneurial ventures Sam has started-up himself, tutored during conceptualization, guided through their start-up, and/or brainstormed to grow to be successful:

Sam started

• In addition to starting & running Medical and Biotech Developments, Inc,,  started several contracting/consulting companies with other entrepreneurs.
• A business to produce, and market blood clotting timers that he had co-developed. 
• Mentored teams using blockchain for non-profit donations, mini municipal bond investments, solar panel purchases, resale tickets, resume verification, and democratically fund government projects 
• Brought to market biotech separation systems, capillary electrophoresis and DNA sequencing instrumentation
• Fully managed businesses for hemodialysis and healthcare diagnostic systems

Sam assisted others in starting ventures:

• High throughput drug discovery instrumentation
• Clot removal catheters and devices used for introducing anesthetics 
• Apps for encryption encoding/decoding, language tutorial, and voice recognition optimization 
• Adding seaweed to cattle feed to improve cow & human health and to reduce cow methane emissions by more than 50%  
• Helped a start-up company as it finalizes a technology to optimize complex industrial processes. Envisioned other usages, and the value added by applying the finalized technology to broader markets. 

For more on Sam’s educating and mentoring, go to Educating and Mentoring on this web site.