CINCINNATI, Ohio — BIOSTART and Queen City Angels have formalized their long-standing relationship through a challenge: Jointly recruit 10 life sciences investors for the angel group within two years.
“Our missions are connected,” said Jim Cunningham, executive director of C-Cap, the nonprofit manager of the angel investor group. Both BIOSTART, the life science company developer and incubator, and Queen City Angels, a group of wealthy individuals who invest in all types of companies, want to accelerate the growth of Cincinnati businesses.
BIOSTART concentrates on solely life sciences companies. But the angel group recently realized it has invested about one-third of its money since starting in 2000 in life sciences companies. Four of the angels’ current 11 investments are in life sciences: AssureRx, Charles H. Mack & Associates, Minimally Invasive Devices and Orthodata Technologies.
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“We’ve always had good relations as far as looking at their companies,” Cunningham said. Queen City Angels has invested in at least four BIOSTART companies, over the years, said Cunningham who was on the committee that launched BIOSTART in 1998 and served as the bioscience incubator’s first attorney.
So Cunningham and Carol Frankenstein, president of BIOSTART, agreed to work together to find five new life science investors in each of the next two years for Queen City Angels. “One thing led to another. We agreed that we should be doing this,” Frankenstein said. “We certainly have people in the health care community who would be great angel group members.”
An emphasis on life sciences investing is a natural in Cincinnati, home of the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, both research powerhouses in the life science and health care industries. “Johnson & Johnson’s medical device subsidiary’s is headquartered in Cincinnati,” Cunningham said. Past successes include the Marion Merrell Dow research facility and Procter & Gamble’s pharmaceutical division, recently sold to Warner Chilcott of Ireland.
Executives continually retire from life sciences companies in Greater Cincinnati. Even when a company is sold or moves its headquarters, some executives stay behind. Often, these executives have money to invest and are the epitome of the angel investor. By joining a group like Queen City Angels, these investors can work with others.
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The angel group traditionally recruits new members through personal networks and community groups, Cunningham said.
“We thought this is really taking it a step further than the informal recruiting that we’ve used in the past. Let’s set a goal that everybody in both organizations knows about, and then we can measure our success and how much effort we need to put in against that,” said Cunningham, who also is president of The Circuit, the Cincinnati-area’s information technology association.
Halfway through their first year, the two organizations have recruited three new investors for Queen City Angels, Cunningham said.
