Concepts to Companies Announces the Launch and $1.35 Million of Funding for its Startup Factory
May 6, 2015
GREENVILLE, SC – Two experienced business leaders, Brian McSharry and John Warner, have launched Concepts to Companies, a startup factory. $1.35 million has been invested in Concepts to Companies to fund the development of two portfolio companies, Accessible Diagnostics and Recovr, and the identification of up to three more portfolio companies by the end of 2015. Concepts to Companies continues to seek additional accredited investors in its current offering.
Concepts to Companies co-founded its first portfolio company, Accessible Diagnostics, with Clemson bioengineering professor Delphine Dean and her PhD student Kayla Gainey. Delphine received a Gates Foundation grant to study healthcare in Tanzania and found that there are over a million diabetics there who can’t afford to monitor their disease. Kayla lead a student team that invented a way to inkjet print a glucose test strip on location in a rural health clinic in a developing country for a nickel. Delphine was clear that, “I’m a great engineer, but I’m not a business person and don’t want to be a business person.” Committing up to $500,000 to be invested against milestones, Concepts to Companies was the partner Delphine and Kayla were looking for to start a business to move ultra-low cost glucose monitoring and other medical diagnostics out of their lab to help patients worldwide.
Recovr, Concepts to Companies’ second portfolio company, began with the vision of a Medical University of SC researcher, Michelle Woodbury, who wanted to create a video game to significantly improve the outcomes of therapy for stroke victims. Michelle met Clemson computer science professor Larry Hodges and his student, Austen Hayes. Together they developed the video game Duck Duck Punch. which has been shown to improve the number of exercise repetitions by stroke patients up to five times. Like Delphine, Michelle said, “I’m a researcher and not a business person.” Larry and Austen co-founded Recovr, which has been brought into the Concepts to Companies startup factory with a commitment to invest up to $750,000 against milestones. Ultimately Recovr is a platform to develop and market numerous occupational and physical therapy games.
Concepts to Companies’ Chairman is Brian McSharry, who is a twenty five year Milliken & Company veteran who in 2009 led the spin out of Sage Automotive Interiors from Milliken. Sage is one of most successful private equity backed companies in South Carolina’s history. John Warner, CEO, has been a leader in the state’s entrepreneurial community for over 30 years. He was the lead investor and Chairman of Earth Fare as it grew into the nation’s largest regional organic grocery store chain. Brian and John have both been involved in starting, investing in, and leading numerous other high growth companies in diverse industries.
John said, “In the past decade, our universities in the region have attracted strong researchers who are technical leaders in their fields with global reputations. The Concepts to Companies startup model is very distinctive in that we don’t try to coach a researcher into starting a company, we roll up our sleeves and do the hard work of discovering customers, growing sales, and building strong leadership teams so companies in our portfolio can grow rapidly.”
About Concepts to Companies
Concepts to Companies is a startup factory that partners with strong academic researchers and other technologists who have compelling business ideas, but who are self-aware they do not have the experience, nor in most cases the desire, to start companies alone. Our goal is to deliver venture capital returns to investors while managing risk through a portfolio of startups, including Accessible Diagnostics, Recovr and up to three additional companies by the end of 2015. To learn more about Concepts to Companies, visit http://www.
