This document discusses epipole, a startup developing a portable retinal camera to diagnose diabetic retinopathy. It summarizes epipole's mission, notes the growing prevalence and economic costs of diabetes, and outlines epipole's competitors and results demonstrating its lower-cost, high-resolution camera. The document provides advice for finding investors, discusses epipole's investment timeline and challenges securing initial funding, and emphasizes the importance of intellectual property for startup success and valuation.

1. epipole
epiCam
Dr. Craig Robertson
Founder and Managing Director
epipole ltd
Hillington – September 2014
A Tiger for Christmas
- notes on gaining investment

2. epipole Mission
Epipole are building a portable, inexpensive hand-held retinal camera which can take a
very specific type of diagnostic image of the human retina.
Those images will be used to search for and track one of the worst complications of
diabetes: diabetic retinopathy

3. epipole
Why bother?
Why are you doing this?
Money
Fame
Academic kudos
Humanitarian
reasons
Geek chic
A mix
Clue: Only “a mix” is the correct answer. Doing anything for
only one of these reasons will identify you as a uninvestable.

4. Europe:
2000 - 33.3 million
2030 - 48.0 million
Asia and Australasia:
2000 - 82.7 million
2030 - 190.5 million
Middle East:
2000 - 15.2 million
2030 - 42.6 million
Africa:
2000 - 7.0 million
2030 - 18.2 million
Americas:
2000 - 33.0 million
2030 - 66.8 million
Humanitarian
Disease profile
Sources: WHO Programme on Diabetes and Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
epipole

5. Europe:
$84Bn*
*2006
Asia and
Australasia:
$55Bn
Middle East:
$30Bn
Africa:
$3.2Bn
USA
$110Bn
2016 estimate
Money only
Medical device market
Compiled from various online sources
epipole

6. epipole Investor Advice
● Try and find investors who “get it”
● If you are early stage, go for early stage investors
● Don't try and con investors, your family or yourself
● Spend money where it counts:
- feasibility study
- financial modeling
- business plan
- marketing strategy
- securing early IP
● Know when to speak up – clarify when required
● Know when to shut up
● Investment is more like a marriage than anyone is
willing to admit

7. epipole Our startup timetable
Pre-business Start writing business plan (Jan'11 – Jun'12)
Join Alba Innovations
Prepare first attempt at financials
March '12 Interviewing lawyers to find a good fit
Apply for Investor Ready funding
April '12 Apply for SMART Feasibility funding
– race to find investor begins
May'12 Finding accountants
June'12 Inv1 [FAIL], Inv2 [timewaster]
July'12 Inv3 [FAIL]
August'12 Inv4 [FAIL]
New financial model (£££)
September'12 Inv'5 [FAIL], Inv'6 [Offer and rejected]
October'12 SMART DD starts
Inv 7 [SUCCESS]
SMART DD finish [SUCCESS]

8. epipole
November '12 Investor DD starts
December '12 Investor DD continues
January '13 Apply for VAT [rejected]
Re-apply [accepted]
Our startup timetable
February '13 Sign off investment documents [3.5 months]
Start SMART
Total time finding investment: 10 months
2 Solid years of work follows, no holidays, no weekends off
- I work an average of 3000 hours per year – resulting in more than 50
full prototypes.
Second round funding kicked in March '14 but took significantly less time as
it was based on track record as well as financial and business plans. DD is
much easier second time around.

9. epipole Our Competitors
Standard-resolution imagery around
the OD [2.5mm pixels]
Captured with one 20Cd flash and
fully dilated pupil
Price: £30-40,000

10. epipole
High-resolution imagery
around the OD [5mm pixels]
[25x25 pixels per degree]
Single frame captured from video
stream without dilation.
Luminance source is <10% of the
previous image.
The heart-beat of the patient is
also evident in the larger vessels.
Price: < £1,500
Our Results
[Exclusive!]

11. 12 Things that are true but you
will probably refuse to believe epipole
1. If it's any good, yours is almost certainly not an original idea
2. You are probably not CEO material
3. You should spend a year planning your business
4. Even then, you probably aren't prepared enough
5. You almost certainly don't really have a grip on the financials
6. Investment costs money, time and effort
7. You will need at least one good lawyer and one good accountant
8. Investors are not your enemy, due diligence is good for you
9. There is a very high probability that your business will fail
10. IP should probably be your only long-term goal*
11. If you are credible the only thing standing between you and
investment is your (in)ability to pitch
12. The World probably doesn't need another web-based business

12. Putting epipole Investment into IP
Google is founded on a single piece of IP and holds 187 patents
Steve Jobs was named as inventor on 323 patents
Facebook has just bought another 100 patents taking them to 649
Think of your business as an IP generating machine and you won't go
far wrong.

13. epipole
Dr. Craig Robertson
Founder and Managing Director
epipole ltd
Tel: +44(0)77 909 30268
Email:craig@epipole.com
Web: http://www.epipole.com
“If you've got time for Twitter, you ain't working hard enough”