Silicon Valley Medical Technologies (SIVMED) was founded in 1982 by three individuals with medical and science backgrounds to perform research and development, obtain patents on promising technologies, and license or sell those technologies to other companies. Recently, increased competition has led SIVMED's board to direct the financial vice president to estimate the company's cost of capital to use in capital budgeting decisions. The treasurer, Julie Owens, has been tasked with providing a cost of capital estimate within one week despite her accounting background primarily involving dealing with banks.