Venture investors in Silicon Valley are frequent prey of startup founders who spot them in public places — and semi-public places — and start pitching. Last night, a discussion about awkward pitches led four VCs on a panel for the Silicon Valley Business Journal's annual Pitch event to tell tales from the mens room.

The consensus? There's no good way to do it.

Promising news for any unlucky american in immediate need of a doctor: BetterDoctor, the San Francisco based healthcare tool and online doctor search service, has closed a $10 million Series A funding round led by New Enterprise Associates and participated by existing investors including SoftTechVC and Finnish venture capital firm Lifeline Ventures.

The fund will be used to further develop the existing service, hire new employees and spread the service’s web and mobile applications to new platforms.

While the University of Virginia and Johns Hopkins can't exactly compete with Ivy League Harvard when it comes to dominating the ranking of college rankings, the two D.C. area schools were ranked among the top 50 universities in the world by the Center for World University Rankings. Crushing other top-tier institutions like Dartmouth, Brown and McGill, the local academic titans nourishing the minds of students across the globe substantiated themselves as schools worth attending during a time of loan shark annihilation.

Qiagen N.V,, the leading global provider of sample & assay technologies that are used to transform biological materials into valuable molecular information, has launched 14 new GeneRead DNAseq V2 gene panels targeting an extensive range of cancer-related genes or gene regions. Gene panels are an integral part of many next-generation sequencing (NGS) workflows. They are used to enrich genes of interest in a sample prior to sequencing runs and as such can be seen as the core assay in the workflow.

Qiagen’s new GeneRead panels are customisable to include other genes or gene regions of clinical or biological interest and are compatible with any NGS sequencer. They are part of Qiagen’s industry-leading sample-to-library workflows, which are helping to drive the growing use of NGS in clinical applications.

President of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County since 1992, Freeman A. Hrabowski III thinks he knows what students need: lots of support. Morally, colleges owe it to students to do everything possible to help them succeed, he said in a recent visit to The Chronicle, and a higher retention rate means more tuition dollars, too.

The two-year anniversary of the monumental Supreme Court decision upholding the Affordable Care Act may not have caused much fanfare, but Steve Kraus, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, said Massachusetts should be celebrating.

Here are four takeaways from a conversation with the head of the firm’s health care investing, as he analyzes the shifts that have occurred in the two years since the Affordable Care Act was deemed constitutional.

Many medical researchers with ideas not tied to a drug backed by the pharmaceutical industry often find themselves without funding; patients with diseases or other medical conditions, particularly those that are rare, are without much power. That is, until recently.

Now, scientists are turning to crowdfunding to launch their research. Donors won't get a free CD, T-shirt or other giveaway like they do on Kickstarter. But what fundraisers give in return is hope for a treatment and at least insight into medical conditions.

Severe bleeding is a primary cause of death for soldiers wounded on the battlefield. Deep shrapnel and gunshot wounds can be notoriously difficult to control, particularly in soft tissue places such as the neck, shoulder, and groin. Now undergrad students at Johns Hopkins University have developed a prototype device to help address such trauma in a speedy fashion.

The new device is a large plastic syringe with two compartments, similar to epoxy injectors, holding a polyol and a diisocyanat, chemicals that produce polyurethane foam when mixed. The foam hardens shortly after injection and delivers pressure to the wound from within. The hope is that the foam will help soldiers from bleeding out while they’re on the way to a medical facility where a surgeon can address the wound directly.

A bunch of tech geeks kicking around ideas for their fledgling company might come up with a product that’s pure genius. Yet those same whizzes might not find the right moniker for the startup or product they’re banking their future on.

The name sometimes falls a little flat when it comes to customers and investors.

Well, this is interesting.

RockThePost, a site that connects startups and investors, just announced that it has merged with CoFoundersLab, a site that helps entrepreneurs find cofounders.

RockThePost, which launched in 2011, sought to form a new kind of social network that brought together money-hungry startups with equity-hungry investors. Although the site never became a household name, its model proved somewhat successful: CoFoundersLab actually raised a portion of its initial $750,000 seed round on RockThePost.

DED awarded a Montgomery County Economic Development Fund grant providing up to $12 million in property tax incentives for customers of BYTEGRID®, a leading data center company located in Silver Spring that is focused on the nationwide acquisition, development and operation of premier multi-tenant data center facilities.

“Montgomery County is focused on increasing our attractiveness to large private and public enterprise organizations seeking to optimize costs by outsourcing IT infrastructure,” said Steve Silverman, Director of Economic Development for Montgomery County. “This strategic grant for BYTEGRID’s data center customers shows our commitment to fostering a pro-business climate that already includes leading digital age businesses in healthcare, financial services, IT services and cyber security. The key takeaway here is that Montgomery County, Maryland is in the regional and national big data game to win.”

Paul Thompson, director of IT innovation at Medtronic, explained how he held on for four years to bring the “hospital of the future” to life. His work is part of the company’s larger push to move from a device maker to a healthcare services provider, which he compared to IBM’s move from hardware to services.

At the end of this session at CONVERGE, an audience member asked what metrics Thompson and his team must meet each year to be considered a success.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski toured the MedImmune laboratories in Frederick on Monday morning and talked with employees.

Mikulski told the workers she was proud of what they are doing, creating medical solutions to health problems. She also talked with company executives about the company's future.

When Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) Innovation debuted about a year ago, R&D chief Paul Stoffels promised to build an interconnected, global operation that would sink some deep roots into the world's busiest biotech hubs. On Thursday, the group showed off just how far it had come in a short time, highlighting a slate of a dozen new deals, ranging from fresh research collaborations to new investments in a range of upstart drug and device developers--all aimed at putting the multinational pharma giant on the cutting edge of new product development.

The first half of 2014 has seen less job-cutting by biopharma companies than a year earlier, at least according to one recent report.

The latest monthly job report by Challenger Gray & Christmas, released July 3, showed that biopharmas announced plans to eliminate 4,215 jobs between January and June of this year, down more than one-third (37%) from the 6,709 jobs announced as being jettisoned in the first half of 2013.

Founder salaries

Q.: Is it okay to pay yourself (and other founders) a salary when you’ve only raised money from friends and family? If so, how much is reasonable? What’s an acceptable salary to pay yourself once a non-family seed round is raised?

In biotech’s early days, telling a story to a wide audience used to be part of the path to success. Founders would share a compelling early narrative to potential investors, reporters, and just about anyone else who would listen. Nature papers were the coin of the realm.

But far from shouting to the rooftops, lately it seems that more and more biotechs are pursuing a different approach. Instead of keeping their technology under wraps until a first financing happens, these companies go into what we call “permanent stealth mode.” The principle here seems to be, “say no more publicly than necessary, and even then, keep it vague.” Meantime, let your actions speak for you: Raise money. Sign partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, hand consumers and investors a finished product or service.

Date:  Monday, September 22, 2014

Location: North Carolina Biotechnology Center 15 TW Alexander Drive Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-3547 http://www.ncbiotech.org/

Background:

NHLBI’s Office of Translational Alliances and Coordination (OTAC) hosts this semi-annual Regional Innovation Conference that brings together small businesses, angel investors, venture capitalists, strategic partners, and business leaders from the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. NHLBI staff will be available to describe the details and impact of recent changes in the Federal SBIR/STTR program, as well as note other funding opportunities and resources for NHLBI small businesses.

Previous conferences have been held in Boston, MA, San Francisco, CA, San Diego, CA, and Rockville, MD.

On a recent tour of the latest addition to University City Science Center’s campus in Philadelphia – an innovation hub in an established building on its campus set to officially open next week — I unexpectedly came across an office belonging to Merck.

It’s all the more interesting because it’s just a few doors down from DreamIt Ventures and its accelerator DreamIt Health, which has a second class of health IT entrepreneurs moving in next week. The Science Center’s own digital health accelerator will also be working in the building.

New Enterprise Associates averaged a U.S. funding deal every three days in the first half of this year, the hottest six months for the industry since the end of the dotcom boom in 2001.

Not far behind NEA's 64 first half deals were Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (54), Andreessen Horowitz (52) and Google Ventures (50), according to a report from investment database research firm CB Insights.

The Tech Council of Maryland hopes a new office at the University of Maryland BioPark will help the organization play a bigger role in technology and life sciences in Baltimore.

Much of the tech council’s activities are centered in Montgomery County, where the organization’s headquarters and many of its members are based. The tech council will open a new office at the biopark and staff it every Thursday. The Baltimore office will focus on strengthening partnerships with other technology organizations in the city and developing new programs that meet needs of Baltimore-area companies.

Register TODAY for one or more of the 5 NEW FastTrac Entrepreneurship classes being offered this fall at Montgomery College.

FastTrac is a nationally recognized entrepreneurship program that Montgomery College offers in partnership with the Kauffman Foundation. Nationally, 59% of FastTrac course participants launch start-ups and 60% of existing businesses report revenue growth in the following year. Locally, the FastTrac program has real and positive economic impact in Montgomery County.

Take advantage of an incredible international business opportunity and explore the India market with Montgomery County Executive Leggett during a business mission to India this November! 

Sign up now to join Leggett and fellow business, educational and community leaders for engaging stops in New Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Raipour.  August 1st is the deadline to apply for ExportMD grant funds to help defray the cost of participation in the  m

More than 70 percent of college graduates with a bachelor's degree in science, technology, engineering and mathematics are not employed in those industries.

About 74 percent of STEM college graduates hold jobs unrelated to their fields of study, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. And those who are working in STEM fields are predominantly male. Specifically, Census data shows more than 80 percent of engineers and more than 70 percent of computer professionals are men.

The 4th edition of the Orphan Drugs Summit, Northern Europe’s premier orphan drugs conference, will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark this September.

As the conference approaches it is becoming more obvious that collaboration is one of the most important driving forces in the development of orphan drugs. The Orphan Drugs Summit will focus on how to build relationships on multiple levels, highlight how to access partnership parallel advice, and will also outline how stakeholders can benefit from collaboration to develop stronger clinical trials.

Supernus Pharmaceuticals of Rockville has sold certain royalty and milestone rights to a treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension for $30 million to HealthCare Royalty Partners of Stamford, Conn.

The agreement relates to the commercialization of Orenitram Extended-Release Tablets by Supernus’ partner, United Therapeutics of Silver Spring. Supernus will retain full ownership of the royalty rights after a certain threshold has been reached, according to a company news release.

The Tech Council of Maryland (TCM), Maryland’s largest technology trade association for life science and technology, today announced that it has opened a new satellite office at the University of Maryland BioPark in Baltimore. By expanding its reach, TCM will be able to collaborate closely with industry leaders located in the Greater Baltimore area and more effectively bring together the state’s technology and life sciences sectors.

“With members, such as Johns Hopkins University, Verizon, HP, Howard Community College and Semmes, Bowen & Semmes P.C., located in the Baltimore metropolitan area, we saw a need to build a stronger presence,” said Phil Schiff, TCM’s CEO. “TCM is excited to have the opportunity to work more closely with the wide variety of innovative companies and entrepreneurs in Baltimore, and provide them with important resources they need closer to home.”

Johns Hopkins University is expected to receive almost $6.4 million from the federal health department for a support program for people with dementia. The award, worth up to $6.38 million, is part of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Health Care Innovation Awards.

The award is contingent on final administrative approval by the federal health department.

Healthcare startups, and all startups for that matter, need investors and funding to stay alive. For this reason, MedCity is pleased to announce that investor Andrew Jay, MD, will be speaking at CONVERGE. Dr. Jay is the head of the medical solutions fund at HealthCare Fund at Siemens Venture Capital, which invests in companies focusing on imaging, diagnostics and health IT.

Jay will be speaking on the second day of MedCity CONVERGE at 9:20 a.m. The third annual CONVERGE is July 15-16 in Philadelphia.

Two private equity firms announced the formation of a $26.6 million fund that will focus exclusively on the aging marketplace and companies within it.

Chicago-based Ziegler and Ohio-based Link-age Ventures announced the close of the Longevity Fund, which aims to address a number of key issues affecting seniors. Among them: coordination of care, chronic disease management, reducing hospitalizations and re-admissions, disease prevention and wellness, aging and government funded programs and public health issues, according to the companies.

Maryland has one of the Top 10 best-buy colleges and universities, according to the 2015 edition of Fisk's Guide to Colleges.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County ranked No. 9 out of 44 schools in the U.S., United Kingdom and Canada.

The Frederick Innovative Technology Center Inc. is looking for business leaders to volunteer for its board of directors.

Preference will be given to those in private industry in the fields of life sciences, advance technology, finance, marketing and entrepreneur. The board meets the fourth Monday of each month. 

Happy 10th anniversary to the National Institutes of Health’s Common Fund! It’s hard to believe that it’s been a decade since I joined then-NIH Director Elias Zerhouni at the National Press Club to launch this trans-NIH effort to catalyze innovation and speed progress across many fields of biomedical research.

Allow me to take this opportunity to share just a bit of the history and a few of the many achievements of this bold new approach to the support of science.

Healthcare Interactive Inc. — which sells Web-based software for companies to monitor medical costs in real time — has raised $8 million in funding.

The Series A funding in the Glenwood, Maryland-based company came from Grotech Ventures, which has more than $1.3 billion under management, and Harbert Venture Partners, an emerging growth-stage investor with $200 million under management.

It’s still a good time to go public.

Twenty-eight venture-backed companies completed initial public offerings during the second quarter, raising $4.9 billion. That was a 45 percent increase in dollars raised compared to the previous quarter, according to an analysis by Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association. It was the fifth consecutive quarter of more than 20 IPOs at venture-backed companies.