Tenex Medical was formed by a group of Silicon Valley
executives to fill a growing need for early stage investment capital
for life science companies. The mission of Tenex Medical is to provide
a non-profit forum for private investors who are successful entrepreneurs
in the life sciences to meet entrepreneurs who have developed innovative
concepts, procedures, products or services and who are seeking both
advice and capital. Tenex also provides a social forum for these investors
and entrepreneurs to meet and share ideas and experiences. Like other
"Angel Investor" groups, Tenex will not be providing any investment
advice, recommendations or guidance. However, the pooled intellectual
capital of Tenex' membership is not only available, and of immense value,
to presenting companies, but also internally to the Tenex network for
individual decision making.
The Tenex investment focus is primarily
early stage ventures, whether they are product or company concepts,
which can achieve a meaningful business benchmark with a capital infusion
of between $250,000 and $750,000 from Tenex. These would include medical
devices, healthcare information systems and services, clinical diagnostics,
research products, medical equipment, hospital products and biotechnology.
The Tenex investment may constitute all or part of a financing round.
An average of two carefully screened companies seeking funding will
present at bi-monthly Tenex sit down dinners. Approximately 180 potential
investors attend the dinners. The expectation is that each member will
have the inclination and capacity to invest at least $75,000 per year
in deals of his choosing. Beyond that we look for our members to network
and share their experiences with companies and members as the opportunities
and situations present.
In a continuing effort to insure the
best possible deal flow and deal management, we have made considerable
progress in our efforts to develop an incubator concept for a select
set of Tenex opportunities. Deal structure and implementation concept
discussions are underway. Developing predictable avenues for next round
financing for Tenex financed companies will also be an area of focus
for the group.
The founders of Tenex have substantial
experience working with life sciences companies. Paul Quadros was the
general partner in charge of life sciences at Technology Funding, where
he directed numerous healthcare investments. Frank Ruderman is a senior
executive who has been CEO and senior team member of several healthcare
companies, including Physiometrix, Genomyx and Mast Immunosystems. Alfred
J. Mandel was a marketing executive for many years with Apple Computer
and was a founder of Redgate Communications. He is now involved in high
technology business development and investment banking. Mitch Stevko
is a senior investment banker with Piper Jaffray and previous clients
include medical device, biotechnology, and healthcare information system
companies.