Pacific Diabetes Technologies Case Study

Thomas Seidl, CEO at Pacific Diabetes Technologies (PDT), Portland, Oregon

Imagine relying on just one device to manage your diabetes. PDT has made this possible.

SynerG™ is a single device that brings continuous glucose monitoring to all who take insulin. 

Thomas originally joined PDT as its Chief Science Officer, but in late 2020 stepped into the CEO role. Stepping into the chief executive role after focusing soley within the scientific domain for a long time was a little bit daunting.

In 2020 company was looking to move beyond R&D towards commercial scaling.   And that's when we started looking for sources of equity capital.  When I was explaining this new role to an old friend of mine, he quickly suggested that I contact Brad, who he had worked with in the past when he was the CEO of tech startup based in Seattle, Washington.

Over the years, PDT had been very successful raising grant money. We raised about $9 million in non-dilutive funds from various federal and private research grant and philanthropic organizations.  But at some point you have to get ready for commercialization. And at that point you have to find venture capital or some kind of seed money from third party investors.

Brad really helped me out by explaining how to raise money for a startup in the very initial stages. This was critical for me as a brand new CEO without a business degree.  As a scientist, I really had no idea where to look. And Brad helped me a lot, from simply explaining definitions of various venture finance terms and conditions, to helping me understand what it really means to "get your house in order" so the company will be attractive and truly investor ready when we started looking for real money.

I'd say one of the things I liked most, was getting access to curated list of information and resources so I could read through it and then really educate myself quickly and on my own time schedule.

I think the biggest returns, and where I have seen the benefits of the course really pay off, is having gotten our house in order. And now that are looking beyond the seed round for Series A, I'm gonna be positioned that much better then if I didn't already have things in order.

I managed to raise now 1.75 million in the seed round over the last year.  It was long experience but it was a very fulfilling experience.

It's nice to look back and see I've been able to raise this money and to enable PDT to keep innovating and moving forward.

I would absolutely recommend the Venture Finance Academy to anybody that is a fresh CEO and trying to look for money because it puts everything into perspective and you have access to a comprehensive source of knowledge and expertise, including Brad, who gives just tremendous amount of helpful information and advice.