Over the past couple years, Laura Bosworth-Bucher of TeVido BioDevices and I have crossed paths many times, but this was the first opportunity I’ve had to really sit down with her and get the scoop on TeVido. If you aren’t familiar, TeVido BioDevices is a biotech startup that was founded to 3-D print human tissue. As a member of the Advisory Board for the UTEP College of Engineering, Laura met the inventor of the technology and initially didn’t plan on making a business out of what she was learning. After doing what all good entrepreneurs know to do, market research and validation, she realized that there really did exist a problem that could be solved.
Starting with wound care, TeVido realized that it was just too hard to get a good grasp on the market and pivoted to breast reconstruction after a couple of eye-opening meetings with plastic surgeons from Seton. Breast reconstruction made sense on many levels, and the decision to begin with the 3-D printing of nipples stemmed from the lack of attractive options (think a tattoo), the fact that the procedures are covered by insurance and because the size was something the 3-D printer was capable of creating more easily.
Throughout the course of these pivots, the team truly took advantage of the Austin startup ecosystem. Initially, the decision to land in Austin was a tough one. As most of you know, the biotech investment scene here isn’t robust. While we plan on seeing a lot of growth as the new Dell Medical School is built, when Laura started out she was counting on the connections and opportunities that did exist to carry the weight.
What she found was what has kept most of us here, which is the fact that Austin is a soft place to land. The community goes out of its way to help entrepreneurs and we work hard to avoid the hard and fast nature of other innovation centers. For example, Michael Patton of Medical Innovation Labs, Cindy WalkerPeach of the Austin Technology Incubator, members of the BioAustin non-profit and Michelle Skelding from the Austin Chamber have all assisted in making connections, providing assistance and working closely with TeVido. The list of relationships is long: Texas Venture Labs at UT, Biotech meetups, Livestrong, Austin Community College and of course, our very own Tech Ranch. Tech Ranch® was proud to be the home of Scott Collins and his non-profit RxDonate.com and was where Laura met up with him and convinced him to eventually become her CTO and VP of Product Development. Using the Ranch as space for not only TeVido activities but also for events related to the Avinde female entrepreneurship accelerator.
That being said, we are thrilled to see how well Laura and Scott are doing with TeVido. Between grants and private funding they have raised over $1.2M. This is a lot of money, but almost $40M will be needed to get their product to market. One step of this process is securing the patents necessary to protect their investment as they continue development. In order to help fund the process, they have launched an Indiegogo campaign with incentives such as 3-D printed chocolate breasts, custom jewelry and art created by a breast cancer survivor. We encourage you to help them out. With 12 days left and $20K more to raise, every couple of dollars counts!
As a final takeaway, I wanted to ask Laura what she felt were the three hardest things about being an entrepreneur. Each startup and team has a different experience but we all know that perseverance pays off 🙂
1. Things take much longer than expected and than they should
2. The highs and lows are very extreme and leave you feeling very alone at times
3. Funding for a biotech is Austin is a huge challenge!