Week 1 – Optimist vs Realist – The Struggle is Real

Happy New Year!  Hope you and your family had a great holiday season too! It was nice to get some down time with the family over the holidays.  Unfortunately, when you own a business, this time is always limited.  It is self-imposed so I’m not saying this so you feel bad for us, but just stating it as a fact of life for most entrepreneurs.  In some ways, I long for the time long ago where the “worries of the world” did not appear at my door almost every day. When I first started my career, I was working for someone else and while that brought with it other challenges as many of you can attest to, in some ways, it was less stressful as you are not dealing with all of the things that make a business run. 

We have been doing this a while so it feels like we are on a hamster wheel that doesn’t seem to stop.  We have been on a non-stop mission to raise capital so we can sustain and grow our business.  It has been a challenging environment to do this for over 2 years, especially in biotech.  Sadly, most deals that are getting done are either very large investments (for example – Boston Scientific acquiring a company for $14 billion) or are focused in AI technologies (which does not apply to us).  Our raise is relatively small compared to most deals, so it can be viewed as not meaningful or doesn’t have the potential for generating significant revenue.  We are looking to raise $5 million so that we can put some “gasoline on the fire” to grow our IVRT business, which is showing real promise.  We have been receiving positive data back from customers that have been using our Bio-Spun™ scaffolds.  It is rough when you can see the growth potential but can’t do too much to get it out more customers.  We continue to see in recent news a push by US government agencies, as well as companies and foreign governments, to move away from animal research as much as possible by creating more human-relevant benchtop models (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/climate/epa-animal-testing-ban.html and https://www.drugdiscoverytrends.com/senate-clears-fda-modernization-act-3-0-aiming-to-align-fda-regulations-with-nonclinical-testing-reforms/). 

One area that I struggle with is being an optimistic person.  As a scientist, this is a good trait to have in that a majority of what you are looking to develop will not work (I always tell interns that it is likely over 90% failure rate).  Optimism is needed to keep you moving forward when things do not look promising.  Being optimistic also keeps you alert so that you do not miss something because you are feeling bad for yourself.  I remember one time running an experiment that didn’t appear to work because what I was trying to change in the study did not seem to work.  If I was disappointed and not being optimistic about figuring out what went wrong, I wouldn’t have seen that the control test did not work as expected.  That was actually a good thing.  This accident allowed us to receive a patent for this work.  No matter what results I receive in the lab, I always believe that there is something to learn and if we are persistent, we can figure it out.

For business, I thought this approach would be helpful, but in actuality, is not as effective.  Science is fairly straight-forward to me so even if things are not going well, there is an ability to adjust and provide a potential solution to a problem.  Also, the science does not lie.  If it is not working, it is not working and you control your destiny.  In business, we are beholden to so many different factors which are based on being able to understand who you are dealing with.  There are so many questions that need to be answered such as: can they deliver on what they promise, are they trustworthy, are they are a “do-er” (do they say what they are going to do and then do it – rare breed) and do we understand each other’s needs for a successful deal?  This has been a challenge over the years.  If you miss out on one or more of these, business deals can and have been lost. 

Nothing is more frustrating when you think things are moving forward and suddenly you are in limbo.  I have come to learn that the longer a potential deal goes, the more chances that it can go sideways.  We have had some discussions going for 2 and even 5 years, ending without anything happening.  During this time, the optimist in me says all is going to go well but the realist (a new addition to my persona) now knows there is a good chance that things will not end well.  We have even executed deals but the other partner has pulled out of them, leaving us holding the bag.  While it is well within their rights, nothing is more aggravating when you believe you have a good partner across the table and they turn out to be making other decisions that you are not aware are going to happen that effect your business.  Sadly, this is more common that you would think.  It makes you appreciate when you have an honest partner working with you that is looking for a win:win.  You can understand why I enjoy the science more.

Regardless of the disappointments we have had, I still remain optimistic that there are good partners out there to work with.  We have had and continue to have great customers over the time we’ve been in business so I believe that we can get the same type of relationships with future partners.  Let’s hope I am being realistic.                

Matt