The study guide for "Winning The Healthcare Battle" at Biosite with Chairman and CEO Kim Blickenstaff, President and Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Ken Buechler and Senior Vice President for Biosite Discovery Dr. Gunars Valkirs in San Diego, as seen on Small Business School the series on PBS-member stations in the USA and the Voice of America around the world. The best little show on television about the American spirit.

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updated: May 2007

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Raise Money The Old Way

At the beginning stages of Biosite, the need for rapid testing was laughed at by the big boys in the diagnostic industry. This fact would have made getting a bank loan impossible. Even if the founders put up their homes as collateral, bankers would turn to the institutions who owned the market for their research to corroborate the validity of the plans placed before them by Kim, Ken and Gunars. Bankers do not take big risks. They only take little risks. The bankers would have discovered that these three were renegades and would have passed on the opportunity to loan them money.

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Key Ideas of this episode

1.		Change An Industry
2.		Do What You Know
3.		Leave The Nest
4.		Raise Money The Old Way
5.		Listen To Your Mentors
6.		Hire Your Replacement
7.		Treat Every Person AS An Equal
8.		Stop And Think
9.		Give To Add
10.		Keep Working Even When You're Rich

Topic for Discussion: What do you think we mean by the phrase, "raise money the old way?"

Answer: We mean get your money from family and friends. These three got it from friends who were former colleagues. The best part about this story is Kim, Ken and Gunars not only are productive and smart they happen to have friends who not only understood their idea on a deep level, those friends just happened to have several million dollars available to invest.

You might be surprised if you look around your own industry to find people who have already made it big and who are willing to help you go to the next level.

You think about it: What would you do with an infusion of cash? Do you have a growth idea that is investment worthy? Who do you know who would understand your idea?

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