In this episode, Hall welcomes Elena-Cristina Conacel, Co-founder and Managing Partner of BootstrapBay.

Located in Buzău, Romania, BootstrapBay is a marketplace for premium Bootstrap themes and templates and they “Build beautiful websites in minutes using our feature packed, fully responsive, and customizable themes and templates.” In addition to the marketplace, they publish high-quality content and resources on their blog to help web designers and web developers kick start their next project.

While studying for her Master’s degree, Cristina started working as a freelancer. She divided her time between working for clients and started her own open-source projects with a colleague from college. She co-founded NearFish, an application for instructors and small fitness practices to keep track of their members. A mobile check-in solution that instructors and receptionists can use on-the-go was later added. Cristina also helped start Creativeteam.com who subsequently acquired BootstrapBay.

Cristina speaks with Hall about the products and services BootstrapBay offers and the direction the company is going in. She also talks about technology and how it is evolving, whether or not people are moving to open-source products, and the challenges businesses face in the sector.

You can visit BootstrapBay at www.bootstrapbay.com/.

Cristina can be contacted via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/elena-cristina-conacel-a89a436b/, via Twitter at www.twitter.com/conacelelena?lang=en, and via email at contact@bootstrapbay.com. 

This is Investor Perspectives, I’m the host of Investor Connect, Hall T Martin, where we connect startups and investors for funding.

In today’s show, you’ll hear investor perspectives on healthcare and its impact on startups.

COVID-19 has changed the landscape for startups giving us a new normal.  During the pandemic, it became clear the need for changes in our healthcare system.

We have joining us, Jun Deng of Joyance Partners - an investor in the healthcare space. Jun has over a decade of experience in biomedical research and years of experience in venture capital investment. Jun shapes strategy for health-tech and bio-tech related investments, leads the “Inception” program for academies and universities, and has led more than a dozen investments across the US and Europe. So far, Jun has been involved in 50+ investments in technology and life science innovation. Jun received her PhD in molecular physiology at UCLA. She is also an investor at Health Tech Capital, a mentor at Singularity University, and an Investment Partner at Social Starts.

I hope you enjoy this episode.

In this episode, Hall welcomes Denis Coleman of Life Science Angels.

Located in Palo Alto, California, Life Science Angels is a not-for-profit corporation with 130-150 accredited investor members, 12-18 highly qualified Fellows, and 12-15 Sponsor organizations. They take no carry or management fees on investments and they do not charge companies any fees. They have invested over $60 million in over 100 startups. 

Denis earned his B.S. and M.S. in mechanical engineering from MIT and his Ph.D. in management (computer science minor) from Stanford. In 1979 he obtained his CPA and left an academic career that featured teaching positions in Canada, the University of Hawaii, and Stanford.

In his first project, he wrote the software and ran a company that sold the first spelling checker for microcomputers. Then in 1983, he co-founded a software company now known as Symantec Corporation, the fourth largest software company in the world in 2007. He spent five years at Symantec, serving as VP of R&D for development of the initial product, Q&A. This productivity software package won many product-of-the year awards and eventually had retail sales of over half a billion dollars.

Since 1989, he has served variously as early board member, founder, software designer/developer in ten other startups, two of which had IPO's -- NEOF (online medical supply and equipment marketplace) and VSNR (hardware/software office imaging solutions, now merged with Nuance). Financial Engines (Internet based retirement investments) and Claria (Internet advertising) each achieved profitability and annual revenues in excess of $80 million. C Level Design (C language translated into ASIC hardware designs) and WealthCycle (Internet based investment advice) had successful product development but hasty exit sales to larger entities after the bubble burst of 2001.

Since 2004, he has been interested in bioengineering, particularly in the area of drug discovery and has shifted new portfolio investments and startup energies to the life sciences.

Denis speaks with Hall about the state of angel investing, particularly in this COVID-19 era, one of the portfolio companies Life Science Angels invests in, what excites him, and he gives advice to both investors and entrepreneurs.

You can visit Life Science Angels at https://www.lifescienceangels.com/. 

Denis can be contacted via email at dcoleman296@gmail.com.