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Vishnu Vasudev

Ms. Kelli Secord

ISM I

October 29th, 2021

Interview Assessment #3

Name of Professional: Joe Cunningham

Professional/Title: Managing Director

Business/Company: Sante Ventures

Date of Interview: 10/18/21

My third interview was with Dr. Cunningham, whose background is somewhat different

from those of the majority of professionals I have interviewed. Dr. Cunningham is certainly a

biomedical entrepreneur, having co-founded a company in the biomedical field, however, his

company is a venture capital company, not a medtech company. As a venture capitalist, Dr.

Cunningham invests in healthtech, medtech, and biotech companies. I decided to interview Dr.

Cunningham despite the fact that he did not exactly match my typical profile because I thought it

would be very valuable to hear an investor’s perspective.

First, I asked Dr. Cunningham to describe his job and what his company does. I asked

him for clarifications on many details because as I expected, his job was unlike that of the two

people I had interviewed before him. Dr. Cunningham explained how he practiced as a medical

doctor for 13 years, then got an MBA and rose through the ranks of Ascension Health. He got

into investing and eventually decided to create his own fund. Sante works with very early stage
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ventures, working with universities and medical schools to commercialize newly discovered

technology. Sante licenses said technologies and forms a joint-venture. Sante creates the

company and runs it for 10-12 years, at which point the company is taken public or sold. Dr.

Cunningham spends all his time travelling: discovering new inventions, attending board

meetings, meeting with the CEOs of his various portfolio companies, and overseeing clinical

trials all over the world. Dr. Cunningham described Sante as in the “hit business” - if a

technology is not transformational, they don’t invest in it. Sante spends large amounts of money

to make even larger profits. Learning about Dr. Cunningham’s company made me realize just

how difficult it is to build a medtech company from the ground up; Sante would not be

successful if it was easy to lead medtech companies to success.

Covid-19 affected Sante by restricting Dr. Cunningham’s heavy travel. As they are an

investment company, relationships are very important for them. Working virtually certainly made

forming relationships more difficult, but they did not have to radically change their business

model as Mr. Cohen had to. Next, I asked Dr. Cunningham about intellectual property and

clinical trials. Dr. Cunningham explained that his company thoroughly investigates the IP

landscape before investing in a company and that lots of money is spent in intellectual property.

As far as clinical trials go, Sante only invests in products where extensive trials are needed. This

is because extensive trials act as a barrier to entry for competitors, allowing Sante to experience

less competition. After that, I asked Dr. Cunningham about the most important attributes an

entrepreneur should possess. He believes that the most important skill for an entrepreneur is the

ability to tell a story. Storytelling is integral to convincing investors, future employees, and

customers. A successful entrepreneur is one who can walk into a room and convince the people

there to follow him. Finally, I asked Dr. Cunningham what college education path was ideal to
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become a successful biomedical entrepreneur. He explained that he generally wouldn’t

recommend pursuing medicine because the journey is so difficult. If one’s true interest is in

becoming an entrepreneur, it is best to pursue a technical undergrad degree and then complete an

MBA. Pursuing a technical degree as opposed to a finance degree will allow one to stand out

from the many finance majors in the field.

As a venture capitalist, Dr. Cunningham continually engages with startups and startup

founders, something reflected in the information he provided me. My presumption that hearing

an investor’s perspective would be beneficial certainly turned out to be true as Dr. Cunningham

was able to provide me with very useful information. My interview with Dr. Cunningham was

virtual because we could not coordinate the timing for an in-person interview. However, he

offered me an in-person interview at a later date at one of his portfolio companies in Frisco. I

hope to be able to conduct this interview with him and discuss my business idea specifically.