People– Without solid founders, key management teams, and board members, companies will not succeed. Someone once said,” I will take an ‘A’ management team with a ‘B’ product all day vs. a ‘B’ management team with an ‘A’ product. There are thousands of the latter laying at the bottom of the ocean that never made it.” People drive companies, and make the decisions that increase the chances of success, and minimize failures while reducing risk every step of the way.
Product– It is mission critical that companies have a unique product that will add value to its end user or customer, whether that be a hospital, lab, patient, doctor, scientist/researcher, etc… Dillon adheres to the philosophy of being able to not only having a competitive advantage with high barriers to entry, but a sustainable competitive advantage.
Platform– A company’s infrastructure, marketing/sales strategy, technology, R&D, intellectual property/patents, and financial and accounting systems all play a role in building a successful platform. As important is a stable platform that will allow the company to scale both in size and revenue.
Performance– “If you cannot measure a company’s results, it is not real.” Execution of the business plan(s), achieving goals (both qualitative and quantitative), and ultimately the accountability to all stakeholders defines the performance of a emerging healthcare company.
Profit– While many companies have been formed, built and solid without ever having achieved profitability, this is not part of the model by which Dillon invests in and consults with emerging health care companies. It is a necessity to be able to predict and determine when companies achieve being cash flow positive, and then being able to execute on time with the proper amount of capital deployed. It is never a question of ‘if’ and always a question of ‘when’.
