Mainebiz

O N T H E R E C O R D W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 21 JA N UA R Y 1 1 , 2 0 1 6 A fter graduating from Bates College in 1986 and attending graduate school in Texas, he spent 20 years in Washington, D.C., working on public policy and small business lending. Since 1999 he's been doing outreach for the U.S. Small Business Administration's Small Business Innovative Research program, which focuses on small busi- ness development. Williams came back to Maine 10 years ago and about a year-and-a-half ago he formed HealthTech Maine to help Maine companies and entrepreneurs secure funding under the SBIR program. In eff ect, he says, the SBIR program enables the federal government to act as a venture capitalist, investing money in companies and entrepreneurs to come up with technologies that can go to the marketplace. ere's one big diff erence, though. Williams says the federal gov- ernment doesn't want anything from the company in terms of ownership or intel- lectual property, it simply wants to make sure the company succeeds. Williams recently met with Mainebiz to explain a $225,000 grant funding opportunity for Maine health technology entrepreneurs through the National Institutes of Health and SBIR to produce pioneering medical technologies or innovative health care IT solutions. e deadline for submis- sions is April 5. e following is an edited transcript. Mainebiz: Can you tell us a bit about the focus of your company and the opportunities that might exist for Maine companies to tap into the SBIR program? Darrell Williams: I have another company called 18 Ventures, which works with companies that received SBIR awards from the National Institutes of Health. rough that experience I found there were Maine companies involved in the health care industry that were having diffi culty getting contracts through the NIH and the National Science Foundation. I found out that Maine was lacking in terms of the number of contracts and the number of applications going for this money to develop technology or health care information technology. In fact, to give an example, Vermont, with half the population of Maine, over a 10-year period from 2004 to 2014 had twice as much money in terms of win- ning grants from the NIH than Maine. So, roughly, Vermont was bringing in $12 million over that period while Maine was bringing in close to $6 million. MB: How mi ght that program benefi t Maine? DW: Maine Technology Institute, as you know, provides a lot of support for small business development and has been trying to help increase Maine's entry into the health technology devel- opment industry. So 'health informat- ics' is one of those entries. If we can increase the number of small busi- nesses that can capture federal NIH and SBIR dollars designed to help them grow, that will obviously generate employment opportunities and off er Maine an opportunity to tap into this expanding health informatics industry. MB: In effect, grow a health infor- matics industry cluster? DW: Exactly. NIH and SBIR are off ering small companies, entrepre- neurs and startups opportunities to go after this money and create health IT tools that will be essential in terms of helping the whole health care indus- try deliver better health care in terms of outcomes and reducing cost. MB: How competitive are these grants? DW: It's a very competitive program. You are competing against companies that are across the country. at's why the people at NIH and MTI say, 'Start early.' MB: Anything else you'd like to add? DW: e benefi t of this program is not only that it's low risk, it's that the infrastructure is also set up for Maine entrepreneurs to succeed in the health informatics fi eld. Maine has all the ingredients to be successful. It's just a matter of connecting these ingredients and establishing a relationship with NIH and SBIR as well as with the Maine Technology Institute. ey need, and they want to fund, these types of companies. 14_261_3131. oo George Casey Discover what thousands of CEOs already know. Vistage works. Get answers. Take action. Like you, the members of a Vistage Advisory Board are proven business leaders and critical thinkers. They have smart ideas and insightful opinions and this is the forum to express them. At our monthly meetings, you'll encounter lively discussions where business leaders tell it like it is. If you are a CEO, key executive or business owner who is interested in finding out more about our Vistage group in Southern Maine, call 207.869.5491 or visit vistage.com/portlandme. P H O T O / JA M E S M C C A R T H Y Darrell Williams, CEO of HealthTech Maine, stands outside Maine Medical Center in Portland. Williams is spreading the word about a federal grant program offering $225,000 to Maine companies developing innovative health informatics solutions. Darrell Williams is the founder, president and CEO of HealthTech Maine, a Portland consulting firm that provides small business development assistance to health technology entrepreneurs. B Y J A M E S M C C A R T H Y A longer version of this interview is available at mainebiz.biz/HealthTech @

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