Cardiologist Dr. Sukir Sinnathamby is a physician and entrepreneur. “My grandfather was a doctor. My dad was a doctor. I am a doctor, and my son is in medical school,” said Dr. Sinnathamby. “I had an idea of how I wanted to take care of my patients, and I didn’t want to answer to other people about that.
“I’ve told other physicians—including my son, who’s in medical school,” he said, “that you can’t be an effective doctor without understanding the business of medicine, and you can’t separate the two. You can’t provide good care without creating a good business.”
Dr. Sinnathamby was introduced to angel investing through a business school project when he was enrolled in the Physician MBA Program at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. He wasn’t a twenty-something graduate student when he undertook this MBA program—he was in private practice and managing director of two vein treatment centers.
“The angel group invited me to a meeting and asked me my opinion about what is going on in healthcare investments,” he said. “They taught me about angel investing, and I helped them understand how things work in medicine.”
Mentoring Newer Angels and Entrepreneurs Is Rewarding
Today, Dr. Sinnathamby is a member of two angel groups. He has been in Vision Tech Partners, since 2017, and a member of Entrepreneurs’ Center Angels (ECA) since it was founded in 2018.
“Learning about angel investing is, in many ways, just like learning about anything else, and it is very different than being a doctor,” said Sinnathamby.
“It was a steep learning curve getting the terminology down and what angels prioritize,” he said. “Angels look at what a new business is selling. Is it viable? What does the market look like? If it is a growth market, ears perk up. Is the product something that their investment can help scale?”
Assessing the entrepreneur is as important to angels as evaluating the business, Dr. Sinnathamby says. “Angels invest when a company isn’t proven. It’s very risky and right at the start. We don’t know what will happen when a company gets going. Of course, we want to mitigate that risk.”
That’s why angels study entrepreneurs’ track records and commitment. They also look for market knowledge and coachability.
“Almost every entrepreneur is convincing.” Dr. Sinnathamby said. “Has the entrepreneur done something like this before? Sometimes they have a track record, and sometimes they don’t. Have they quit their job? Are they building their company full-time or part-time? Do they have a patent on technology?”
Angel investors share know-how to help entrepreneurs reduce risk and build investable companies.
Dr. Sinnathamby delivers a double dose of mentoring. He understands healthcare—a complex and nuanced industry that can’t be deeply understood by outsiders. Plus, as an entrepreneur who started five practices (four of them succeeded), he has first-hand experience and the mental toughness of a serial entrepreneur.
“In every business, there are certain ways things are done, a certain culture, and how people adopt new things,” he said. “There are a lot of interesting companies out there. Many angels who are from information technology or manufacturing have an interest, for example, in investing in medical devices. They need to know if a hospital or doctor would buy or adopt a new device, not to mention the regulatory considerations of a device from CMS or FDA. My perspectives help.”
What attracts economically successful professionals to angel investing?
“A lot of us angel investors are entrepreneurs ourselves,” Dr. Sinnathamby said. “We get to collaborate with entrepreneurs to help build companies. For many of us, it is the thrill of becoming part of another company. We want to see the entrepreneurs succeed without making the same mistakes we made.”
Investing in startups is investing in the future.
“For some, we may not get the return,” said Dr. Sinnathamby, “but it is hopeful optimism. We believe in entrepreneurship. That’s where all the great technology and discoveries that make society better come from—especially in the field of medicine.”
Dr. Sinnathamby’s Tips for Entrepreneurs.
- Poke holes in your own ideas and beliefs. See what is actually going on, not what you expect or hope for. That’s the biggest thing starting out. Entrepreneurs can become so tied to their ideas that they lose reality. Look at things the way a child looks at the world. A child says, ‘The emperor has no clothes.’ As adults, we get trained not to say that.
- Practice intense, first-hand market validation. Talk to the customer. Talk to your employees. Talk to other people in the same line of business who have successfully done what you are trying to do. Get a mentor. You don’t have to commit the same mistakes that someone else already has.
- If you must experience failure—as every entrepreneur on the journey is bound to do—fail fast. Learn from it. Be humble. Your idea may not be the greatest, but that’s where success comes in. Pick yourself up and go. Don’t be so wedded to one idea that you lose track of something valuable.
And what does Dr. Sinnathamby most to want tell entrepreneurs?
- Don’t be afraid to take risks. We learn more from failure than we do from success. Some of the greatest entrepreneurial companies were started by people who failed multiple times and then finally got it right.
About Entrepreneurs’ Center
The Entrepreneurs’ Center (EC) drives economic growth and prosperity by championing entrepreneurship. With a mission to empower innovators, the EC annually collaborates with over 1,000 entrepreneurs, catalyzing the creation of businesses, job opportunities, revenue streams, and investments. Offering a suite of professional services, including business planning, mentoring, training, networking, commercialization, and capital investment, the EC serves as a beacon for both main street and technology enterprises. Anchored by a dedicated team of advisors, entrepreneurs-in-residence, and staff, the EC orchestrates world-class business acceleration programs in collaboration with corporations, academic institutions, and government entities, including the U.S. Department of Defense, from its headquarters at The Hub Powered by PNC Bank within the historic Dayton Arcade.