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It's been a tough decade for venture capital, which has been especially hard on the biotechs and medical IT firms that sometimes have to go long years before turning a profit. But the most successful VCs can often point you to winning stocks in tadpole form.

Cardinal Partners, a health care-focused VC firm founded in 1996, has survived by handpicking a small number of early-stage companies. Its most familiar progeny to IBD readers might be Athenahealth (NASDAQ:ATHN - News), a provider of back-office clinical services that has returned 15 times Cardinal's initial investment.

Cardinal co-founder Brandon Hull recently spoke with IBD about what kinds of medical technology he's putting his money on.

IBD: How do you choose which companies to invest in

Hull: Prong one of what it takes to be successful in this business is really exhaustive domain knowledge. We immerse ourselves in these industries.

We invest across the entire spectrum of the medical economy — everything from health care information systems to biotechnology and life sciences to medical products and devices. Each of those sectors has had its season throughout our existence, as business cycles have ebbed and flowed.

At the moment, health care information systems is having explosive growth as health care begins to discover some of the efficiency and process-automation benefits you get from investment in systems.

We used to say the problem with health care isn't that it hasn't invested enough money in software. The problem is that their work flows and business processes are so screwed up that if you automate that, you'll just make mistakes faster. So we're at a seminal moment in the history of American health care, where the equation that has been promulgated, with its requirements for almost universal access, lower cost and higher quality, is fundamentally unsolvable without a major investment in IT and systems. These are the types of productivity gains that manufacturing and financial services and logistics all realized starting in the '70s, but health care is going to have to embrace these technologies, and it's going to have to do it really fast.

I would predict within the investment span of our next fund, this will be the lion's share of what we do.

It's many different subcategories. It's work flow and process automation, it's how we address the changing relationships of insurance companies and hospitals and doctors, and then it's how we respond to the emerging power of the patient behaving for the first time as a consumer. Those three categories alone could keep us busy for a decade.

IBD: What other areas interest you

Hull: The boundaries between different investment categories are blurring.

From the outset, we have done some medical-device and medical-instrument investing. But in recent years, what's interesting about devices and instruments is the degree to which they have begun to segue and merge with information technology.

So many implantable devices today have an IT component so they can do real-time patient monitoring. The whole category of devices that help people manage chronic care are getting a huge boost from handheld and remote telemetry that allows patients to manage conditions like diabetes or asthma better.

So medical devices is an area we'll continue to emphasize, although the FDA is currently having a very bad mood.

Our focus will be on those devices which either don't require FDA approval or do have heavy reliance on IT infrastructure.

Brandon HullCardinal PartnersCo-founder51 years old

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Health Care Turning To IT Info Systems

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Footy is back... already!

Our footy experts preview the new rules, new coaches and new players for this weekend's opening round of the NAB Cup.

The Australian Football League (AFL) is looking to establish a bigger presence on the internet and has applied for a new top-level domain ".afl".

The global governing body for domain names, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), in June 2011 approved the expansion of domain names beyond ".com" to ".anything".

The application period for the new suffixes opened in mid-January 2012 and closes in April 2012.

Advertisement: Story continues below

It costs $US185,000 ($A173,578) to apply to ICANN for a new suffix.

AFL general manager of strategy and marketing Andrew Catterall said that a specific AFL top-level domain name would help the football code expand and protect its brand, and create new commercial opportunities.

It would enable AFL fans to access reliable and trusted information on games, players and clubs more easily.

Fans would be able to access content by typing into their computer, phone or other digital platform: fixtures.afl, ladder.afl or merchandise.afl.

Players and clubs could have their own sites, such as daneswan.afl or collingwood.afl.

Sponsors could have nab.afl or ten.afl.

If the site did not end in .afl, it would indicate the content was not verified or official.

"We're making long-term investment decisions across the business, building our official media capacity, building stadiums, expansion (of the code)," Catterall said.

"We weighed this (the top-level domain name) up and think it's a valid application to make to try to secure the licence for a long-term result.

"We're always vigilant about how AFL content and the AFL brand is represented online and sometimes outside of our environment."

Catterall said the potential for the .afl space was still to be fully ascertained.

"The scope of it will evolve over time. This is a multiple-year migration. It will take time. We're not rushing it," he said.

Domain registry company Melbourne IT is helping the AFL apply for the new top-level domain name, and ARI Registry Services has been chosen as the technology provider for .afl.

ARI chief executive Adrian Kinderis said having a top-level domain name was like having a lighthouse for your brand because it helped users avoid fake websites - a point well understood by banks.

"In this case, if it doesn't end in .afl, then don't go there," Mr Kinderis said.

Kinderis said he hoped that the AFL's move to apply for new top-level domain name would prompt other major organisations or companies in Australia to do the same.

He said awareness of the availability of new top-level domain names in North America was huge, but tiny in Australia.

"This is absolutely going to impact every single internet user," Kinderis said. "You can't just wave this off as fad.

"We want to ensure that Australia doesn't let this be a North American-wide web."

AAP

Read the original post:
AFL applies for new domain

The Australian Football League (AFL) is looking to establish a bigger presence on the internet and has applied for a new top-level domain name '.afl'.

The global governing body for domain names, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), in June 2011 approved the expansion of domain names beyond '.com' to '.anything'.

The application period for the new suffixes opened in mid-January 2012 and closes in April 2012.

It costs $US185,000 ($A173,578) to apply to ICANN for a new suffix.

AFL general manager of strategy and marketing Andrew Catterall said that a specific AFL top-level domain name would help the football code expand and protect its brand, and create new commercial opportunities.

It would enable AFL fans to access reliable and trusted information on games, players and clubs more easily.

Fans would be able to access content by typing into their computer, phone or other digital platform: fixtures.afl, ladder.afl or merchandise.afl.

Players and clubs could have their own sites, such as daneswan.afl or collingwood.afl.

Sponsors could have nab.afl or ten.afl.

If the site did not end in .afl, the content was not verified or official.

'We're making long-term investment decisions across the business, building our official media capacity, building stadiums, expansion (of the code),' Mr Catterall said.

'We weighed this (the top-level domain name) up and think it's a valid application to make to try to secure the licence for a long-term result.

'We're always vigilant about how AFL content and the AFL brand is represented online and sometimes outside of our environment.'

Mr Catterall said the potential for the .afl space was still to be fully ascertained.

'The scope of it will evolve over time. This is a multiple-year migration. It will take time. We're not rushing it,' he said.

Domain registry company Melbourne IT is helping the AFL apply for the new top-level domain name, and ARI Registry Services has been chosen as the technology provider for .afl.

ARI chief executive Adrian Kinderis said having a top-level domain name was like having a lighthouse for your brand because it helped users avoid fake websites - a point well understood by banks.

'In this case, if it doesn't end in .afl, then don't go there,' Mr Kinderis said.

Mr Kinderis said he hoped that the AFL's move to apply for new top-level domain name would prompt other major organisations or companies in Australia to do the same.

He said awareness of the availability of new top-level domain names in North America was huge, but tiny in Australia.

'This is absolutely going to impact every single internet user,' Mr Kinderis said.

'You can't just wave this off as fad.

'We want to ensure that Australia doesn't let this be a North American-wide web.'

See the article here:
AFL applies for new domain name

NEW DELHI: A Department of Telecom (DoT) official on Thursday told the special CBI court hearing the 2G spectrum scam case that a report of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) in 2010 had said it was "not feasible" to auction spectrum.

Deposing as a prosecution witness, Viresh Goel, DoT's deputy advisor (MN), told special CBI judge O P Saini that Trai's report had said spectrum should be given to new operators at a "reasonably low price".

"In paragraph 3.116 (of the Trai report), it is mentioned that spectrum to the new operators should be given at a reasonably low price. It is further stated that this was the reason that the figure of Rs 1,659 crore (entry fee) was maintained for so many years. It is correct that in paragraph 3.46 (of the Trai report) it is mentioned that in the view of the authority, it was not feasible to auction the spectrum in 800, 900 and 1800 MHz band," Goel said.

Goel, who was on deputation in Trai from January 2010 to June 2011, said he had provided the data to CBI regarding adjusted gross revenue (AGR) per MHz on behalf of Trai but he was not aware about gross revenue.

Besides Goel, the court also recorded the statement of prosecution witness Vinod Kumar Budhiraja, chief regulatory officer of Etisalat DB Telecom (P) Ltd. He said Associated Hotels (P) Ltd, allegedly a sister concern of DB Realty, had taken a property belonging to accused R K Chandolia, ex-private secretary of former telecom minister A Raja, on rent for its guest house in Safdarjung Development Area.

Budhiraja said the property was taken on rent with the help of Chandolia's broker. The witness said he did not know if there was any influence in decision-making of Associated Hotels (P) Ltd from directors of DB Realty or anyone else on behalf of the company.

"It is correct that neither Shahid Balwa (promoter of Swan Telecom) nor Vinod Goenka (MD of DB Realty) ever contacted me to find out accommodation for themselves for the purpose of a guest house. It is correct that brokers keep the name of the owner secret from the prospective tenants till the finalization of the deal," he said. Budhiraja said till the time of signing the lease deed for the rented premises, he did not know that it belonged to Chandolia.

"There was no pre-plan to take the premises of Chandolia. It was just a coincidence," he said, adding, "I did not find anything unusual or illegal in taking the premises of Chandolia on lease. It was done in ordinary course of business. This premises was taken on rent on March 9, 2009. This is more than a year after issuance of UAS licence to Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd. The deal was finalized as the rent of Rs 63,000 per month was lower than other accommodation seen by us."

Budhiraja, whose cross-examination will continue on Friday, said this transaction was not made to show any favour to Chandolia who was then private secretary to Raja. "No one from DB Realty or Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd knew about this transaction between Chandolia and Associated Hotels (P) Ltd. Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka never discussed this matter with me," he said.

He said that during the recording of statement by CBI's investigating officer, he had said this was a bonafide transaction but the officer did not record this.

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Trai opposed spectrum auction: DoT official tells court

15-02-2012 23:41 http://www.facebook.com http://www.twitter.com music: marsargo.bandcamp.com Photography by Adam Cook, Titanic Sinclair, Mars Argo, and Alexander Collins.

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