Patient Provider Communications is filling out its executive team, nailing down bridge funding, and winning a lucrative award along the way.
The Ann Arbor-based software firm has grown its executive ranks to six people as it gears up to launch the pilot phase of its principal product next year. The company is also looking to land seven figures' worth of federal grant and investment capital this year and has already nailed down some of it by taking second place in the Emerging Company category of the most recent Great Lakes Entrepreneur's Quest business plan competition.
"It was great," says Dr. Lance Patak, CEO of
Patient Provider Communications. "It was perfect timing. We're seeking bridge funding so every dollar helps, even that $25,000."
The prize money will allow the three-year-old start-up to buy lab equipment to further the development of its product. Dr. Patak, together with Dr. Bryan J Traughber and Thomas Morphopoulus, started the firm to create a better way for patients and medical professionals to communicate than the antiquated call-light system.
The company is currently working to land a Phase 2 federal Small Business Technology Transfer grant later this year worth $1.225 million. It also expects to land matching funds from the state of Michigan while raising another $500,000 in private investment.
"Hopefully, by July 2013, we will have our first product installed in our first customer hospital," Patak says.
Source: Lance Patak, CEO of Patient Provider Communications
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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