Thank you R. for all, the resources…
& for the time & energy everybody put into little old me & my invention…
To be honest, I sabotaged the meeting a bit myself for a variety of reasons…
First, my development team did not want a handout…
Prior to the phone conversation, the lead developer stated emphatically not to borrow or take money if I did not need it…
He felt that there are always strings attached…So I had this in the back of my head…
Second…We decided to put a money doorway on the site per picture upload…
This meant that the site will pay for the development
team, bandwidth, & upkeep…A small portal entry fee split 60-40 between me & the developers meant that theoretically I had basic
costs covered…(“It’s not if you win or lose, just cover the spread” they say)…
Third…I attended the Adam Kahane book(Collaborating with the Enemy) lecture January 11th, 2018, to see how Mars
functions…
See the people & how events are run…I noticed that after the book talk, the question & answer period was rehearsed &
staged…
I know this is easier for book talks, to have people in the sponsoring organization seed already established questions, so
that answers are also guided, but I was disappointed by this contrivance…
I see this more & more in lecture situations, where
questions are seeded…
I had actually printed out a new bunch of business cards, with my new website address on it, thinking I
might network while I was at Mars…We were seated at round tables, it seemed natural…
What I saw were people who had not read
the book, & it seemed had been asked to fill the room…
The young lady next to me asked a very insecure question of the older man
on my other side…Something about the subject, but I realized it was more of a come on…
It made me feel like my university days 30
years ago, with young women feeling intellectually insecure in the presence of older men with better jobs…This was just an
anecdotal impression, but it leads to my next thought…
Fourth…I prepared vigorously for the phone meeting, including background checks of who I was going to speaking with…When a
third man was mentioned at the last minute(R. A., you!), I had not had time to prepare…
To be honest, I thought someone
sensitively had placed a female in the room(Renee phonetically can be female too)…I was surprised to learn upon asking that I was
facing now 3 men…
Because NIDI Non invasive diagnostic imaging has huge implications for breast cancer diagnoses, the female
response has been overwhelming…I think that Mars should always have a female in the room, especially if a female is on the other
end of the phone line…
But even more importantly, if the field is something that could apply to breast cancer…Women are tired of
showing their breast to men, under the guise of medicine, & a DIY system is long overdue…But women are also tired of business
meetings where their needs are not understood, & communication gets off on the wrong foot…
Of course Mars is perfect for what I have invented…But the male perspective is about money & power & investment &
profit…Things that I do align with, but my view point is longer term…If you try to make money, you fail…If you have noble intention,
for some reason, money pours in…
This has been my experience, as everything I do tends to try to be pure of heart, which is why I
always get funding when I have needed it…
I didn’t really want money from Mars…
I wanted help…Not necessarily something describable…
Just people to talk to…A wall to
bounce my ideas off of…Should I monetize? Should it be ads or a portal?
What should the site look like? I don’t know…
But your Venture form really wanted to nail down the money questions…
Like this is a stock to purchase…
I don’t think Joe Rotman
intended Mars Discovery District to be just another venture capital firm…Which is where I see Mars failing…
Which leads to my next point…
Fifth…When I looked at Mars’ books, I saw financial failure very quickly…It seemed that money came in, & a giant pretty building got
built…So developers got paid, which seems to be the norm in Toronto…So now there was a pretty building, & no funds leftover…
So, when I visited Mars, I saw a neat restaurant, & lots of snappy looking people walking around…
But I did not see any work happening…It seemed to me like Mars is a big lovely building…That the government has had to rescue…
Already large sums of money have had to come in to Mars from the government to save it…The very large building has had to be
rented out to innovation companies who actually already have made their mark…This was not the intention…
This is just real estate
income now…
When I looked at the incomes of the people I spoke with on the phone, I saw generous $160,000 salaries up to half a
million dollars for the head salary…I found that interesting , as a lean & mean early venture should not be carving out large salaries,
if it wants to turn a profit later…
The model itself is flawed…
Here I am with an invention that purports to see cancer without biopsy, & over a year later, after first talking to Mars, I am still
wondering what Mars does…I have had to fund my project myself, my clinical trial myself, my patent applications myself, both in Us
& Canada, & have had to do all the informatics of licensing or not vis a vis diagnostic devices…
What I got from the phone meeting was some nice support from Ying Tam, who opened very well with a compliment…
But later, I felt that the Big Pharma person, felt somewhat threatened, or was it competition jealousy(just a gut reaction)? Insofar as
I had found that I could escape the 10 year trap of Health Canada’s licensing red tape because I had cleverly created a
NON-downloadable web service-so that I did not have to get diagnostic device licensing or partner with a software Medical lab that
was established…
I realize now that my gut reaction may have been misplaced, & do apologize for my answer…The word “Claims” is fraught with
skepticism & insult in many circles…
But after a recent conversation with CIPO, (the Canadian intellectual & patent office),
I see that they use the word “claim” frequently, & to them it is just legalese that has lost meaning…
To an inventor, having legalese thrown at them, can be felt as an affront…
I realize that had I had a lawyer present, or been a lawyer
myself, that I would have negotiated that semantic trap better conversationally…
To be honest, I feel that a first meeting with strangers should be a meet & greet…To see if we all get along or not…To get a feel for
bias & personality…
For the amount of information discussed in that half hour, there was no way for me to really do that…
Which meant that I was telling information to a group of strangers…Strangers who had all been in fields that would be my
competition, if in fact money had been the object…
I am surprised at Mars response & feel that mostly the response was based on a bias…The bias that Mars would prefer to be
dealing with anybody BUT real inventors…
That God forbid somebody should actually be a real inventor & not a corporate shackled
to a salary…
That I am an artist is anathema…
Something like the fact that Prime Minster Trudeau was a drama teacher…
My father was a neuro-opthalmological surgeon who also was a professor teaching doctors, & wrote textbooks…So I know what
credentials Mars would have preferred me to have…
I know that it is all for the best that Mars has sent me a nice rejection letter…Because I know that I do not necessarily want a ticket
on a ship that may be sinking…
But I am still disappointed…In what could have been…
Maybe a loose relationship where I could call up & say:
” Hi Rene, what should I do about this?” ” Or Hi Ying Tam, do you think this is ok legally to say?” Or maybe “Hello Richard, do you
want to meet at Mercatto, I have some things I am having trouble with…?”
That is too bad…For both Mars Discovery District, & maybe for Toronto, & maybe for the world…
For it is in these tiny moves that our future is formed…
My developer forecast that Mars would not be interested in helping unless they gave me money & were watching their own
investment…I sad to him :” No, lets give them a chance…Maybe they are not all about money”…
My developer though is from the States & is all too familiar with this trope…
So he knew…
Like when penny loafers came out in
San Francisco, 2 years later people were putting pennies into their loafers here in Toronto…
So he knew already what the answer was going to be…
Mars was not interested in helping NIDI non invasive diagnostic imaging, unless they had some money in the game…
That saddens me…
From the female perspective…
I asked my Mum to ask Sandy Rotman to help me deal with Mars…Interestingly, though her husband
had given 50 million dollars, she told my Mum over dinner that she had absolutely nothing to do with Mars…That she could not
help…
I feel that the old boys networks are still causing obstacles, like old telephone wires blocking flight paths for birds…
I noticed the CIPO people suffer from similar misogyny…Apparently they don’t often speak to women writing their own patent
applications, after inventing something…
It reminds me of the recent film Bombshell about Hedy Lamarr, who died a poor sex
symbol, despite having invented frequency hopping that is used today to protect secure transmissions in both war & peace
economies worldwide…
I was berated for answering their email with a reply email, as if I was a child…I imagine that CIPO, like
Mars , is used to dealing with expensive lawyers, who have spent years perfecting abstract & claims writing & know all the red
tape ways to get grant money, with financial wizards to make it appear as if corporations are actually profitable…
I wanted to go to the next Mars event, but it seems like the price tag to participate was so huge, that Mars is trying to gain funds,
just by overcharging its hopeful inventors…
Sorry this letter sounds like sour grapes…Frozen sour cherries are delicious in smoothies though…Maybe that it what this is…
A sour experience that will blossom into a delicious drink…
I hope that Mars reconsiders its parameters, & if an opening comes where Mars is just going to bet there with a helping hand,
no more forms or strange phone meetings, then I would love to have a benevolent shoulder to lean on…
I felt somehow at the end of the meeting that I was the one who was offering the help…Maybe that is how it is…
I invented something great, & people need it…I guess that is true…
I forget that being a success makes me the boss sometimes…
Please ignore any negatives in this letter, & feel free to keep in touch with me anyways, either formally or personally…
You took the trouble, all 3 of you, to bother with me, & that is something…
I think Ying Tam’s concussion project was very innovative & would love to hear more about how it works…
The DiyImaging.com site was delayed a bit, because we had to use Stripe, & apply it t the site, prior to launch…So that will be our
funding…
People who use it…So it is not live just yet, but soon…I have a short animated film on my blog about NIDI non invasive
diagnostic imaging now…(You may have seen an early version of the film in my LInkedIn posts)…
If anyone of the 3 at our call, or their family memebers, or friends, needs help now with NIDI, do it yourself diagnostic imaging, I am
still free, & will help or do it for you…Friend me on Facebook (Sari Grove), then upload a photo of the area in question to my private
messages box on Facebook…(Facebook Messenger)…
I will edit the picture as soon as I can, & give 3 result edits, right there in
Messenger…It is a very fast way to get an idea of whether cancer is present, how much, where it is…I will still be doing the free
edits, even after the DIYimaging.com site launches…
As well, people can learn for free themselves at my blog grovecanada.ca …
I have tried to make the steps as easy as possible to understand…
There is no downloading & all photo editors are free & online…
For women with breast lumps this means that you can get a really early idea of what the lump is…Like a home pregnancy test…
This time saving can be lifesaving…
Also, I find that when people participate in their own imaging, they participate in their own
healing too…Diet & exercise, the 2 most powerful medicines…
After God, the finest doctor…
All the best…
Feel free to change your mind about NIDI or me…I change my mind all the time…No reason to stick to a form letter…
People make mistakes all the time…
If Mars wants to offer me a new free coaching program, or liaise with me as part of a new meet the inventor program, please get in
touch…
I think we got off on the wrong foot…A half hour phone meeting will do that to anybody…
Thank you for your time,
Sari Grove, inventor of NIDI non invasive diagnostic imaging…
Health Venture Services |
Dear SARI, Thank you for your interest in working with MaRS Health Venture Services. We have reviewed your Discovery Document, and regret to say your venture does not qualify for the MaRS Health Ventures Portfolio at this time. The business model and value proposition of your venture is not aligned with our strategic objectives and we do not have advisors and connections with the necessary expertise to be able to support your venture effectively. That being said, MaRS can support you with some comprehensive publicly available resources such as: The MaRS Startup Library, Collections, workbooks, and workshops found in the Entrepreneur’s toolkit/MaRS Library on our website. Also check out The Funding Portal, with which we partnered to provide a search tool for private and public financing across Canada that may churn up some good sources for you. MaRS is one of 17 different Regional Innovation Centres (RICs) across Ontario, that make up the Ontario Network of Entrepreneurs (ONE). You may find a better fit with a different RIC. Here’s a list of others: http://www.mentorworks.ca/blog/government-funding/ontario-regional-innovation-centres/ Independent of MaRS, consider pursuing the services and benefits available for Small & Medium-sized business through the Ministry of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure. Their resources may be a better fit for your current requirements. In addition there are other organizations like Enterprise Toronto and VentureLab that may have resources better aligned to your venture. Also check out Futurpreneur Canada to see if it’s a fit. They are a national, non-pro?t organization that provides ?nancing, mentoring and support tools to aspiring business owners aged 18-39. Lastly, check out https://www.cofounderslab.com/ to network and find some good partners/contacts with business experience, and/or science, developer, design backgrounds if you need help developing your product and/or getting your business off the ground. All the best, |
R. A. Sector Manager | Health Venture Services (first initial then last name)@marsdd.com MaRS Discovery District |
I received this email this morning, & am adding the whole letter, to put it into context:
“
Hey there,
My name is Kelly, and I am reaching out on behalf of Finimpact.
Inspiring young minds is subtly an essential factor that helps improve their growth, as you may already know.
One of the most obvious and commonly overlooked concern is the shortage of high-quality resources on entrepreneurship for young talents.
I was digging around for information about the current situation and came across your page: https://grovecanada.ca/my-response-to-mars-discovery-district/
(Really great information and resources, I didn’t even know about some of them).
If you’re interested, we just wrote a list of ways/tips to empower and support young entrepreneurs ??:
https://www.finimpact.com/empower-and-support-young-entrepreneurs/
Would you consider adding this guide to your page as an additional resource/information? In any chance, thanks for reading, and keep up the good job!
Best regards,
Kelly Pena