It's no secret that it's harder and harder for med-tech firms to receive early stage funding. I think my last six blogs have been about that topic alone. But while its true that some venture capital firms are looking to invest in med-tech companies at a later stage in the development cycle, some firms are getting fairly creative and are going toward crowdfunding. Last  week, I wrote a story about Amulyte (Markham, Ontario), a company that has developed an emergency response device that helps seniors live on their own terms, and its move toward the crowdfunding model. The company partnered...

TEL AVIV — The First Israel BrainTech Conference (IBT) being held here, is the brainchild of Israel's President Shimon Peres. When interviewed, the president tried to explain the secret of the small state's technological successes. "Well," he explained, "you'll find something very common in the Israeli character – we are never satisfied." That lack of satisfaction or complacency, he explained, was the key to getting people to think out of their comfort zone, and being prepared to make strides in directions that they might not have made otherwise. Israelis are good at these bold moves.