Middle Market Deals and how to buy, sell and raise capital from $5 to $500 million

I just read that a little company in Boston, MA called Insulet has developed what I'll call an artificial pancreas, a device, the OmniPod, that automatically and simultaneously monitors blood glucose and delivers an appropriate dose of insulin.  For diabetes sufferers, this is the holy grail!

The first time I heard that someone was thinking about this was about 16 years ago at a diabetes conference I attended with my wife, Gail.  Since then, we've been the rounds with diabetes.  I'll spare you the details, but in addition to Gail, my son and both of parents and at least one of my siblings have all been diagnosed with diabetes.  It's like a club.  I haven't been admitted, yet, but as weight and genetics are the two leading risk factors for diabetes, I'm just waiting for my formal invitation.

For those of you who are not diabetics, this new device may not sound like much, but there are two key parts to diabetic treatment:  1) testing your blood sugar level, which requires that you access blood through a ultra high tech process of jabbing your finger with a sharp object, causing it to bleed, and 2) sticking yourself with an insulin syringe to manage allow your body to metabolize blood sugar.  The OmniPod eliminates the blood tests and radically reduces the insulin injections by using a "cannula" that stays in place for days at a time.

So, today's announcement that Insuleet had been funding with about $50 million to bring their product to market merits note.  In fact, it merits a toast and a hearty bravo!

The company's investors include Pequot Ventures, Alta Partners, Versant Ventures, SV Life Sciences, Oakwood Medical Investors and Prism Venture Partners.  My hat's off to them, as well.

Presently, the CEO is Duane Desisto, who deserves a lot of credit for pulling this round together.