Who Tops the List?
At the top of the list are some veteran entrepreneurs who have already proven themselves to investors by founding companies that led to acquisitions. The team behind Relypsa, a Santa Clara (Calif.) drug development company working on a treatment for life-threatening hyperkalemia in heart and kidney patients, sold their last company to Amgen (AMGN) for $420 million in 2007. Relypsa, founded months after the acquisition, raised $33 million in late 2007. But even for well-capitalized startups with proven track records, the uncertain funding outlook means they have to make every dollar count. Gerrit Klaerner, Relypsa’s chief operating officer, says startups that are only now thinking of ways to trim may be in trouble. “Operating a small company, I think you have to be lean and mean. If you start thinking about capital efficiency today, it’s too late,” he says.
