DNA Genotek's Ian Curry. (Darren Brown, OBJ)

There has been a lot of buzz going around Ottawa about a little company with big potential.

If DNA has revolutionized the medical and forensic fields, then DNA Genotek has revolutionized how medical researchers collect DNA. The company's product, Oragene, allows people to provide DNA samples simply by spitting into a jar and sending it off in the mail. This opens all sorts of new doors for researchers who need to collect mass samples from the population. But in the world of biotechnology, the key to getting funding and winning customers was the sheer simplicity of the product, explained CEO Ian Curry.

OBJ: Tell me a bit about your company.

CURRY: We sell products that allow people to collect biological samples. We started out with technology allowing people to collect DNA samples through saliva.

OBJ: What makes your product different from other DNA collecting methods?

CURRY: There are two other ways people have collected DNA historically. One is through blood. The second is through what they call buccal swabs, that's what you often see on TV. The challenge with blood is pretty intuitive – nobody likes getting a needle jabbed in their arm. The collection process is expensive, nasty, and blood is considered a biological hazard. A lab person can catch diseases. With the swabs, police use them for identifying people, but they only need a very tiny sample of DNA to do that. If you're doing research and your goal is to figure out the root causes of disease, then you need a lot of DNA, and you need a lot of DNA from a lot of people. When you need a lot of DNA from a lot of people, you end up with our product.

We do a lot of other things as well. For example, we allow people to send their samples through the mail. Once you spit saliva into the container and cap it, the sample is stabilized. It doesn't break down at any temperature. That feature is amazing, you can't do that with blood or swabs.

OBJ: What did you think of the company when you joined the team? Did you know it was marketable right away?

CURRY: I came in 2004. Our product was mainly developed by the founder (Dr. Chaim Birnboim). I thought I'd better go look at the DNA market ... I just went onto the web and found people doing research with DNA that would use our product. It didn't take me very long to see the opportunities for a great technology. It's enormous.

Pretty much for any disease that's not infectious, there is somebody in the world studying it by using our product. They are looking at who is going to be predisposed to certain diseases. They need a lot of DNA from a lot of people, that's why being able to collect through the mail is unbelievable to our customers.

We knew we had a great product and we learned over time through customers what they needed. For example, people in Sweden came to us in 2004 and said, "This is a fantastic product, the problem is that it doesn't fit through mail slots. So if you can redesign it to fit so it's less expensive to send, we'll be ready to go."

So the more money they save, the more they buy from us. And this type of research is going to go on forever.

OBJ: Where are you at in terms of financing right now?

CURRY: We have had two rounds of angel financing, one in 2004 and one in 2005. We are in a position now where we don't think we need any more. We grew 800 per cent over 2004. We have sold to over 75 countries from one location in Ottawa.

Luckily for me, the founder and the CFO already had people interested before I got here. I also knew people from my experience in Ottawa. And the story we have is straightforward. It's been my experience that there are many people in the angel community who are interested in investing in biotechnology but they can't understand most of the opportunities. That's not a criticism to them, it's a very complicated market and often the products that are being provided are very complicated if you don't come from the market.

OBJ: Do you think that's a stumbling block for companies looking for financing, that they can't present their product in a way that investors can understand?

CURRY: It's a challenge. I think that's something I do OK at. In this instance, I specifically went looking for a company where I could see the product, understand it and find a product that had high value and made a difference in the world, but also something that wasn't rocket science. What our customers do sometimes is rocket science, but what we do to allow them to do rocket science is straightforward. I can have angel investors understand pretty quickly what we do.

OBJ: What advice do you have for other companies looking for investors to get their products off the ground?

CURRY: Everything is dependent on the idea. I have learned that ... if you're trying to get financing to get going, simpler is always better. The key to business is selling and accessing you market. You might have the best product in the world, but if you can't access your market, then you're idea is irrelevant. The first things I said to the people here when I came to meet them was, "Please, don't even tell me what the product is, just tell me how you think you're going to sell it. If you can convince me how you're going to sell it, I am interested in the product."

All those things, simple product, great technology, just lined up for us. And even though researchers like to stick to proven technologies, it turned out that we had such a compelling argument, we can probably convince them to use our product through a short e-mail.

THE EXPERTS SAY

When looking into investing in a new company, it's an informed feel, it's never a first impression. A first impression is usually wrong either way. Typically it takes two or three months of dialogue with a company before we can make an informed decision one way or another. So you would come to us and we would ask you a few questions, half of which you can answer, half of which you can't. You come back a few weeks later and you have some of those questions answered. Then we look back and see over those months what kind of progress have we made in terms of the founder of the business being able to teach us about the business.

So we see some gaps and by the time we are ready to invest, we want to see some of those gaps filled. And then we say that we're willing to invest some money to fill in some more of those gaps. It's more of a dynamic. It's never this nonsense on the (TV show) Dragon's Den, which we were asked to participate in. We talked to the producer and said, this is not how it works. It could actually work more like Canadian Idol, because over time, people develop. We are there to help them develop, so we also need to have people who we are able to help, so we have to know their market. For us, that's part of the fun, otherwise it's a financial transaction and that's not very fun.

Irving Ebert, managing angel, Ottawa Angel Alliance

The first thing we look at when dealing with a new company is, are they suitable for equity financing? Most companies aren't. Most don't have the growth profile that would be required for equity financing, so they have to look at growing their company organically or through friends and family.

For those that do meet the profile, typically investors are going to be looking for companies who will give them more than 25 per cent annual return. That narrows it down right away.

But if they fit that model, they need to understand what they are taking on when they take on an investor, whether it's an angel investor or a VC. It's not just about the money. They're also taking on a business partner when you take on an equity investor. Yes, you're going to give up some of your business and some of the control and you have to be OK with that. But when you look for investors, you want more than just their money. You want to get a compatible investor so you can gain access to their networks, things like distribution sales channels.

Typically when people start out they have a certain skill set, that could be in sales, marketing, technical, whatever. But they're lacking in other areas and through their investors, they can often get access to people with the skill set they're lacking in.

Dave Scollon, manager, Ottawa Capital Network