Navigating IPOs and Acquisitions with Ray Cohen

In this episode of MedTech Snapshot, we sit down with Ray Cohen—seasoned executive and serial CEO—to dig into a defining question for any MedTech startup: IPO or acquisition? With firsthand experience leading multiple companies through both exits, Ray shares insights on market timing, strategic pivots, and what investors really want. 

Travis: 
Welcome back to another Med tech snapshot. The one question, one answer medical device digest podcast. With me today is Ray Cohen. We're going to be diving into some interesting topics having to do with when should we look at an acquisition, should it be an IPO versus M&A? We're also going to get into the business pivot. So stay tuned. 

Welcome to the podcast. Good to see you. It's been a while. 

Ray: 
Thanks Travis. Thanks for inviting me. I appreciate it. 

Travis:  
Absolutely. So all right, first question we're going to dive into here is looking at IPO versus acquisition. You've been through plenty of these, but tell me when you're looking at that and you're building that strategy in. When you're pre commercial, what are some of the macro and microeconomic considerations you're walking through to look at? Do you go IPO or do you look at the MA route? 

Ray: 
Sure. Well, I mean at the way you posed the question is you said "pre commercial." So you're going to find that companies in the medical device space are not going public if they're pre commercial. The fact that Exonics was able to do it in October of 2018 is a Unicorn situation. So, I would say that those are far and few between. 
 

So if you ask the question in the context of 'well now you're generating revenue', right? And now the question would come up, 'which direction do you want to go?' 

 So I think that there is an appetite—at the moment that the markets are open—there is an appetite for medical device deals. And as long as you've got more, the traditional, around 50 million or more revenue, you can do a successful IPO. 

Now, a lot of times companies as they're considering doing that would do what's called a market check, right? So they're going to go out, you know, contact a few of the strategic buyers that are out there, and say, 'Hey, company's fixing to go public. You know, we may have talked before, maybe we haven't, but is this something you might be interested in taking a look at?,' And I think that's typically what is done. 

Now having said that, if you want to ensure a return on investment, for your investors, for your yourself, for your colleagues, and so forth, obviously doing—I should say executing the sale of the company is an immediate liquidity event. And so my bias would always be towards if you can get the company sold, that's the route to go.