How to Outpace Your Competition

Key Learnings From Kevin’s Experience

• While academic rigor is beneficial, entrepreneurship demands a product-focused mindset. Prioritize moving fast rather than scrutinizing every detail. Be cognizant of what slows you down and emphasize the initiatives that matter most, especially when raising early capital.

• For initial fundraising, consider pursuing smaller grants with fewer strings attached in parallel to venture capital. While non-dilutive funding is alluring, intensive grant processes like SBIRs are often time-consuming and administratively burdensome. Even if you’re successful, there’s an opportunity cost to consider. 

• Direct engagement with end-users is critical for gaining market insights, improving customer understanding, and educating other key stakeholders. Even more importantly, you can use this engagement to identify individuals interested in your product and guide them towards participating in your trials.

Kevin Eisenfrats says he first realized there was a gap in male contraceptive options during his teenage years thanks to reality shows on MTV, like 16 and Pregnant. Unlike most who watched the show, Kevin wasn’t solely entertained—he was perplexed. The question “Why is there no male birth control pill?” became the cornerstone of his career. His essay on this exact topic got him into UVA, where he delved into reproductive biology, and developed the first FDA-cleared at-home sperm test. 

“I landed on a concept which ended up being Contraline,” shares Kevin. As a first-time entrepreneur, Kevin has led the company from initial concept into a clinical-stage enterprise that has successfully raised over $25 million.

Contraline’s male contraceptive technology, ADAM, is a novel long-lasting, reversible male contraceptive. The procedure is simple: A hydrogel is injected with Contraline’s custom delivery device into the vas deferens (the sperm duct) in a minimally invasive fashion that only takes about 15 minutes, with minimal discomfort. The first human trials in Australia have shown a significant reduction in sperm counts.

The next stage for Contraline is the investigational device exemption (IDE) pivotal trial to demonstrate efficacy, along with an explant study to prove the restoration of fertility following the removal of ADAM’s hydrogel. 

Transitioning from Academics to a Startup

If you're transitioning from academia to entrepreneurship, you’ll need to adjust your mindset and acquire new skill sets. Yes, a thorough understanding of your domain is necessary, but you’ll need to use that information to quickly develop a functional product.

In Kevin’s case, his first move was to identify the scientific and technical challenges male contraception faced historically. “The first thing I did was to print every paper that's ever been published in this category,” he says. After uncovering the reasons why a male contraception method hadn’t been brought to market, Kevin had some threads to unravel. Thanks to his entrepreneurial practicality, he was able to iterate with a novel idea: the use of hydrogels – a water-soluble, easily injectable material that doesn’t cause any side effects or tissue reactivity.

In addition to deep academic discovery, rigorous market research is also non-negotiable. Kevin did this by opening up a conversation channel with physicians and the men who might be interested in ADAM. The research showed a preference for contraceptives that lasted only one to two years. So, Kevin steered the company’s R&D in that direction: reversibility – or specifically, a gel that naturally degrades within 2 or 3 years.

This focus on meeting real-world needs is the common ground of the academic and startup mindsets, and it’s crucial when setting up clinical trials. You can generate data—which is valuable scientific work—but you also need a business compass. You need to make sure the data you generate steers your company towards your next milestone, such as funding or commercialization. In other words, your data should back your business claims.

The Danger of Over-reliance on Grant Funding 

The very large demand for male contraception combined with limited options translate into a high-stakes race to bring something to market – a race Kevin is well aware of. To get ahead of this race, securing funding is vital.

Non-dilutive funding sources, like grants, offer a key advantage: they don't require giving up equity in the company. However, they can be time-consuming and administratively intensive, often requiring detailed applications and compliance with specific regulations.

“In the early days, I actually was a little anti-grants because I wanted to move fast,” Kevin explains. While he initially focused on traditional seed funding, Contraline later secured some modest grant funding from organizations like the Center for Innovative Technology, now Virginia Venture Partners, and the Male Contraceptive Initiative. However, unlike SBIRs, these grants came with much less bureaucracy, shorter waiting times, as well as minimal interference with Contraline’s direction as a company. 

Another risk of relying heavily on large grants early on is that your company might miss out on developing the necessary skills for business operations. “It can be a little distracting, creating a company culture that's based on grants,” Kevin explains, “and then you're in the grant loop rather than the investor loop.”

In that vein, Kevin emphasizes that an idea often has the potential to serve a greater market than its initial niche. That’s why he engaged with different types of investors, from those focusing on women’s health to tech-oriented firms like Google Ventures, and secured funding from a variety of sources. 

In a nutshell, spending your time talking to investors early on instead of grant writing can be incredibly valuable – even if all you get are no’s. You might gain unique insights, get introduced to other potential partners, or learn something about the overall market. As Kevin says, “There is something about getting early traction from investors. If you pitch 200 investors and get 200 no’s in the early days, you really have to think about whether it’s worth your time.” But remember, fundraising is a numbers game that comes with endless rejection. What eventually leads to success is persistence coupled with a strong, passionate story backed with data. 

The Benefits of Directly Engaging with Your Target Audience

Setting up clinical trials that serve a specific purpose – such as regulatory, validation, or product development – is paramount. To position your startup for success, you’ll need to find consultants for your clinical trials who are experts in your specific area, which is a mission on its own. 

For example, Contraline had a very specific sterilization question which no one on the team had the answer for. Kevin says, “My job is honestly asking around and finding that one person, the needle in the haystack, who is an expert at that.”

Kevin also revealed a clever way to find willing subjects for clinical trials while simultaneously conducting market analysis: he created a simple landing page where interested individuals could sign up to participate. This direct engagement with potential customers has resulted in Contraline amassing an impressive database of roughly 7,500 people interested in participating in their studies. They also offered something similar for urologists who wanted to get on the waiting list for ADAM. 

All these steps were instrumental on several fronts: facilitating trial recruitment, gaining insights into the market, better understanding the target customer, and raising brand awareness, all the while educating the physicians and public about ADAM. 

To take a leaf from Kevin’s book, never operate in stealth mode. Think about the ways you can engage with your target audience whether they are patients or practitioners.