Randy Spaulding, Spaulding Clinical Research

Randy Spaulding, CEO

After a year of fund-raising, Spaulding Clinical kicked into gear this summer. Spaulding hired 15 employees, and the first dry run is being conducted at the testing facilities in the old St. Joseph’s Hospital in West Bend. Once the dry run is validated, Spaulding and his staff will be seeking their first real test from a pharmaceutical company. What gives Spaulding Clinical a unique value proposition is its combination of cardiology and pharmacology.

The drugs that have been going into the marketplace, such as Vioxx, are largely failing because of heart complications. That created a perfect opening for Spaulding and his cardiology expertise.

He was a division manager at Mortara Instruments before jumping into his own venture. Mortara is putting one of its cutting-edge EKG machines into the laboratory as a beta site. There will be a developmental interaction between Spaulding Clinical and Mortara going forward.

Spaulding approached Successful Entrepreneur Investors (SEI) in his fund-raising efforts shortly after deciding to launch his own company. He appeared before SEI’s angel investors on several occasions and convinced a good number of them to write checks. That initial infusion of cash was matched in the form of equity capital by bank financing and secured by the building and the EKG machine.

Spaulding said the fund-raising was challenging, but not impossible. “I couldn’t have done it, however, without the angel investors,” said Spaulding.

John Torinus, one of the founders of SEI, was the link between Spaulding and the potential investors and served as a coach on some of the aspects of the deal.

“This shows that the Milwaukee region can fund significant new ventures, just like what happens in Boston, Silicon Valley, or, of late, the Madison area,” said Torinus.

The number and size of the deals is steadily growing in the Milwaukee region.