For the exclusive use of R. van Munster, 2015.

9-808-064
REV: OCTOBER 21, 2010

PRICHARD G. HAMERMESH
LAUREN BARLEY

DeermaCa are: Zap pping Zits
Z Dirrectly
It was w a rainy Saturday
S
morrning in late November
N
20005, and Peteer Scocimara pulled p on hiss Croc shoes to take his rambunctiou us golden rettriever Jasperr for a walk. Walking thee dog would d give
Scocim
mara some much-needed m time to clearr his head an nd prepare fo or a Monday y-morning meeeting with the cofounders of his co ompany, DerrmaCare, Incc. Headquarteered in Liveermore, California,
Derm
maCare was a start-up ven nture that plaanned to marrket its Therm maClear acnee-treatment device d directtly to consum mers using direect response television t (DR
RTV). …show more content…

But Da Silva left the
LLNL in 2001. As he recalled, “Increasing security concerns at the lab arose, which made growth more difficult. Bureaucracy began to slow everything down until I was doing very little real science and very little real business.” Da Silva and two colleagues started a “technology incubator” in 2001 to form companies around ideas the three patented. Two of their companies, DermaHealth Systems (a plastic surgery device company) and ImagiNail Corporation (a consumer products company), were already operational and had received funding by 2002.

George Choi
Choi met Da Silva in late 2001. Choi had graduated from University of California, Berkeley, with a
BS in electrical engineering and computer science. After receiving a law degree from the University of
California, Los Angeles, Choi joined the law firm Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati in 1990 and worked primarily with VC-backed medical device start-up companies in the Bay Area. In 1995, Choi
“hopped the fence,” becoming a venture capitalist with MedVenture Associates, a firm founded in
1986 to fund seed and early-stage investments in medical technology. It was at MedVentures that
Choi met Da Silva, who pitched Choi several companies Da Silva was thinking of incubating and running. Choi described their first meeting: “Luiz came to me with some deals, which I turned down.
But I must have done it in a reasonable