U-M Innovation Partnerships Mentor-in-Residence Peter Falzon joins Ripple Science as CEO
8/14/2018
Peter Falzon, a Silicon Valley life sciences industry veteran, has been named as President and CEO by Ripple Science Corporation, a 2017 University of Michigan technology startup that creates transformational clinical trial participant recruitment and management software. Peter joins Ripple Science at a critical juncture into the company’s product market launch where the company has met key milestones and is raising new capital to fund its growth plan.
Founders Nestor Lopez-Duran PhD and Jacob Bonenberger will remain co-chairs of Ripple Science’s Board of Directors and continue to support the day-to-day operations of the business, especially with respect to technology and product development. “I am extremely proud of the work the Ripple Science team has done since our launch last year” commented co-founder Dr. Lopez-Duran, who came to know Falzon through the U-M Innovation Partnerships Mentor-in-Residence program, which makes executives with relevant startup experience available to emerging startup teams. “We grew faster than we imagined and we are now ready for Peter to lead the company into a new phase. His experience in life sciences and his skills growing small teams into mature companies will be a great asset to Ripple and our customers.”
“I am excited to join the team at Ripple Science at a time when the company has strong market validation with more than $100k in ARR from over 50 customers in North America and the EU, is generating new business driven by happy customer referrals, and has the potential to scale with the injection of capital and the right plan and team in place,” commented Peter Falzon. Co-founder Jacob Bonenberger stated, “Ripple Science is poised for tremendous growth thanks to the dedication of our small team, and I’m delighted to pass the CEO torch on to Peter, while I focus efforts on optimizing our SaaS product and expanding into related verticals.”
Falzon, a native of Michigan and an alumnus of the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, recently returned from Silicon Valley where he has lead life science companies and teams for 25 years. In 1992 Falzon founded Coherent Japan, Inc., establishing a direct presence in Japan for Palo Alto based Coherent Medical, and grew that medical laser business from $2 to $23 million with an 80-employee direct sales, service and marketing team in four years. Following the successful acquisition of Coherent Medical in 2001, Falzon joined the executive team at medical device startup Cutera, Inc., which went public via an IPO in 2004, before taking the helm as CEO of Ellex Medical, an Australian public company that expanded rapidly to become the ophthalmic laser market leader under his direction.
“We continue to be excited about the market opportunity for the Ripple team and product,” said Drew Bennett, U-M Innovation Partnerships associate director of software licensing. “They have a great solution for addressing the challenges of managing trial participant recruitment and management in a fully modern, scalable and professional manner. Bringing Peter on board will certainly help the team in accelerating their momentum and we look forward to seeing the company and product evolve.”
About Ripple Science
Launched in 2017, Ripple Science is a technology startup focused on transforming the research experience for clinical, translational, and usability testing researchers and participants. Our first product, Ripple SaaS, is a HIPAA-compliant web tool that facilitates the recruitment and management of research participants for translational and clinical studies. Ripple SaaS accelerates the entire research lifecycle by adopting marketing innovations (workflows, automation, analytics) that help teams increase the recruitment and retention of research participants, save time and resources, and reduce risks due to under-enrollment. Our software is currently being used by research investigators in some of the most prestigious universities in the USA, Canada, the UK, and the European Union.
About U-M Innovation Partnerships
The University of Michigan spends over $1.4 billion per year on its wide-ranging research initiatives, making it one of the largest, most successful academic research institutions in the world. U-M Innovation Partnerships works to transfer the resulting research discoveries to business and venture partners, resulting in the launch of 21 new companies and the signing of over 180 new licenses last year alone. These activities have led to the launch of over 100 new start-up companies since 2000, including May Mobility, Compendia Biosciences and Arbor Networks, and the adoption of several world-changing technologies, such as the FluMist® inhalable flu vaccine and the IntraLase® LASIK eye surgery system. More on U-M Innovation Partnerships, including a up-to-date list of technologies available for commercialization, can be found at the U-M Innovation Partnerships website.