Lisa Suennen: Superfish and Other Silly Startup Ideas

As a health care venture capitalist I see myself as being in the ideas business. Business Insider recently published its list of The 10 Craziest Start-up Ideas of All Time and it was quite entertaining. The best example was Game Crush, which lets you pay to play Xbox Live games with hot women. Sounds like nerd paradise and gives a whole new meaning to “pay to play.” The VC world has a pretty high nerd-to-normal person ratio, so the fact that Game Crush found funding shouldn’t surprise me.

On the Crazy Ideas list was only one health care company. Health care makes up almost 20% of the GDP, so I’d expect better representation and, frankly, BI’s health care pick is really not so crazy. It’s Withings, a WiFi-enabled scale that can communicate your weight to nearby devices. Withings lets you track your progress getting in shape, or even tweet out periodic weight-loss updates (um, no thanks).

You want crazy health care ideas? I’ve seen a million of ‘em. Here are a few that have drifted through our offices:

Not Exactly Brain Surgery

One of the problems in treating certain diseases is the impermeability of the blood-brain barrier. There are physiological structures that limit the permeability of capillaries in the brain to keep bacteria out, among other things; this also makes it difficult for therapeutic substances to get into the brain. Well, one enterprising entrepreneur came up with an intriguing way to solve this: a special drill to open the scalp so you can just drop drugs into the brain. The device looked like a wine corkscrew for ease of use. And convenient, too, as you can open a wine bottle and your head with the same device — an efficient cost-saving measure. Also offers a handy method of anchoring your hat in windy weather.

Is it a Bird, a Plane? No, It’s Superfish!

Type I diabetes is a truly awful disease. Some people out there believe that Omega 3 fish oil is a natural cure for diabetes, although the science is far from conclusive. Taking it to the next level was a company looking to raise a new race of “superfish” that could produce human insulin and — after a Frankenstein-like like transfer of cells from fish to human — cure Type 1 diabetes. Use of funds: Old MacDonald’s fish farm. There are not a lot of livestock deals in our sector, so it made us feel guilty about serving sushi at partners’ meetings. The good news: If the clinical trial doesn’t pan out you can sell the assets to Mrs. Paul’s.

Poison Anyone?

Continuing with the livestock theme, you gotta love a company founded to export poisonous South American snake venom to facilitate research on “incurable diseases, anti-venom serum, new generation drugs and cosmetics.” The CEO pointed out that the company had a near monopoly on the continent, making it an especially good investment. Given the recent venture capital fund-raising environment, some of my colleagues might welcome a dose of snake poison right about now. Maybe it’s not such a crazy idea.

Of course, just because a business idea sounds crazy, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad. Sometimes they are just ahead of their time or so visionary that I am too dim to see it. On the other hand, some of them are, well, just plain goofy. Either way, you have to love the entrepreneurial spirit of those who bring them forward and root for the guys who aren’t afraid to think way outside the box.

That’s the best part of my job; you see something new every day, and it covers the gamut from the sublime to the ridiculous. Sometimes you find out that what you thought was sublime is actually ridiculous and sometimes you find out that what seemed ridiculous was actually on its way to being sublime. It keeps you on your toes, makes you laugh at yourself and the world, and reminds you that humility is a virtue. Well, gotta go. I’m off to vanquish evildoers with Superfish!

Lisa Suennen is a managing member of the Psilos Group, a venture firm focused on health care investments. She writes a blog called Venture Valkyrie and she tweets as @VentureValkyrie on Twitter.