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Ted Driscoll, Co-founder & Partner Emeritus, obtained his Masters at Harvard and started the PhD. program but was quickly recruited by a Silicon Valley startup in Medical Image Processing after presenting a paper at a conference on International Imaging Systems (I2S). Ted was responsible for designing software for specialized image processing hardware, to rapidly process medical and satellite images. This equipment was at the heart of Diasonics’ pioneering Digital Subtractive Angiography and Ultrasound systems. They also sold multiple satellite imaging systems to China, South Africa, Iraq, France and the USA.
Ultimately I2S was sold to Analog Devices in 1983. I2S paid for his tuition to finish his PhD. at Stanford, after which he joined a fingerprint imaging startup named Identix, as VP of Engineering/R&D in the fields of Electronic Fingerprint Capture and Biometric Identity Verification. Apple has licensed these patents for the iPhone. The company went public in late 1985. During Ted’s tenure at Identix, he was also named Chairman of U.S. ANSI Standards Committee on Biometrics for two years. He was then recruited as Senior Vice President of Engineering/R&D to run the technical team at Diasonics MRI. They developed and introduced the first commercial MRI scanners. Ted ran a small team that grew from 6 to 250 with sales growth from 0 to $200M+ in just a few years. Diasonics then sold their MRI business in 1990 to Toshiba for ~$275M. After six months, he was quickly recruited back to Diasonics, now as SVP/CTO of the parent company, responsible for all divisions including ultrasound, cardiac ultrasound, digital X-ray, digital subtractive angiography, lithotripsy, and High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU). In 1991, Diasonics named him Division President of the Therapeutic Products Division (TPD), and a year later that division was named Focus Surgery and spun off in an IPO. Ted and his team pioneered non-invasive surgery using HIFU. Because of FDA delays around lithotripsy, two years later in 1994 the company was sold to THS/Japan. In 1996, he started Be Here Technologies in his garage, an early pioneer in 360 degree imaging. They raised $28M+ and received investments from numerous VCs as well as the investment arms of Kodak, Phillips and Intel. They were working with Morgan Stanley to go public when the Internet bubble burst in 2000. In 2002, Google bought the company and folded it into their StreetView product. During all of these startups, he was the principal inventor on roughly 50 patents.
Subsequently, he joined with two Angel Groups: Sand Hill Angels and Health Tech Capital, and was an early member at Life Science Angels. In 2006 he joined CCV as a Venture Partner and was promoted to a full partner in 2010, in charge of Healthcare investing. Ted founded DigitalDx in 2018, focused on the application of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data to diagnostics and digital therapeutics.
Ultimately I2S was sold to Analog Devices in 1983. I2S paid for his tuition to finish his PhD. at Stanford, after which he joined a fingerprint imaging startup named Identix, as VP of Engineering/R&D in the fields of Electronic Fingerprint Capture and Biometric Identity Verification. Apple has licensed these patents for the iPhone. The company went public in late 1985. During Ted’s tenure at Identix, he was also named Chairman of U.S. ANSI Standards Committee on Biometrics for two years. He was then recruited as Senior Vice President of Engineering/R&D to run the technical team at Diasonics MRI. They developed and introduced the first commercial MRI scanners. Ted ran a small team that grew from 6 to 250 with sales growth from 0 to $200M+ in just a few years. Diasonics then sold their MRI business in 1990 to Toshiba for ~$275M. After six months, he was quickly recruited back to Diasonics, now as SVP/CTO of the parent company, responsible for all divisions including ultrasound, cardiac ultrasound, digital X-ray, digital subtractive angiography, lithotripsy, and High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU). In 1991, Diasonics named him Division President of the Therapeutic Products Division (TPD), and a year later that division was named Focus Surgery and spun off in an IPO. Ted and his team pioneered non-invasive surgery using HIFU. Because of FDA delays around lithotripsy, two years later in 1994 the company was sold to THS/Japan. In 1996, he started Be Here Technologies in his garage, an early pioneer in 360 degree imaging. They raised $28M+ and received investments from numerous VCs as well as the investment arms of Kodak, Phillips and Intel. They were working with Morgan Stanley to go public when the Internet bubble burst in 2000. In 2002, Google bought the company and folded it into their StreetView product. During all of these startups, he was the principal inventor on roughly 50 patents.
Subsequently, he joined with two Angel Groups: Sand Hill Angels and Health Tech Capital, and was an early member at Life Science Angels. In 2006 he joined CCV as a Venture Partner and was promoted to a full partner in 2010, in charge of Healthcare investing. Ted founded DigitalDx in 2018, focused on the application of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data to diagnostics and digital therapeutics.