Dr. Pearl Chin was Managing Director of the US offices and co-Managing Director of the London offices of Cientifica, a global nanotechnology consultancy providing business information, marketing analyses and business strategy consulting to Fortune 500 companies and investment firms. She is also CEO of Red Seraphim Consulting where she advises investment firms and startup firms on the business strategy of nanotechnology investments.

MBA, Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY PhD, Materials Science and Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE B.E., Chemical Engineering, The Cooper Union, New York, NY

Dr. Pearl Chin has an MBA (Commencement Marshall) from Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management (JGSM), a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from University of Delaware's Army and industry funded Center for Composite Materials and B.E. in Chemical Engineering from The Cooper Union (www.cooper.edu) in New York City with a full 4 year tuition scholarship.

Dr. Pearl Chin has an MBA (Commencement Marshall) from Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management (JGSM), a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from University of Delaware's Army and industry funded Center for Composite Materials and B.E. in Chemical Engineering from The Cooper Union (www.cooper.edu) in New York City with a full 4 year tuition scholarship.

She was Managing Director of the US offices and co-Managing Director of the London offices of Cientifica, a global nanotechnology consultancy providing business information, marketing analyses and business strategy consulting to Fortune 500 companies and investment firms. She is also CEO of Red Seraphim Consulting where she advises investment firms and startup firms on the business strategy of nanotechnology investments.

Prior to that, she was a Management Consultant with Pittiglio Rabin Todd & McGrath (PRTM)'s Chemicals, Engineered Materials and Packaged Goods group optimizing (Business Process Re-engineering) Supply Chain Management operations for technical companies.

Before that, she was an Applications Consultant under Sales and Marketing and headed domestic Customer Support for TA Instruments, Inc., a subsidiary of Waters Corporation, when TAI was number one in Customer Support in their industry; TAI sells thermal analysis and rheology instrumentation to a wide variety of industries.

She has also worked with Lederle Laboratories formerly of American Cyanamid Company (now known as Wyeth) and also with the Colgate Palmolive Company.

Dr. Chin will be advising the Cornell University JGSM's student run VC fund, Big Red Venture Fund (BRVF), on investing in nanotechnology. Cornell has 4 nanotech research centers.

She consults for and writes a regular column on investing, business, management and social issues in nanotechnology for the U.S. based "Nanotechnology Now" (www.nanotech-now.com) nanotech e-newsletter. She also features articles on the Netherlands base "Nano-Tsunami" (www.nano-tsunami.com) nanotech e-newsletter.

She is a Senior Associate of The Foresight Institute in the US and was formerly US Representative of the Institute of Nanotechnology in the UK.

She was an alternate finalist for a Congressional Fellowship with the Materials Research Society.

Dr. Chin was also Managing Director of Glocap Search LLC's Small Tech Practice. She also collaborates with AXA Advisors to meet business planning needs. Dr. Chin has a Series 7 license.

She was a Guest Scientist collaborating with the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) Polymer Division's Electronic Materials Group under the US Department of Commerce. She received a NIST Fellowship for graduate study and a Henry Enders Graduate Study Scholarship from The Cooper Union.

Her PhD research focused on characterizing nanoscale polymer films for electronics packaging applications using neutron and x-ray reflectivity and characterizing fundamental adhesion phenomena. She also studied nanoscale interfacial phenomena and effects on mechanical properties for graphite fiber-epoxy systems for military, automotive, sporting goods and other high performance applications.

Dr. Chin specializes in advising on nanotechnology investment opportunities.

To understand the advantage of our VC business model, one must understand the importance of good management towards the success of a company and hence its investors. Each management team member will become an integral part of the executive management teams they will be overseeing...not just a Board member. Note our team is international to address the global nature of technology and nanotechnology markets. We are still bringing people on board as needed. Our team’s wide range of industry expertise makes us able to take advantage of cross-market opportunities.

There are many good ideas and technology but the ones that really succeed are the ones that have a good management team with good business strategy skills. Most good VC firms know that the key to a successful business is the startup company’s management team though the VC firm itself may not have the most optimal management structure in place to implement such a strategy.

For that same reason, most angel investors prefer to actively participate in the operations and management of a company they invest in to ensure their success since it is their own personal monies. Thus the Seraphima Ventures approach to investing.

Management of nanotech entrepreneurs and startups requires a different approach that only our management oversight team can offer. With our increased management and operations oversight approach, we can increase the probability of success of a company by at least 50%. No other VC firm claiming to have hands-on management can claim to be able to do or want to do that.

The critical success factor for this business model is the choice of the right people who must encompass proven and appropriate business and technical skill sets with leadership qualities, strategy consulting experience, independent out-of the box thinking, high energy and commitment levels and of course, people skills. Nanotechnology requires a certain and diverse combination of technical skill sets and experiences which is not typical. Unfortunately for any other VC firm that wishes to design a similar business model, these people are not that easy to find as their critical strengths cannot be put on a paper resume nor discovered in an hour long behavioral interview. Building good management teams are so important that two members of our management team have extensive experience with reputable management search firms.

With the skills and expertise of our diverse management team, we can be directly involved in the details yet have the advantage of the ability to step back to view the big picture and adapt as necessary as the world and market changes. Note that the government is a major customer and funder of nanotechnology and some of us on the Team also have experience working in or with the government sector. In addition to more direct management contribution to the companies, with the business strategy consulting and operations experience of this Management Team, we can also take a business plan that is relatively sub par for funding that no other VC firms will invest in but where technology has great potential, and then re-engineer the business plan for a successful business strategy for funding. Are there any VC firms out there that can or even want to do this? Similarly, we can also take a new and emerging disruptive technology, create a company and its business strategy to commercialize it and then fund it. This approach ensures deal flow. With extra effort we can find diamonds in the rough and polish them up for funding and success. Basically, we can create our own deal flow.

Such a new business model also requires a different incentive structure so as to ensure that the success of the business is a priority. Interestingly enough the incentive structure will not require higher management fees. As we are cognizant of the recent discussion and concerns between LP’s and GP’s over management fees, we are asking for much lower management fees. If those management fees exceed operational expenses, those fees will be carried over towards the following year. We will be operating as leanly as the companies we fund. This is a performance based incentive structure.

Our expertise in the technologies themselves and their markets makes it possible for our team to be publishing information on nanotechnology and nanotechnology companies targeted towards the investment community. Note the vast experience among the Team with regards to providing business information in nanotechnology. We are contemplating producing research analyst reports as well as offering a newsletter on emerging nanotechnologies to the general public. However, we do not plan on reporting on performance of nanotech stocks. We are in the business of developing successful companies with profitable exit strategies for superior ROI. We do not want to be stock pickers. We can project markets and roles of emerging technologies. We can provide expert information with which to invest and manage companies doing nanotechnology.