Steve Tokarz | CEO Owner

Steve Tokarz is active in early-stage company development for the past 30 years. In his last corporate role, Steve served as Sr VP of Product Development and Engineering working domestically and internationally for Masco Corporation a Fortune 200 company with revenues of $7+ billion. He transitioned to the start-up world, starting his own companies, investing & raising $20+ million for start-ups and early-stage SMEs, and establishing relationships with USA & China investors. He is founder of Cantilever Investors which blends the best of VC and PE to invest and support early-stage companies as both investors and, for the select few, operators in the company. Cantilever also has close relationships with the Tech Transfer offices of the Univ. of Michigan, Michigan State University (MSU), Western Michigan (WMU) & Michigan Tech (MTU) Universities, serving as Entrepreneurs-in-Residence. Cantilever successfully spun-out five university companies, raising over $5M in nondilutive capital.

Thru Cantilever, Steve is an investor, CEO and board member in several of Cantilever portfolio medical/life science SMEs including a). Brio, a university spin-off of endotracheal tube placement products. Brio’s products help to enable clinicians and first responders to secure airways as part of the life-saving procedure, intubation. $5M in angel funds + $1.5M SBIR I & II raised to advance Brio to market; b). StabiLux Biosciences a spin-out from Michigan Technological Univ. Its platform enables faster development of medical treatments by precisely controlling and increasing the brightness of dyes used in bio-medical imaging. c) Peptinovo Biopharma a patented drug delivery platform, Peptide-Amphiphile Lipid Micelle (PALM), that selectively targets higher doses of proven chemotherapies into tumors, keeping the chemo away from healthy tissues. PALM prevents serious side effects like peripheral neuropathy from occurring, improving patient outcomes by eliminating dose-limiting side effects while improving safety––something no other chemotherapeutic has been able to accomplish.