By Danielle Silva, Director of Research, LSN
Time after time, I’ve noticed that many brilliant scientists continue to deliver the wrong kind of pitch to investors. The most common blunder that life science entrepreneurs make when raising capital is delivering an overly technical presentation to potential investors. Although this is usually the most frequent mistake that scientists make, another common issue some entrepreneurs run into is misunderstanding who their audience is and actually not digging deeper into the technology. So now you’re probably thinking the solution is to have your presentation lay somewhere in between. The answer, however is not as simple as one might think. If you are a life science entrepreneur who is raising funds, the key to pitching to an investor is understanding who the investor is.
Pitching to Venture Philanthropy Firms/Family Offices
The first fallacy I mentioned (getting too technical during a presentation) often occurs when firms pitch to family offices and venture philanthropy firms. These investors are often times indication oriented, meaning that their specific mandate focuses on the disease that the technology is targeting, and these investors are typically agnostic in terms of the mode of delivery. Therefore, when pitching to these investor groups, life science entrepreneurs should stress the indication their product is targeting as well as any subindications that may be applicable. Since both of these groups focus on philanthropy as a part of their mandate, the entrepreneur should focus on the social return on investment.
Pitching to PE, VC, and Hedge Funds
Firms will also often focus too much on their technology when they are presenting to private equity groups, venture capital firms, and hedge funds. In terms of how in-depth you cover the science behind your product, your pitch to these firms should lay somewhere in between your pitch to family offices/venture philanthropy firms and big pharma – a happy medium if you will (I discuss the pitch to big pharma/corporate VCs in the next section).
These investors are very hands-on, so stressing that you have a great management team is more important to them than the science that goes behind your technology. Side note: for more on this topic see my article from last week’s issue What Qualities Investors Look for in Founding CEOs. Where this does not apply is when you are speaking to a venture partner at a venture capital firm, or an entrepreneur-in-residence at a private equity or venture capital firm. Individuals in these roles are typically industry veterans who are ex-CEOs or current executives of biotech firms themselves who often times hold PhDs. Thus if you are presenting to these individuals, it is appropriate and necessary to take a deeper dive into the technology than you normally would with other individuals at a VC firm, PE group, or hedge fund.
Pitching to Big Pharma/Corporate Venture Capital Firms
Scientists for the most part get it right when they are pitching to big pharma and corporate venture capital firms. These groups of investors are looking for a highly technical overview of the product that you are developing. What they want to see is an in-depth overview of the mode of delivery, and generally the indication is important as well but it is the former that is most important to stress. What some scientists do forget though is that it is still important to stress the management team in presentations to big pharma and corporate VCs as well, as these types of investors often work very closely with the companies they invest in.
At the end of the day, what is most important is to do your due diligence on an investor before giving your presentation. Find out who specifically at the firm you will be presenting to – and what their background is – before you start putting together your pitch. There is no one-size-fits all presentation that your firm can create to tailor to every audience, each investor is unique, and consequently, you should never delivery the exact same presentation twice.
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