Innovator’s Pitch Challenge | Next Phase Newsletter

Archive | Innovator’s Pitch Challenge RSS feed for this section

Pitch to Investors at Digital RESI June

By Claire Jeong, Chief Conference Officer, Vice President of Investor Research, Asia BD, LSN

Last week, we announced Digital RESI March’s Innovator’s Pitch Challenge (IPC) finalists who will be virtually exhibiting their innovative technologies through a dedicated landing page that includes their key marketing collateral and a recorded pitch video. These companies are also assigned to a live Q&A session featuring active investors and industry experts. The investors will ask high-level questions to the participating companies and provide helpful feedback. Not only does this help prepare companies for future investor meetings, but it has also even led to productive follow-up discussions between participating investors and finalists.

We are excited to continue the IPC for our next conference, Digital RESI, June 7-9. We are now taking applications – apply now to take advantage of this unique opportunity to showcase your innovative technology! Accepted finalists can also take advantage of super early bird registration rates and save $300 by April 15!

Digital RESI March will feature this excellent line-up of investor judges:

Richard Anders Managing Director Mass Medical Angels	Yael Benvenisti CEO Mediterranean Tower Ventures	Chris Church Manager, Search & Evaluation, CVRM AstraZeneca
Adrien Clavairoly Senior Associate AdBio Partners	David Crean President & CEO Coast BioVentures	Adam Dakin Managing Director DreamIt Health
Abhinav Dey Manager, Business Development GreenFire Bio, LLC	Jacques Farges Investor Keiretsu Forum	Sarah Farr Associate Genesys Capital
David Fogel Angel Investor TiE Angels	Gary Gershony Partner BayMed Venture Partners	Tom Gibbs Director Debiopharm Innovation Fund
David Gordon Head of Investments Longliv Ventures	Jacob Grainger Ventures Associate & Program Manager Plug and Play Ventures	Brian Hakim Director of International Business Development MedtecX
Lu Han Partner Lumira Ventures	Amrita Jain Investment Professional LongeVC	Ray Jang Associate Primetime Partners
Quentin Langlois Vice President H.I.G. BioHealth Partners	Seo Lee Principal SV Investment	Matt Martin Venture Partner Pathway Bioventures
Petra Meyer Managing Director – HealthCare Sector Group Lead Golden Seeds	Jeffrey Moore President MP Healthcare Venture Management (MPH)	Liliana Nordbakk Chair Band of Angels
Nishta Rao Managing Director – Life Science First Republic Bank	Diana Saraceni Founder, Managing Director Panakes Partners	Bryan Shao K4 Deal Screening Committee Keiretsu Forum
Paras Sharma Associate Genesys Capital	Bill Trainor Co-Founder and Managing Director Mutual Capital Partners	Bill Tsai Investment Analyst, Bio Fund Taiwania Capital
Robert Tucci Member Director Texas Halo Fund	Sa’ar Yaniv Director of Business Development Fortress Biotech	Anthony Zlaket Venture Associate UnityPoint Health Ventures

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories Innovator's Pitch Challenge, Redefining Every Stage Investments (RESI)

Who’s Pitching at Digital RESI March?

10 Mar

By Claire Jeong, Chief Conference Officer, Vice President of Investor Research, Asia BD, LSN

The Innovator’s Pitch Challenge (IPC) returns in two weeks as part of Digital RESI, March 22-24. The IPC is a highly anticipated and popular feature of the virtual Digital RESI format. Representing therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics, and digital health, finalists use the opportunity to showcase their technology to registered RESI attendees, which include over 300 active early-stage life science investors. Each company will have a dedicated landing page that includes their pitch video, slide deck, executive summary, and other marketing collateral. These companies will also be engaging in a live Q&A session with investors who have relevant expertise, which will help them prepare for future investor meetings. These sessions often lead to engaging follow-on discussions and valuable, long-term connections.

Check out each finalist below and learn more about the Digital RESI JPM winners!

First Place: Amplified Sciences – Making a Difference One Impression at a Time
Second Place: OncoXome – Family Matters in Fundraising
Third Place: Prolifagen – Ascending the Steep Slope of Preclinical Fundraising

Digital RESI March 2022 IPC Finalists

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories Innovator's Pitch Challenge, Redefining Every Stage Investments (RESI)

Last Chance to Pitch!

24 Feb

By Claire Jeong, Chief Conference Officer, Vice President of Investor Research, Asia BD, LSN

The deadline for the Innovator’s Pitch Challenge (IPC) at the next Digital RESI, March 22-24 is tomorrow, Friday, February 25. Fundraising life science and healthcare startups boost their exposure to hundreds of RESI attendees and showcase their technology in a format designed to connect them with investors who are a fit for their product and stage of development. Selected companies will have their own dedicated landing page which includes a pitch video and key marketing collateral, such as their slide deck and executive summary. During the conference, they are each assigned to a live Q&A session with investor judges based on relevant sector or technology.

Yesterday’s “Preparing to Pitch at RESI” fundraising bootcamp attracted 50+ startup CEOs and executives learning about the IPC overview, benefits, tips to improve messaging and pitch strategy, and even topics and questions most likely to be asked during the live investor Q&A. This is a part of Life Science Nation’s free fundraising bootcamp series designed to help startup founders be successful at RESI and in their general partnering.

Did you miss yesterday’s session? Contact us to learn more about the IPC and how to optimize your experience. Also, you can sign up for the next free fundraising bootcamp: Strategies for Successful Partnering on Tuesday, March 8 at 12 PM EST.

Don’t miss out on the unique opportunities to gain additional exposure at RESI! Listen to recent IPC winners, Auriane Gamelin and Diana Caldwell, as they share their experience and how the IPC can play a part in your fundraising success story!

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories Innovator's Pitch Challenge, Redefining Every Stage Investments (RESI)

Ascending the Steep Slope of Preclinical Fundraising with Prolifagen

24 Feb

By Rory McCann, Marketing Manager & Conference Producer, LSN

The Innovator’s Pitch Challenge provides early-stage founders with a stage to pitch to a panel of investors who are a fit for their product and stage of development. Votes had been collected throughout the week of Digital RESI JPM for best pitch and marketing collateral. Coming in a close third place, Prolifagen stood out among pitching startups. In the following interview, Co-Founder and CEO, Dr. Claudine Bruck introduces Prolifagen, its early days and lessons learned throughout their early-stage fundraising – some of which should ring true for many preclinical therapeutic startups.

Rory McCann (RM): Tell us a little about yourself and how you started your company.

Dr. Claudine Bruck (CB): A native of France, I grew up in Luxembourg and obtained my PhD in Biochemistry at University of Brussels in Belgium. After a postdoc in Immunology at Harvard Medical School and Tufts University in Boston, I joined the vaccine group of GlaxoSmithKline located in Belgium, where I was involved in HIV, Human Papillomavirus, and therapeutic cancer vaccine research. I then moved to join the therapeutics part of GSK in the Philadelphia area where I held various roles across therapeutic areas. For the last five years at GSK, I built and led a department developing medicines for ophthalmic diseases.

When I left GSK in 2015, I was determined to use my expertise in drug development to build a company developing an important medicine. I scoured the technology offices of East Coast academic centers for opportunities that were fitting my selection criteria:

Medicine should address an important public health problem.
Medicine should be based on a novel technology.
Candidate medicine should be supported by very solid scientific evidence.
Development path should allow early risk discharge points.

This led to the creation of Prolifagen in 2016, based on the collaboration of Professors Ed Morrisey and Jason Burdick at the University of Pennsylvania. The great collaborative spirit of those two researchers and their passion for their project were further determining (and energizing) factors.

RM: What have the early years been like? How did you approach early-stage fundraising and growth?

CB: My initial thoughts were that fundraising should be easy for a company developing such an innovative and important medicine. I used my network to contact prominent VC investors and did many pitches. I learned that in 2016-2017, VC investors were still wary of RNA-based technologies (until recent successes by Alnylam, the Medicines Company, and of course COVID RNA vaccines), of regenerative medicine (many stem cell-based approaches had failed, due to poor implantation of exogenous cells) and of cardiology (investment in cardiology companies was minimal over many years, leading to the current scarcity of companies in this area). The sweet spot for VC investment is also mostly after preclinical data are complete, and we needed to generate data in a costly pig model before a decision to move towards clinical trials. We were unable to convince VC investors to invest. Overall, it has been a steep learning curve.

RM: What were some tools and strategies that have helped you? What are some that you’ve learned from?

CB: We found that our best option was to obtain an SBIR grant from NHLBI, which we did, and which allowed us to reach a first milestone of showing cardiomyocyte proliferation in pigs. We learned what investors are interested in – this can evolve over time – and are in a much better position now. I have also benefited from my interaction with Springboard Enterprises, a group that helps women entrepreneurs by funneling them through a bootcamp where they have access to extremely knowledgeable advisors. My recommendation after this learning experience is that it is extremely important for CEOs to build and maintain a network of people who are willing to provide advice and information.

RM: Where is the company now and what is some advice you’d give to another founder who’s looking to get to where you are?

CB: We are currently raising funds for a costly pig cardiac infarct model functional study. My advice to other founders is to actively surround themselves with a network of people who are willing to provide advice in the areas where the CEO is not so knowledgeable. If the founder has a drug development expertise, they will need advice on the business side. If the CEO is from the business world, a lot of input on the technical side will be required.

RM: What’s on the horizon? What are you working on and where is the company headed?

CB: We are now actively engaged in fundraising. The timing is right for this for several reasons:

There is renewed investor interest in RNA technologies and regenerative approaches, as well as in CV projects.
We recently reached a major milestone confirming that the cardiomyocyte proliferation at the basis of cardiac regeneration in mice also translates into pigs.

This will allow us to now embark on functional studies in pigs which we expect to support a clinical development decision. Beyond establishing efficacy in pigs, the extent of benefit observed will greatly inform our clinical trial plan. The minimum seed funding for that step will be $1.8M. A total of $5M will required to bring us to IND.

Are you looking to get your startup and technology in front of investors who are a fit for your product and stage of development? Start these important conversations at Digital RESI March’s Innovator’s Pitch Challenge. The application deadline is tomorrow, Friday, February 25. Get yours in today!

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories Innovator's Pitch Challenge, Interviews, Redefining Every Stage Investments (RESI)

Pre-RESI Bootcamps – Preparing for the Innovator’s Pitch Challenge

27 Jan

By Candice He, Vice President of Business Development, Global Investment Strategist, LSN

At our recent RESI JPM conference, 55 selected life science startups pitched in 11 live Q&A sessions to relevant investor judges, in the Innovator’s Pitch Challenge. The IPC continues to be the most popular feature of the RESI conferences. Presenters benefited from showcasing their technology to both the investors on the judging panel and the audience. Additionally, many investor attendees said the unique format of IPC is an efficient way to learn about a company.

As the IPC is getting more traction, the Life Science Nation team will be hosting two FREE Pre-RESI Bootcamps on Preparing for the Innovator’s Pitch Challenge. The bootcamp will explain the timeline, format, and frequently asked questions from the investor panel, to help the interested companies to get a better understanding of what to expect and how to prepare to pitch at RESI.

Pre-RESI Bootcamps: Preparing for the Innovator’s Pitch Challenge
1	Wednesday, February 2^nd at 12PM EST	Register Here
2	Wednesday, February 23^rd at 2PM EST	Register Here

The pitch slots are limited, and we accept applications on a first-come, first-served basis, so we encourage you to fill out the free 5-min application at your earliest convenience.

*A one-day or three-day registration + $800 pitch fee are required to participate.

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories Innovator's Pitch Challenge, Redefining Every Stage Investments (RESI)

Digital RESI JPM Winners

20 Jan

By Megan Rychwa, Investor Research Analyst, LSN

Last week, Life Science Nation wrapped up its second Digital RESI JPM and the first Innovators Pitch Challenge (IPC) of the year. As we prepare for Digital RESI March, we wanted to take this opportunity to announce and celebrate the winners of Digital RESI JPM IPC!

Learn more about the winners below and how their technology is making a difference in the early-stage life science ecosystem. The winners are picked by the votes cast from RESI attendees with exclusive access to the live IPC session and dedicated company landing pages and pitch materials.

The IPC returns March 22-24. Eligible startups can apply until Friday, February 25. All qualifying finalists must purchase a Digital RESI March registration and pay a $800 pitch fee. We accept applications on a rolling basis, so get yours in today!

First Place – Amplified Sciences
Amplified Sciences is a startup life science diagnostics company focused on accurately detecting and pre-empting the risks of debilitating diseases, including lethal cancers and organ loss with R&D operations in Purdue Research Park and research alliances in San Francisco and Boston. The company is developing a portfolio of diagnostic assays for early detection of disease. An ultra-sensitive molecular sensing technology licensed from Purdue operates with novel test-strips that combine with portable instrumentation to form a highly versatile clinical assay platform that can scale to point of care. The lead assay in development is at clinical testing stage and targets early detection of undiagnosed pancreatic cancers. The company closed a Seed round in 2020 which will enable technical and clinical validation of the PanCystPro product and position the company for entry into a commercializable lab-developed test in 2023.

Second Place – OncoXome
OncoXome is an oncology startup whose objective is to bring to patients with advanced cancer an innovative multitarget therapeutic approach hacking cell communication and using gene editing to overcome cancer resistance. They have two platforms: proprietary exosome scalable production and gene editing therapy. Combined, these platforms lead to targeted therapeutic delivery. They first target patients with advanced KRAS mutated lung, colorectal and pancreatic cancers.

Third Place – Prolifagen
Prolifagen is a Start Up company located in Philadelphia and working on a local injectable medicine based on microRNA to regenerate heart muscle damaged by MI and prevent heart failure. [Approximately 400,000 people develop HF following massive MI yearly in US/EU combined, at a huge cost to society.] They have shown regeneration of cardiac muscle in mice and have early data of regeneration in pigs. The next milestone will be to define the extent of clinical benefit in a pig model of myocardial infarct, as a steppingstone to clinical trials. They have issued patents in US/EU. So far, their funding has been based on non-dilutive funding from founders and on a phase 1 SBIR grant. They are looking for strategic investment and/or collaboration/licensing.

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories Innovator's Pitch Challenge, Redefining Every Stage Investments (RESI)

Digital RESI March Innovator’s Pitch Challenge

13 Jan

By Claire Jeong, Chief Conference Officer, Vice President of Investor Research, Asia BD, LSN

As Digital RESI JPM comes to a close, we are now accepting applications for the Innovator’s Pitch Challenge (IPC) at our next conference, Digital RESI, March 22-24. In 2021, hundreds of companies participated in the IPC to boost their exposure to the RESI community and engage meaningfully with investors and strategic partners with aligned interests. 2022 is already off to a good start and we look forward to continue showcasing incredible technologies across therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics, digital health, life science tools, and more.

We are accepting applications until Friday, February 25. Please apply by clicking the button below:

2021 IPC Winners

Comments Leave a Comment
Categories Innovator's Pitch Challenge, Redefining Every Stage Investments (RESI)

← Older Entries

Newer Entries →

Hot Mandates

Hot Investor Mandate 1: Korean VC Firm with Pharma Affiliation Seeks to Invest in Early Stage Therapeutics Assets, Most Interested in Oncology and Autoimmune Disease

The firm is focused on therapeutics companies and does not invest in medical devices, diagnostics, or digital health. The firm is open to considering assets of very early stages, even those as early as lead optimization phase. The firm considers various modalities, including antibodies, small molecules, and cell therapy. Currently, the firm is not interested in gene therapy. Indication-wise, the firm is most interested in oncology and autoimmune diseases but has recently looked at fibrotic diseases and certain rare diseases as well.
Hot Investor Mandate 2: Hong Kong Boutique VC Firm Invests in All Kinds of Healthcare Technologies and Most Interested in Large Disease Markets of Unmet Medical Need

The firm is opportunistic across all subsectors of healthcare. Within MedTech, the firm is most interested in medical devices, artificial intelligence, robotics, and mobile health. The firm is seeking post-prototype innovations that are FDA cleared or are close to receiving clearance. Within therapeutics, the firm is interested in therapeutics for large disease markets such as oncology, neurology, and metabolic diseases. The firm is open to all modalities with a special interest in immunotherapy and cell therapy.
Hot Investor Mandate 3: Strategic Investment Firm of Large Pharma Invests in Early and Late Stage Therapeutics & Drug-Device Combinations, Especially Interested in Orphan and Rare Diseases

A strategic investment firm of a large global pharmaceutical makes investments ranging from $5 million to $30 million, acting either as a sole investor or within a syndicate. The firm is open to considering therapeutic opportunities globally, but only if the company is pursuing a market opportunity in the USA and is in dialogue with the US FDA.
Hot Investor Mandate 4: USA-Based Investment Firm Can Invest Over $10M in Innovative Medtech and Digital Health Companies Based in Texas or Southwestern USA

The firm is currently looking for new investment opportunities in enterprise software, medical devices, and the healthcare IT space. The firm will invest in 510k devices and healthcare IT companies, and it is very opportunistic in terms of indications. In the past, the firm was active in medical device companies developing dental devices, endovascular innovation devices, and women’s health devices.
Hot Investor Mandate 1: Global VC Firm Headquartered in Asia Invests in All Parts of Therapeutics, Medical Devices, Diagnostics, and Digital Health

A venture capital firm founded in 2005 has multiple offices throughout Asia, New York, and San Diego. The firm has closed its fifth fund in 2017 and is currently raising a sixth fund, which the firm is targeting to be the largest fund to date. The firm continues to actively seek investment opportunities across a […]

Search

Next Phase Newsletter

Pitch to Investors at Digital RESI June