Next Phase Newsletter

Dennis Ford

By Rory McCann, Marketing Manager & Conference Producer, LSN

Rory McCann

Rory McCann (RM): This year, so many conferences have gone virtual or have been cancelled, but you’ve released a new conference: 4D Meets AI, and announced a new one: Longevity, Health & Innovation. Why are you expanding on your flagship conference, RESI?

Dennis Ford (DF): Basically, the market needed Life Science Nation (LSN) to expand so we can all get on with conducting the business of early-stage funding, partnerships and alliances. LSN sees its global investor network investing every week. LSN events have seen a 30% increase in attendees, and our digital events have turned into global digital events with meetings taking place 24-hours per day over 3 days straight. Our RESI September event had 1,500 virtual meetings in 3 days. Unfortunately, it looks like the planet has at least another year of this virtual reality to deal with and LSN is a vehicle for our clients to continue their invaluable work.

Regardless of the C-19 troubles, we are in the golden age of life science technology across the silos of drugs, devices, diagnostics, and digital health. There are literally tens of thousands of early-stage healthcare start-ups with a myriad of ground-breaking, game-changing, nascent technology surfacing all around the planet. To net it out, I am seeing compelling new products and services that are well-articulated with data and prototypes in-hand to show they can make a difference in the standard of care across the entire healthcare arena.

It used to be 10% of early-stage companies might have a chance to secure series A and make it to that 5-year milestone. At LSN RESI conferences, we see 3,000 early-stage companies each year going after seed, series A and B funding with an equal number of qualified investors looking to add to their portfolios. When we looked out on the horizon, AI and Longevity products and services seemed poised to make a huge impact. AI and Longevity will be the two beacons where this new technology is moving ahead at full speed. The early-stage technology is there, the investors are there, and LSN knows how to gather up the buyers and sellers with our unique partnering theme, so we said, “Let’s go for it!”

RM: What does Longevity, Health & Innovation have to add to the early stage partnering landscape? What will attendees get out of it that is unique compared to other partnering conferences, even RESI?

DF: There is a myriad of major diseases that affect the boomer generation, ranging from Alzheimer’s, Diabetes, and Cancer to Arthritis, Depression, and Diseases of the Eye and Heart. There are thousands of governmental and academic entities conducting research and helping translate the research into products and services that will have an impact on these debilitating illnesses. LSN sees all these companies at our RESI conferences and it became obvious to us that we needed to have a dedicated partnering and funding event that could cater to the Longevity and Health Innovation arena.

RM: You’ve partnered with Mary Furlong & Associates. What does that partnership offer to the success of the conference?

DF: Mary is the leader with her Longevity conference series that assembles all the major stakeholders together and creates a discussion and exchange of ideas regarding Longevity and Health. When LSN looked at the Longevity and Health landscape, it was evident that if we could bring Mary’s stakeholders and content, and LSN could bring our early-stage technology companies and global investors, we could broaden and enhance each other’s conferences. Mary produces high-quality content and LSN’s partnering system is exemplary; these two strengths make us very complementary. I believe that our quarterly, international, joint Longevity, Health & Innovation Conference will be the go-to Longevity global event.

Sign up for Longevity, Health & Innovation and save $150 on the super early bird rate until October 10!

By Karen Deyo, Senior Investor Research Analyst, LSN

Participating in pitching events is a mainstay for start-ups looking to hone their pitches and attract investor attention. These events are beneficial, not only to gain exposure, but also as an exercise to find what works and what doesn’t in your messaging. Do panelists consistently ask the same questions? Are some parts of your value proposition unclear? Nothing hones your message better than lots of practice and doing so may end up improving your percentage of investor follow-ups after the initial meeting.

The Innovator’s Pitch Challenge at Digital RESI is an opportunity for early-stage companies to pitch directly to a panel of relevant investors and participate in a live Q&A session. For a $500 fee, accepted companies receive a dedicated page on the Digital RESI Live Agenda, with their pitch video prominently displayed for maximum exposure. Additionally, the Q&A sessions are livestreamed during Digital RESI, with all 300+ RESI investor attendees invited to join the audience.

We recommend that you apply soon! Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, and spots fill up fast.

A venture capital firm was founded in 2005 with headquarters in Singapore and Shanghai, with additional offices in Hong Kong, New York, and San Diego. The firm closed fifth fund, Fund V, of over $220M and is actively seeking investment opportunities across a wide range of industries. 1/3 of the fund is dedicated to global/USA-based life sciences and healthcare investments, while the rest of the fund will focus on investing in China and Southeast Asia-based companies. On average, the initial size of investment is in the $2-5M range but the firm has the capacity to invest more in companies they identify as a strong fit. The firm can participate anywhere from Seed to Series B, but Series A is their sweet spot.

The firm is an opportunistic investor and will consider therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics, and healthcare IT companies. However, the firm will generally avoid single therapeutic assets and those that are pre-clinical or earlier. The firm is open to novel medical devices of all FDA regulatory pathways, including 510k and PMA. The firm is strongly interested in platform plays, or technologies that have implications in multiple disease areas or indications.

The firm considers the management team’s character and entrepreneurial spirit – more so than the team’s experience – as one of the most important factors in the investment screening process. Each partner of the firm will dedicate their time to become acquainted with the management team and determine their degree of fit. The targeted market and the company’s competitive edge are also important considerations. The firm prefers to act as the lead investor and will seek board representation, but is also open to co-investing.

If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com.

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

Life Science Nation (LSN) is pleased to announce its newest Digital RESI taking place November 17-19, 2020. Digital RESI is a powerful gathering focused on early-stage funding across all verticals of life science: drugs, devices, diagnostics, digital health. Attendees can meet with hundreds of investors and strategic partners from five continents over three days using RESI’s unique partnering platform, which identifies targets based on best fit for your technology and stage of development.

RESI is building on the success of Digital RESI September and keeping the conversations going beyond partnering with a new lineup of live panels. Check out the panels and descriptions and save $150 on registration with super early bird discount code: SUPEREBNOV.

By Gregory Mannix, Chief Conference Officer, Vice President International Business Development, LSN

Life Science Nation (LSN) was preparing for RESI Europe to take place on March 23, 2020 in Paris when the world turned upside-down. Like so many across the globe clamoring to pivot with the changing tides, LSN had to make an unprecedented decision to either cancel the conference or pivot to a digital format with only two weeks’ notice.

At the time, it remained unclear if the core value of the RESI conference series—making meaningful connections through partnering meetings and investor and workshop panels—would be feasible in a digitally delivered conference, but the benefits far outweighed the challenges. The result exceeded even the most optimistic projections as the team worked to transform a regional European event into a truly global event, with participants representing five continents, many of whom would not have traveled to Paris, regardless of the global pandemic. The transition to the digital format has broken down barriers and reduced travel costs in a meaningful way, making the Digital RESI events more accessible than ever. Since March, there have been five Digital RESI events yielding promising trends.

The transition to Digital RESI has enabled the enhancement of the partnering platform, creating many more meeting slots to facilitate meetings among participants from different countries and time zones, mirroring the cross-border industry trends this year. The chart below represents an increase in both the percentage of meetings accepted at the Digital RESI conferences as compared to the pre-pandemic on-site conferences, as well as in the average total number of meetings taking place at each conference.

This encouraging example of adaptation and resilience in the early-stage life science industry bodes well for the future of deal-making across drugs, devices, diagnostics, and digital health. LSN is proud to be a part of the process in a time where these deals have the potential to truly change the world.