By Karen Deyo, Investor Research Analyst, LSN

The number of consumer digital health apps has been growing at an enormous rate over the past few years. A study done in November of 2017 by IQVIA found over 300,000 apps available, with hundreds more added every day¹. These apps can be tied to wearable sensors, related to wellness areas such as mental health or weight loss or related to chronic disease management, to name a few possibilities. What with more people turning to their smartphones to complement their medical care, and the number of apps flooding the marketplace, how can a new consumer health app catch the attention of investors?

Gyan Kapur, Managing Director of Bayes Ventures and Digital Health CT, a new digital health focused incubator, stressed that to stand out, companies need to have a special premise and team, as well as the ability to demonstrate actual traction. While formal clinical data is not a necessity, if a company has no clinical data that makes it crucial to have other evidence of market traction, such as retention, a good viral coefficient etc. However, Gyan stressed that ‘while not all companies have this data, those that do are much more likely to get funded.’

Sarah Sossong, Principal at Flare Capital Partners, highlighted the importance for potential investors and customers to see early demonstration of market traction and preliminary evidence of your app’s impact on clinical outcomes and costs. For example, some apps have opted for a freemium model out of the gate to get broad consumer adoption. Significant engagement is a great proxy for value, impact, and need, and can be a great starting place for negotiating B2B contracts with payer, employers, or health systems. In today’s highly cost-constrained environment, these same payers, employers, and health systems will also be under pressure to show impact, or risk budget cuts, so it’s also essential for entrepreneurs to be thoughtful about quantifying impact and pick early partners equally dedicated and resourced to demonstrate the app’s efficacy on clinical outcomes and cost reduction. Together, market traction and demonstrable impact can provide evidence of a good underlying business model that will enable a larger path forward and long-term success.

However, entrepreneurs must have a good business plan in mind, and one that does not rely solely on a consumer app – to be successful in the long run, there needs to be a larger path forward, whether that involves partnerships with healthcare providers, a B2B aspect or a larger platform that will be in play. Dr. Sohaib Siddiqui, Managing Partner at Kettlebeck Ventures, agrees that an app is not sufficient for a complete business model, but should only be a first generation product. He highlighted, ‘there are so many consumer digital health apps in the app store, with many more added every day, that it’s easy to get lost.’ Sohaib said that for him to be interested in investing, the app should be a tool, but not the only product, for a company to be able to scale and remain relevant to the market. However, in addition to market traction, Sohaib stressed the importance of proving the benefit to the patient, and how the app can improve care, and to be able to prove value, not just claim it.

Finally, evidence of market traction, a good business model for future product development and proof of the efficacy of your app for the consumer are not all – it is also important to remember that, as potential investors, they all want to see what the return on investment will be. Finding investors for a consumer app can be an uphill battle, and the startups that succeed will be those that provide a needed service in a unique manner that cannot be easily duplicated.

1. https://www.iqvia.com/institute/reports/the-growing-value-of-digital-health

By Lucy Parkinson, VP of Investor Research, LSN

Corporate venture capital represents a significant source of early stage funding for life science companies, but many entrepreneurs have questions about how to engage with these investment arms of major companies and what happens after investment. When approaching a corporate venture fund, it is crucial to know their strategy – do their investments align solely with the strategy of the parent company, or are they a vehicle to invest in other areas of interest? Does partnering with a corporate venture fund lead to a future partnership with the parent company? At RESI, our Corporate Venture Capital panel will give the audience an overview of how corporate venture funds invest, and what a startup might get out of a relationship with a corporate VC, in addition to potential capital.

While a lot of attention is given to the corporate venture investing of major pharma firms in early-stage companies, this panel features corporate VCs from multiple sectors of healthcare technology. These investors are looking at early-stage opportunities across the life science technology sectors of drugs, devices, diagnostics and digital health, and will explain to RESI’s audience how they execute their strategic mandates.

The panelists are:

Michael Baran (Executive Director, WRD and Principal, Pfizer Ventures)

Michael Baran, MBA, PHD, is Executive Director, WRD and Principal at Pfizer Ventures. Mike is responsible for identifying, evaluating, making and managing equity investments aligned with the future directions of Pfizer. He currently has responsibility for Pfizer’s investments in Accelerator NYC, AnTolRx, Biodesy, eFFECTOR, and MISSION Therapeutics.

Prior to his current role, Mike held responsibilities in R&D portfolio strategy as well as managing scientific affairs for the R&D President’s office at Pfizer. Mike joined Pfizer from Nexomics Biosciences, a structural biology biotech company which he co-founded in 2006. Prior to his involvement at Nexomics he worked within the NIH Protein Structure Initiative’s Northeast Structural Genomics Consortium coordinating protein structure production efforts, including bioinformatics, protein expression/purification and 3D protein structure determination.

Mike received his BA in Biochemistry from Syracuse University, holds a MBA from Rutgers Business School, and a PhD in Biochemistry from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School / Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

Dave Neustaedter (Vice President, Medtronic Ventures)

As Vice President of Venture Capital at Covidien and now Medtronic, Dave has led 10 minority investments to-date, with top tier financial returns and resulting in multiple portfolio companies acquired by Covidien and Medtronic. Dave works closely with Medtronic’s leadership and business development teams regarding new minority investments and was also a primary architect of Covidien’s white space growth strategy. He currently serves as a Director for SetPoint Medical, PQ Bypass and MD Revolution and is a Board Observer for several other companies.

Prior to Medtronic, Dave was responsible for business development, strategy and finance for a small division of Stryker focused on white spaces and new technology platforms. Earlier in his career, he was a healthcare-focused strategy consultant, supporting numerous clients with key decisions regarding internal product development and acquisition opportunities across the medical device, diagnostic and biopharmaceutical industries.

Dave received an MBA from Yale and a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of British Columbia and completed his post-doctoral fellowship at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Sean Cheng (Senior Investment Manager, Philips Health Technology Ventures)

Sean is currently an Investment Manager at Philips Ventures, a portfolio of promising health tech companies including Babyscripts, Xealth, Mytonomy, as well as a fund-of-funds to fulfill the Philips Healthtech strategy. He is interested in early-stage investment opportunities in digital health, medical devices and therapeutics.

Previously, Sean held positions at the Boston Consulting Group, the U.S. FDA, and NASA. Sean also serves on the Board of Directors of The Professional Center for Child Development, Board of Advisors at the Johns Hopkins University, and the Advisory Council of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community. Sean holds a PhD in Engineering Design from the University of Cambridge in England, where he developed expertise in medical device design and optimization algorithms.

Claire Leurent (Bio Sector Investment Director, Samsung Ventures)

Claire Leurent is a biologist by training. She joined the pharmaceutical industry to work on drug development in several capacities over the past 13 years. Initially on late phase development with Wyeth Pharmaceutical (Paris office) as a Senior Clinical Scientist contributing to global phase 3 registration trials, NDA dossier submission and new product launch. Then on early stages with Pfizer Neuroscience out of its R&D headquarters in Groton CT, and later from Pfizer’s Kendall Square campus in Cambridge MA, where she led teams in designing and conducting clinical plans from First in Human to Proof of Concept studies for small molecules, biologics and digital biomarker technologies.

Jeffrey Moore (President, MP Healthcare Venture Management)

Jeff Moore joined MPH in 2008. Previously, Dr. Moore was a Kauffman Fellow with the early stage healthcare venture capital firm Research Corporation Technologies (RCT). He has held various business and scientific roles at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Scriptgen. He received his DPhil from Oxford and postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School, studying biochemistry, infectious disease and immunology. He received his MBA as a Sloan Fellow at MIT.

By Jessica Yang, Investor Research Analyst, LSN

The Asia region has become more central to life science innovation and investment over the last several years, and at LSN we have aimed to welcome investors and other core strategic partners from Asia to join us at RESI and be part of our global ecosystem. For the first time, RESI will be heading to Asia in November, with two events in one week – RESI Shanghai on November 12th, and RESI Taipei on November 14th.

These two events will provide LSN’s global tribe of early-stage entrepreneurs and investors with a venue to meet face to face with partners from China, Taiwan, and other key Pacific Rim life science hubs. With Asia increasingly providing research & development services, investment funds and talent in life sciences, RESI Asia will be a key opportunity to get involved with life science innovation in the region and start new global partnerships.

You can now register for RESI Taipei and RESI Shanghai. We look forward to you joining us on our global journey.

Click here to download RESI Asia Brochure

By Dennis Ford, Founder & CEO, Life Science Nation; Creator of RESI Conference Series

Many scientist-entrepreneurs have a challenge developing the sales, marketing and BD acumen needed to get a startup fundraising campaign off the ground. The attention paid to training and teaching rudimentary sales and marketing is pretty much limited to the creating and coaching needed to for the elevator pitch, executive summary and the pitch deck, which run the gamut from ‘could use some more work’ to ‘pretty darn good.’  Exacerbating the problem is the diverse advice provided to fundraising scientist-entrepreneurs.  This is also true for the universities, colleges and hospital tech hubs, as well.  These hubs all have their own, often disparate, viewpoints on how things, like finding investors and channel partners, are properly done.

There is no standardized methodology for teaching a company how to brand and message itself.  There is no reliable, accurate, and current database besides LSN to get a company a list of global partners that are a fit for their stage of development and product set. No tech hub (that I know of) teaches how to get a current list of global partners and then manage that list with a CRM like SalesForce.com.  Nor do they teach how to prioritize that list into A, B, and C targets to go after and manage. Nor do they teach how to launch a partnering campaign and how to make an introductory phone call or write an introductory email.  Most importantly, no one teaches the holy grail of canvassing…how to follow up which is a universe onto itself.  I have written three books on the subject and have been doing boot camps around the world for 6 years trying to help solve the problem with a methodology LSN has created.  LSN’s Redefining Early Stage Investment Conference Series has featured thousands of pitching startup companies and hosted thousands of investors and for efficiency sake truly believe a standardization of the pitch can lead to faster understanding of who a company is and what it has to offer.

The team at LSN has created an accelerator called Focus on Cures that has a two week immersion course followed by the possibility for the startups to stay for 6-12 months while they transition from a regional-based mindset to a global mindset. At the same time, they can get wired into the LSN early-stage funding superstructure that we have created with the 6 global RESI conferences LSN now offers (3 in U.S., 1 in Europe and 2 in Asia, Shanghai and Taipei).  Having the FOC Accelerator take place in Boston is an added bonus because we are in one of the biggest hubs of the global life science ecosystem. You can do this – we want to help.

By Karen Deyo, Investor Research Analyst, LSN

Medical device startups often face difficult challenges when seeking funding. Many investors have limiting criteria in their investment mandates when it comes to medical devices – whether limiting the regulatory pathway or the need for regulatory approval at all, consideration for traditional devices vs. the combo devices with digital components that are becoming so prevalent, or even the size of the market or complexity of use. With the increased challenge of either penetrating an already crowded market with an improved iteration of an existing device or attempting to introduce a new type of device to the market, it can seem like medical device startups can’t win.

At RESI Boston, taking place on Sept. 11^th, the Medical Device Investors panel will feature the following five speakers who will share their perspective on investing in early-stage device companies, whether as strategic partners or financial investors. They will share their thoughts on what startups can do to catch the attention of investors, despite the challenges that may exist in today’s market. The panelists are:

Shahram Hejazi, Partner, BioAdvance

Shahram Hejazi, Ph.D., is a life science investor & entrepreneur. Over his 25+ year career, Shahram has invested and/or directed more than two dozen startups.  Since 2008, he has been a Partner with BioAdvance, where he serves on the Boards of 6 portfolio companies and is responsible for leading investments in medical devices, diagnostics, digital health. Shahram has also been on the faculty of Princeton University, since 2014. Previously, Shahram was the president of Kodak’s life science division, and before that, he was the founding CEO of Zargis Medical Corporation (a Siemens’ spin off). Prior to that, Shahram was the Global Head of the Strategic Business Development at Siemens Medical. Shahram is also the Chairman of the advisory board of Integral Molecular Inc., and the Chairman of PPDC at CHOP. Shahram has a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and an executive business education.

Darshana Zaveri, Partner, Catalyst Health Ventures

Darshana Zaveri is a Managing Partner of Catalyst Health Ventures (CHV). Darshana joined CHV in 2006 and has 13 years of experience in the life science and pharmaceutical industries. She is actively involved in all aspects of fund management including investments and capital raising. She led investments in nVision Medical (acquired by Boston Scientific), Augmenix, Inc., (acquired by Boston Scientific), Lantos Technologies, Inc., Maxwell Health Inc. (acquired by Sun Life Financial), and Aria CV Inc. She previously represented CHV on the Boards of nVision, Augmenix, and Maxwell Health, and is currently a Director of Lantos Technologies and Aria CV. Prior to CHV, Darshana was an investigator within the cell biology department at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where she led drug development programs in oncology, metabolic disease, and immunology. Darshana received an MPA from Harvard University, a Master in Cell and Molecular Biology from Boston University, and a BS in Biochemistry from Bombay University in Bombay, India

Lu Zhang, Managing Partner, Fusion Fund

Lu Zhang, Founder and Managing Partner of Fusion Fund. Recently, Lu is selected as 2018 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Before this, she also got selected as Silicon Valley Women of Influence 2018 and Top 10 all America Chinese Youth. In 2017, she was awarded the Forbes US 30 under 30 & Featured Honoree of VC category and also awarded as the Town & Country 50 Modern Swans Influencer. Prior to starting Fusion Fund, she was the Founder and CEO of a medical device company (acquired in 2012). Lu is active in the entrepreneur and investor communities providing mentorship and serves as an advisor to programs like Microsoft AC, Singularity University, StartX at Stanford, and Youth Council of Future Forum. Lu received her M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University and holds several patents.

Michael Thomas, Director, Inova Strategic Investments

A veteran med-tech CEO, Michael Thomas is venture capital investor with the Inova Health System Strategic Investments team (ISI and IPHA). Prior to Inova, Michael was CEO of Appian Partners, an Annapolis, MD-based life sciences consulting practice. His med-tech experience spanned several early stage, growth stage, and turn-around ventures as CEO of Appian Partners, ReGear Life Sciences, NuSomnea, Tanzen Medical, Appian Medical, iSonea, and Sleep Solutions. Mr. Thomas was founder and CEO of Appian Medical, a digital health firm that developed an algorithm to diagnose Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Mr. Thomas spent 2.5 years as CEO of iSonea Ltd (ASX:ISN), a publicly traded global, asthma digital healthcare company. He raised $25MM for iSonea and increased the company’s market capitalization from $4MM to $250MM. He is a member of the Board of Directors for Circadiance, a specialty CPAP mask manufacturer. Thomas graduated from Cornell University with a degree in Microbiology.

Aaron Sandoski, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Norwich Ventures

Aaron Sandoski is Co-founder & Managing Director of Norwich Ventures, a specialized venture capital firm focused on early-stage MedTech.  Aaron’s current investments include Affera, Arterys, Lexington Medical, Pelvalon, Podimetrics, ReThink Medical and Vaxess Technologies.  Previous investments include Rhythmia Medical (acquired by Boston Scientific) and Intelligent Bio-systems (acquired by Qiagen).  Prior to founding Norwich Ventures, Aaron worked for DEKA R&D, the engineering think tank of Dean Kamen.  He has also worked in start-up operations where he helped launch a subsidiary of Express Scripts and helped launch a venture-backed payments company. Aaron began his career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he advised healthcare clients ranging from leading medical device companies to a rural hospital system.  Aaron is co-author of How the Wise Decide (Crown Business), a book on best practices in making tough decisions, which has been translated into 11 foreign languages.  Aaron earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College with a double A.B. in Chemistry and Economics.

If you would like to attend this and other exciting panels taking place at RESI Boston, make sure to register!