Next Phase Newsletter

By Lucy Parkinson, VP of Investor Research, LSN

RESI’s first Europe event will include three tracks of panel and workshop content aimed at educating entrepreneurs on key topics in life science capital raising.  RESI’s panels all feature experienced investors who can provide real-world insights to entrepreneurs and reveal their decision-making process and what catches their eye in a deal.

RESI Europe’s agenda includes our first ever panel on the Greater European Early-Stage Ecosystem, and a new combined look at Angels and Seed Funds to provide entrepreneurs with actionable insights for their first capital raise.  Popular special topic panels return, including AI in Healthcare and Microbiome, and two panels are focused on how to source investors from the Asia region – Asia Therapeutic Investors and Asia Corporates & Strategics.  Additionally, RESI Europe features panels on every major life science vertical and on some key investor types such as Family Offices and Corporate Venture Capital. If you’d like to attend these panels live, register for RESI Europe now.

By Jessica Yang, Investor Research Analyst, LSN

Taiwan has been an important player and a pioneer in the world’s IT industry. Nowadays, through government support, Taiwan is also trying to establish its presence in life science industry, particularly in the Medical Device sector.

At RESI San Francisco during JPM week, LSN and BioMed TW cooperated to launch a new Taiwan Investor panel. The main purpose of this panel is to inform international startups’ on why Taiwan matters. We had the pleasure of inviting 6 panelists from Taiwan – all with a unique background related to Taiwan and working with early-stage innovations – to speak about their work and their perspectives on why international startups should approach Taiwan investors.

Our panelists included:

• Michel Chu, General Partner, Acorn Campus Taiwan (Moderator)
• Shaoyu Chang, Vice President, FC Capital
• IC Jan, Director of Corporate Development, Taiwania Capital
• Yi-Yen Chen, Investment Professional, WI Harper Group
• Yuh-Geng Tsay, Venture Partner, Vivo Capital
• William Tai, Managing Partner, Amed Ventures

Michel Chu, moderator of this panel, addressed the main question: How can Taiwan be a partner to an early-stage startup?

First, Taiwan can be seen as a manufacturing partner – medtech startups can look at Taiwan as a potential OEM/ODM partner. Taiwan is home to many global manufactures in the IT and semiconductor industry. Many of these highly-experienced IT manufacturers in Taiwan are also building medical devices. Thus, working with experienced manufacturers greatly reduces production and quality control risks. The panelists talked about “Design for Manufacturing” as something that is often overlooked by medtech startups – there is often a huge gap from prototype to final product, and the engineering work involved cannot be overlooked. Experienced manufacturers can help to re-engineer the product from a manufacturing perspective. Michel also mentioned that medical device manufacturing is all about quality control, and quality control should be built into the design from day one. Medtech startups should think of Design for Manufacturability (DFM), Design for Inspection (DFI) and Design for Assembly (DFA). In addition, Michel noted that it is becoming increasingly common for manufacturers to also invest in the medtech startups that contract them for their manufacturing needs.

The panel also discussed the fact that Taiwan recently passed legislation to allow people to collect fees from patients for experimental Phase II and Phase III cell therapies on a cost recovery basis. The panelists believe this will be attractive for companies that are planning clinical trials for cell therapies. Since clinical trials for cell therapies cost a fortune, placing some of the study centers in Taiwan may potentially save the company tens of millions of dollars. Also, Taiwan has some of the world’s most renowned hospitals and medical centers with modern facilities including GTP labs. The new regulation has already created a surge in clinical study plans by local and Japanese companies. Overall, the panelists mentioned that even though Taiwan itself is not a very sizable market, it may serve as an excellent strategic partner for global startups.

You can watch the full panel by clicking on this link!

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

Life Science Nation (LSN) and the Stetson Family Office (SFO) relationship began over 18 months ago when Chuck Stetson decided that the Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) Conference Series was the perfect vehicle for his global family office network to achieve two of his goals. The first goal is matching the “dollars and desires” of the early stage family office investor with the vetting capability of LSN’s vast early stage angel network. The second goal was using RESI to surface the companies that needed the capital to make it through early stage development.

Chuck’s vision morphed into an official entity called the Global Family Office BioForum (GFOB), which he launched this year at RESI SF during the JP Morgan event in San Francisco. GFOB is an alliance of international family offices. This organization currently spans 18 cities in the U.S., Europe and Asia, and now has recently expanded to working in cooperation with the Angel Capital Association with 13,000 members in 260 organizations. Click to read the full press release here https://www.globalbetterhealth.org/cleveland

LSN and SFO will be bringing a GFOB delegation to the RESI Europe event March 25th in Vienna, Austria. This RESI event will be unique in that it is the first time that RESI has made an appearance in Europe, which means it will be the first time the continent has seen this type of dedicated, investor-focused, partnering event. RESI is known for being the only conference that actually delivers a one-to-one ratio of investors to fundraising CEOs and scientist-entrepreneurs. LSN expects to have 300+ early stage global investors at the RESI Europe event and with the GFOB delegation this will be the first time this many global family office investors has gathered under one roof in Europe.

Including the Stetson Family Office Global Network, RESI will feature ten categories of global investors such as VC, PE, Pharma, foundations, and angel groups. RESI caters to the earliest stage who seek seed, grants and angel capital in the range of 25K to 2mm and the early stage seeking series A and B round funding of 2-10mm. RESI is unique because it is cross silo helping fund early stage drugs, devices, diagnostics and digital health startups.

By Claire Jeong, Senior Research Analyst, LSN

Last week’s RESI San Francisco during JP Morgan brought almost 1,200 attendees, making it our largest conference to date. This included over 500 investors and 500 early-stage companies in our usual sectors of focus – therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics, and digital health. Here is the breakdown of technology sectors and investor types that were represented:

The partnering forum hit full capacity earlier than anticipated, so we had to close registration early to provide the best accommodation possible for all attendees. We did our best to provide as many additional meeting areas as possible, but even those spots ended up filling within just a few hours after launch. We truly appreciate the support of everyone who actively participated in the conference and contributing to the early-stage life sciences & healthcare ecosystem. While JPM week always attracts global players, RESI San Francisco 2019 was truly unique in that we were able to welcome large delegations from Taiwan, Israel, and Quebec and support their promising innovations.

We also had two engaging luncheon events during the conference – the Stetson Family Office brought together a network of family offices and other relevant players in fostering their Global Family Office BioForum (GFOB) initiative and promoting an ecosystem that enables “Better Health at Lower Cost”. BioMed Taiwan organized a luncheon and pitching event for their start-up delegation, during which each company did a brief pitch of their technologies. Over 100 attendees RSVP’ed for this popular event.

Responses from the delegations were very positive. Dr. Woei-Jer Chuang, Director General of Department of Life Sciences of Ministry of Science and Technology remarked, “RESI is a fabulous conference that successfully provides the opportunity for early-stage life science companies across biotech and medtech to meet investors from around the globe and create relationships. The RESI conference is what Taiwan needs now to help our start-ups to reach the global stage and build global partnerships.”

The Israel Export Institute & Foreign Trade Administration commented, “RESI’19 was an incredible event, bringing hundreds of investors and tech companies under one roof to engage and create value. We organized a delegation of 11 Israeli Digital Health companies and led them to RESI’19 who have met there tens of potential investors and partners, all saying that the RESI partnering platform is highly beneficial and convenient for use, hoping to see outcomes in the near future. The RESI staff was incredibly helpful and responsive, assisting in any way possible, which helped us maximize our JPM week.” The Israeli delegation included Novotalk, the company taking first place in the Innovation Challenge.

We are extremely grateful for the support of these delegations and their involvement truly speaks for RESI’s niche in the early stage funding landscape. We aim to work with more bioclusters and tapping into their regional ecosystems, helping more companies scale globally.

We also introduced a few new panel topics during the conference, including “Investing in Cell & Gene Therapy” (pictured above) and “Taiwan Investors”. Although many of our panels focus on recurring topics, we will continue to dedicate a set number of panels to new, emerging trends we see in this dynamic ecosystem. Through our team’s work with the LSN Investor Platform and curating information on new and existing investors, we have had longstanding relationships with leading investors and industry leaders, which always enables an excellent lineup of panelists. In addition, we featured the West Coast Innovators’ Pitch Challenge, in which 8 companies in West Coast innovation hubs were selected to pitch in front of a panel of investors who actively assess and evaluate early-stage opportunities. We look forward to continuing the Pitch Challenge to provide the earliest stage companies an opportunity to present to and network with active investors.

2019 will be a big year for RESI, as we plan to expand the conference to regions outside of North America for the very first time. We look forward to seeing you at more of our events this year!

By Jessica Yang, Investor Research Analyst, LSN

Back in October 2018, LSN cooperated with BIOMED Taiwan and the Biomedical Commercialization Center to hold a three-day Biotech/Medtech Startups Fundraising & Entrepreneurship Training Bootcamp in Taiwan. This event was held to help bring Taiwan’s biomedical startups to the international stage and to give the companies a chance to learn how to seek fundraising opportunities. Dennis Ford, LSN Founder and CEO, Greg Mannix, VP of International Business Development, and Jessica Yang, Senior Investor Research Analyst & Asia BD were invited to visit Taiwan to teach the Bootcamp as well as provide one-on-one startup fundraising consultations. This was the first time that Taiwan’s biomedical industry has cooperated in holding a fundraising training program with an international early-stage startup fundraising consulting firm, such as LSN.

On Oct 16, 2018, the first day of the training program, Dennis gave a top-to-bottom master class on outbound global fundraising campaigning to over 90 Taiwanese biomedical startups. Topics included the changing investor landscape, new categories of life science investors, and how to organize and execute a successful roadshow. This class also took companies through positioning, marketing collateral, website creation, branding & messaging, and how to reach out to a target list of global investors. Greg talked about the strategies for searching for global investors and running an investor meeting, including how to source investor leads and how to understand and determine investor fits. In the afternoon, Jessica gave a presentation on how to successfully apply to startup competitions such as RESI Innovation Challenge, including what makes a good Innovation Challenge application. Overall the Bootcamp received a very positive reception on its solid content and unique strategies. Over the next two days, Dennis, Greg, and Jessica sat with 20 teams, giving one-on-one consultations to help teams with their fundraising strategies and marketing collateral.

The three-day training program served the companies as a warm-up to RESI SF. A total of 15 teams signed up for this RESI Conference, and 5 teams were chosen by the LSN scientific review team to participate in the Innovation Challenge. After the fundraising training program in Taiwan, a Taiwanese medtech company, Heroic Faith, won the second prize in Innovation Challenge at last week’s RESI. Its novel approach to support critical care medical practitioners to cope with lung-related complications would greatly enhance medical care efficiency and reduce mortality.

In addition, BioMed Taiwan and the Biomedical Commercialization Center have specially cooperated with LSN to organize the Taiwan Luncheon & Pitching Event at the RESI conference to help bring exposure to biomedical startups from Taiwan. BioMed Taiwan has selected some of the most outstanding startups to take the stage to present their products, effectively promoting them in the international arena.

Other startups among the total of fifteen from Taiwan presented innovations ranging from robotics to tissue regeneration, covering medical devices and pharmaceuticals, attracted impressive remarks from the audience during the occasion. The fifteen included Above Care, Acusense, All Bio, ATP BioPharm, Flat Medical, Free Bionics, Heroic Faith, MTAM Tech, Papivax Biotech, Point Robotics, PressureDOT Technology, Taipei Bio, Taiwan Resonant Waves Research Corp, Ultrondata Driven, and WeMED Biotech. This marked an opportunity for these Taiwanese startups to increase their visibility on the international stage.

BioMed TW also sponsored LSN to arrange a “Taiwan Investors” panel session. Dr. Michel Chu, Chief Innovation Officer of BioMed TW and Jessica had invited several renowned international investment experts to join the forum to discuss the strengths and opportunities associated with Taiwan’s biomedical industry environment. International venture capitalists, multinational enterprises, and startups were invited to Taiwan to pursue a broad range of cooperative opportunities.

Dr. Woei-Jer Chuang, the Director General of Department of Life Sciences of Taiwan Ministry of Science & Technology as well as the Executive Secretary of BioMed TW remarked that the objective of the event was to introduce Taiwan’s achievements and investment environment in biotech and healthcare to international investors and enterprises. He pointed out that Canada, Israel, and Korea have held similar events to promote their countries. Those activities proved to be quite success. LSN was delighted to work with all of those involved in making the Bootcamp and Taiwanese delegation and luncheon at RESI a success, and looks forward to continuing this partnership to bring the amazing technologies developed in Taiwan further into the spotlight!

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

Partnering is key. RESI is a dedicated partnering conference and will have 1400 meetings in one day. What is the salient difference between RESI and other conferences when it comes to partnering? RESI does not do the traditional “pay-to-pitch” on the podium to an unknown audience. We have found that the audience winds up being a mix of potential partners, other CEOs looking for competitive info and service providers wanting to sell their services. At RESI, when you sign up in our partnering system, investor profiles are highly detailed and tagged, allowing companies to perform searches and find the right investors and partners who are a fit for the companies’ stage of development and product set. This means you have a very high hit-rate on meetings because the RESI investors know that the firm making the request is a fit for their investment mandate.

At LSN, we vet all participating investors and do our best to ensure that those who attend are direct investors, not investment banks or broker-dealers. These global, cross-border, early-stage, from seed to series B, investors come to RESI to source technology assets for their pipelines and portfolios. RESI has helped over 350 companies raise over $500mm in the last three years. Click here to see who has already signed up.