By Dennis Ford, Founder & CEO, Life Science Nation; Creator of RESI Conference Series
There is an opportunity to take advantage of in the global partnering domain but you have to leave your region in order to participate.
The LSN team just visited 8 countries and met with over 250 companies across Europe and Israel. The goal of the trip was to help the regional technology hubs and their constituents understand what it takes to go from a regional mindset to a global mindset in finding investors and channel partners. We saw first-hand the challenges that European life science entrepreneurs are facing. The big two: time and cost to go outside the region.
The biggest obstacles I found for fundraising European companies was a tendency to have a more conservative nature, and not being totally convinced that if you want to play in the global funding ecosystem you have to play by a new set of rules. These new rules may be different both culturally and in the business dynamic. The global marketplace abounds with compelling technology assets and understanding the competitive landscape and where you fit is crucial.
We told audiences at the LSN Fundraising Boot Camp workshops that you either have to go for it, or not. And if you do, you need to figure out how to get out of your region and start a continuous dialogue with the global players who are looking to fund and partner with you. RESI is bringing over 200 investors to Europe, March 25 in Vienna for the first time – the fundraising CEOs I met with said they would love to attend but the time and cost associated was prohibitive. Fundraising is an expensive endeavor: as strange as it sounds, you need to spend money to get money. In addition, it’s important to remember that investors invest in teams as well as technologies, and they expect their startup CEOs to do what they have to do to succeed.
Having run 22 global conferences since 2016, I’ve observed that global startups and their assets are in a critical timing situation. They either catch the wave or miss the wave of opportunity that is happening right now. Once the wave passes, it is gone. It is not waiting for fundraising CEOs to rationalize spending some time and money to meet with prospective investors. Fundraising is a numbers game – for example, you could do a deep dive in your region and find 50-100 investor targets to call on and start a dialogue with, or alternatively you could go global and find 400-500 investors that are a fit for your stage of development and product. Going global is clearly more likely to yield results.
If you are trying to raise capital today, in 2019, it takes 9-18 months and is extremely competitive in this golden age of life science product development. If you do not go for it and put everything on the line, then you will miss the wave and it will only make the challenges you will face harder. As a scientist-entrepreneur, it takes one investor meeting to change your life, but getting to that one meeting takes a lot of drive and persistence.
LSN has helped over 300 global startups to raise over 500mm dollars over the years. Our RESI conference is unique in that it is the only dedicated investor conference that is cross-border and cross-silo (drugs, devices, diagnostics and digital health). LSN brings a one-to-one ratio of investors/strategic partners to fundraising CEOs. I have been hearing about the same issues of cost and timing since I started LSN seven years ago…I saw the wave and wanted to catch it.
I would advise global fundraising CEOs to try and get into the global ecosystem and start a dialogue with investors and partners outside your region. If you went to just three of LSN RESI events starting with RESI Vienna in March, RESI Philadelphia in June and RESI Boston in September, you have a truly unprecedented opportunity to meet 30-50 investors in total across 3 events, which would give every CEO a real understanding of where they are at and what they have to do to get funded and find partners.
I feel your pain. I know you care about the ultimate success of your company’s products, which could save lives and impact patient care. However you do need some tough love here. Don’t create a false premise that regional discussions are enough to get you funded. Take the extra step into the global partnering arena and take advantage of a vehicle like the RESI conference series who can help make the process very efficient.
Dr Philipp Rittershaus studied technical biology in Stuttgart and also obtained an MBA in engineering management alongside his doctorate at B.R.A.I.N. AG. Prior to becoming an Investment Manager at HTGF in 2015, he was a self-employed consultant and implemented a range of life science and spin-off projects. At the HTGF Philipp nurses a portfolio of 10 Life Science Companies.
Pierre joined Amadeus Capital Partners in 2012. Pierre has a current investment focus on digital health, medical technology, AI and machine learning and cybersecurity. He is a non-executive director on the boards of Inotec, Repositive, Doctify, Congenica and oversees Amadeus’s investments in PhoreMost, Organox and Antidote (formerly TrialReach). Pierre brings operational experience to these investments, having managed the growth of several life science businesses in Asia and Europe. During a decade at biotech company Avesthagen, he guided the group’s strategy and European activities, contributing to acquisitions, joint ventures and exits. Pierre is French and holds an MSc in Environmental Economics (Hons.-SciencesEco) from Université de Provence, France and a BSc in Finance & Econometrics (Math Spe.-SciencesEco) from Université Louis Pasteur, France. He has attended executive programs at Harvard, MIT and Stanford.
Following a fifteen-year career in investing and strategy consulting and upon returning to Austria, Markus joined IST to start TWIST, IST’s tech transfer organisation, and has been driving the development of IST PARK, the technology park adjacent to IST Austria, and IST CUBE. His background is in venture capital investing with Safeguard Scientifics and the European Investment Fund, strategy consulting with the Boston Consulting Group, and principal investment with QIA, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds. He has supported a broad range of startups in the process, energy and tech industries. He has an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School, an MSc from TU Vienna, and an MIM from WU Vienna and HEC Paris.
Sabine Kaiser has more than 20 years of experience in consulting and entrepreneurial investing. Previously, she worked as a strategic consultant with McKinsey&Company, as a venture capital investor for Technologieholding VC GmbH and 3i plc, and in asset management for BTV, an internationally active German single family office. Sabine is passionate about technological and social innovations that have a significant positive impact on peoples’ lives. She believes in the ability of individuals and companies to create positive externalities while pursuing their business and in the potential for sustainable growth. Sabine holds a Diploma in Human Biology from the Philipps-University of Marburg and a Master in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School. She is also an IHK-certified business mediator, specialized on conflict resolution in Venture Capital financed companies.
Eugene W. Stetson started the Stetson Family Office shortly after he personally led the buyout of The Coca-Cola Company through a public offering in August 1919 by the Guaranty Trust Company of New York, where he subsequently served as Chairman and just before he died and organized, he organize with the much smaller J.P. Morgan. At his death, Eugene was Coca-Cola’s longest serving member of the Board and of the Executive Committee. Chuck Stetson, the third generation running the family office, is an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and philanthropist. The Stetson Family Office started Healthcare Impact Foundation, a 501-c-3 organization, in 2017 to bring capital and management expertise to local life science companies and to build and maintain an efficient life science eco-system composed of R&D facilities, incubation facilities, venture capital investors, angel investors, family office investors, and networks of experts in science, management, industry, reimbursement and public policy. Stetson Family Office has set up a unique Global Family Office BioForum with family offices around the globe working closely with their local healthcare innovation. Family Offices are responding with excitement.
Florence Dal Degan joined Novo Nordisk A/S in May 2016 as R&D Innovation Sourcing Director. The R&D Innovation Sourcing team of Novo Nordisk is global, with a presence at the Danish Headquarters, as well as a regional presence in Shanghai, Boston, New-York and Paris. Florence is based in Paris and is responsible for search and evaluation of new opportunities within Europe and Middle-East across the therapeutic areas that Novo Nordisk is dedicated to, such as diabetes, obesity, NASH, chronic cardiovascular diseases, nephropathy and haemophilia. Florence has a PhD in biochemistry from The National Institute of Agronomy (Agro-Paris Tech, France). She has over 20 years of experience in Research and Development in academic, biotech and pharma environments. Since 2000, Florence has worked with drug discovery and early development and has held several positions as group leader within R&D. She has been working with external innovation since 2012.
Marco is Partner at Forbion Capital Partners and joined the firm in 2007. He has a background in molecular biology and biotechnology and brings operational and business development experience from both small and large businesses. Before joining Forbion Marco was Business Development Director and project manager at DSM Pharmaceutical Products and scientist at Cytos Biotechnology in Switzerland. He serves on the Board of Directors of Inflazome, NorthSea Therapeutics, Milestone Pharmaceuticals, Escalier Biosciences, RSPR Pharma, and Engene. After obtaining a master’s degree in molecular biology from the University of Groningen, Marco received his PhD in biotechnology from the ETH Institute for Technology in Zürich, and completed part of his research at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of the Medical Research Council in Cambridge, UK.
Roel Bulthuis is a Managing Director and head of the Healthcare investment team at INKEF Capital. Roel combines close to 20 years of experience across venture capital, pharma business development and M&A and healthcare investment banking. Prior to joining INKEF he served as SVP and Managing Director of M-Ventures which he created and developed into a leading CVC fund. Prior to that, he served in senior positions in global business development and M&A at Merck Serono and in the healthcare investment banking team at Fortis Bank. Roel is a Kauffman Fellow and passionate about continuously challenging the status quo. Roel holds a Msc. in Biopharmaceutical Sciences from Leiden University and an MBA in Finance from the Helsinki School of Economics.
