By Cole Bunn, Senior Research Analyst, LSN

Whether you’re looking to identify your lead investor, fill out a round of funding or explore strategic partnerships, RESI has a robust pool of groups you should be speaking with. As we approach our first ever RESI conference to be held in New York City, we’re pleased to have everything from government organizations and philanthropic venture groups to leading pharmaceutical companies and venture funds represented, all looking for novel technologies and great entrepreneurs. Have a look at some of the folks you can meet.

By Lucy Parkinson, Director of Research, LSN

RESI has always aimed to feature a diverse variety of investors, and every RESI event has included a Family Offices panel discussion.  It’s proved to be a field of continuing interest for entrepreneurs, because life science companies often need the patient capital and deep connections that a family office investor can offer.  Family offices are highly idiosyncratic, and many have a specific investment strategy or area of domain expertise that guides their life science investments; in some cases, they’ve developed scientific expertise in a disease that affects a family member.  With many different motivations and strategies to deploy, these investors are an increasingly significant constituency in the life sciences.

For RESI NYC, we’ve gathered family offices that invest in several different life science verticals.  If you’d like to hear more about what they’re interested in and how they make decisions, you can join us at RESI NYC to hear from our panel moderator, Ron Paliwoda (Founder and President, Paliwoda Group), and the panelists:

• Chuck Stetson (CEO, Stetson Family Office)
• Sherry Grisewood (Chief Investment Officer, FoxHill Asset Management)
• Mark Groner (Vice President, Sopris Capital)
• Kevin Schimelfenig (Managing Partner and CEO, McGeever LLC)

By Lucy Parkinson, Director of Research, LSN

When LSN decided to launch our first RESI NYC event, we knew that RESI would be part of a growing hub of resources dedicated to launching and supporting new biotech and medtech companies. The rise of NYC has been an ongoing story in the biotech world, and we’ve written before about how the city stands among the competitors to become North America’s third great life science hub.

For a long time, the New Jersey area has been a center for big pharma companies, and New York’s universities and research hospitals have long been a significant source of scientific breakthroughs in the life sciences. All told, we counted 80 pharma facilities, and almost all of these are located outside the city. Conversely, of the 32 relevant universities and research facilities plus 40 life science research nonprofits, most were within the city, as you can see in the image below. In the past, it’s been difficult for entrepreneurs to bridge that gulf between the creation of new technology and its commercialization.

Enter the bio-incubators and accelerator facilities, of which we found 16. Many of these are new facilities, as developers respond to the growing need for space to launch a new life science company in New York. The addition of this new infrastructure has made it much easier for entrepreneurs to start their operations – at RESI, our new panel called “Why NYC? Why Now?” will explore how this infrastructure has become a key building block for the city’s life science growth.

The other key factor required for NYC’s biotech scene to bloom? Capital. New York is awash with investment dollars, but in the past, little of that money has been focused on life science ventures specifically. Investors who are interested in biotech startups don’t necessarily have NYC on their map as a place to look for new companies. By bringing RESI to NYC and gathering together investors from all over the world, we hope to put New York firmly on the bio hub tour.