Next Phase Newsletter

By Karen Deyo, VP of Product, Israel BD, LSN

Life Science Nation (LSN)‘s RESI JPM 2024 is less than two weeks away! For this conference, the Innovator’s Pitch Challenge (IPC) is especially popular and we are featuring 56 presenting startups across 14 sessions, each focusing on a specific sector/subsector. The LSN team has been busy recruiting active investors and industry experts to join the pitch judge panels. The investor and industry experts were invited to sessions based on their experience, investment interest and expertise. The judges will listen to 4 minutes of company pitches and have 8 to 9 minutes to engage in Q&A and provide feedback to the pitching companies.

Below is a list of IPC pitch judges at RESI JPM in San Francisco:

Chris Aleong Vice President BioIdeations	Dozie Amuzie Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation @ JLABS Canada Johnson & Johnson Innovation	Joshua Barney Member Barrington Angels
Samir Batra Managing Partner & Founder HIP (Health Innovation Pitch)	Marianne Bjordal Partner 3B Future Health Fund	Zac Hann Senior Associate LYFE Capital
Steve Curtis Director, New Ventures BrightEdge	Paolo Di Giorgio CEO and Managing Director Angelini Ventures	Felix Breyer Associate Arix Bioscience
Karen Drexler Angel Investor, Advisor Astia Angels	Ruben Flores-Saaib Academic Innovations and Partnerships Lead General Inception	Dimitra Georganopoulou General Partner Qral Ventures
Gary Gershony Partner BayMed Venture Partners	Tom Gibbs Director Debiopharm Innovation Fund	Janelle Goulard Director of Health Investment Pangaea Ventures
Tai Harada Partner Fast Track Initiative	David Hendren Managing Director Augmentum Advisors LLC	Dave Hood West Coast Outreach Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium (MTEC)
Guanghui Hu Venture Partner & CEO Viva BioInnovator	Sharon Huang Associate Tau Ventures	Jochen Hurlebaus Head of Digital Health Innovation Roche Diagnostics
Elena Itskovich President Nest Catalyst	Enmi Kendall General Partner Healthy Ventures	Don Lin Co-Founder, Managing Director Guoqian Venture Capital Investment
Stephanie Marrus Director UCSF Entrepreneurship Center	Terri Mead Founder Class Bravo Ventures	Nick Mourlas Head of JLABS @ San Diego Johnson & Johnson Innovation
Sonal Panda Principal Tau Ventures	Rhiya Pau Associate Laerdal Million Lives Fund	Jojo Platt US Partnerships Lead Corundum Neuroscience
Rena Rosenberg Partner Robin Hood Ventures	Alexander Schubert Partner SciFounders	Parul Singh Partner Initialized Capital
Anish Srivastava Managing Partner Telosity Ventures	Jeff Stinson Director HealthTech Arkansas	Scott Thielman Life Science Co-Chair – Northwest Keiretsu Forum
Jeff Trost Managing Partner Laerdal Million Lives Fund	Thomas Vogelsong Investor/Life Science Advisor KYTO Technology and Life Science	Garrett Vygantas Co-Founder & Managing Partner Riverine Ventures
Sally Wang Venture Partner Viva BioInnovator	Kyoko Watanabe Managing Director DEFTA Partners	Aaron Welch Associate SymBiosis Capital Management
Hong Wen Partner Shanghai Healthcare Capital	Ryan Witt Member Tech Coast Angels	Jun Xiao Vice President Life Science Angels
Ronald Dorenbos Principal BioFrontline Ltd.	David Zarling Investor Family Office Based in California

By Erika Wu, Business Development Manager, Global Tech Hubs, LSN

The National Institute of Health (NIH) is working with Life Science Nation‘s RESI conference during JPM Healthcare Week 2024 to feature 10 startups in the Innovator’s Pitch Challenge (IPC). This long-term partnership between the NIH and LSN expands broader than the RESI conferences. In September 2022, NIH’s National Institute on Aging (NIA) invited 40+ life science entrepreneurs from their Healthy Aging Start-Up Challenge to participate in LSN’s entrepreneurial educational across two digital and two in-person sessions. These entrepreneurs were taught how to manage their global investor target lists and fundraising campaigns and engaged in interactive sessions to practice their tagline and elevator pitches. These entrepreneurs continued to attend RESI throughout 2022 and 2023 to meet with other CEOs, investors, and strategic partners, and a new cohort from NIH will be participating in the Innovator’s Pitch Challenge (IPC) at RESI JPM 2024. The excitement to partner again and deepen community involvement reflects a growing awareness of the transformative power that collaboration can have on startups in the early-stage life science arena.

From the National Institute of Health: NIH Is the largest funder of life science research and development in the world. In 2023, America’s SEED fund (the Small Business Programs) at NIH supported the development of nearly 1,400 products with over $1.3 billion of non-dilutive funding and a strong suite of commercialization assistance programming.  NIH’s portfolio includes all technology types, from research tools to diagnostics to therapeutic solutions, addressing all aspects of human health. 

At RESI JPM in San Francisco, 10 of the most innovative small businesses from the NIH portfolio will highlight their life science solutions, from at-home or remote diagnostic and monitoring solutions to improving the function of our most basic organ systems and organelles. Each of these companies has received direct mentoring from an NIH Entrepreneur in Residence, and several have received regulatory or reimbursement consultations from NIH’s SEED (Small business Education and Entrepreneurial Development) office.  

By Momo Yamamoto, Investor Research Analyst, LSN

Life Science Nation(LSN) recently hosted a webinar with three investors that will be attending RESI for the first time at the upcoming RESI JPM, in-person on Tuesday, January 9 at the Marines’ Memorial Hotel followed by virtual partnering, January 10-11. LSN is pleased to introduce James Feng, Partner of MSA Capital, Leah Villegas, Managing Partner of Aquillius Ventures, and Matias Serebrinsky, Co-Founder and General Partner of PsyMed Ventures. This webinar provides insight into the different focuses in early-stage innovation spaces.

 Life Science Nation’s research team works continuously not only to add new investor attendees to our RESI conferences but also integrate them into our early-stage ecosystem. These investors will be part of our investor database and we look forward to fostering relationships between them and the companies in our ecosystem that are a fit for their investment mandate. PsyMed Ventures joins RESI with a lens on mental health and more specifically “frontier technologies” and how they define this concept.  MSA Capital is an international firm with an arm in healthcare based in China and investing in seed to series B, writing checks between $1-25M. James, with MSA, provides insight into their interest in early-stage companies tackling aging-related diseases. Aquillius Ventures is the investment arm of their innovation hub located in San Diego, and is looking to connect with innovative biotech and medical device companies. Their main fund does not require companies to go through their accelerator program and offers a wide range of resources. 

Thank you to these investors for their time and informative discussion on what they hope to accomplish next month at RESI JPM and what they are looking for when building relationships with early-stage startups. We are excited to have them join us at RESI. Click here to access the full video.  

Leah Villegas, Managing Partner, Aquillius Ventures

Aquillius Ventures is the venture arm of Aquillius, an innovation hub headquartered in San Diego, CA for life science, medtech, and technology companies. The firm invests in Pre-Seed and Seed stage biotech, device, and ag-tech companies in the U.S.

James Feng, Partner, MSA Capital

MSA Capital is a global investment firm founded in 2014 and headquartered in Beijing, China that focuses on private venture and growth assets. The firm manages over $2B USD and invests in highly innovative and disruptive companies in the biotechnology, enterprise-facing core technology, and consumer sectors.

Matias Serebrinsky, Co-Founder & General Partner, PsyMed Ventures

PsyMed Ventures is a venture capital fund founded in 2020 and headquartered in San Francisco, CA. The firm invests in Pre-Seed and Seed life science and healthcare companies that focus on mental health and wellness.

Joey Wong, Senior Investor Research Analyst, Hong Kong BD, LSN

RESI JPM 2024 is less than a month away. For this highly anticipated conference, LSN’s Investor Research Team has curated a lineup of 7 panels covering a wide range of topics relevant to early-stage investments and innovations.

Some of these panels will highlight specific leading or emerging sectors/ indications, such as Early-Stage Therapeutics, Medical Devices and Mental and Behavioral health, aiming to discuss cutting edge innovations, latest investment trends and the future outlook in these areas. Other panels will focus on different types of investors or strategics partners, such as Big Pharma, Health System Partners, Cross Border Investments and Family Offices, featuring active investors from corresponding groups to shed light on their investment approaches and strategies, recent deals or activities, the roles their play in the ecosystem, and how companies can seek to work with group like theirs, etc.

We are honored to be joined by a diverse group of panelists from around the globe, each bringing unique backgrounds and experiences. Through organizing these panels, our goal is to foster communications, bridge the gap between entrepreneurs and investors/strategic partners and assist founders and CEOs in navigating their fundraising and business development journey in this highly competitive landscape. If you are around for JPM, don’t miss the opportunity to hear from and connect with seasoned investors and executives at these RESI panels!

Here are the speakers for RESI JPM 2024:

Brent Ahrens General Partner Canaan Partners	Jing Bao Partner Shanghai Healthcare Capital	Tara Bishop Founder & Managing Director Black Opal Ventures
Scarlett Chen Managing Partner Verge Health Tech Fund	William Dai Founding Partner ShangBay Capital	Jakob Dupont Executive Partner, Private Equity Sofinnova Investments
Alex Fair Managing Partner Medstartr Ventures	Marissa Fayer U.S. Partner Goddess Gaia Ventures	Les Funtleyder Healthcare Portfolio Manager E Squared Capital
Viral Gandhi Principal KCK MedTech	Lindsay Hoover Managing Partner JLS Fund	Jochen Hurlebaus Head of Digital Health Innovation Roche Diagnostics
Marc Jones CEO Altoida Inc	Ekaterine Kortkhonjia Sr. Director, Early Innovation Partnering Johnson & Johnson Innovation	Michael Langer Founder & Managing Partner T.Rx Capital
Linda Li Partner, Digital Health Cleveland Clinic Ventures	James Mayer Partner, CABHI Ventures Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation (CABHI)	Jeffrey Moore President MP Healthcare Venture Management (MPH)
Miguel Moreno Garcia Director of Research SENS Research Foundation	Ahmed Mousa Business Development Executive Tamer Group	Priya Oberoi Managing General Partner Goddess Gaia Ventures
John Pennett Angel Investor Mid Atlantic Bio Angels	Rachel Rea Senior Director, Business Development Stryker	Liridon Rrushaj Director, Venture Investments OSF Ventures
Dennis Sacha Principal IAG Capital Partners	Diana Saraceni Founder, Managing Director Panakes Partners	Matias Serebrinsky Co-Founder & General Partner PsyMed Ventures
Ashim Subedee Director, Catalyst Office Division of Research Innovation and Ventures (DRIVe)	Prasad Sunkara Board of Directors NuFund Venture Group	Lauren Tyra Chief Scientific Officer Green Park & Golf Ventures
Akili Wallace Director and Deal Lead in Business Development Transactions Amgen	Tyler Wanke Investor Wanke Family Office	Anita Watkins Managing Director Rex Health Ventures
Dana Watt Principal Breakout Ventures	Tad Weems Managing Director Agilent Technologies	Andrew Wong Global Head of Bayer CoLabs Bayer
	Shann Yu Associate Director AbbVie Ventures

By Dennis Ford, Founder and CEO of Life Science Nation, Creator of the RESI Conference Series

Partnering conferences offer a dynamic environment where innovators, capital investors, and licensing partners converge to explore collaboration opportunities. Amidst the vibrant panels and workshops, one-on-one meetings, and pitch sessions, it’s essential for participants to approach each interaction strategically. RESI is distinctly unique because there is a 50/50 ratio of buy-side partners and sell-side startups at our events. This is the main differentiator for a RESI versus other partnering events, which will typically be 10-15% buy-side partners to sell-side startups. This is driven by LSN’s investor database, that five full-time staff have been curating for over a decade. The LSN team regularly interacts with the 4000 early-stage investors and licensing partners that are in our network, allowing LSN to leverage these relationships and recruit buy-side partners to judge slots for our pitch competitions and use LSN events to source technology assets for their portfolio requirements.

Partnering Conference Dynamics

Assessing the success of a partnering event can be done with multiple metrics, as there are multiple avenues to achieve your goals. Is the investor interested in a follow-up meeting, and potentially initiating due diligence? Will the investor introduce you to other investors who could be a potential fit for you? Can the investor provide you with valuable advice, even if they don’t invest themselves? Are they a potential fit for future rounds, and initiating the relationship now can help move that forward when you are ready? All of these can be considered a success, even if it doesn’t end with cash in your hand from this specific investor or licensing partner.

Importance of Meeting Metrics

Fit as the Core Metric: Prioritize meetings based on alignment with the company’s stage and product. Quality trumps quantity for meaningful collaboration.

Follow-up Meetings: Success is measured by investor interest in follow-up meetings, indicating engagement and potential for ongoing dialogue.

Interest in NDAs: For intellectual property discussions, investors’ willingness to sign NDAs reflects commitment to exploration and idea value acknowledgment.

Referrals and Network Expansion: Referrals broaden the network, signaling positive reception within the industry.

Engagement Beyond Meetings: Meaningful connections extend beyond formal settings. Investor engagement in networking activities signals potential rapport beyond scheduled interactions.

Technology for Meeting Success: The RESI Conference Series utilizes a sophisticated “matching algorithm,” ensuring strategic connections based on compatibility, not random encounters.

Strategic Thinking for Success

Navigating partnering conference meetings requires strategic thinking. Executives must assess meetings aligning with goals and potential collaboration. Metrics such as fit, interest in follow-ups, NDAs, referrals, and engagement gauge success. Partnering conferences offer a fertile ground for critical partnerships, with success dependent on thoughtful consideration of meeting metrics, contributing to strategic growth in the complex landscape of early-stage financing.

By Greg Mannix, Vice President International Business Development, General Manager Europe, LSN

RESI JPM, during JP Morgan week takes place in the major life science hub that is San Francisco and will, of course, have a great concentration of the hottest technologies being developed in the Bay Area and the plethora of VCs, Angels, Family Offices and Pharma/Medtech giants that help to fuel this amazing ecosystem.  But RESI, wherever it happens to take place, is always a truly international gathering, and the upcoming edition is no exception. RESI JPM will take place Tuesday, January 9, in person at the historic Marine’s Memorial Club and Hotel, followed by two days of virtual partnering, January 11-12.

As of today, attendees at RESI JPM will be representing 31 countries spanning 5 continents and will be looking to meet with investors and licensing partners from Asia, Europe, and North America. 35% of the investors and Big Pharma/Medtech attendees are from outside the US.

We are also looking forward to welcoming Tech Hubs, Regional Organizations, and Accelerators—the groups that advocate for and support the life sciences industries in their regions—coming from Australia, Canada, Chile, The Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, and the United States.

• The Brisbane Economic Development Agency and the Government of Queensland (Australia) will be supporting a cohort of great companies from Down Under who will be presenting in the Innovator’s Pitch Challenge.
• From Spain, the Catalonian biotechnology organization Biocat will be present to drum up interest in our first conference to take place in Spain:  RESI Europe will be in Barcelona from June 17-19, 2024.
• From Canada, regional tech hubs from 3 provinces will be present—British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec.
• We are also looking forward to seeing The Ganesha Lab accelerator from Chile, supporting innovative technologies from all over Latin America.
• From Japan, Life Science Incubation Council, a newly formed consortium to support the life sciences sector in Japan for global partnership and collaboration will be in attendance.
• From Singapore, Enterprise Singapore, a government agency dedicated to supporting the growth of Singapore-based companies will be at RESI.

At LSN we believe in bringing people together from around the globe to tear down barriers to achieve a common goal of supporting the life sciences. Welcome to all our international attendees this January!

By Dennis Ford, Founder and CEO of Life Science Nation, Creator of the RESI Conference Series

Life Science Nation (LSN), the visionary force behind the globally acclaimed Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) Conference Series, is thrilled to announce a strategic collaboration with Biocat, headquartered in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, and Biotechgate, Zurich, Switzerland. Biocat, a catalyzing organization dedicated to transforming the BioRegion of Catalonia into a premier life sciences and health innovation ecosystem in Europe, and Biotechgate, a pioneer in curating and marketing a global business development database tailored for the life science industry, join forces with LSN to bring the RESI global matching platform back to Europe.

The RESI Conference Series has been instrumental in connecting healthcare startups with capital investors, co-development partners, and licensing opportunities worldwide. LSN has a track record of assisting over 400 startups in raising over $5 billion through its investor database, entrepreneurial education, and RESI international partnering events. The LSN partner network, comprising ten categories of investors and licensing partners, actively seeks early-stage innovations in drugs, devices, diagnostics, and digital health for investment portfolio and product pipeline development.

The Power of RESI Partnering

The RESI Partnering platform is a dynamic tool designed to match attendees based on sector, indication, and development phase and is central to the RESI Conference Series. This innovative approach eliminates most ill-fitting meetings, ensuring startups engage with the right investors and licensing partners who align with their specific needs and goals. RESI partnering events run five times annually at life science centers worldwide. They facilitate fundraising CEOs and scientist-entrepreneurs to get out of their local region and into the international market, dramatically increasing the number of potential partners in their pipeline. Fundraising is a numbers game; a startup cannot succeed with one or two conferences yearly. LSN’s startups seek seed funding up to 2M, Series A, 2M-10M, and Series B, 10M-50M. As part of their global partnering campaign initiative, startup companies leverage RESI as a strategic launchpad to meet national and international investors and licensing partners.

“Biocat is unique in Europe because they get it; they understand that shining an international light on their startups and getting them into capital and licensing arrangements early builds the ecosystem’s future,” says Dennis Ford, CEO of Life Science Nation.

Robert Fabregat, CEO of Biocat, said, “LSN has developed a buy-side network that will bring tens of millions of Euros into the BioRegion. Biocat is confident that our rich life science technology ecosystem will capture the attention of global investors and licensing partners and enhance BioRegion’s global footprint.”

Patrik Frei, CEO of Biotechgate, stated, “The Catalan BioRegion, like many others in the European market, is not getting enough of the early-stage investor attention they deserve. Now, startups can attend RESI Europe Barcelona, meet LSN’s global partners, and plug into international RESI events in and outside Europe.”

About RESI Conference Series

RESI is a well-established go-to partnering event series for international scientist-entrepreneurs and fundraising CEOs. It offers a dynamic interactive format featuring one day of face-to-face meetings and two days of global virtual partnering. The RESI Conference Series spans North America, Europe, and Asia, receiving support from governmental agencies, regional international tech hubs, incubators, and accelerators. The 2024 RESI partnering events are scheduled as follows: RESI JPM in San Francisco on January 9th, RESI South Atlanta on March 25th, RESI Europe Barcelona on June 17th, RESI Boston on September 25th, and RESI Asia (location and partner TBD) in November.

About Life Science Nation (LSN)

Life Science Nation (LSN) created the globally recognized Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) Conference Series. LSN’s mission is to connect early-stage life science companies with investors and strategic partners, ultimately fostering innovation and driving advancements in the life sciences industry.

About Biocat

Biocat is a strategic stakeholder and catalyst for promoting, transforming and projecting the Catalan life sciences and health innovation ecosystem, known as the BioRegion of Catalonia. It was established in 2006 as a public-private foundation at the behest of the Government of Catalonia and the Barcelona City Council to identify the needs of the BioRegion and implement a strategy and action plan to maximize the economic and social impact of the sector.

About Biotechgate

Biotechgate is a leading business development and licensing database for the entire life science industry, offering a wealth of information on over 69,000 life science company profiles. Thanks to its unique data sourcing process, the profiles include company descriptions, contact information, product pipeline information, financing rounds, and management details, making it an invaluable resource for life sciences start-ups, pharma companies, investors, and other industry professionals. Biotechgate also features 30,000 licensing deals and a clinical trials database containing over 800,000 records from registries around the world.