Next Phase Newsletter

By Candice He, Vice President of Business Development, Global Investment Strategist, LSN

Partnering opened for our upcoming RESI, Boston, taking place June 5-7, this past Monday. Every RESI, LSN staff are approached by startups asking what they should do to best maximize their experience with partnering. LSN’s unique partnering platform allows companies to make a targeted effort in their outreach, arranging meetings that are much more likely to be a good fit, based on technology, indication and stage of development. Partnering is a lot of work, if done right, but the steps below, when followed, can lead to many productive meetings with investors.

Step 1: Fill in your profile and set your schedule.

Filling out your profile makes it easy for investors to see what you do and reach out to you if they are interested. Furthermore, as you do your outreach, investors can come to your profile to seek more information as they decide if your company is a good fit. A complete profile can help you stand out. Filling out your schedule to match your availability is also important, especially with the virtual partnering available 24 hours a day. As your meetings get scheduled, it could create a negative impression if you miss a meeting, not realizing it was scheduled at an inconvenient time.

Step 2: Do your research; identify the partners who are a good fit

LSN goes to a lot of effort to make sure that the partner profiles are current before registering investors and licensing partners. Using the filters to narrow down the pool to those who are a fit is a great start, but more work is required before you begin outreach. Make an effort to read each profile and further narrow down who is a fit, and who is not. Do not simply reach out to all investors – it makes a negative impression, especially as investors know the information they provided LSN. Investors talk to each other frequently – you don’t want a negative impression of you to spread. With that, you want to make sure to reach out to everyone who is a potential fit – partnering is a numbers game, and the more meetings you request, the more meetings you will get.

Step 3: Do your initial outreach

Your intro message should be prepared before you start your partnering efforts. It should be crisp and concise, giving investors a clear picture of what you do, what makes your company unique, what milestones you’ve hit and what you are looking to raise. It is preferable to customize each message a bit to the specific partner you are reaching out to – by doing so, you will make your message stand out.

Step 4: Follow up!

One of the biggest mistakes we see companies make is to send one message to each investor target and consider their job done. We recommend preparing a series of 4 messages when you prep your marketing collateral, each one highlighting a different aspect of your company – you can never be sure what will spark the partner’s interest. Send them out in the weeks leading up to the conference, following up every few days.

Following these steps will make a difference in your partnering outcomes – we have seen companies go from 1-2 meetings to over 20 by using these steps. Feel free to reach out to your LSN BD representative as well – we are happy to help!

Other resources you can use to help navigate the partnering platform are a detailed tutorial of how to use the system and this RESI Survival Guide. It is not too late to register for RESI and request meetings with the 300+ investors registered for RESI Happy Partnering!

Shawn P. Foley

Interview with Shawn P. Foley, Partner, Burns & Levinson By Caitlin Dolegowski, Marketing Manager, LSN

Caitlin Dolegowski

Caiti Dolegowski (CD): Introduce us to Burns & Levinson and your Life Science industry focus.

Shawn P. Foley (SF): As a Boston-based firm with more than 125 attorneys, we are large enough to represent clients in complex and sophisticated matters, yet small enough to be very responsive, providing direct partner-level, proactive advice. Burns & Levinson provides sophisticated legal and business advice to life sciences companies throughout their life cycle – from technology and product licensing, patent and trademark procurement and enforcement, and strategic partnering and acquisitions to public and private financings, cross-border transactions, and export regulation compliance. We represent life sciences companies and entrepreneurs around the globe in diverse industries including biotechnology, clinical diagnostics, colleges and universities, health care IT, health care providers, medical devices, medical equipment providers, and pharmaceuticals.

CD: Burns & Levinson has been to several RESI conferences across the country. What do you find meaningful from your time spent with us at RESI?

SF: RESI has given me real life exposure to how venture capital and early-stage life sciences companies find and do business with each other. As arcane a legal specialty as intellectual property law is, having even a fundamental knowledge of the mechanics of how my clients can get funded puts me ahead of the curve.

CD: Thank you to Burns & Levinson for being a Gold Sponsor at RESI Boston June. Could you tell us about the workshop you’re preparing for the early-stage companies who are participating?

SF:  My workshop is an encore of the virtual presentation I gave in March. I stress the fundamentals and familiarize the audience with what patents are, how the Patent Office works, the duration and expense of the process, and what proactive steps an Applicant can take to accelerate the process in order to obtain an issued patent that might be necessary to secure critical funding.

CD: Intellectual Property (IP) is a crucial issue for life science startups to understand. In addition, what other services does Burns & Levinson offer within the Life Science industry that early-stage founders and CEOs should consider?

SF: Services to consider include corporate formation, licensing, seed and angel financing, VC financing, private equity, mergers and acquisitions, strategic partnerships and collaboration, privacy and data security, employment, and tax to name a few. We introduce clients to our extensive network of life sciences executives, consultants, venture capitalists, investment bankers, accountants, and entrepreneurs – individuals who can help a company identify licensing or collaboration partners, raise capital, provide research and development services, design and perform clinical studies, and more.

CD: On top of legal services, Burns & Levinson describes themselves as connectors. Tell me about what other types of relationships you all work to facilitate for life science entrepreneurs.

SF: We have hosted rehearsals by entrepreneurs to preselected audiences that include potential investors and other interested parties and provided constructive feedback.

CD: What are some of the main challenges from a legal standpoint that first time entrepreneurs face and may not have expected?

SF: The two primary unexpected challenges include the cost of obtaining comprehensive patent coverage in the relevant market, and obstacles presented during the examination/negotiation process.

CD: Almost all early-stage life science companies are still pre-revenue, and many have raised very little funding. How can they engage top quality legal representation from Burns & Levinson? Do you have any programs for these companies?

SF: We work with these clients to identify the “core” aspect of their technology platform, evaluate it in terms of patentability, and then prepare and file a streamlined initial/priority patent application thus creating a contingent patent asset, all of which will buy the client time in which to secure revenue.

The firm is a collaborative drug development company with a strategic investment arm, relying on functional outsourcing to develop novel medications. The firm uses its expertise in over 110 drug development campaigns to identify exceptional companies in which to invest. The firm is interested in seed-stage therapeutics companies, frequently investing in companies recently spun out of academia, with some proof-of-concept data that are looking to hit milestones needed for a Series A raise. The firm is looking to invest in smaller rounds, with tranches of about $200-300K per year for each portfolio company. The firm will invest in companies based in North America, Europe and Israel.

The firm is interested only in companies developing small molecules or biologics. The firm will invest in companies developing new molecules, but will also consider companies developing therapeutics in the 505(b)(2) pathway. The firm is fairly agnostic to indication, with a slight preference for infectious diseases, with the exception of COVID.

The firm looks to be an active investor, taking a board observer seat, at the minimum, and looking to be involved in the development of the product. Using their expertise, the firm can help companies identify the best partners for any studies they may need to accomplish to advance their product pipeline.

If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com.

A transatlantic investor founded in 2001 is based in Utrecht, the Netherlands with an additional operation in Boston, United States. The firm has raised more than €1.5 million across 3 of their most recently closed funds. The firm is currently investing from its latest fund with over €600M in committed capital. The investment size ranges from €10 million up to €60 million per portfolio company over the lifetime of the investment. The firm is seeking to make 2-3 investments over the next 6-9 months, targeting companies based in the U.S. and Europe.

The firm is currently looking for new investment opportunities in Diagnostics, Medical Devices and Digital Health spaces. The firm is very opportunistic in terms of subsectors and indications. The firm invests in all areas of life sciences, including therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics and digital health companies. In the past, the firm did not look at therapeutics, but is now actively investing in therapeutics companies as well. For diagnostics and medical devices, the firm is interested in companies with commercial-stage/revenue-generating products, but may also look opportunistically at earlier stage technologies. These may include 510K devices where the FDA clearance is very close and/or where reimbursement is the last hurdle and feel confident in the path to reimbursement. For digital health, the firm looks opportunistically at companies beyond the Series A stage. Historically, the firm was active in medical device companies developing orthotic and prosthetic devices, as well as peripheral vascular applications in cardiovascular diseases.

The firm focuses on investments in private companies and it will consider pre-revenue companies, depending on the opportunity. The firm prefers to invest in companies with experienced and committed management team.

If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com.

Located in Zhengzhou, China, a venture capital firm was founded in 2018 and is the corporate venture arm of Autobio Diagnostics. Through the parent company, funding is dedicated towards early-stage life science companies from Seed to Series B. The initial size of investment is less than $50M USD and the firm aims to invest in 3-5 companies in the upcoming year. The firm is open to global opportunities.

The firm will primarily consider therapeutics and diagnostics and is open to medical devices and digital health. Within therapeutics, the firm is opportunistic and looks at technologies from Pre-clinical to Phase I. The firm has more often invested in cell and gene therapies due to interest in vaccines. Within diagnostics, all modalities from in-development to clinical phases will be considered. The firm has more often invested in in-vitro testing kits and point-of-care testing diagnostics. The firm is opportunistic in the medical devices (in-development to clinical phases) and digital health sectors. While open to all indications, the firm has a particular interest in cancer.

The firm acts as a strategic lead investor and values technology with high potential to go through the approval process.

If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com.

A newly established venture capital firm based in the USA  just successfully closed the first round of their fund ($20M target), and made its first investment. The firm invests globally in medically related early-stage companies. Initial size of investment ranges from $250 – 500K. While the firm is focused on USA-based companies, the firm is open to considering companies across the globe.

The firm invests in medtech and digital health companies. While the founder has decades of experience as an oculofacial plastic surgeon, the firm is generally opportunistic and will consider any promising technologies that address unmet medical need. The firm has looked at AI companies, digital health/software companies implementable in medical practices, etc. In terms of stage of development, the firm is open to investing as early as pre-prototype, given that the company has properly researched the idea behind their technology.

The firm has no specific company or management team requirements, and is open to acting as either a lead or co-investor.

If you are interested in more information about this investor and other investors tracked by LSN, please email mandates@lifesciencenation.com.

By Claire Jeong, Chief Conference Officer, Vice President of Investor Research, Asia BD, LSN

With about a month left until RESI Boston June 2023 and a few days before partnering launch, LSN is very excited to announce the list of 50+ finalist companies who will be participating in the Innovator’s Pitch Challenge (IPC)!

The deadline was set earlier than our usual IPC application cycles, but the RESI team still received a record number of applications.

Over 50 companies representing therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics, digital health, and R&D / life science tools across the globe will be delivering a live pitch followed by a Q&A session with a panel of investors and industry experts. In addition, the companies will be presenting a poster showcasing their technology in the exhibit hall. We were very impressed by all of the amazing technologies developed by the IPC finalist companies and we cannot wait to showcase them at the upcoming RESI!

Below are the participating companies. If you are interested in seeing these pitches and engaging in one-on-one partnering with over 1,000 attendees expected to attend, you can register here!

RESI Boston June 2023 IPC Finalists