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

Life Science Nation is pleased to share an exciting opportunity for the longevity and age-tech startup community: The National Institute on Aging is hosting a startup challenge, The Healthy Aging Start-Up Challenge and Bootcamp to Foster Diversity and Accelerate Innovation, and applications are open! Apply by May 23 to win a cash prize, one-on-one mentoring, and access to an entrepreneur bootcamp!

About the Challenge

The Healthy Aging Start-Up Challenge and Bootcamp to Foster Diversity and Accelerate Innovation invites applications from diverse researchers and entrepreneurs with a demonstrated need for entrepreneurial resources. Applicants should have innovative ideas for science-driven technologies and products that aim to promote healthy aging or address aging-related diseases or conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. There is special interest in participants and ideas that have the potential to increase the diversity of NIA-funded small business research and development. NIA strongly encourages applications from researchers and entrepreneurs from groups underrepresented in the U.S. biomedical sciences and in life science entrepreneurship.

Up to 20 finalists will be selected to participate in a 4-month entrepreneurial bootcamp designed to provide resources to help overcome barriers to launching a start-up and obtaining funding. The bootcamp will include entrepreneur workshops, mentorship, networking opportunities, and grant application skill building. Participation will be mostly virtual and will require finalists to commit approx. 4-6 hours per week plus one 3-to 4-day in-person networking event scheduled for September 19-22, 2022 in Boston (travel expenses paid by NIA). At the conclusion of the bootcamp, finalists will pitch to be selected as one of up to five winners to each receive a $60,000 cash prize. 

Applicants are encouraged to attend the Pre-Application Webinar scheduled for April 20, 2022, at 2 PM ET to learn more about the Challenge.

Calling for Mentors

Mentorship is a critical component of this program. As participants will be learning to refine their idea, develop a pitch deck, identify markets and investors, and launch a new life science venture, the NIA is seeking volunteer mentors with an interest in diversity who are passionate about sharing their expertise in areas like entrepreneurship, investing, product development, digital health, and/or science and technology related to aging and Alzheimer’s disease. Mentoring relationships with individuals of shared backgrounds and experiences are especially beneficial to mentee success, so the NIA is especially excited to recruit mentors with unique or underrepresented backgrounds. Please share the link below for mentors with anyone who you feel may be a good fit.

Mentor applications are due May 2, so apply today!

By Rory McCann, Marketing Manager & Conference Producer, LSN

Digital RESI returns June 7-9 with virtual panel discussions designed to engage early-stage entrepreneurs and life science investors on strategies for success in fundraising. These conversations explore topics that are relevant to the early-stage ecosystem and provide insight to founders seeking capital and channel partners.

In addition to some topics back by popular demand, new topics will be introduced, such as partnerships with small and mid-sized pharma and the intersection of healthcare IT and medtech. Additionally, there will be two new topics in both the AI and longevity tracks, in addition to their popular Tales from the Road entrepreneur panels. 

Take advantage of these conversations and bring these perspectives into your own fundraising journey. Super early bird rates apply until April 15, so register early to save $300!

Digital RESI June 2022 Agenda

	Tuesday (June 7)	Wednesday (June 8)	Thursday (June 9)
10AM EDT	Innovator’s Pitch Challenge Session #1	Innovator’s Pitch Challenge Session #5	Innovator’s Pitch Challenge Session #9
11AM EDT	Beyond Big Pharma Panel Partnering & Perspectives from Small- and Mid-Sized Biotech	AI vs. Life Science Panel Which Comes First in Early-Stage Investment?	Age-Tech Care Management Panel Technology Improving the Lives of Older Adults
12PM EDT	Entrepreneur Workshop	Entrepreneur Workshop	Entrepreneur Workshop
1PM EDT	Angels Investors Panel Explaining the Process of Engagement	Corporate VC Panel The Changing Landscape & New Opportunities	Impact Investors Panel More Than Financial Returns
	Innovator’s Pitch Challenge Session #2	Innovator’s Pitch Challenge Session #6	Innovator’s Pitch Challenge Session #10
2PM EDT	The Neuroscience of Aging Panel Aging Impact on the Nervous System	Asia Cross-Border Panel Building Global Partnerships	Team, Tech, & Traction in Early-Stage AI Panel Building Your Startup as a Triple Threat
3PM EDT	Innovator’s Pitch Challenge Session #3	Innovator’s Pitch Challenge Session #7	Software-Enabled Medical Devices Investing at the Intersection of Digital Health and Medtech
4PM EDT	Tales from the Road: AI Innovation in Healthcare Standing Out in a Growing Field	Tales from the Road: Age-Related Diseases Developing Prevention & Treatments	Tales from the Road: Biotech and MedTech Innovators Entrepreneurs on Their Fundraising Journey
5PM EDT	Innovator’s Pitch Challenge Session #4	Innovator’s Pitch Challenge Session #8	Innovator’s Pitch Challenge Session #11

By Karen Deyo, Director of Investor Research, Israel BD, LSN

Digital RESI March is in its final stretch, with many successful panels, workshops, and pitch sessions complementing three days full of partnering meetings. For companies and investors attending RESI, it has become a forum to build and maintain relationships, using RESI’s unique partnering platform to learn detailed information about each other that is frequently not readily available online. Whether meeting within RESI, or scheduling meetings in the weeks following, RESI provides its constituents with an opportunity to use a targeted approach to finding partners who are a fit for them.

Even with a return to in-person events, RESI attendees have shown that virtual events, or even a virtual component to events, have become a critical component of early-stage partnering. Virtual events have allowed companies and investors to expand their partnering activities, even if their schedule is too busy to allow travel. Furthermore, companies can now stretch their fundraising budgets further. There is no replacement for in-person events, and the ability to attend networking events and the connections formed there will remain an important part of any company’s fundraising journey, but virtual partnering will remain an important part in expanding a company’s reach.

The Digital RESI model would not have seen the success it has over the past couple of years without the enthusiastic support of our community. Thank you to the startups, investors, and service providers who return to RESI and add value to the early-stage ecosystem Check out our attendee breakdown from March:

If you missed Digital RESI March, do not worry! Digital RESI returns June 7-9 – Sign up today for super early bird rates and save $300!

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

For the past decade, Life Science Nation (LSN) has worked with thousands of life science start-ups on building connections with investors and strategic partnerships through the Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) conference series and the LSN Investor Database. LSN has developed rich insights and strategies to help early-stage founders on their fundraising campaigns and efficient partnering. It is our goal to help the community thrive by delivering a series of free fundraising bootcamps as companions to the RESI series. These bootcamps cover many of these topics:

• Identifying your investors and building your global target list (GTL)
• Preparing for the Innovator’s Pitch Challenge (IPC)
• Keys to Successful Partnering
• Branding & Messaging: From Seed to Series B

Access recordings of former fundraising bootcamps!

Digital RESI March recently featured a popular bootcamp, Branding & Messaging: From Seed to Series B. This session informs scientist-entrepreneurs on how to tell their company story through a cogent set of marketing materials to successfully bridge the gap from academia to start-up and move into the business development domain.

Stay tuned for the schedule of newest fundraising bootcamps this spring! If you’re interested in LSN’s lineup of entrepreneur education programs, please feel free to contact our business development team.

Want to learn more? The Business Development team at Life Science Nation is available to answer questions and share additional details to help you meet your partnership goals!
International	East Coast (USA) & China	Midwest (USA) & Canada	West Coast  (USA)
Greg Mannix Vice President International Business Development Book a Meeting Email Me	Candice He VP, Business Development & Global Investment Strategist Book a Meeting Email Me	Antoinette Lowre Manager of Business Development Book a Meeting Email Me	Alexander Vassallo Manager of Business Development Book a Meeting Email Me

By Dennis Ford, Founder and CEO of Life Science Nation, Creator of the RESI Conference Series; Caitlin Dolegowski, Marketing Specialist, LSN

Finding the right capital or channel partner is a numbers game, which means that you need to get in front of potential partners regularly. This is why the Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) conference takes place five times each year. You never know when a connection will surface that leads to a partnership, so you must be in the game to make it happen.

RESI is different from other partnering conferences in that it does real-time dynamic matching. The team at Life Science Nation (LSN) pre-loads investor profiles from mandates collected and stored in the LSN Investor Database. That is a big deal because (at most partnering events) investors typically have very light or even empty profiles. Because LSN has all the investors and licensing partners’ updated profiles in our database, this makes a huge difference in the quality of RESI meetings.

LSN can match based on fit, which in turn means great meetings can happen as both parties are looking for each other. Instead of booking a meeting and realizing there is no fit (which is common at other partnering conferences), RESI is unique because:

1. There is the option to filter partners by capital investment and licensing mandates and match on stage of development and product.
2. Most investor and licensing partner profiles are uploaded from our curated partnering database, so the user does not need to update their profile, unless they choose to, which has been a game-changer.
3. Scientist-entrepreneurs and fundraising CEOs can opt to upgrade to a premier profile as part of RESI Premier Partnering to access deeper detailed investor mandates, which also include valuable contact information.

Another facet of Digital RESI March is the variety of panels focused on educating the entrepreneur on key components to partnering in the life science and health care early-stage arena. Hear straight from relevant investors and industry experts. These panels are created with the same intent and spirit of our partnering platform – To bring quality content with the early-stage life science entrepreneur in mind. Hear best practices, lessons learned, and valuable insight from our panelists. These panels are available to attendees live or their recordings are available on the meeting platform. Check out the panelists presenting at Digital RESI March below.

Tuesday, March 22, 11 AM EDT

Early-Stage Therapeutics

Bringing the Newest Therapies to the Clinic

Yaniv Sneor Founder Mid Atlantic Bio Angels (Moderator)	Cynthia Cai, PhD, MBA Venture Partner Viva BioInnovator	Catello Somma, MBA Associate ;TVM Capital Life Science
Scott Weiner Partner, Amzak Health	Sa’ar Yaniv Director, Business Development, Fortress Biotech

Tuesday, March 22, 2 PM EDT

Digital Health & Wellness

Silver-Tech Focusing on Preventative Care

Brenda Hogan, MBA Senior Investment Manager Ontario Capital Growth Corporation (OCGC) (Moderator)	Moshe Bellows, JD General Partner Maccabee Ventures	Seemant Jauhari Managing Partner HealthXCapital

Tuesday, March 22, 3 PM EDT

Seed Funds

Investing in the Earliest Stage Companies

Andy Merken Partner & Co-Chair, Life Sciences Burns & Levinson (Moderator)	Dipty Desai, PhD Co-Chair, TiE Global Health TiE Angels	Matt Martin, PhD, MBA Venture Partner Pathway Bioventures
	Gita Reinitz Principal (NFX Bio) NFX

Tuesday, March 22, 4 PM EDT

Tales from the Road: AI Innovators on their Fundraising Journey

Chelsea Sumner, PharmD NALA Healthcare AI Startups Lead NVIDIA (Moderator)	Davide Vigano Co-Founder & CEO Sensoria	Ramji Srinivasan Co-Founder & CEO Teiko.bio
Himanshu Misra, PhD CEO Enliten AI	Leila Pirhaji, PhD Founder & CEO ReviveMed

Wednesday, March 23, 10AM EDT

Mental & Behavioral Health Panel

Investing in Technologies that Help Manage Well-Being

Lana Ghanem, MBA Managing Director Hikma Ventures	Raj Pallapothu Managing Director Bio 9 Ventures	Mayank Taneja, MBA Director, Venture Investments OSF Healthcare Ventures
	Charlie Hartwell Operating Partner Bridge Builders Collaborative

Wednesday, March 23, 11 AM EDT

Age-Tech Devices

Seniors Embrace Innovative Medtech for Better Quality of Life

Lise Pape Trustee Future Care Capital	Rick Robinson Vice President, Startup Engagement AARP Innovation Labs	Clarence Tan, PhD, MBA Co-Founder ABBY by GOGOTECH

Wednesday, March 23, 2 PM EDT

Medtech Strategics

Large Corporations Seeking External Innovation in MedTech

David Uffer Senior Partner Alira Health Ventures (Moderator)	Lana Caron, MBA Innovation Lead Philips Health Technology Ventures	Juan Cueva, PhD, MBA Director, New Ventures & Early Innovation Partnering Johnson & Johnson Innovation
	Tali Hirsch Director, Venture Investments Fresenius Medical Care Ventures

Wednesday, March 23, 3 PM EDT

AI Drug Discovery and Development

How AI is Accelerating Therapeutic Advancement

Rafael Rosengarten, PhD Co-Founder, Board Director & Executive Committee Member The Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare (Moderator)	Galym Imanbayev, MD, MBA Partner Lightspeed Venture Partners	Linda Li Managing Director Vickers Venture Partners
	Thea Pham, PhD Associate, Investments OCV Partners

Wednesday, March 23, 4 PM EDT

Tales from the Road: Biotech and MedTech Innovators on their Fundraising Journey

Greg Mannix VP of International Business Development Life Science Nation (Moderator)	Russell McAllister, MBA CEO Bold Therapeutics	Brian Hess, MBA CEO RevBio
	Alan Lucas Co-Founder, CEO & Director Navigation Sciences

Thursday, March 24, 11 AM EDT

Precision Medicine

Improving Outcomes through a Patient-Tailored Approach

David Crean President & CEO Coast BioVentures	Niall Kerrigan Program Manager Plug and Play Ventures	Eric de la Fortelle Managing Partner Cathay Capital

Thursday, March 24, 1 PM EDT

Cell & Gene Therapy

The Next Generation of Therapeutic Technologies

Nishta Rao Managing Director – Life Science First Republic Bank (Moderator)	Cynthia Lavoie President & Chief Investment Officer Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine	Scott Galasinski Global Head, Business Development, Licensing & Strategy, Biopharmaceuticals R&D AstraZeneca
Megan Krench Director, Investments Sanofi Ventures	Yury Kukushkin Investment Director JDRF T1D Fund	Alicia Yin, PhD Vice President 6 Dimensions Capital

Thursday, March 24, 2 PM EDT

Defining AI Investment

AI-Exclusive Investors Share Their Perspectives

Amit Garg, MBA Co-Founder & Managing Partner Tau Ventures (Moderator)	Navid Alipour, JD, MBA Managing Partner Analytics Ventures	Isabel Fox General Partner Outsized Ventures
	Gayathri Radhakrishnan, MBA Senior Director, Venture Capital – AI Fund Micron Technology

Thursday, March 24, 4 PM EDT

Tales from the Road: Age-Tech Innovators on their Fundraising Journey

Jackie Marshall-Cyrus Director Jackie Marshall-Cyrus & Associates Ltd (Moderator)	Char Hu, PhD Co-Founder & CEO The Helper Bees	Meredith Oppenheim Founder & CEO Vitality Society
	Kyle Rand Co-Founder & CEO Rendever

By Antoinette Lowre, Manager of Business Development, LSN

Digital RESI March starts next week, but the team knows that we cannot host five RESI events each year with the support, dedication, and enthusiasm of our sponsors! With their insight and involvement, RESI continues to bring panels, workshops, and the Innovator’s Pitch Challenge to the early-stage startup community to help them fundraise and grow successfully. Get to know the Digital RESI March sponsors and check out their workshops taking place virtually next week!

Title Sponsors

Gold Sponsors

Exhibitors

If you’re looking to get involved in the early-stage startup community and share your brand and mission with the RESI network, view our sponsorship brochure to learn more about sponsorship opportunities at Digital RESI in 2022!