By Dennis Ford, Founder and CEO of Life Science Nation, Creator of the RESI Conference Series
The secret is out, and LSN sees firsthand that the Southeastern states have been an under served nascent marketplace for discovering early-stage technology assets. Investors have told me that “it’s booming in the South,” with highly competitive technology assets at more reasonable valuations, making for a dynamic marketplace for identifying and investing in early-stage companies across drugs, devices, diagnostics, and digital health.
Over the last six months, I have become familiar with the seven southeast states (GA, VA, NC, SC, AL, TN, and FL) partnered with LSN as co-developers of the RESI South March 25-27th event in Atlanta. A common theme is running through this multi-state alliance: each state seems to have broken the code that to create a life science innovation economy, you need the buy-in and deep participation from academia, industry, and government. In this cross-sector leadership dynamic, the magic happens with a concentration of industry players, a highly educated workforce, and a supportive environment for startups and established companies where innovation can flourish.
Each state in the southeast alliance checks off all the boxes with a preponderance of diverse clusters throughout their region, a high concentration of BioTech, MedTech, and HealthCare companies, and strong support from hospitals, colleges, and research institutions contribute to its dynamic life sciences landscape.
I have witnessed firsthand how each state has a unique and dynamic ecosystem of government, academic, and industry stakeholders working together. Each state’s life sciences industry is not exclusively based in one metro area. There are multiple clusters around the state. This geographical diversity has contributed to the industry’s dynamism.
The last puzzle piece is investment and incentives, and we are seeing a combination of grants, loans, capital infrastructure investments, tax incentives, and workforce programs. These investments have created thousands of jobs and propelled the development of new therapies, devices, and scientific advancements that improve patient health and well-being in the Southeast region and worldwide.
LSN has an investor and licensing partner network of over four thousand entities that leverage LSN and the RESI conference series to identify and invest in companies for their portfolios and product pipelines. RESI South is currently seeing a brisk signup rate and is expecting 300 investors and licensing partners to participate in the one-day face-to-face meeting in Atlanta and the two-day virtual global meeting on March 25- 27.
Vanessa Williamson, CEO, Gliachem:“A 4-minute pitch is not easy. There is an opportunity to add a bunch more content than you would with just a standard elevator pitch, but you can’t overload. Coming up with a succinct message that focused on the problem, solution, differentiation and market opportunity was key. As tempting as it was to get deep into the science, we focused on the business opportunity. The LSN and RESI resources were also invaluable. We attended the prep session you offered and followed the recommendations with respect to focus.”
Dr. Alberto Ramos Vernieri, Chief Scientific Officer, Untech:“This prize is exactly that because the judges of the contest are people with a lot of experience and well recognized in the field. Each question from this kind of person is always useful to learn more about those things you can’t learn in other ways.”
Dr. Gennady Bratslavsky, Co-Founder & Partner at Avicella Capital:“An opportunity for us to have a good deep look during the presentations. It also gives an opportunity to provide feedback…It is an opportunity to put their best foot forward and an opportunity to have great exposure.”
David Medina, PhD, Co-founder at Novaurum Biosciences:“I had the opportunity to pitch for the first time at RESI in Boston. I was impressed by the quality of the questions I was asked by the investor judges, and it was great to be able to continue the conversation over a drink at the end of the day. We are currently still in conversation with some of them. I also think it helped us get more meetings with investors at RESI. A great experience!” 
