Next Phase Newsletter

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

Last week, Greg Mannix and I hosted a workshop titled Branding and Messaging from Seed to Series B, aimed at helping startups know the value of marketing collateral, what to use, and how to use it. Creating good marketing collateral is a long and evolving process – you are never done; you constantly update and improve it as time goes on and your company develops. New milestones replace old and new evidence takes center stage, and as you gain more expertise, your story matures.

One key takeaway from the workshop is that you need to have the whole package of marketing collateral, and that the story should be consistent throughout. This means having a tagline, an elevator pitch, an executive summary, a one-page tear sheet and a pitch deck crafted from the same main message, condensed to varying lengths. Furthermore, this story should give investors the whole picture, covering the three main pillars:

• Your technology (what is it, what makes it unique, what problem are you solving and how are you improving over existing options)
• Your market (what competitors are there, both on the market and still in development, what is the market size, including TAM, SAM, and SOM, how long to reach market and what is your path to entry)
• Your business (regulatory/reimbursement, IP status, exit strategy, and management team).

Clearly, this is a lot of information, and not something you can cover in great depth in your marketing collateral. The goal in this is to give investors just enough to give them an accurate picture so that they can get more details in future meetings if they are a fit.

Another major piece is knowing your audience and tailoring your language accordingly. Does the person you are speaking to have a financial background, or a science-related PhD? You tailor your language accordingly – you don’t want to overload someone who may not be an expert in the field with overly technical scientific jargon. At the same time, if the person has a PhD in a related field, you don’t want to waste time oversimplifying and giving basic information that they already know. Finding a simple, concise description for your company can be difficult, but it serves as a great starting point – something everyone can understand without being too basic, and a great starting off point should you want to get into a more technical discussion. Ultimately, you, or a member of your team, should be able to cover both the science and the business in depth, as both will be needed in the stages of due diligence.

As I mentioned above, your marketing collateral will be constantly changing – you will hone it as you have more conversations and get more feedback. Take note of any frequently asked questions – these are areas you may want to expand upon in your marketing collateral if they come up often enough. A final note, especially to the earliest stage companies: investors understand that you will not have answers to all these questions – for some, you are simply too early. However, you are never too early to consider your options and possible approaches. Giving an investor a well thought out and reasoned answer for a possible solution in the future will go a long way to reassure them that you are the right person to partner with.

Life Science Nation is offering one final workshop, Keys to Successful Partnering on August 17 at 1 PM EDT. Sign up to join for free!

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

Partnering opens for RESI Boston Monday, August 29! The partnering platform opens early to give attendees the opportunity to fill out their company profiles and start booking meetings with investors based on several relevant criteria, including location, sector, indication, stage of development, and more. To help attendees best understand and utilize the powerful tools within the partnering platform, Life Science Nation is hosting two free partnering tutorials August 31 and September 6.

While the partnering platform is an exceptional tool designed to match potential partners for well-fitting meetings, it’s the founder, team, and technology that cross the finish line. Learning how to optimize partnering for success will help entrepreneurs stand out, save time, and make meaningful connections at RESI. We hope you’ll join us and learn how the right partnering platform can optimize your early-stage fundraising strategy.

By Rory McCann, Director of Marketing & Conference Producer, LSN

As exciting as it is to bring RESI back to Boston after more than two years of virtual conferences, the soul of the event isn’t in the location, but in the faces and voices of the community of early-stage players who attend. As organizers, it’s essential that those speaking at RESI represent the experiences, challenges, and successes of the industry in order to celebrate the accomplishments and recognize areas of growth. Panel recruitment remains ongoing as we seek out these speakers and their stories through early-stage investment and entrepreneurship. Check out below some of the faces of RESI Boston speakers, who will be attending in-person September 21-22 at the Westin Copley Place Hotel.

Charles Cameron Founder and Managing Director Hub Angels Investment Group	Kalyan Chakravarthy Senior Manager, External Innovation Ipsen S.A.	Elizabeth Cho-Fertikh Co-Founder & Managing Director Meda Angels
Alicia Chong Rodriguez Founder & CEO BloomerTech	Steve Cohen Executive Director, External Scientific Affairs Daiichi Sankyo	Bruce Cohen Venture Partner Xeraya Capital
Anthony DePasqua President EnClear Therapies	Lisa Fabiny Operations Manager SENS Research Foundation	Dave Fogel Member of Screening & Due Diligence Committees Mass Medical Angels
Sam Goldberger Co-Founder & Managing Partner Ambit Health Ventures	Nan-Wei Gong CEO Figur8	Sherry Grisewood Senior Investment Officer FoxHill Asset Management
Tomoko Ishikura Partner Kicker Ventures	Ray Jang Associate Primetime Partners	Arianne Kidder Principal Seae Ventures
Jinwoo Kim CEO HAII	Vic Lanio Partner Flare Capital Partners	Wasim Malik Co-Founder and Managing Partner Iaso Ventures
Jasmina Marjanovic Director AbbVie Ventures	Andrew Meadow General Partner Health Innovation Capital	Andy Merken Partner, Corporate and Securities Co-Chair, Life Sciences Burns & Levinson
Tom Miller Managing Partner GreyBird Ventures	Ron Paliwoda Founder and President Paliwoda Group	Jane Rho Investor, Venture Fund DaVita Venture Group
Maria Shepherd President & CEO Medi-Vantage	Chelsea Sumner NALA Healthcare AI Startups Lead NVIDIA Corporation	David Uffer Senior Partner Alira Health Ventures
Matt Weinberg Partner Max Ventures	Sam Yang Managing Director and Co-Founder Xandar Kardian

There is still time to register before partnering opens August 29. Sign up to attend in-person and participate in live partnering, panels, workshops, networking events, and more! Can’t travel? You can still register for a one-day, virtual-only partnering experience on September 23. Contact us to learn more and see which option is best for you!

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, Entrepreneurial Education Lead Book a Meeting Email Me