Next Phase Newsletter

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

Summertime and the living is easy. This old, popular song was clearly not written by a fundraising entrepreneur with an early-stage life science company. While investors, strategic partners, academics, and industry professionals alike put on their out-of-office away message, the startup founder remains in work mode, trying to keep up with and stay ahead of economic trends that could impact their next raise. If you’re spending your summer archiving automatic replies as deadlines loom, know that there is still much you can do to make this time count for you and your team.

If you’re attending RESI Boston, September 21-23 or engaging in networking and partnering once the summer winds down, now is the time to set yourself up for success. There is much to do today for tomorrow to be as profitable as possible:

1. Prepare and update your marketing materials. When was the last time you reviewed your pitch deck, executive summary, data sheets, etc.? These are the materials that investors are going to want to see ahead of that initial meeting. Has your team grown? Have you achieved any meaningful milestones? Have you benefited from recent press or awards? Have you built new collaborations and partnerships that would entice more investment? It’s important to keep these materials updated and readily available for that next connection.
2. Build a list of potential partners who are a fit for you. This is especially important if you’re hitting the road and looking to partner and network this fall. Fundraising is a numbers game and now is the time to build up a global target list of investors who are a fit for your product set and stage of development. Answering these questions ahead of outreach has the potential to limit ghosting from investors.
3. Get your story straight. Understanding your company story and being able to tell it effectively is essential in business. Leaving pitch sessions and investor meetings with a strong sense of who your company is and what it stands for can provide you with an edge over the competition that blends into a competitive market. Many founders unwisely assume that their product and technology is exceptional, and the value should be obvious and speak for itself. That’s a risky move in assuming investors who are a fit for you aren’t also courting your competition. Having a strong brand identity is central to standing out in a crowded space, outlasting the competition, and surviving a transitioning market. Learn to communicate it well and watch how it can change the quality of your meetings.

These are all essential to successful fundraising but contain many soft skills that do not always receive the attention and practice necessary in order to see the benefits. If you’re frustrated by the current pace of your fundraising, take advantage of the time you must make sure you’re walking into a new season of networking, partnering, and pitching with your best foot forward.

Still haven’t signed up for RESI Boston, September 21-23? There are only a couple weeks left to save on early bird rates! Sign up today to save $300!

By Alexander Vassallo, Manager of Business Development West Coast (US), Entrepreneurial Education Lead, LSN

The best entrepreneurs are the best storytellers. Irrespective of the industry or discipline you find yourself in, the ability to deliver a compelling and powerful narrative of your unique technology or product, highlighting clearly why you’ve undertaken a new business venture, is one of the most important skills a fundraising executive must have. Last week’s fundraising bootcamp – “It All Starts with the Story” – delivered by members of LSN’s BD team, Greg Mannix and Alex Vassallo, offered a deep dive into one of the most critical determinants of a startup entity’s success.

Potential partners you may approach during your global fundraising initiatives will be looking for entrepreneurs who have not only managed to portray their company’s unique story into a cogent message threaded through multiple modalities, but they will be looking for authenticity. Finding your voice and being able to inspire partners to learn more about your company is part and parcel of undergoing the transformation from aspiring scientist-entrepreneur to successful life science executive. However, only those entrepreneurs who truly commit to the process and come to terms with the importance of entrepreneurial agency will be the ones who find success in the shark tank.

Finding your voice and developing a compelling narrative goes beyond the obvious benefits of highlighting your startup’s unique value points to potential partners in a meeting. In fact, undertaking this process successfully prepares you to speak different languages within the context of a deal, allocation, or partnership. And by different languages, we don’t mean Spanish or French, we mean business and science. From speaking generally to the gatekeepers who will evaluate the possibility of progressing your investment opportunity down the deal chain, to the navigators and evaluators with whom you can speak more scientifically, and eventually the decision maker with whom you will be speaking a heavily business-centric language, if you can net out your company’s unique story in as little as a 5-7 word tagline and as extensively as a 2-page executive summary and a 10-12 slide pitch deck, you truly will have found your voice.

Most importantly to consider when approaching your potential partners, even more so than the estimated ROI of your opportunity or the unmet medical need being addressed, is the fact that investors will always bet on the team. Investing in a company is commonly referred to as getting into bed with the company or investor; this is a relationship that could last anywhere between 5-15 years, and unless investors see that you have an inspired team behind you that shares your vision and believes in the same compelling narrative, they will be dissuaded from viewing your investment opportunity as a tangible relationship that can grow and develop throughout the years. So not only do you need to get your story straight to bring to potential partners, but to be successful in the early-stage life science arena, you must be able to inspire your colleagues to share in your company’s narrative.

All of this and more was covered in LSN’s Fundraising Bootcamp, “It All Starts with the Story”. If you are interested in learning more, have a look at the recording of last week’s session. We are the industry leaders in connecting early-stage life science firms with active investors and strategic partners, and it is our pleasure to share the story of what we have learnt over the past decade with the next generation of leading industry professionals.

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

When starting a fundraising journey, it is important for startups to keep an open mind for any relevant source of funding or means of advancing their technology. Whether a standard equity investment, convertible note, joint partnership, licensing deal, or non-dilutive funding, it is necessary for startups to understand all options, weigh the pros and cons, and find the best way forward for the company.

Non-dilutive funding is a great option for early-stage startups for many reasons. First, it provides a great way to advance to value inflection points without reducing their equity stake in the company. Second, investors like to see non-dilutive funding because it proves that, in many instances, experts in the relevant field believe strongly in the technology and its promise. Additionally, investors benefit from the lack of equity dilution and can indicate a better ROI for them. Lastly, non-dilutive funding can serve as a bridge when a company is having difficulty with fundraising, helping them reach that milestone that investors want to see before investing.

There are many sources for non-dilutive funding – this includes regional organizations, non-profits and government entities. These grants often require an extensive application process, with several specific deadlines each year. Many of these organizations also have support staff that can help companies improve their odds of getting funded. Doing your research for these programs can play a large role in your success – but the benefits are worth the effort! Keep an eye out for these opportunities, and remember to check all potential avenues, including your regional economic initiatives, government organizations promoting startup advancement, and patient non-profit groups or foundations supporting the indication you are addressing. Good luck with your journey!