Next Phase Newsletter

By Dennis Ford, Founder and CEO of Life Science Nation, Creator of the RESI Conference Series

Life Science Nation (LSN) is the leader in connecting early-stage life science and healthcare startups with capital and licensing deals. While academia remains one of the most powerful institutions for innovative tech, the main challenge we see with the founders is that they are entering into a new business universe, more specifically, a startup business universe. They enter this universe with powerful technology that they hope to translate and commercialize. But first-timers are often lacking the rudimentary skillset to succeed at launching a startup. These often-overlooked aspects, which LSN refers to as the tactical “nuts and bolts,” consist of getting their story straight, identifying partners that fit their stage of development and product, and messaging these potential partners through all the different modalities available today.

The big shift from academic to founder includes a basic understanding of business development, marketing, and sales, all of which are needed to find capital investors, licensing partners, and product collaboration partners. When it comes to partnering, it’s important to understand that the very first step is identifying and curating a list of potential partner profiles that are a fit for the startup’s stage of development and product set. Developing this list is the singular most important step, and it must be done thoroughly. Once this is done, the second and third steps come naturally. The second step is developing a system to track contacts and keep the list updated, and the third consists of outreach and following up. Founders who have completed step one must keep their list organized and in a safe and accessible location (not Excel). I’m talking about a CRM. From here, they can start to curate and track partners. Deals can take anywhere from 9-18 months, from start to finish, and keeping the partner profiles updated and associated tasks and deliverables current. It is imperative to be efficient and organized in running a global partnering campaign.

Through its events, products, and services, LSN has spent the past decade guiding academic innovators and teaching these basic business development concepts and tools that prepare them for their foray into the early-stage startup environment and fundraising. The Valley of Death doesn’t need to be the end of a great idea and LSN is a trusted partner in that process. Contact our business development team to learn more about how our events, products, and services can help connect you to the next step along your early-stage journey.

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!
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Atheneos Ventures is a healthcare-focused, evergreen incubator fund based in the San Francisco Bay Area, going forward focusing on orphan drugs and rare diseases via a holding company-fund business model pioneered by the firm in 2009 for common diseases. This new entity is called Atheneos Global, a pathfinder company, focused on orphan diseases is being launched in Q1, 2018. However, the firm collaborates with an affiliate, Spire BioVentures, on projects that are not in the orphan diseases space.

The firm has a very high threshold for working with companies, and makes most of its investments in companies with which there is some type of relationship, but it is open to new opportunities as well on a case-by-case basis. The firm is mainly focused on therapeutics and will consider platform technologies, however only platforms capable of generating drug candidates. The firm’s investment size varies widely depending on the needs of the company, and expected to commit between $5M-$10M for the life of the company (from start to exit). The capital structure depends on the financing round, with convertible notes being preferred for seed rounds and equity for everything else (no debt financing) with the preferred entry point being seed or Series A. Atheneos only co-invests, and does not lead rounds unless the key principals are part of the founding entrepreneurs. The firm has some limitations on geographic exposure and will consider companies in the United States, Canada, Singapore, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland or the United Kingdom.

Atheneos will invest in therapeutics (no specific indication) that treats orphan diseases with strong scientific rationale. For Atheneos, not all orphan indications are rare or ultra-rare since the future is fragmentation of common indications characterized thru genomics or proteomics profile. The firm is interested in earlier stage assets and will consider anything from pre-clinical up to Phase IIa. In the past, the firm has invested in therapeutics (a single asset or a company with multiple products), which treat unmet needs in glaucoma, thrombosis (in particular patients with prosthetic heart valves and renal dysfunction), atrial fibrillation, inflammatory disorders (such as ulcerative colitis), gastrointestinal disorders (such as constipation, reflux disease) as well as a small molecule to treat neurovascular disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, wet-age related macular degeneration. Atheneos will consider early-stage therapeutics to treat orphan disease including small molecules, and novel biologics (including “biobetters”) that are likely to obtain or already have issued composition of matter patents and platform technologies (that could generate novel drug candidates) with least interest in repurposed drugs, biosimilars and cell/gene therapy candidates. The firm at present is not interested in diagnostics, medical devices or digital health but may work thru its affiliate, Spire BioVentures, for projects in this area.

Atheneos does not have any specific management team requirements, and will work with all entrepreneurs. A board seat is not always required, but is not uncommon.

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