Last Chance to Pitch!

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

claireThere are still pitching slots available for Digital RESI, June 7-9! The deadline for the Innovator’s Pitch Challenge (IPC) is tomorrow, April 29. The IPC is a great opportunity to showcase your company and stand out among RESI’s community of investors and strategic partners. A recent IPC winner spoke with our team to share their process as a first-time RESI attendee and pitching company. Check out Bold Therapeutics’ interview here.

The IPC includes unique benefits to maximize your pitching experience:

  • Dedicated Webpage: Each IPC finalist company will have their own dedicated landing page, which will include a short pitch video, slide deck, executive summary, and other marketing collateral they wish to highlight that is relevant to their company.
  • Enhanced Visibility: The RESI live agenda will open a few days prior to the conference for judges and attendees to review finalist company materials. The agenda will remain live for a month following the event.
  • Live Q&A: IPC finalists are grouped with other companies based on sector and technology and will be assigned to a one-hour Q&A session with a panel of investors and industry experts who actively invest in and work with similar technology. All judges are instructed to review pitch videos before the session, enabling them to ask more targeted, high-level questions. After the session is over, IPC finalists are connected with participating investors via email.

The IPC has grown into one of RESI’s most popular and valuable features. The deadline to apply is tomorrow, Friday, April 29.

*A one-day or three-day registration + $800 pitch fee are required to participate.

Fulbright Scholars Learn to Fly with Life Science Nation

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

“If I told you to jump out of an airplane without a parachute, would you do it?”

This was not the first question that the Fulbright scholars attending the Boston seminar were expecting to receive, but after a 3-day entrepreneurial masterclass workshop delivered by Life Science Nation (LSN), it was a question all the scholars had an answer to. Starting a company is one of the most difficult tasks an entrepreneur can undertake, however, with the right mindset and genuine entrepreneurial agency, your chances of success can greatly improve.

The Fulbright Commission invited LSN to help equip the next generation of aspiring scientist-entrepreneurs with some of the skills they would need to be industry leaders in the life science arena. Led by LSN Founder and CEO, Dennis Ford, alongside the VP of Business Development, Candice He, and the BD Manager for the West Coast, Alex Vassallo, the Boston Fulbright seminar, April 21-23, was an engaging experience that this year’s cohort of scholars would not soon forget.

Participants were given an opportunity to explore and examine the process of taking life-saving inventions from ideation and creation stages to the public market. The life science domain is unique in that a startup entity’s journey starts with academic tech transfer agreements, which lead to regional and national government non-dilutive funding followed by capital investors and licensing partners. This entrepreneurial masterclass highlighted the core elements of launching an early-stage company’s branding and messaging in conjunction with a global partnering campaign. The theme of the workshop was finding your entrepreneurial voice, developing a compelling narrative, and then clearly telling the story of team, product, company milestones, and partnering strategy.

The 3-day entrepreneurial workshop concluded with an impressive pitch competition that highlighted not only the talent and entrepreneurial agency that the Fulbright scholars possessed, but that the key take-home messages of the masterclass had been well integrated and understood. We can expect many of these students to be industry leaders in the coming years and were honored to be a part of their journey. Whilst starting a company in many ways is comparable to jumping out of an airplane without a parachute, the scholars of the Fulbright Commission are taking the plunge.

Hot Investor Mandate: USA VC Firm Seeks Technologies in the Convergence of Life Sciences and AI, Investing Up to $10M in Devices, Digital Health, Advanced Materials, and More

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A venture capital firm with multiple offices in the USA partners with and invests in entrepreneurs who are developing breakthrough products leveraging the convergence of biology and/or hardware with advanced computation and AI (referred to as Convergent Tech). The firm employs a multi-stage investment strategy, encompassing both seed and venture investment programs, and assist entrepreneurs with recruiting and customer and supply chain business development. The firm is generally a lead investor, and invests up to $10 million per opportunity; the firm also has an active seed fund that invests smaller amounts at earlier development stages.

The firm invests in life science start-ups developing advanced materials, process, and device technologies that leverage advanced computational approaches such as deep learning, and unique data generation capabilities. Specific areas of interest include drug discovery platforms, manufacturing platforms, drug delivery platforms, non-invasive diagnostics, and sustainability generally. The firm does not invest in pure-play therapeutic clinical development business models.

The firm favors companies with platform technologies and partnership-based business models. The firm has deep expertise in manufacturing and productization. Additionally, LPs include large pharma and medical device manufacturing companies; Phoenix Venture Partners helps portfolio companies develop relationships with these strategics.

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

Hot Investor Mandate: VC with USA and Asia Offices Actively Invests in Early-Stage Medical Device, Digital Health, and Synthetic Biology Companies With Asia Market Expansion Potential

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A venture capital firm based in USA and Singapore makes early up to expansion stage investments across several industries including healthcare. The investment size is highly variable depending on the stage of the company. The firm invests in companies in North America and Europe that has a market expansion strategy in Asia and/or Singapore. The firm is actively seeking new investment opportunities.

In the Life Sciences, the firm is currently seeking medical devices, synthetic biology and HCIT. For medical devices, the firm is opportunistic in terms of subsectors and indications. The firm looks for devices that are ready for commercialization. The firm is currently not looking for drug development companies.The firm seeks entrepreneurs who are passionate, driven and enthusiastic, with sustainable business models and ideas.

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

Hot Investor Mandate: Investment Firm Seeks to Invest in Digital Health Companies Including Healthcare Services, Mainly in Seed to Series A Rounds in USA Headquartered Companies

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A venture capital firm based in the USA is interested in a broad range of technology companies, including those in the software, cloud services, IT, and Internet sectors. In the life sciences, the firm will only invest in the healthcare IT sector. The firm invests in late seed to early Series A rounds with a typical investment size ranges from $1M-$5M. Investment is typically in form of equity, though convertible notes would be considered as well. The firm will look at investment opportunities across the US West Coast and in Texas.

The firm will make new investments in the digital health sector. The firm is interested in healthcare services and IT companies targeting platform, enterprise software, m-health, solution, data analytics and consumer health. The firm will invest in commercial-stage companies with products or services on the market.

The firm invests in privately held healthcare companies. The firm focuses on companies with annual revenues of between $0.5M and $10M.

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

Hot Investor Mandate: Venture Firm With Global Presence Looks For All Innovations Related to Longevity and Age-Related Diseases, Most Interested in Therapeutics & Diagnostics Companies

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An investment firm headquartered in Europe, with additional offices in USA and Asia seeks to invest in innovations directly related to the prevention of age-associated diseases, extension of a healthy lifespan, and improving the performance of humans and animals. The firm’s initial check size can range from $500K – 1.5M, and the firm is open to global opportunities.

Within life sciences, the firm is most interested in therapeutics and diagnostics companies, and will also consider digital health. Medical devices with traditional regulatory pathways are generally out of scope for the firm. Within these sectors, interest areas can include gene therapy, telomere attrition, proteostasis, regenerative medicine, personalized diagnostics/biomarkers, preventative therapies, cognitive enhancement, and more. That said, the firm has no strong interest in particular technologies and is open to all modalities. The firm is also opportunistic in terms of stage of development.

The firm seeks companies with strong, protectable IP with clear origins and ownership, backed by a diverse team with a strong track record and technologies with validated proof of concept. The firm has a 3-step due diligence process which includes: (1) initial review, (2) additional review – where the firm looks more closely into main differentiating factors of the company (IP, business model, etc.), and (3) final review. The firm is open to leading, co-leading, or co-investing, and has a strong co-investment and syndication network of likeminded investors.

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

LSN Conducts Entrepreneurial Master Class Workshop for 100 Fulbright Foreign Students

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

LSN taught a 3-day entrepreneurial workshop entitled “Biomedical Innovations and Startups” for 100 Fulbright Foreign Students who are currently studying and conducting research at institutions across the United States. This seminar is part of the Fulbright Foreign Student Program, an academic and cultural exchange program, funded by the U.S. Department of State. The workshop took place in Boston over the weekend, and it was a great experience sharing LSN’s knowledge of the early-stage life science arena.

The purpose of the seminar was to provide the Fulbrighters with an opportunity to explore and examine the process of taking life-saving inventions from ideation and creation stages to the public market. The life science domain is unique in that a startup entity’s journey starts with academic tech transfer agreements, which lead to regional and national government non-dilutive funding followed by capital investors and licensing partners. LSN has a decade of expertise in the startup universe helping hundreds of companies raise billions of dollars through its products and services. LSN has developed a curriculum that it delivers as part of its Focus on Cures Accelerator which offers several master class workshops to global tech hubs and incubators. This particular workshop highlighted the core elements of launching an early-stage company’s branding and a messaging in conjunction with a global partnering campaign. The theme of the workshop was finding your entrepreneurial voice, developing a compelling narrative and then clearly tell the story of team, product, company milestones and partnering strategy. Topics covered included:

  • How to find your entrepreneurial voice and the importance of getting your story straight
  • How to generate a global target list of capital investors and licensing partners who could provide the funds and services necessary to grow your business
  • How to perform a thorough competitive landscape analysis
  • How to use multiple modalities (from tagline to executive summary to pitch deck) to cogently tell your company story

The 3-day entrepreneurial workshop concluded with a pitch competition that highlighted not only the talent and entrepreneurial agency that the Fulbrighters possessed, but that the key take-home messages of the master class had been well integrated and understood. We can expect many of these students to be industry leaders in the coming years and were honored to have been a part of their journey.

IMG_5788LSN Judge team, Dennis Ford, Candice He, and Alex Vassallo, with first place Fulbright Team of the Pitch Competition.