FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Nono Hu, Marketing/PR Manager

(617) 580-5011

m.hu@lifesciencenation.com

LSN Announces Life Science Fundraising Accelerator

BOSTON (June 19, 2014) — Life Science Nation (LSN), in collaboration with the UMASS Boston Venture Development Center (VDC), announces Life Science Fundraising Accelerator, a program designed to fill the void in the procurement of early stage life science capital. Currently, the scientist-entrepreneur struggles to go “the last three feet” and get in front of an investor, create a dialogue, build a relationship, and secure capital allocations.

The Life Science Fundraising Accelerator is a 90-day program that:

• Prepares start-ups for a global fundraising campaign
• Educates the founding team on the basics of raising capital in today’s competitive landscape
• Packages the founding team for a fundraising campaign, creating the necessary branding and messaging, including a logo, tagline, elevator pitch, executive summary, PowerPoint presentations, and investor-centric website
• Provides tactical, hands-on, assistance in executing fundraising campaigns, including setting up a cloud-based infrastructure to manage a list of investor prospects and the required follow-up that’s associated with an outbound direct-marketing campaign

This kind of acceleration is only available today to the largest biotech and pharma companies that work with top-tier investment banks in preparation for the all-important road show before an IPO.

Initially, the ideal candidates for the Accelerator program will be emerging biotech and medtech companies that have entered (or are preparing to enter) clinical trials. These start-ups have significant animal data, and possibly even some human data, and are likely seeking $1 million to $20 million to further develop an asset through the clinical-trial process.

Dennis Ford, CEO of LSN, noted that scientist-entrepreneurs experience a conundrum when it comes funding their entity. “Everybody understands their marching orders, but hardly anyone has been given the training and tools to carry out the mission,” Ford stated.

The Accelerator has two business aspects. The first is a traditional fee for service. The second is an evergreen grant initiative. The latter program hopes to recruit incubators into the program by having them nominate scientist-entrepreneurs who are ready for a fundraising campaign. The Accelerator program will provide these scientist-entrepreneurs with an evergreen grant (details to follow). This aspect of the program intends to be a self-funding vehicle so that other entrepreneurs can have the same opportunity.

William Brah, Director of the UMASS Boston VDC, said, “LSN and the VDC have been successfully piloting a version of this program for about a year. Early discussions with the incubator community show vigorous support for the project. The Massachusetts life science community has been working closely together for years and hopefully this program will garner traction quickly.”

Life Science Nation (LSN) accelerates the business of early stage life science through a Match.com-like sourcing platform. LSN researches and curates market intelligence on global early stage investment, tracking ten categories of life science investors. LSN also manages the Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) conference series, which brings together global emerging biotech and medtech companies with early stage investors. LSN recently published a book, The Life Science Executive’s Fundraising Manifesto.

UMASS Boston’s Venture Development Center (VDC) was created to pursue new knowledge and train next-generation inventors. It is a mixed-use incubator designed to support technology and life science entrepreneurs. The VDC has a reputation for building community among life science entrepreneurs and delivering business tactics that help propel resident firms forward to commercialization.

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By Tom Crosby, RESI Conference Manager, LSN

There’s a lot going on in early stage venture-capital investment, and everyone is trying to follow the bouncing ball. In light of reports that venture-backed life science and biotech deals are off to their hottest start since 2007, LSN is pleased to announce the venture capital panel for the upcoming RESI Conference: Re-envisioning the Traditional Venture Model.

The panel will have representatives from some of the biggest global VC firms. Moderated by Bernadette Adamo of Silicon Valley Bank, the audience will hear from Kush Parmar, Partner at 5AM Ventures, Jayson Punwani, Partner at Pappas Ventures, Jerel Davis, Operating Partner at Versant Ventures, and Kiran Reddy, Associate Partner at Third Rock Ventures.

Though life science VCs have faced many challenges in the past decade, this adaptive investor class has reached an inflection point of late. The delegates featured on the upcoming RESI VC panel will speak about trends they’re seeing in today’s marketplace, and their thoughts on the future of venture investments.

 

By Michael Quigley, Research Manager, LSN

There is a common perception in the industry that direct medical-device investment has all but frozen over the past few years. As a fundraising entrepreneur, this is an easy kickstand to lean on when you have trouble securing financing for your proprietary technology. Data gathered over the past nine months by the research team here at LSN paints a different, much more positive picture, however. After reaching out to thousands of investors throughout the life science industry, we have identified and interviewed more than 300 qualified investors actively seeking to allocate to the medical device space.

Many may argue that 300 investors represent the marketplace as a whole, not the investors interested in early stage, higher-risk opportunities. However, the chart below shows the highest level of investor interest lies in the venture stage, which LSN defines as companies that have raised at least one round of financing outside of friends and family but have yet to reach commercialization for their product. And while interest in the growth stage does outweigh seed, there are still a large number of investors with capital looking to invest in compelling seed-stage opportunities.

Analyzing this data further, we find that the investors looking into this space are very diverse. (See the chart below)

The interest in the medtech sector is also reflected in PWC’s MoneyTree Report, which shows that 25 deals accounted for total early stage medical-device funding increasing by 11% in Q1 2014 to $216 million, as compared with $194 million from 29 deals in Q1 2013. The average investment for early stage device firms also reached an all-time high of $8.6 million.

This significant uptick in dollars invested and decrease in deal volume tells us something interesting about the changing landscape: Although the numbers may not be as high as they have been historically (and it is also worth noting that PWC’s findings only include reported financings), a large group of investors are without a doubt staying involved and investing in the medical device industry. However, these investors seem to be more selective, investing more capital into slightly fewer deals. Now more than ever, it is crucial for medical device entrepreneurs to understand which investors might be interested in their specific technology and how to present the opportunity to these firms to best demonstrate value.

Source: http://www.mddionline.com/blog/devicetalk/heres-new-vc-investment-reality-of-2014-for-medtech

 

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information

Contact: Nono Hu

Marketing/PR Manager, Life Science Nation

(617) 580-5011

m.hu@lifesciencenation.com

 

LSN Releases Book:

The Life Science Executive’s Fundraising Manifesto

BOSTON (June 12, 2014) — Dennis Ford, founder and CEO of Life Science Nation, reveals in his new book released today, The Life Science Executive’s Fundraising Manifesto, the skill sets required to seek capital in the biotech and medtech arenas.

The Life Science Executive’s Fundraising Manifesto was written to help scientists understand the fundamental skills needed to brand and market their companies. It discusses how to use a consistent message to achieve compelling results from a fundraising campaign, and it teaches life science executives how to aggregate a list of potential global investors that are a fit for their company’s products and services. The book also explains how to efficiently and effectively reach out to potential investor targets, start a dialogue that fosters a relationship, and hopefully secure capital allocations.

The Life Science Executive’s Fundraising Manifesto is now available on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com. For more information about the book, please visit http://www.fundraisingmanifesto.com or contact Nono Hu, Marketing/PR Manager at (617) 580-5011.

 

About the Author

Dennis Ford, founder and CEO of Life Science Nation, is a seasoned entrepreneur who has worked extensively with global alternative investors interested in high-growth, early stage technologies. In 2012, Ford brought his expertise into the arena of life science fundraising after spotting an emerging trend: institutional investors and family offices looking to invest directly in life science companies. The need to connect investors with scientists to enable the commercialization of new drugs and medical technologies, and thereby helping to change the world, was the impetus for launching LSN.

Ford is also the author of The Peddler’s Prerogative and The Fund Manager’s Marketing Manifesto, two well-received sales and marketing books.

 

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