Next Phase Newsletter

By Joey Wong, Senior Investor Research Analyst, Hong Kong BD, LSN

As the Life Science Nation (LSN) team continues to facilitate meaningful connections between early-stage startups and investors, the upcoming RESI conferences offer unparalleled opportunities to advance your fundraising efforts on a global scale. Whether you’re an emerging startup or an established company looking to expand your investor network, RESI conferences create a platform to engage directly with investors aligned with your sector and stage.

RESI London: December 4-6, 2024

RESI is excited to arrive in London for the first time, to the heart of the UK life science ecosystem, taking place at 11 Cavendish Square from December 4-6. This premier event will feature panels tailored to early-stage companies focused on sectors including seed funding, early-stage therapeutics, and medical devices. London’s robust life science community provides a rich backdrop for innovators to meet investors who are ready to support their vision.

RESI JPM 2025: January 13-15, 2025

Mark your calendar for the flagship RESI event during JPM Week in San Francisco, January 13-15, 2025, at the Marriott Marquis. RESI JPM 2025 will showcase a broad spectrum of panels, addressing critical sectors such as women’s health, oncology innovation, longevity investment, and more. The strategic timing of this conference places your company at the intersection of investor interest and the bustling energy of JPM Week.

By attending RESI JPM, you’ll position your company at the center of one of the most impactful investor gatherings of the year. Each session offers a targeted look at the challenges and opportunities within these critical areas, providing actionable insights for both investors and innovators.

Extend Your Reach Across Global Ecosystems
With back-to-back conferences in London and San Francisco, RESI offers startups the chance to engage with a diverse range of investors, from family offices to big pharma and venture capitalists. Register today and accelerate your fundraising journey.

By Claire Jeong, Chief Conference Officer, Vice President of Investor Research, Asia BD, LSN
Max Braht, Business Development Manager, LSN

As part of its continued global outreach, Life Science Nation (LSN) will be actively participating in two major international conferences this October: BioJapan 2024 (October 9-11) at Pacifico Yokohama, Japan and The MedTech Conference (October 15-17) at Toronto, Canada. These events offer unique opportunities for LSN to engage with key players in the life sciences and healthcare sectors, fostering new partnerships and supporting innovative startups in their fundraising efforts.

BioJapan is a premier hybrid partnering event that brings together key industry leaders in the life sciences & healthcare sectors across the globe, and Life Science Nation has been participating in this conference for many consecutive years to foster relationships with various startups, investors, pharmaceuticals, bioclusters, and more. In this year’s BioJapan, Claire Jeong, VP of Investor Research, Asia BD, will be representing Life Science Nation on a seminar organized by Life Science Incubation Council covering the theme of “how life science startups can create value with global partners”, along with speakers from MedCity (UK), BioQuebec (Canada), and Newsight Tech Angels (Japan). This seminar will take place on the last day of BioJapan, on Friday, October 11, 3:35 – 4:35pm. Meet with Claire in BioJapan.

The MedTech Conference presented by AdvaMed, will bring together thousands of industry executives and global innovators throughout the medical device, diagnostics, and digital technologies sectors. LSN will be located at Booth 1116 and looks forward to connecting with some of the industry’s most innovative companies to share how they can leverage the life science ecosystem to effectively launch their own global fundraising campaign. Meet with us at LSN booth in The MedTech Conference.

By Erika Wu, Business Development Manager, Global Tech Hubs, LSN

Are you a JPM newbie? Will JPM 2025, from Jan. 13 – 16, be (or potentially be) your first or second JPM? JPM, short for the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, is the largest life sciences investment and business development event in the world, attracting an estimated 30K – 40K ecosystem players to San Francisco every January, leaning toward a biotech focus. Let’s be clear: the majority of industry professionals descending on the Bay area do not attend the actual conference, which is an invitation-only event. In fact, the majority of partnering happens in the ecosystem that’s evolved around the conference over the last 40+ years. If someone asks you if you’re “going to JPM”, they are asking if you’ll be running around town taking partnering meetings, not if you’re attending the actual conference. That said, let’s breakdown what happens in the life science gathering that’s blossomed around the conference:

• Pharmas, larger investors, IR firms and larger service providers rent out hotel rooms or ballrooms and convert them into partnering meeting space, where they have BD meetings. Pharma BD meetings at JPM are rumored to be more ‘high level’ than at the major biotech conventions, sometimes featuring the CEO and resulting in new deals. One of the most unique pharma partnering spaces is the Roche/Genentech area in the atrium of the Marriott Marquis, right upstairs from the RESI JPM conference.
• There are three primary partnering conferences that generally require paid registration. Among them is RESI JPM. Though the value propositions of these events have some overlap, they’ve traditionally filled different needs.
  • RESI JPM focused on early-stage companies (discovery to phase 2) and investors (seed to series B), and featured partnering, pitching, panels, workshops and meals.
  • One of the others is focused on somewhat later stage companies (preclinical and later) and investors spanning private to public markets, and also featured partnering, pitching, panels, workshops and meals.
  • The final one is focused on providing easily accessible and flexible partnering meeting space for anyone who needs it, coupled with a partnering system to allow meeting scheduling and outreach.
• There are other niche-specific conferences, mini-conferences, and partnering conferences that are either free or require a small fee (under $100).
• There are numerous evening receptions hosted by a multitude of different companies and organizations. Most of these are free to attend, and some are invite-only.
• There are numerous daytime events, again hosted by a multitude of entities, that are generally free to attend, though some require a nominal fee and some are invite-only. These include athletic events such as ‘fun runs’, networking breakfasts, meet & greets, presentation forums, workshops and more.
• Hotel lobbies, especially those of the major hotels like the Marriott Marquis and Hilton Union Square, get turned into all-day impromptu meeting and gathering forums
• Serendipitous meetings: part of the magic of JPM is downtown San Francisco becomes a place where you are bound to have impromptu meetings with people you literally bump into, from 7am to 1am, or even 2am.

While all this sounds very exciting, you may be scratching your head wondering, as a JPM newbie, “how do I participate in all this”?

• To participate in the partnering meetings that take place all over downtown San Francisco, you must reach out to your potential partners from now until January to arrange the meetings. Remember to leave at least 20 minutes between meetings! If you are looking for investors or licensing partners to meet with, set up a call with us by emailing for some complimentary guidance on those who would be a good it for your company.
• To register for RESI JPM, click here. Register for the other major JPM ecosystem conferences at their respective websites.
• For the rest of the happenings at JPM along with a list of companies presenting at the actual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, along with details on how to register for the events, whether free or paid, tune into our JPM page, which will go live the beginning of November. It’s worth mentioning that there are a bevy of events on Sunday, so we recommend you arrive Sunday the 12^th morning or afternoon.

Finally, many consider the biggest obstacle about JPM to be the price of hotels, which can be over $1000/night even for hotels normally considered to be inexpensive. If this exceeds your budget, we recommend checking AirBnB or staying at a hotel that’s a few miles away (3 – 4 BART stops). A 20-minute train ride or a 15-minute Uber can save you a thousand dollars a night.

If you’re a JPM beginner, we’re happy to help you on your JPM journey. Contact us at RESI@Lifesciencenation.com.

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

At RESI Boston 2024, 56 innovative companies participated in the Innovator’s Pitch Challenge (IPC), providing a unique platform for early-stage life science and healthcare companies to present their technologies and connect with potential investors.

The IPC finalists delivered 4-minute pitches and a 9-minute interactive Q&A session with a panel of investor judges. In addition, each participating company showcased its technology at its personalized table space in the RESI Exhibition Hall, creating further opportunities for engagement.

The Innovator’s Pitch Challenge features a distinctive voting system where registered RESI attendees—including startup executives, early-stage investors, and industry experts – ‘invest’ in their favorite IPC companies using RESI cash provided at check-in. Attendees based their decisions on the companies’ presentations and pitch performances.

For those interested in participating in the next Innovator’s Pitch Challenge, applications are now open for RESI London 2024 and RESI JPM 2025. Early application is encouraged as spots are filled on a rolling basis.

• Apply Pitch at RESI London
• Apply Pitch at RESI JPM

Life Science Nation is proud to announce the top three winners of RESI Boston 2024’s Innovator’s Pitch Challenge:

1st Place: Amplified Sciences

Max Braht, Business Development Manager, Life Science Nation | Diana Caldwell, MBA,CEO and Co-Founder, Amplified Sciences | Dennis Ford, Founder and CEO of Life Science Nation, Creator of the RESI Conference Series

2nd Place: EYWA Biotech

Greg Mannix, VP, International Business Development, Life Science Nation | Victoria Costa Paz, CEO and Co-Founder, EYWA Biotech | Dennis Ford, Founder and CEO of Life Science Nation, Creator of the RESI Conference Series

3rd Place: RadioClash

Momo Yamamoto, Investor Research Analyst, Life Science Nation | John Qiao, Founder and CEO, RadioClash | Dennis Ford, Founder and CEO of Life Science Nation, Creator of the RESI Conference Series

The 56 companies were assigned to 14 different sessions throughout the day, with 4 companies grouped together based on similar sector or technology. These companies were evaluated by a panel of judges, and the following companies were the highest scorers. This attests to the high quality of their pitch, ability to answer questions, and clearly deliver their value proposition.

Judges Picks:

Your gateway to the largest pre-IPO capital investor community

By Karen Deyo, VP of Product, Israel BD, LSN

RESI Boston 2024 was a landmark event, setting new records for attendance and partnering for our Boston event. With over 2,000 official partnering meetings and hundreds more happening informally, the conference proved to be an invaluable platform for connecting investors and startups. Bringing together over 350 investors/in-licensors and 350 early-stage companies raising seed, Series A, and Series B funding, RESI Boston facilitated crucial partnerships that accelerate the journey of life-changing treatments to patients.

The RESI conference series offers a reliable way to fundraise and out-license for preclinical and clinical-stage companies year-round. With a unique 1:1 company-to-investor ratio, RESI events provide unparalleled access to investors and in-licensors, giving participants a significant edge in securing funding and forming vital partnerships. RESI also stands out as the partnering conference with the highest number of pre-IPO capital investors, making it a must-attend event for startups in the life sciences sector.

The investor panels at RESI Boston were a major attraction, with many sessions filled to standing room only. These panels allowed startups and stakeholders to hear directly from experienced investors, providing insights into the latest trends and opportunities in the industry. You can get a glimpse of the excitement of RESI Boston through this video from the event.

Hear from more investors and other attendees at RESI Boston.

This year, LSN added a new component to RESI Boston, with a Soft Landing event taking place the day before RESI Boston, providing insight into what it takes to relocate to the Boston ecosystem, and the benefits to companies of doing so. Looking forward, RESI Boston offers an ideal opportunity for companies to tap into the thriving Boston life science ecosystem, make meaningful connections, and secure the capital needed to advance their innovations. We are excited about the future and invite you to join us at upcoming RESI conferences to continue your journey of discovery, networking, and growth.

Don’t miss out on your chance to participate in the next RESI event. Whether you’re an investor looking to discover promising startups or an innovator seeking the right partnerships, RESI is the place to be. We hope to see you there!

By Greg Mannix, VP, EMEA Business Development, LSN

The Soft-Landing program, held at the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC), offered an insightful look into how international companies can effectively establish a foothold in the U.S. life science market, with a focus on the Boston-Cambridge area—one of the world’s most significant hubs for life sciences. The event attracted over 100 registrants interested in commencing operations in the region. The CIC, which also presented during the event, provided an ideal backdrop as a key hub for regional innovation and collaboration.

The day started with introductions by Life Science Nation (LSN), providing an overview of the investor landscape and the crucial role it plays in supporting life sciences in the region. This was followed by MassBio’s presentation, emphasizing their efforts to fuel the ecosystem in Massachusetts, and an introduction to the Massachusetts Life Science Center highlighting their programs and significant resources that support incoming companies.

Legal considerations and steps for establishing a business in the U.S., including the Delaware flip, were covered by McDermott Will & Emery, providing valuable information for companies looking to set up in the United States. The CIC spoke about where to set up operations in Boston, and Abi Lab discussed opportunities beyond Kendall Square, offering a comprehensive view of the life science ecosystem in the Greater Boston area.

A networking lunch provided participants with the opportunity to connect with other attendees, forming connections and gaining additional insight.

In the afternoon, participants attended a CEO roundtable discussion that examined the pros and cons of being based in Greater Boston, followed by presentations from PwC on launching great science with great partnerships and Cambridge Scientific on securing lab space in the area. Polsinelli covered key patent and FDA considerations for navigating regulatory landscapes in the U.S., while Banc of California provided insights into banking and financial matters critical to establishing a successful presence in the country.

The program concluded with a networking reception, allowing participants to connect directly with industry leaders, potential partners, and fellow innovators. This session was an excellent opportunity to gain firsthand insights from key players in the Boston-Cambridge life science ecosystem and to make connections that could support their expansion efforts.

The Boston-Cambridge region, known for its world-class academic institutions, vibrant investor network, renowned healthcare facilities, and top-tier talent, provides an ideal environment for companies aiming to innovate and grow. For international companies seeking to enter the U.S. market, the Soft-Landing program offered an invaluable guide to leveraging these local resources for success.