Tag Archives: Healthcare

Global Funding Insights for Digital Health Initiatives in 2018

12 Jul

By Ashley Durrer, Marketing Manager, LSN

This week I interviewed Colin Widen, the CEO of Boston Innovation Capital (BIC), Life Science Nation’s (LSN) wholly-owned broker-dealer arm, to learn where investors are allocating funds, and the current focus on healthcare advancement within the digital health space.

BIC works alongside LSN and our network of investors to support early-stage companies in forging connections with investors, major pharma firms, and other strategic players in the life science world. By managing clients’ fundraising campaigns and connecting them to investors who are a good fit, BIC is able to address its, and LSN’s, mission of advancing new and innovative technologies to the clinic.

Interview with Colin Widen moderated by Ashley Durrer

AD: With billions of dollars being poured into digital health, why the sudden increase?

CW: “Healthcare needs to find a way to pay for digital health now that value-based care and hospital incentives are aligned to support lower costs in healthcare with improved patient care. There are new potentials for change within the telemedicine space in light of ongoing healthcare reforms and debate.”

AD: How will that turn out for those seeking funding?

CW: “Digital health initiatives will be the least impacted by changes to the American healthcare system, making them prime opportunities for investment this year.

“There is a much lower cost to creating software, virtual platforms, compliance tools, etc. than creating advances in biologics, drugs, and other life science advancements, making digital health an increasingly popular space for investors. Successfully investing in therapeutics or medical devices requires a great deal of expertise, not to mention the increased risk due to the potential failure in clinical trials. On the other hand, software is a recognizable, lower cost, and scalable business model that is often also easily adaptable when regulations change.”

AD: Where does BIC fit into global funding from client perspectives?

CW: “BIC is working tirelessly to support digital health technologies that will have a real impact on the healthcare system for our doctors, nurses, and hospitals. This year BIC is focused on digital health technologies, assets, and virtual tools, which can support doctors’, hospitals’, and nurses’ efforts with patients. However, this currently excludes consumer-based products and electronic medical record (EMR) initiatives.”

AD: What are some examples of potential best-fit clients?

CW: “Some examples recognized in the market are pill dispensers and medicinal tracking for patient compliance, health portals for patients and doctors, mental health apps, medication tracking, patient monitoring and more.”

AD: What kind of client are you seeking now? Can you share a potential client profile?

CW: “Within our LSN network of investors, feedback clearly shows there is an increasing appetite to invest in niche digital health opportunities.

“Investors are seeking companies within the top-tier of their specialization, and a proven business model within the market. Often these investors want to see that the product, software, tool, etc. are viable, which means it’s already being used within the market e.g. hospitals. This also includes an accompanying value proposition for payors and the company is receiving ongoing revenue for that service.”

BIC Global Network of Digital Health Investors are focused on:

  • Funding of $10M-50M
  • Min $3mm+ ARR
  • Niche companies within the top-tier of their specialization
  • Currently avoiding pure EMR focused and consumer-based products

The Future of Digital Health

There are innovations happening every day to help improve access to healthcare. 2018 has already seen an increase in the debate over healthcare reform, rising insurance costs, and uncertainty of coverage for millions of Americans. Advancements in technologies and virtual tools for doctors and hospitals could really help to streamline processes and reduce overall costs for themselves as well as the patients they serve.

We can’t wait to hear what new innovations are entering the digital health space.

About Colin Widen, CEO

Colin Widen, registered representative, is a seasoned executive with 25 years of sales, trading and portfolio management experience in major investment banks. Colin joined Deutsche Bank where he led a team providing consulting services about alternative asset allocation strategies to family offices and smaller endowments and foundations. In creating BIC, Colin has combined investment skills with the robust investor network of LSN to offer a unique platform. Colin is a registered representative and holds Series 7, 24, 63 and 82 registrations. His specialties include reconstructing hedge fund portfolios. analyzing private equity holdings and helping with strategy and execution of capital raise initiatives across the spectrum of today’s life science assets.

About Boston Innovation Capital

Boston Innovation Capital (BIC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Life Science Nation Holdings, became a FINRA-registered broker-dealer in 2016. BIC works alongside LSN’s other two divisions (LSN’s Investor Platform and Company Platform, and the RESI Conference Group) to support early-stage companies in forging connections with investors, major pharma firms and other strategic players in the life science world.

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Be Part of the Healthcare Innovation Boom: Join the First Coast Innovator’s Gathering

10 Jul

By Ashley Durrer, Marketing Manager, LSN

The first half of 2018 has brought to the surface many debated topics not only for the United States but also the world—universal healthcare, innovation, and leadership. This year, headlines continue to arise almost daily detailing reforms to the healthcare system, while other countries continue to make advances in their universal healthcare programs. One of the biggest corporations in the world, Amazon, is accelerating their involvement in the healthcare industry with big-name partnerships, leadership appointments, and strategic acquisitions. They’ve also recently purchased office space in Boston, MA, one of the biggest life science hubs in the world—where Life Science Nation (LSN) began its focus on helping early-stage life science companies seeking capital.

The urgency in healthcare.

Life Science Nation was founded with the intention to move life science innovation forward for a real impact on the global development of healthcare, which has only become more urgent. Throughout LSN’s experience supporting life science companies, lack of access to capital is holding back the advancement of many life science companies. LSN dedicates itself to helping early-stage companies navigate the funding ‘Valley of Death’, which is why LSN created a new three-day event called RESI Healthtech Week. Today, LSN will discuss the benefit of attending Day 1, the First Coast Innovator’s Gathering, for tech hubs across the northeast with technologies or companies looking to change the future of healthcare.

What is the First Coast?

The First Coast, as LSN has deemed it, is the location identified as the premier hub for life science innovation, similar to how Silicon Valley is viewed as the premier (and original) tech hub. Over the years the First, Second, and Third Coast have been identified as hubs across the country made up of different states including Houston and New York City. All have been vying to be central locations for massive innovation in the life sciences. However, Life Science Nation takes the First Coast to include the entire northeast corridor, from DC to MA, including all the premier universities and research institutions in the region.

RESI Healthtech Week’s new First Coast Innovator’s Gathering is focused on expanding the traditional Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) Conference to include more nascent technologies and companies in the life science space. By bringing together innovators from the entire northeast corridor with global investors and strategic partners, LSN promotes a one-of-a-kind opportunity for the advancement of healthcare innovation.

Who are the best-fit attendees?

Day 1 will feature the next generation of healthcare innovation and their earliest stage companies from the northeast region: DC, MD, PA, NJ, NY, RI, CT, and MA—now known as First Coast, who are invited to participate in a day of partnering and networking.

Qualifying First Coast Day 1 registrants are the northeast corridor incubators, accelerators, tech transfer offices, university translation initiatives, hospitals, research labs and their constituents as well as the investors and partners that seek them.

Ideal candidates include those seeing funding anywhere from $15k to $2M from grants, seed, and angel funding.

Affordability

LSN created an affordable registration price that will facilitate more startups attending the three-day event. Tickets start at only $500 for tech hubs (includes two tickets) and $300 for each additional constituent member. The pricing structure and benefits are presented in the chart below.

first coast innovator's gathering

Showcase Your Technologies.

The conference will include ample opportunities for you to represent and showcase your technologies to global investors and strategic partners. This includes exhibiting, online features and placements, as well as a competition for a spot to pitch investors during the First Coast Innovation Challenge.

The exhibit hall has limited space for one exhibit table per tech hub (as space allows). Each organization can have up to 5 poster boards for their table to showcase their tech hub members and constituents.

In addition, all tech hubs will be featured in the RESI Healthtech Week Program Guide. Their technologies represented by their constituents and tech hub members will be featured on the newsletter and website with a datasheet.

All qualifying First Coast registrants are eligible to apply for the First Coast Innovation Challenge where the top 5 finalists will give 10-minute pitches to an elite panel of investor judges from 3:00-5:00 during the First Coast Innovator’s Gathering. This will be a rewarding opportunity to pitch your technologies and receive valuable feedback.

Access to global investors.

LSN’s network of early-stage global investors will be able to see all the key players in one place and learn about the innovative technologies coming out of the First Coast.

 A day of partnering and networking.

Day 1 of the RESI Healthtech Week will feature the First Coast Innovator’s Gathering; partnering and networking opportunities, just like it’s traditional RESI.

The RESI Partnering Platform helps you find nontraditional partners from the newest sources of capital, including family offices, foundations, academic institutions, and philanthropic organizations that will be a fit for your technology and stage of development. Attendees can schedule up to 16 meetings using the Partnering Platform. It will open one month before the conference, so companies, global investors, and strategic partners can request and book meetings in advance. Some key highlights of the Partnering Platform include:

  • Review profiles of other RESI Conference participants.
  • Schedule one-on-one and/or group meetings.
  • Build your customized RESI Conference schedule, from panels to presentations to partnering meetings.
  • The system will be available one month before and one month after the conference for ease of use.
  • Launches August 6th for RESI Healthtech Week (September 5-6th) partnering.

In addition to the Partnering Platform, attendees can also participate in ad hoc meetings at exhibit tables and poster boards throughout the day.

Venue Information

The First Coast Innovator’s Gathering will take place at the Boston Marriott Copley Place, 110 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02116, on September 5th, 2018 followed by the traditional Redefining Early Stage Investments Conference on September 6th, and the Entrepreneur’s Academy Workshop Series on September 7th.

Registration starts at 7 AM. Exhibit halls and meetings are available from 8 AM to 5 PM.

In conclusion…

Life Science Nation will continue to connect early-stage companies with global investors and strategic partners through RESI Conferences and first-in-class data platforms, in the hope that downstream we can help bring treatments to the patients that need them. As the landscape for healthcare and healthcare policy changes, so too will LSN in order to meet the needs of the early-stage players.

We hope to see you in September. Sign up today.

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Foundations as Investors

5 Jul

By Karen Deyo, Investor Research Analyst, LSN

Life Science Nation knows summertime can be a lull for fundraising, with many investors out of the office. This can make it more challenging and extend a fundraising campaign. LSN spoke with one of the investors attending and speaking at the RESI Healthtech Week this fall, asking him to share his insights into an often-overlooked resource in the fundraising process—foundations as investors.

Jim Golubieski, President of New Jersey Health Foundation and its affiliate, Foundation Venture Capital Group, LLC, will be speaking on the “Foundations” panel, sharing his insights and experience. It will discuss non-profit organizations that provide support and funding to early-stage startups.

Below are the answers to two questions asked by Life Science Nation.

What will RESI attendees learn from you?

Jim: “The most important takeaway from my session would be for attendees to know that many foundations and other not-for-profit organizations are no longer simply fundraising organizations but can also be great sources of capital funding that might be overlooked. It is also important to explore all avenues when seeking funding – attendees should research individual foundations to see what types of organizations and projects they fund, to explore if their missions and goals are compatible with their own.”

What makes you excited to attend RESI?

Jim: “From a strategic perspective, attending RESI means that all the components needed for early-stage investment opportunities are under one roof, in one place at one time, to meet with and explore the entire funding cycle. The opportunity to talk with our colleagues—investors, CEOs, scientists, entrepreneurs and potential partners— is an exciting concept.”

The Foundations Panel will be held on Day 1 – First Coast Innovator’s Gathering
Wednesday, September 5th, 2018 at 2:00 PM – 2:50 PM

Panel topics to be discussed may include:

  • What is the foundation’s preferred stage of development when supporting companies?
  • How to approach foundations for fundraising.
  • What criteria do non-profits use to evaluate opportunities?
  • What are the differences between support from non-profit investors compared to for-profit investors?

When foundations support startups, it is with an eye to their mission as opposed to profit. These missions can range from regional development to advancement of a cure or treatments for a particular disease. Foundations play an important role in the fundraising landscape, often assisting companies to grow to the level required by more traditional investors. Panelists will discuss their approach to supporting early-stage companies and how these companies can benefit from a partnership with a foundation.

To learn more and to attend the panel, sign up for RESI Healthtech Week.

James M. Golubieski

James M. Golubieski is President of New Jersey Health Foundation and its affiliate, Foundation Venture Capital Group, LLC, a company that provides pre-seed funding to new health-related startup companies founded by New Jersey researchers to help them advance toward commercialization.

Mr. Golubieski works closely with the companies in which Foundation Venture has invested, sits on their Boards and provides guidance in helping them to develop their business models.

Previously he had been CFO of Array Medical, Inc., a medical device start-up company established in 1995 that developed a groundbreaking blood test to test platelet function. The company was sold in 1999. Mr. Golubieski was also the chief operating officer and senior executive vice president of Glendale National Bank and a member of its board of directors, president of Glendale Investment Corp. and Glendale Mortgage Services, Inc. and chief financial officer of Glendale Bancorp, which was acquired by Mellon Financial. For 10 years prior he had been with KPMG.

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Fundraising Steps You Need to Take

3 Jul

By Ashley Durrer, Marketing Manager, LSN

It can be challenging to perfect your fundraising strategy in order to accelerate your work. As a past marketing and business development focused entrepreneur I’ve been exposed to the fundraising environment outside of the life science and healthcare industry. It may be counter-intuitive, but fundraising processes (as well as constructing partnerships) are similar across different industries except for their smaller nuances.  Scientist-entrepreneurs and fundraising CEOs need to know that a clear value proposition made up of your tagline, executive summary and more will be the differentiating factor in progressing your discussions with investors past the initial conversation. The ones who can share their value proposition with the most clarity, are the ones investors will move forward with for fundraising opportunities. Here are some fundamentals everyone needs to know.

Entrepreneurs know it takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and funds to make a company successful. If you’re new to the fundraising sphere within the life science and healthcare industry, you may be unsure what to prioritize and where to start. Life Science Nation (LSN) is a company focused on providing resources and conferences focused on initiating new opportunities for strategic partnerships and fundraising activities. LSN makes it as straightforward and simple as possible so you can maximize your success. That means having a solid understanding of the fundraising process and knowing what steps to take in order to execute a deal or partnership.

Define Your Value Proposition

At the foundation, it’s imperative to understand your own branding and communicate it clearly to your constituents. If you don’t understand your product, services, and goals, they won’t either. This includes clearly defining your addressable market and growth potential to global investors and strategic partners. Otherwise, it will be an upward battle to convince them to support you as a partner or financially. If you then consider that it takes 6-18 months to fundraise (always longer than hoped or expected), clarity for your mission becomes crucial to speeding up the fundraising or partnership process.

LSN wants companies to be ready for the initial conversations so they can get to the next phase sooner. The next conversations are where you work through the deals and partnerships, and not stumbling over the value proposition for too long. Know your product set, it’s development stage, and how it fits into investors mandates and requirements. Make sure you have these to share verbally as well as through marketing materials: an executive summary, pitch deck, etc.

Create and Curate an Investor Database

Now that you’ve defined your company, goals, and growth potential, it’s time to create a target list of investors or strategic partners. This can be a daunting task and normally starts by networking with current, established relationships. This is a great starting point to expand your network, and will usually provide hot leads for best matches. LSN expands upon this by opening up companies and investors to their network of constituents. It is a real advantage, where other industries have to rely solely on their personal connections.

Match Your Company Product Set with Investor Mandates

If you can match you and your company with the right fit people for you, then it’s a lot easier to start having those initial conversations that lead up to deals and strategic partnerships. Since this is a challenge, LSN chose to specialize and develop its company to connect products, services, and capital to support individual efforts to target an investor audience and network with potential matches.

LSN created a two-sided platform: ‘For Company’ side and a ‘For Investors’ side. It’s intuitive search functions make it easy to use for sourcing information for deals and partnerships. At its core, it saves potential strategic partners, investors, and fundraising CEOs time on research, so they can instead focus on the important tasks of engaging in conversations that match their interests–filling the pipeline for new opportunities which in turn accelerate businesses, technology, and deals.

The LSN Company Platform (for investors and strategic partners) is the premier life science company database, covering over 50,000 companies from around the world, with a particular focus on the earliest stage companies who have been missed by traditional data providers.

The LSN Investor Platform (for companies) includes present and future-looking investor data collected and curated by LSN’s Investor Research team through ongoing dialogue with LSN’s 5,000 life science investors from around the world. The team updates the database to only include active investors who are currently allocating funds to projects and companies that fit their mandate requirements.

The Investor Platform:

  • Includes investors from 10 categories: Angels, Corporate Venture Capital, Endowments/Foundations, Family Offices, Government Organizations, Hedge Funds, Institutional Alternative Investor, Large Pharma/Biotech, PE, and Venture Captial.
  • Track goals and requirements over the next year for investors
  • Facilitates targeted deal flow so investors are a fit for you

The LSN Platforms include:

  • Portal with filters to identify potential leads for you: location, investor types, product sets, investment interest section, phases, etc.
  • LSN’s Investor Platform includes mandates, differentiating them from other databases
  • By mentioning your connection to LSN, it facilitates your connections and provides credibility

Ask LSN for a demo to learn more.

Network Face-to-Face

After completing your target list, you’ll realize warm introductions mean a lot in propelling the conversations forward, past the initial talks. That’s why Life Science Nation created the Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) conference. LSN knew entrepreneurs and fundraising CEO’s needed a central location with access to potential global investors and strategic partners. With limited time and much to do as a startup, they need tools and resources to work efficiently. While networking is crucial to any company’s success in sourcing new opportunities, RESI is the best within the life science industry in providing such a venue.

The Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) Conference is an ongoing conference series that provides an international venue for early-stage life science companies to connect with global investors and strategic partners for new opportunities, all in one place. This includes interests across Biotech, Medtech, Diagnostics and Digital Health in order to create new relationships in these areas as well as the potential to secure funding. RESI is unique and the leading conference in partnerships due to its global network presence, unmatched by other conferences in the healthcare industry. It provides constituents with the best venue for partnering and networking.

The RESI Conference:

  • Occurs 5x per year
  • Includes ad hoc meeting opportunities
  • Partnering Forum for up to 16 scheduled meetings
  • Panels by investors, sponsors, partners discussing all things healthcare and fundraising
  • LSN 5,000 Investor network is always invited to attend

To learn more and attend upcoming events, please visit the site.

Now that you’ve learned the fundamentals for your fundraising strategies and partnership opportunities, you can start defining your value proposition, creating a target audience, and network with the right people.

 

Life Science Nation Connects Products, Services, and Capital

Our corporate structure is made up of a few different business models with the same mission to accelerate therapeutics, biotech, medtech, diagnostics, and digital health within the healthcare industry. LSN started out developing a database of investors because the company felt there was not enough accessibility for investors to discover scientists-entrepreneurs and fundraising CEOs within the life sciences. Further down the line, LSN created a conference series to further accelerate and support initial conversations between these groups so progress could be made in leaps and bounds. As we continue to develop in our current political environment, it has become more important than ever to continue supporting and facilitating advances in healthcare.

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Hot Investor Mandate 3: VC Firm Seeks Investment Opportunities in Digital Health and Medical Device Technologies that Address Problems of Large Unmet Need in Healthcare

28 Jun

A venture capital firm spun out of a leading university looks to provide primarily seed stage financings to companies ranging from $100K – $500k initially with up to $5-6 million provided over the lifetime of the investment. The firm prefers to invest in companies in the Eastern United States but is open to considering companies from around the globe. The firm could make as many as 6-7 investments over the next 6-9 months.

The firm is looking for companies working in sectors of digital health and more selectively medical devices. The firm is only interested in companies that are targeting very larger markets/unmet needs and is not interested in companies that require FDA Approval. The firm is especially interested in companies utilizing software for the optimization of various products and processes within healthcare. The firm is not interested in consumer-facing products.

The firm is very open to working with young entrepreneurs and generally looks to take a board seat following the investment. The firm is looking for companies with the potential to become very large organizations capable of being worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

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

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Active Healthcare Investors and Strategic Partners Are Attending RESI San Diego

8 Jun

By Dennis Ford, Founder & CEO, Life Science Nation; Creator of RESI Conference Series

Life Science Nation (LSN) and Johnson and Johnson Innovation, JLABS have launched San Diego’s first Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) Conference on June 19th, 2017 during the 2017 BIO week when the biotech and medtech world gathers in San Diego. RESI San Diego will bring together 400+ fundraising CEOs and 400+ early stage investors (a 1:1 ratio) from around the globe, providing the opportunity for dialogue and relationship building, with the goal of eventual capital allocations. Register for RESI now.

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RESI San Francisco Panel Announcement: Tech Giants in Healthcare

29 Dec

By Michael Quigley, VP of Market Research, LSN

mike-2

Large technology companies have been expanding their footprint in the healthcare sector through venture investment and partnerships into early stage healthcare companies. Often seeking technology with a significant software component, many of these groups have helped to fuel the massive growth that has been seen in the digital health space in the past few years. From patient monitoring devices to mobile 3D imaging devices the lines between pure tech and healthcare are slowly beginning to blur as healthcare providers continually look to improve care while lowering costs.

Moderated by Michael Greeley, General Partner, Flare Capital Partners, the panelists are:

  • Iana Dimkova, Senior Associate, Healthcare, GE Ventures
  • Lucian Iancovici, FACHE, Head of Qualcomm Life Fund, Qualcomm Ventures
  • Rich Wilmot, Head of Corporate Venturing, Philips
  • Ying Tam, Head, Digital Health Cluster, Venture Services, MaRS

In this session, a number of investors at these large firms will discuss their involvement in healthcare innovation ecosystem. What types of technologies they are interested in? How much data do they like to see pre-investment? What problems in the space are they looking to tackle? These questions and more will be answered at RESI on Jan 10th so if you’re looking to partner with a large tech company for your product this is a panel you don’t want to miss.

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