Tag Archives: Investors

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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Use RESI Innovation Challenge As Part of Your Global Marketing Plan

25 Jun

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

Market Your Life Science Startup to Investors

life science nation marketing

A fundraising campaign starts with presenting yourself and your technology to potential channel partners and investors who are a fit for your product and stage of development. As part of the Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) Conference, attendees can apply to the RESI Innovation Challenge which, if you are selected to participate, can greatly increase exposure for your company before, during and after the day of the conference. The partners and investors who frequent RESI know that the companies selected, routinely showcase compelling technology. Attending RESI and participating in the RESI Innovation Challenge are only one part of fundraising for CEOs and scientist-entrepreneurs. Here is Life Science Nation’s step-by-step process for a successful fundraising campaign and how and why RESI plays an important role.

 

Step 1: You need a list of investors and contacts

To raise capital, an early-stage CEO needs to create a Global Target List of potential investors. There are around 400-500 relevant global early-stage investors on a typical Global Target List, spanning 10 categories of investors in early-stage Biotech, Medtech, Diagnostics, and Digital Health. This list should be sourced from a curated platform to ensure the most up-to-date information. With a vetted list of qualified investors who are a fit, the fundraising executive can be more efficient in their outreach. This will lead to a higher response rate from your phone and email campaigns and thus result in a higher number of meetings booked to initiate dialogue with your partnering targets.

Step 2: Hire the right people

A fundraising campaign is something your company can execute internally with the right staff: phoning and emailing investors, setting up meetings, and organizing the campaign follow-up takes an enthusiastic personality. While many CEOs might be tempted to look for an outside service provider to manage the fundraising campaign, my recommendation is to do it internally. Personal outreach and clear messaging are equally important when reaching out to potential investors. At the end of the day, fundraising is a numbers game and having the right staff canvassing your Global Target List and initiating dialogue causes relationships to take root. However, initiating the conversation is never enough – the follow-ups, second and third meetings are when you’re generating real interest. This requires dedicated effort to ensure proper follow-through.

Step 3: Join opportunities to network

Face-to-face meetings are best for promoting relationships – that’s why we’ve created the RESI Conference. If you come to our next RESI, you may find 20-30% of your targeted investment firms are attending to find the earliest and hottest innovators within the healthcare industry. We offer one-on-one partnering all day for all global attendees at our Partnering Forum. By taking full advantage of our Partnering Platform, you have the opportunity to schedule one-on-one meetings with up to 16 of these investors, supplemented by ad hoc meetings, especially if you are a participant in the RESI Innovation Challenge.

 

the life science executive's fundraising manifesto by dennis ford

Want to learn more about fundraising?

If you read my free book The Life Science Executive’s Fundraising Manifesto, you will see that I am a big proponent of getting a complete Global Target List and then working the whole list. Establish a dialogue, go to RESI or other events and meet them–you must network. Follow up regularly by emailing all the targets with news on your company and how it is reaching milestones and getting compelling data: investor updates are key to your success and their vested interest in your company.

If you market to this list in an adroit and cogent way you will get on the investors’ radar screen. It’s a numbers game, and when you market to your Global Target List consistently you never know who will surface and what opportunities may arise. If you are just sending out material to investors who are attending an event, why not send out to all who are a potential fit for you? It only takes one interested investor to move a deal along.

It’s hard for fundraising CEOs to avoid cutting corners to save a few thousand dollars on campaign costs, but this can lead to a lot of missed opportunities. Putting your company out there as much as possible by investing in a high-quality marketing package and web presence, hiring staff who can conduct a campaign, and traveling to major investment events will maximize your odds of getting funded.

In addition, being selected as a participant in the RESI innovation Challenge has a compelling track record of helping companies get funded. The deadline to sign up for the RESI Innovation Challenge is soon! Click here to sign up.

Additional resources LSN has created for fundraising CEOs:

[Article] When Raising Capital, CEOs Should Understand the LSN Value Proposition

[Video] “The 10 Myths of Fundraising” Presentation at Freemind Group’s Non-Dilutive Funding Summit

[Article] Life Science Nation Ecosystem – A Matching Platform for Buyers and Sellers

[Book Chapter] LSN Summer Reading Series Chapter 9: “Global Target List—Match Your Firm with Investors That Are a Fit”

[Article] 10 Steps to a Life Science Fundraising Campaign

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RESI on MaRS Panel Announcement: Diagnostics Investors

29 Mar

By Claire Jeong, Research Analyst, LSN

claire

The field of diagnostics can be a difficult space to navigate due to challenges in the regulatory and reimbursement processes that hinder successful commercialization. However, the implications of diagnostic technologies can be enormous; from precision genomics that enable optimum health management and personalized care to novel biomarkers that can successfully detect high mortality diseases in its earliest stages, diagnostics companies are developing some of the most highly disruptive technologies in the industry.

In this session, we invite 5 investors with strong expertise in this diverse space to speak about their unique approaches in working with early-stage companies. Investors will discuss the types of investment opportunities they seek and share valuable insights on building long lasting relationships, differentiating your technology from similar competitors, and more. We hope you will be able to join us for the RESI Toronto Conference in the MaRS Innovation Center on April 10th to meet these awesome panelists!

Moderated by Drew Taylor, Lead Medical Researcher, Epic Capital Management, the panel participants are:

  • Yiu-Lian Fong, Innovation Lead for Diagnostics, Johnson & Johnson (Medical Devices)
  • Kelly Holman, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Genesys Capital
  • Yvan Côté, General Manager of Dynacare Next & Orchid PRO-DNA, Dynacare
  • Amine Benmoussa, Principal (Healthcare), BDC Healthcare Fund

 

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RESI on MaRS Panel Announcement: Medical Device Investors

22 Mar

By Lucy Parkinson, VP of Investor Research, LSN

Medical device innovation is known for being a challenging area for raising capital.  Given the timelines and capital requirements involved, as well as the increasing consolidation of the major firms that make up the exit landscape for devices, entrepreneurs may find it difficult to build their investment story.  However, LSN is in contact with hundreds of investors who are seeking deals in the device space, either for purely return-driven investments or for adding to a strategic pipeline.  At RESI, we aim to bridge the gap between early stage device firms and investors and help entrepreneurs close those ‘last three feet’ to make deals.

At RESI on MaRS, we welcome a Medical Device Investors panel featuring experienced investors from across North America, including both strategic players and financially-driven venture investors who will explore and elucidate the world of early stage device investment from every angle.  The panel will be moderated by Sam Ifergan, President & CEO, iGan Partners, and the participants are:

  • Katherine Parra Moreno, Vice President of Business Development, Epic Capital Management
  • Zishan Haroon, Chairman and General Partner, Julz Co LLC
  • V Kadir Kadhiresan, Vice President, Venture Investments, Johnson & Johnson Innovation
  • Gerry Brunk, Managing Director, Lumira Capital

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China-Based Investors are Looking West for New Products in Diabetes Care

8 Mar

By Jessica Yang, Investor Research Analyst, LSN

Diabetes mellitus is a global epidemic, with the metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular risk factors believed to underlie the disease on the increase worldwide. Among this large diabetes market, China has a higher number of diabetics than any other country. According to a World Health Organization estimate, of all adults with diabetes, one in three is from China.

This attracts a large number of Chinese investors to investments in diabetes care. For example, in 2017, when Johnson & Johnson began evaluating whether to sell its diabetes units, including glucose meters, insulin pumps and other equipment used in diabetes care, multiple Chinese investors expressed interest in buying some or all of these business units. However, many Chinese investors are looking at early stage products in this space. LSN is in touch with nearly a hundred China-based firms that are open to considering pre-approval products in the diabetes and metabolic disease field.

Chinese investors have invested, in-licensed, acquired or formed joint ventures with multiple Western diabetes care companies in recent years – the investors are expecting to extract extra value from the diabetes market in China. According to Franck Le Deu, Hong Kong-based senior partner at McKinsey, it is possible that a Chinese company could extract more value from these technologies than a multinational since they have different expectations of profitability. Even with lower margins, a tremendous growing diabetes population makes the Chinese diabetes market very significant. In addition, Chinese investors could leverage its local capabilities and knowledge to help these companies’ growth in the country.

As Chinese investors are seeking Western technologies and startups to address the diabetes market in China, it is a great time for diabetes startups to consider building connections and working with these investors.

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Diagnostic Investors Share their Insights

8 Feb

By Christine A. Wu, Senior Research Analyst, LSN

chrsitine

We see a lot of innovative point-of-care diagnostics out there, but what do these opportunities truly mean to diagnostic investors? How do diagnostic companies climb the reimbursement hurdle and how will the actionable information provided by these new diagnostics change healthcare delivery? Diagnostic investors discussed these questions at LSN’s Redefining Early Stage Investments Conference in San Francisco on January 9th.

Moderated by Akhil Saklecha, Partner of Artiman Ventures, we heard from:

  • Jenny Rooke, Venture Partner, F-Prime Capital
  • Alessio Beverina, Founder & Managing Partner, Panakès Partners
  • Eric Hargarten, Investment Associate, Sandbox Industries
  • Wouter Meuleman, Director of Investments, Illumina Ventures

Last week, we summarized what we heard from the Big Pharma panel. Now what about the diagnostics side? Below are the main takeaway points.

Consider how the diagnostic would effectively disrupt the current healthcare delivery system to solve the problem. Investors are looking at the rest of the diagnostic system, how solutions are currently being delivered, and how your solution solves the workflow of delivery. Areas these investors noted as “uncapped and wide open” are concussions and head injuries, genomics, proteomics, and oncology.

“Point-of-Care” diagnostics is too crowded an area, especially when the company does not know at what point or for what care. There are many barriers to entry for point-of-care diagnostics to demonstrate usefulness in the healthcare system. How does the point-of-care diagnostic affect a clinical decision? Other oversaturated diagnostic areas are liquid biopsies, such as blood-based oncology tests, and NGS software tools.

Focus on payor-relations by continually publishing clinical evidence, especially if aiming for reimbursement. One of the large concerns for diagnostics is reimbursement. If the company can solve a significant problem for patients, but cannot demonstrate a business case for the key players in the healthcare system, adoption will be a huge issue. Particularly in the U.S. where the expectation is for third-party insurance companies to pay, it becomes imperative for diagnostic companies to perform trials and demonstrate clinical utility in practice. Investors suggest having a person on the team dedicated to publishing studies aimed at winning over payors. How many studies should you complete before getting reimbursement, you ask? “One more than you have,” quotes Eric Hargarten from Sandbox Industries.

Think more broadly than classic venture money—VCs are not your only source of capital, especially for diagnostics. Apply for non-dilutive grant money—SBIRs are a great way to progress early-stage development. Other equity, dilutive funding sources that are not exactly the classic healthcare investors also exist. These can be tech investors that are interested in the data-side of diagnostics, as well as corporate and strategic partners. Companies should also seek foundations and family offices that are perhaps more mission-driven around the problem at hand. Incubators are also a source to gain early proof-of-concept.

Final Advice for Entrepreneurs:

  1. Have a high level of clarity. This demonstrates proprietary insight of the clinical problem and will get the investors’ attention to drive further conversation. Be sure the issue you are trying to solve is explained as clear as possible.
  2. Consider the strategic alignment with the investor. Also consider the market size, particularly for payor or provider-backed venture funds.
  3. Be prepared for technical conversations. Investors are excited by great science and great technology that solves problems others are not able to solve (think diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease before any symptoms appear!). Have your technical material on hand and be prepared to go deep. That said, be sure to also know your business model and plans for regulatory reimbursement.
  4. Carefully pick your advisors, board of directors, and KOLs. Be sure they understand what you are doing and truly champion your company.
  5. Think about what your company will look like in five years, and know what it takes to get there.

 

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