Tag Archives: RESI

Interview with Kouris Kalligas, Winner of the Innovation Challenge in RESI Toronto

26 Apr

Kouris Kalligas

 An interview with Kouris Kalligas, Founder & CEO, Therachat

– By Greg Mannix, VP of International Business Development, LSN

Greg Mannix

The San Francisco digital health startup Therachat came in 3rd at the RESI on MaRS Innovation Challenge in Toronto. Therachat is a mental health platform which simplifies homework in therapy for therapists & psychologists & their clients. Therapists & Psychologists can customize the homework experience for their clients via a simple web application and their clients can do their homework on an easy-to-use, HIPAA Compliant, mobile application. We believe that homework needed a simpler way and that’s what we have built!

CEO Kouris Kalligas registered early for the conference and put a lot of time and effort into his partnering strategy. When he was notified they would compete in the IC as finalists, he decided to bring along his colleague Sajid Reshamwala so they could maximize their presence at the conference.

Greg Mannix:  Kouris, how did you prepare for the RESI conference?

Kouris Kalligas:  I actually spent several solid days preparing our company profile on the RESI Partnering Platform and then reaching out to as many investors as possible who looked like a fit for us. The RESI Partnering is the best match-making platform I have seen! I could get a good idea of what each investor was looking for so I could decide who to request a meeting with.

GM: That’s great! How many meetings were you able to book?

KK: I was able to book 16 meetings! And what was really cool is that 10 investors who couldn’t meet with me at RESI gave me their emails through the messaging system, so I was able to contact them afterwards. I have been doing that since I got home. Fantastic!

GM: Wow! That’s impressive. Why do you think you got so much traction with investors?

KK:  I actually used 3 different messages and tried each one out on a handful of investors. I saw right away the one that was getting the most responses, so I focused on that message with the rest of investors I reached out to.

GM:  That is a great approach Kouris! I take it Sajid spent most of his day at the Therachat poster talking to people. How many Ad-Hoc meetings did Sajid have?

KK: I would guess about 20. Also, I sent every investor I spoke to check out our poster and invest their RESI cash in us! That’s so important:  Don’t be shy, just ask them to invest. I guess it was a good strategy!

GM: What would you say is the thing you liked most about RESI?

KK: That’s a tough one because we had a super productive day. But I would have to say it is the Partnering Platform. It really allowed me to identify the target investors I wanted to meet with and I could communicate with them through the messaging system. I probably sent out 200 or 300 messages!

Kouris Kalligas, Founder & CEO, Therachat

CEO & Founder of Therachat. I am passionate about technology & mental health. I have already one product under my belt called Addapp (check addapp.io) which I drove to 100k downloads and 10k daily active users. I believe that mental health is important and underserved. Technology can be a big enabler in the revolution that is coming to improving our mental health!

Greg Mannix, VP of International Business Development, LSN

Greg Mannix is Vice President of International Business Development at Life Science Nation. After graduating from the University of California, he moved to Europe where he began a career in the life sciences and obtained a Master’s degree from IE Business School in Madrid. He has extensive experience in sales and marketing management in the medical devices field. He has worked extensively in Europe, North America and Latin America and he speaks English, Spanish and French. Greg’s role at LSN is to provide international early-stage companies with the tools and strategies to succesfully fundraise and to facilitate cross-boarder investments, licensing and M&A transactions.

About Therachat

Therachat is a mental health platform which simplifies homework in therapy for therapists & psychologists & their clients. Therapists & Psychologists can customize the homework experience for their clients via a simple web application and their clients can do their homework on an easy-to-use, HIPAA Compliant, mobile application. We believe that homework needed a simpler way and that’s what we have built! Check www.therachat.io to find out more!

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Meeting Investors Through the RESI Innovation Challenge

19 Apr

By Chris Cummings, Senior Marketing Manager, LSN

The RESI Conference offers a unique platform for scientist-entrepreneurs to meet investors. For selected companies competing in the RESI Innovation Challenge, the platform expands exponentially. Participating in the Challenge opens a new universe of potential meeting opportunities, well beyond the 16 time slots available in Partnering.

The objective of most fundraising companies attending RESI is to maximize the number of investor meetings they obtain; playing the numbers game gives an entrepreneur the best shot at closing an investment deal. LSN designed the Innovation Challenge with this concept in mind. Utilizing a poster presentation format that encourages one-on-one interactions, as opposed to simply sending companies on stage to pitch to a disengaged audience, entrepreneurs can dramatically increase the number of meaningful investor relationships they build.

Entrepreneurs who are outgoing and engaging have demonstrated the ability to meet upwards of 25 to 30 additional investors on top of the 16 pre-booked meetings available in partnering. Many companies elect to bring two representatives in order to take advantage of both ad-hoc and scheduled meetings. This strategy has proven to be quite effective, as the list of successful companies who participate in the Innovation Challenge continues to grow.

Below are some of the previous Innovation Challenge winners. If you are a fundraising entrepreneur, you can apply for the RESI Boston Summer Innovation Challenge here. The application deadline for the Innovation Challenge is May 4th. Also, don’t forget to register for the conference as well – prices increase on Friday, April 27th!

RESI on MaRS 2018 Innovation Challenge Winners

RESI San Francisco 2018 Innovation Challenge Winners

RESI New York City 2017 Innovation Challenge Winners

RESI Boston 2017 Innovation Challenge Winners

RESI San Diego 2017 Innovation Challenge Winners

RESI on MaRS 2017 Innovation Challenge Winners

RESI San Francisco 2017 Innovation Challenge Winners

RESI Boston 2016 Innovation Challenge Winners

RESI on MaRS 2016 Innovation Challenge Winners

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Interview with Yasaman, Winner of the Innovation Challenge in RESI Toronto

19 Apr

Yasaman Soudagar

 An interview with Yasaman Soudagar, Founder & CEO, Neurescence

– By Greg Mannix, VP of International Business Development, LSN

Greg Mannix

Interview with Yasaman Soudagar: This year’s winner of the Innovation Challenge at RESI on MaRS was Neurescence, a Toronto-based company that has combined the power of novel optical imaging technology with advanced machine learning and quantum machine learning techniques for intelligent drug discovery for the diseases of the central nervous system.

CEO Yasaman Soudagar got a late start preparing for RESI, since she didn’t decide to attend until about 10 days before the conference, when she was informed that she would compete as a finalist in the Innovation Challenge. So I wanted to ask her how she managed to have such a successful conference, not to mention winning the Innovation Challenge, on such short notice.

Greg Mannix: Yasaman, you attended RESI alone, How did you get so many players to “invest” their RESI dollars in Neurescence and win the IC? Did you spend the whole day at your poster?

Yasaman Soudagar: Actually no! I moved around and looked for the places where the most people seemed to be hanging out, and I brought a tablet around so I could show them what our technology does, in a video of the actual imaging we do.

GM: Who did you target?

YS: One thing I really like about RESI is that all the investors are easy to spot because they have a red ribbon on their nametags. So it was really easy to approach investors and start a conversation.

GM: Was it difficult to get a conversation going, or did you find that most of the investors were approachable?

YS: I just went up to them and said “Hi, I am the founder of the coolest company on the planet”, which always at least drew a smile and a funny comment. Once I got their attention, then I had the chance to say “Here, let me show you”.

GM: Did you have very many one-on-one partnering meetings?

YS: I didn’t really have time to book a lot of meetings—I only had 2 scheduled, which I took at the poster. But I made a lot of great connections just by networking. In fact, I have already had follow-up meetings with investors I met at RESI.

GM: So all in all, it sounds like you had a good experience at RESI. What did you like most about the conference?

YS: It was a great event for me. I liked the density of relevant people and that it was easy to identify the investors. It was a great opportunity to network.

 

Yasaman Soudagar, Founder & CEO, Neurescence

Dr. Yasaman Soudagar holds a PhD in the field of experimental quantum optics, under the supervision of Dr. Nicolas Godbout at École Polytechnique de Montréal and Dr. Aephraim Steinberg at the University of Toronto. She then tenured an NSERC IRDF scholarship at Attodyne, a picosecond laser manufacturing company in Toronto. The exposure to the demands of a startup gave her the confidence to start her own, which is called Neurescence Inc. Soudagar has been building up Neurescence full time since Aug. 2015. Since then the product is developed and commercialized to the scientific research market.

Greg Mannix, VP of International Business Development, LSN

Greg Mannix is Vice President of International Business Development at Life Science Nation. After graduating from the University of California, he moved to Europe where he began a career in the life sciences and obtained a Master’s degree from IE Business School in Madrid. He has extensive experience in sales and marketing management in the medical devices field. He has worked extensively in Europe, North America and Latin America and he speaks English, Spanish and French. Greg’s role at LSN is to provide international early-stage companies with the tools and strategies to succesfully fundraise and to facilitate cross-boarder investments, licensing and M&A transactions.

 

About Neurescence

Neurescence has developed and commercialized a miniature microscope initially targeted to the Neurology research market. Our Quartet™ system gets implanted in multiple regions of the brain and spine and follows the activities of 100s of neurons in each region for months while the subject freely moves around. Our hardware-software suite is the only technology that allows establishing a causal connection between the effect of the treatment, such as a drug, on both the neuronal micro-circuitry and the disease phenotype. This extremely powerful approach takes the process of discovering and developing treatments from a trial and error method to an intelligent design.

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Mark Your Calendar: RESI Boston Summer on June 4th, 2018

12 Apr

By Samuel Rubin, Business Development Manager, LSN

Life Science Nation (LSN) and the RESI Conference now sets its sights on RESI Boston on June 4th, the day before the annual BIO Convention. This is the second year in a row LSN is holding a RESI Conference during BIO week, which promises to bring more than 15,000 life science executives to Boston. RESI specializes in early stage investor partnering, touting hundreds of qualified investment firms interested in meeting with innovative life science startups. No other Conference has such a deeply-rooted focus on early stage investment, complete with a robust data platform to connect with only those firms who are the right match. RESI will therefore offer significant value to folks traveling to BIO looking for something to do the Monday before BIO kicks off.

Registration is now open at the Early Bird Rate. If you would like to learn more about RESI Boston and why it’s a great choice for incorporating into your summer fundraising plans, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Click here to learn more about Premier Partnering Plus

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RESI on MaRS Innovation Challenge – Check Out the Winners

12 Apr

By Chris Cummings, Senior Marketing Manager, LSN

On April 10, more than 600 entrepreneurs and investors entered the exhibition hall at MaRS Discovery District in Toronto. They were greeted by 30 Innovation Challenge finalists across therapeutics, medical device, diagnostics, and healthcare IT sectors. The 30 companies, hand selected by LSN’s scientific and commercial review team, competed directly on merits of innovation and commercial viability. We wish all our finalists the best in bringing their products forward toward commercialization, but there could only be 3 top prize winners.

First Place: Neurescence

Neurescence has developed and commercialized a miniature microscope initially targeted to the neurology research market. Our Quartet™ system gets implanted in multiple regions of the brain and spine and follows the activities of 100s of neurons in each region for months while the subject freely moves around. Our hardware-software suite is the only technology that allows establishing a causal connection between the effect of the treatment, such as a drug, on both the neuronal micro-circuitry and the disease phenotype. This extremely powerful approach takes the process of discovering and developing treatments from a trial and error method to an intelligent design.

Lucy Parkinson, VP of Investor Research, Life Science Nation | Yasaman Soudagar, Founder & CEO, Neurescence | Dennis Ford, Founder & CEO, Life Science Nation | Ying Tam, Managing Director, Health Ventures, MaRS

Second Prize: Acorn Biolabs

People’s own cells have and will continue to become the foundation of the most important future biomedical therapeutics and regenerative medicine strategies. Aged cells, however, are highly mutated and deteriorated versions of our current cells. Precisely when people will need high-quality cells the most, their cells at that time will be at their worst. Acorn Biolabs has developed a novel non-invasive at-home kit to collect and viably transport cells. Acorn cryopreserves these cells as a way to ensure people will always have access to their own young therapeutically-capable cells. The value potential is immense; customer’s preserved cells are a life-long living resource, retrievable for direct use with advanced cell-based therapeutics, and analyzable for personal genomics, epigenomics, proteomics and beyond.

Lucy Parkinson, VP of Investor Research, Life Science Nation | Steven ten Holder, Founder & COO, Acorn Biolabs | Drew Taylor, CEO, Acorn Biolabs | Dennis Ford, Founder & CEO, Life Science Nation | Ying Tam, Managing Director, Health Ventures, MaRS

Third Prize: Therachat

Therachat is a mental health platform which simplifies homework in therapy for therapists & psychologists & their clients. Therapists & psychologists can customize the homework experience for their clients via a simple web application and their clients can do their homework on an easy-to-use, HIPAA compliant, mobile application. We believe that homework needed a simpler way and that’s what we have built! Check http://www.therachat.io to find out more!

Sajid Reshamwala, Director of Design, Therachat | Kouris Kalligas, CEO & Founder, Therachat | Dennis Ford, Founder & CEO, Life Science Nation | Ying Tam, Managing Director, Health Ventures, MaRS

If you missed out on the opportunity to compete in the RESI on MaRS Innovation Challenge, we’d be happy to take your application for our upcoming Boston event on June 4th.

Apply for RESI Boston Innovation Challenge Now!

 

 

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RESI Lands on MaRS in 5 Days – Check out the Program Guide

5 Apr

By Nono Hu, Director of Marketing, LSN

In 5 days, The Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) Conference will return to MaRS Discovery Centre, Toronto for the third time during the Toronto Health Innovation Week. So far, we have over 700 meetings booked through the RESI Partnering Platform, and have registered over 250 early stage investors.

If you’re planning your day at RESI on MaRS, check out the program guide now to find the full lineup of speakers, innovators, exhibitors and sponsors.

See you at MaRS on April 10th!

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Why MaRS Toronto for an International Early Stage Investor Conference?

5 Apr

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

There is a rich diversity of technology assets being developed in Toronto, as MaRS Discovery District and Johnson & Johnson’s JLABS have convened to create one of the most dynamic centers for life science technology innovation in North America. However, not to use an old cliché, Toronto’s real value in life science is in the people, from its visionary leaders to its extraordinary scientist-entrepreneurs, all striving (and succeeding) to move the needle and create the next generation of healthcare innovation.

When I first launched the Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) Conference in Toronto in 2016, my network of global early-stage investors were initially open to seeing what was up in the north country. Just two years and three Toronto RESI conferences later, I am witnessing unprecedented signups from the global investor community. Much to my amazement, this upcoming RESI conference (April 10th at MaRS Discovery Centre) has seen a 25% increase in investor and strategic partner registrations. We expect 300-350 qualified investors (all with vetted investment mandates) to peruse the lineup of hundreds of early-stage biotech, medtech, diagnostics and digital health startups. But one quite compelling factor is that we expect that almost 60% of the investors and partners will be from outside of Canada.

But I digress. Back to the people factor. What I learned from discussion with investors who have attended RESI on MaRS in the past was actually quite startling. The main takeaway from a majority of the investors I chatted with was that the caliber of the fundraising CEOs and scientist-entrepreneurs was the main differentiator. It was their genuineness and their lack of inflated value of their technology that impressed the investors. In contrast, the Boston, NYC and CA players had elevated expectations regarding the amount of time it takes to get a deal done, and the valuations of their assets were off the charts. The investors implied that if they find a deal they like in Toronto, the valuations and executive teams in Canada are much more realistic, which translates into getting contracts signed quicker. These perceptions impact and ignite the global investor community and have heightened interest in Toronto, which proves out the adage that if you build it, they will come!

 

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