LSN Story
LSN Story
Roadshows in the Life Science Arena
The life science arena is distinctly unique in that startup companies go on global roadshows just like pre-IPO CEOs to raise capital and find licensing deals. Unlike other industries life science startups coalesce a small team and then get large amounts of capital to hire a bevy of service providers to aid in designing, building, and testing their products. Government grants and roadshows are an intricate part of how a company survives and grows. Unlike their IPO counterparts Life Science CEO’s do not have an experienced underwriting firm with years of practice and a rolodex of international qualified investors. Nor do they have anyone producing their global roadshow, setting up their meetings, grooming, educating, and aligning their roadshow pitches and strategy. The Life Science CEOs are basically on their own and although they do get coaching and mentoring in business plan, product, and regulatory strategy they rarely get the facts on what it takes to prepare, focus, and execute a Global Partnering Campaign. That is the exact role that LSN has been playing in the early-stage life science arena for the last decade. LSN not only prepares startups for their global roadshow but has also created a global partnering platform in which to prepare and execute their global roadshow.
LSN Partnering Superstructure
Life Science Nation (LSN) has built a global partnering superstructure featuring healthcare startups and the capital investors, co-development and licensing partners who seek them. Early-stage life science buyers and sellers each with curated data profiles use the LSN SAAS platform and LSN’s global partnering events for sourcing and matching based on stage of development and product. This one-of-a-kind partnering ecosystem is unique because it is cross-domain serving the silos of Drugs, Devices, Diagnostics and Digital Health (the 4Ds). The LSN platform also includes relationships with the service providers, tech hubs and government agencies who provide the international infrastructure that makes the early-stage life science industry run. This partnering superstructure has three components consisting of Early Stage Capital and Licensing Partnering Data Profiles, Partnering Events, Roadshow Preparation.
I). LSN Global Partnering Campaign (GPC) Database
LSN has employed a team of researchers for a decade whose job is to curate and keep the partnering database profiles up to date through one-on-one phone interviews. The LSN mantra is “data comes in two states, out-of-date and very-out-of-date”. LSN offers partner profiles, that are current, present, and future-looking, which makes them invaluable for launching and executing a successful Global Partnering Campaign. LSN sells this database integrated with SF.com CRM to early-stage startups who are seeking capital investors who can provide seed, up to 2m, series A, 2-10m, and series B, 10-50m. Plus, it includes all the major Big Pharma players and their licensing, co-development, and venture arms. The LSN Global Partnering Database consists of 3500 firms with 10,000 contacts.
LSN tactical value is that, in a few clicks, we can generate a target list of investors and licensing partners, ranging from 400-800 entities, LSN calls this, the Global Target List (GTL), that are a fit for a startups stage of development and product.
The Pricing, Terms and Conditions of the LSN Global Partnering Campaign (LSN GPC) Platform
LSN will offer a several packages of the SF.com and LSN partnering database ranging from $300 and $500 dollar a month. These packages with have real-time access to LSN partner data combined with RESI ticket discounts to the 5 international partnering events that LSN put on every year. Clients can choose a monthly fee structure with terms that are minimum 6 months commitment or elect a one-time annual subscription fee. LSN calculates that is has helped 400 companies raise over $5B dollars.
II.) Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) International Partnering Events
LSN created the world renown Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) Conference Series, an established go-to dedicated partnering event series. RESI partnering events are held in concert with JP Morgan, San Francisco in January, Europe in March, alongside BIO USA in June, Boston in September, and Pacific Rim in November.
To be successful in a global partnering campaign you must get out of your office and on the road. Executing a successful Global Partnering Campaign is all about working and playing a numbers game of constantly moving potential partners on and off the table until you have a lead, along with a core group, that can fill out your round. It is not accomplished by going to one or two events per year. You achieve success by getting a list and managing that list until the round is complete. It is a full-time endeavor and takes anywhere from 9-18 months.
The Innate Problem LSN Solved through RESI
The biggest issue at partnering events is that sell-side founders benefit greatly from filling out their company profiles, while buy-side investors and strategic licensing partners are not incentivized to complete their own, making it challenging for founders to truly target based on fit. This lopsided imbalance triggers a domino-effect of startup founders spamming investors, only to find out in a mismatched meeting that they are not a fit – something they could’ve known if the targeted partner profile had been complete. LSN’s unique solution includes a partnering database enabling us to fill in the missing partnering profiles alongside a matching mechanism which enabled matching of the two parties based on stage of development and product. Investors and strategic partners can explore the latest innovation in a format that easily connects them with products they are most interested in, which makes meetings dynamic and compelling. This has been a gamechanger in the life science partnering arena, making RESI incredibly effective at helping attendees find partners that were a fit and getting deals done.
Panel Presentations
The who’s-who of global life science early-stage investors and licensing partners are featured on our RESI panels. LSN covers cover ten categories of investors from angels and family offices to VC, PE, and strategic corporate partners. These RESI panels can be live or pre-recorded and are available for viewing online via the event website. These 50-minute discussions feature four panelists and one moderator, made up of active investors, strategic partners, and key industry leaders, with a dedicated range of topics focused on the early-stage life science ecosystem investment and partnerships.
Innovator’s Pitch Challenge
LSN gives start-ups the opportunity to pitch directly to a panel of investors, followed by a live Q&A. Each company will have a pre-recorded pitch posted on a dedicated page linked from the event agenda, increasing their exposure to the investor attendees.
III.) The Focus on Cures (FOC) Accelerator
The Focus on Cures (FOC) Accelerator facilitates the migration of elite international regional start-up companies into the global capital and licensing arenas using the LSN ecosystem.
There is not a formal, open, program for start-up CEOs to receive preparation in organizing and executing a global partnering and fundraising campaign. FOC offers a “nuts and bolts” curriculum of workshops, seminars and classes that prepares international companies for a global fundraise that is fully integrated into LSN’s global partnering network and beyond.
For over a decade, Life Science Nation (LSN) has been matching together elite early-stage technology assets with capital investors, channel partners, and licensing collaborators to help bring these innovative assets to market faster. In this time, LSN has interacted with over 5,000 early-stage fundraising executives and scientist-entrepreneurs who are making a major transition from the academic world to the business development domain.
The Challenge for Scientist-Entrepreneurs and Fundraising CEOs
The problem that LSN is solving with the Focus on Cures (FOC) Accelerator Entrepreneurial Education Curriculum is that these early life science startups who need early-stage funding (Seed, Series A & Series B), all of whom are making this major transition, commonly lack a comprehensive background in the business development, sales, and marketing fields which are essential to growing their company.
There is no standardized methodology for teaching a company how to brand and message itself. There is no reliable, accurate, and current database (besides LSN’s) to get a company a list of global partners that are a fit for their stage of development and product set. There is no tech hub that teaches how to get a list of global partners and then mange that list with a CRM like SalesForce.com, nor do they teach how to prioritize that list into A, B, and C targets to go after and manage. They also do not teach how to launch and stage a partnering campaign and how to make an introductory phone call or write an introductory email. Most importantly, no one teaches the holy grail of canvassing…how to follow up.
The problem is then compounded because early-stage companies also must be able to assemble a list of global capital investors and licensing partners that are a fit for their particular stage of development and product. Whilst many startups do manage to acquire a general investor list or spreadsheet of partners, those lists are never current and accurate, so they will waste valuable time learning the hard lesson of how to aggregate a clean list of partners that are appropriate to pursue. Then, once an early-stage company manages to procure a good list of potential partners, they have to put that list into a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool that allows them to properly manage and curate the list. These are all components of learning how to launch and execute a global partnering campaign which are commonly passed over in traditional education courses offered by various tech hub organizations.
Preparing for a Global Partnering Campaign
A global partnering campaign can take anywhere from 9-18 months and therefore, one needs to be fully prepared in all the nuts and bolts of exactly what it will take to be successful. LSN Founder & CEO, Dennis Ford, has written a book on the subject, The Life Science Executive’s Fundraising Manifesto, and over a ten-year period has developed a process for getting scientist-entrepreneurs prepared for a global partnering campaign. Using the book as a basis, Dennis and LSN staff have created an entrepreneurial curriculum that has been very effective in training the scientist-entrepreneurs. This involves a process, that when followed, produces great results for the early-stage company. An essential component of this is the value of getting your story straight and developing an easy-to-understand, compelling narrative about your team, technology, and market (something that is glossed over regularly in traditional entrepreneurial education courses). The slide below features the steps that a startup must go through to get their branding and messaging cogent, and the tools and actions required to go from being a regional startup entity to getting a global partnering campaign launched.
