YOUR BIOTECH IDEA ALONE WILL NOT GET YOU FUNDED

When biotech start-ups go to present, the common belief is that the technology, biologic, assay, or molecule will be the catalyst for awarding funding.

No, it won’t. The fact that you have something that might work and be beneficial to some subset of people worldwide who suffer from a specific condition is how you got in the room. Whether you leave the room with funding is based entirely on what you focus on for the investors.

Today I will share with you the three things to focus on in VC meetings to get funding. There is one overarching factor in every one of these – you MUST provide value for the investor.

Value of Technology

Focusing on the value of the technology is obvious, but it is usually buried in your presentation – technical details, lacking clarity for anyone outside of the company, or viability of the technology. We hear quite often from investors that startup presentations could not get to the point or get bogged down in the science. When you consider how to show the value of the technology, it is important to recognize that you are speaking to business people, not scientists. The science is fascinating, but the value of the technology is in what it can do, the likelihood of its completion, and the size of its effect. As you consider your presentation, take a critical look at how you explain the value of the technology with respect to the interests of the investors.

Value of Team

You can have the best therapeutic, best drug, or best research, but if the investors do not believe that you can deliver on that final product, you will not get funding. You only get a short time to build that confidence with them. If you do not have strong speakers across your team of presenters, then investor confidence will not get built. You must invest in practice time and resources for two reasons: (1) to make sure that your message and presentation is clear, and (2) to communicate that you have a strong team. A team with strong relationships that will enable you to produce the outcome you have stated you can. Without practice and a focus on improving your team members’ speaking quality across the board, you will not achieve your funding goals.

Value of Time

Very often you will walk into a meeting and be told instead of 30 minutes you have 15 minutes or 10 or 5. Most importantly, if you cannot finish in the time they provide, you will not receive your funding. If this happens, what do you do? How do you prepare for this? To start, it is important in your presentation preparation that you know your material. Research tells us practicing your presentation six times will improve your presentation. So, at a minimum, you want to do that. Beyond that, you need to identify your theme and story. When you have to cut your presentation down, what stays? What tells the story? What is important? Practice isn’t just going over the information. No matter how much time you are given, it is KNOWING the information so that it will resonate with your investors.

Spread the love

Author

Similar posts

Tips for Leading Effective Meetings

Our coaching team appreciates the challenge of masterminding the right mix of talent, personalities, and action items. Fortunately, easy tweaks often go a long way to enhance comfort, participation, and awareness of nuances in a team member’s behavior. Recently, I worked with a senior leader in financial services who felt it was his responsibility to control the agenda and results of all meetings; in fact, he considered it part of his job. He was baffled that his

Spread the love

Listen to Your Gut

Microexpressions are brief, involuntary facial movements that reveal a person’s true emotions. They may last for only a fraction of a second and are often difficult to detect with the naked eye, but they can provide valuable insight into a person’s inner thoughts and feelings. In order to use microexpressions effectively in communication, it is important first to understand their significance. Microexpressions are believed to be universal and biologically based, meaning that they are hardwired

Spread the love

Management Communication: Digital, Telephone, or Face-to-Face?

I was recently told, “You’re not going to believe this, but one of my friends was just let go for laying off her employees by email.” Imagine how her colleagues must have felt when their termination notice was communicated electronically; unappreciated, disposable, and confused. An email disaster like this may sound unusual, but I regularly hear variations of similar stories in the business world. Over the past decade, email and text messages have become increasingly

Spread the love

QUESTIONS? NEED HELP?

Tell us what’s on your mind: