TMC PULSE

t m c » p u l s e | j u ly 2 0 1 5 24 Together with RESI's two existing venues—RESI Boston and RESI San Francisco—the conference series takes place three times a year. "This is our fifth RESI event since our first confer- ence in 2013," explained Ford. "When we would go to these conferences around the world, there were hardly any investors that would show up. Most of the time it was the same old talking heads from pharmaceutical compa- nies, but they were more business development and license oriented—not early-stage corporate venture investors with seed and development capital." According to Ford, pooling together Life Science Nation's global investor database—which allows fundraising executives to match up with investors that are a fit for their particular stage, sector or disease area—allowed them to develop relationships with a broad range of investors across the emerging health care technology arena. They leveraged those connections to bring their fourth RESI conference to frui- tion in San Francisco at the annual JP Morgan event. "I think Houston will end up on par with Boston and San Francisco," said Ford of the event's most recent venue. "Life Science Nation and the Texas Medical Center share the same vision. Everybody was telling both of us that we would never get anybody to Houston in June, and that if we did get people, it would be a very small event. It ended up being one of the most highly active, high-energy RESIs that we've ever had." Through an expansive series of panels—covering topics from biotech angels to venture philanthropy—the event offered firsthand accounts from investors explaining their current investment mandates and proce- dures for identifying and qualifying candidates "People always say, 'If you build it, they will come,' but to do a successful conference, content is king," said Ford. "When we developed the content of RESI, we decided on 16 panels—from a family office panel that invests in biotech and medtech to big pharma- ceutical companies and every investor category in between. Because we have an investor database that we maintain, we are involved in a constant dialogue with the early-stage investor commu- nity around the globe. We know all of the issues that they have and the fact that they're all different." "There are 10 categories of early- stage investors and they all have their own personality types," he added, emphasizing the need for entrepre- neurs to cater their content to their audience. "With the investors at RESI, we have separate panels for each category, providing them a platform to explain to scientific entrepreneurs the best way to reach them, what they're looking for, and what's on their radar screen. That creates the foundation for this dialogue that you really don't see anywhere else." Participants chose investor panels that were a fit for their sector and stage, and the rooms were virtually standing-room only. However, the majority of the action took place at the partnering forum, where fundraising executives held up to 16 meetings in a single day with life science investors, understanding and mapping out the best ways to work together if, indeed, there was a fit. "The partnering is the core of the RESI conference," said Ford. "It was like a beehive of activity—when you walked in you could just feel the energy rising off the ground. That's always been one of the big winners at our conference, because the people can actually go through the matchmaking platform, find people that are a perfect match for them, and go on to have a conversation. "When you go to other partnering events at other conferences, you're THROUGH A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN LIFE SCIENCE NATION, TEXAS MEDICAL CENTER, JOHNSON & JOHNSON INNOVATION AND JLABS (JLABS @TMC), THE RESI EVENT CONNECTED EARLY-STAGE COMPANIES WITH POTENTIAL INVESTORS.

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