{"id":1414,"date":"2020-02-05T21:31:06","date_gmt":"2020-02-06T02:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/m2d2\/?p=1414"},"modified":"2020-02-11T15:28:35","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T20:28:35","slug":"recap-takeaways-venture-funding-happy-hour-at-m2d2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/m2d2\/2020\/02\/05\/recap-takeaways-venture-funding-happy-hour-at-m2d2\/","title":{"rendered":"Recap & Takeaways: Venture Funding Happy Hour at M2D2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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We were delighted to see an SRO crowd of approximately 100\npeople at our Venture Funding Happy Hour on February 4. This event provided a\nway for local life science business financing experts to share their expertise\nwith startups. While they offered countless pieces of important advice, the\nfour speakers continued to hammer on one very key piece of information: You\nneed both the science AND someone with the business smarts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

If you hire a team filled with individuals that offer the\nsame science background and skills, your innovation will struggle to make it to\nmarket. Why? The focus and excitement are solely on the ideas and innovation,\nand there is not enough attention on developing a thorough business plan.\nAdding a person with a business background is key to taking your ideas to\nmarket. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3 Key Takeaways on Venture Funding<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

1. \u201cIt\u2019s just coffee.\u201d<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The speakers stressed the important of just reaching out.<\/em> Entrepreneur Bill Yelle emphasized how it\u2019s just a matter of reaching out and making those important connections. Venture capital financers WANT to hear about your great ideas and innovations. Don\u2019t lose opportunities because you didn\u2019t take the initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2.\u201cBuilding a company is a team sport.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A successful company does not revolve solely around a great\ninnovation, it needs a strong team standing behind it. Nancy Briefs emphasized\nthe importance of \u201cteam before technology.\u201d The best CEOs don\u2019t believe they\nshould know everything\u2014they rely on their team and they hire to shore up their\nweaknesses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cWe will invest in the people.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maria Berkman spoke to how the persona of the team matters\ntremendously. \u201cThere are plenty of great ideas out there, and all things being\nequal, we will invest in people.\u201d She followed her statement with, \u201cI think\nabout who I want to spend time in an airport with.\u201d If your startup has a great\ninnovation, it needs to be surrounded by diverse and driven individuals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everybody into the M2D2 shark tank!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The panel discussion segued into a spontaneous pitch session\nduring which more than a half-dozen life sciences entrepreneurs presented their\ninnovations, then listened to the investors\u2019 reactions. The session really\ndrove home the equal importance of both scientific advances and business acumen\nwhen it comes to taking a life-saving idea to market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Director of Operations at M2D2 Mary Ann Picard emphasized her\nexcitement about this event. \u201cWe\u2019re always excited to provide life sciences startups\nwith information and insights that help be better business people as well as great\ninnovators. I think everyone in the room benefitted from the very candid and honest\nfeedback that the investors gave to the pitches.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Enter YOUR innovation in the 2020 $200K Challenge by February 16!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until next time…<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s Venture Funding Happy hour led to many great\nnetworking and growth opportunities for startups. We are thankful to our\nspeakers for taking the time to bring relevant and important information to our\nstartups! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We were delighted to see an SRO crowd of approximately 100 people at our Venture Funding Happy Hour on February 4. This event provided a way for local life science business financing experts to share their expertise with startups. While … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/m2d2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1414"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/m2d2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/m2d2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/m2d2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/m2d2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1414"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/m2d2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1435,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/m2d2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1414\/revisions\/1435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/m2d2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/m2d2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/m2d2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}