A few lessons and thoughts from the Venture Leaders Life Sciences roadshow in Boston, 9-15 June 2019 by Danuta Cichocka

02.07.2019 17:30, Guillaume Tinsel

Having spent an eye-opening week in Boston pitching to some of the top VCs around (including Third Rock Ventures, RA Capital, Gurnet Point Capital, Sanofi Ventures, Novartis Venture Fund) and receiving coaching from medtech and biotech experts from top institutions like Wyss Institute at Harvard University, my biggest surprise was that nobody asked us for our financial plans. Not even a summary! It's a very different approach to startups than we’re used to here in Europe. For starters, the risk appetite is a lot higher, if the market opportunity is big enough.

Crazy entrepreneurs?

Once the formalities of what we do, our years of research at prestigious institutions such as EPF Lausanne and ETH Zurich, and the role of our professors and their publication records were out the way, investors’ real interest was in us – as founders, our motivations, our whys and what made us ‘crazy’ enough to create a startup.


Think big, think global!

Among the ten Venture Leaders on this year’s roadshow we had startups for early cancer diagnostics (4DLifetec) and the compound that will prevent development of resistance in that same disease (Tolremo). There was an antibiotic with a new mechanism of action (Juvabis). We had an innovative molecule for stress-associated neurological disorders (Synendos Therapeutics) and a system to detect Alzheimer’s early (Positrigo). There were technologies that will provide an alternative to silicone breast implants after mastectomies (Volumina Medical), make catheter-procedures less toxic for patients (Medyria), facilitate gene therapies (Pattern BioSciences) and help extract meaningful data from single cells and translate it into clinically useful biomarkers (Scailyte). As well as my startup, Resistell, which is developing the world’s fastest antibiogram.

In Boston we received clear confirmation of the global need for our Swiss-made solutions and really strengthened our understanding of what it meant to ‘think big, think global!’ The briefest presentation of our unique technologies would immediately trigger questions such as: ‘What other indications could you potentially address? What is the design of your clinical trials and where are you planning to place them? Have you already considered the U.S. as a market?’

60-second eternities

Which brings us to the 60-second pitch: “Hi my name is Danuta, I am CEO and co-founder of Resistell. We created this venture to help physicians fight for the lives of patients with extremely difficult-to-treat infections.” I must have repeated that opening a 1,000 times during the trip and my fellow Venture Leaders will have done the same. Not only while practicing for the Future of Healthtech Pitch Night, where it was great to go up against some of the top healthtech startups from across the pond, and see how they sell themselves. But also, in every session, every chat with investors and experts, every networking dinner and drinks. Our 100-page business plans, cut down to just 60 seconds. But when you have to repeat it as many times as we did, you begin to realize just how long 60 seconds is. This was another valuable lesson from the trip: the power of limited time and clear communication.



Diagnostic companies attract more funding

Personally, one big positive of Boston was the greater awareness of diagnostic technology and its potential to save costs. When I'm pitching in Europe, I often hear ‘but nobody ever made real money in diagnostics.’ However – as I like to emphasize in my pitch – this is because diagnostic methods are a 100 years old! New business models for diagnostics are emerging. There is even a willingness by patients to pay for it from their owns pocket, if the new methods can bring real benefits and prevent some serious illnesses. As a result, diagnostic companies attract much greater funding in the U.S. than in Europe. Good news for half of the Venture Leaders team, who are working on solutions to improve the ‘educated guess’ element of medical decision making!

From Venturelab to ‘Startup Manufactory’

Fifteen years of Venturelab and more than ten years of Venture Kick has led to a much-needed support ecosystem for early stage ventures in Switzerland and enabled a lot of early stage funding. Today we have a startup accelerator in every city and many founders with very clear 60-second pitches, cutting-edge technologies with solid proofs-of-concept and big market potential. Thanks to programs like Venture Leaders we are getting ready to open series A or even series B funding.

As Venturelab nears its 15th anniversary, in the name of Swiss startups, I want to say a big THANK YOU for all you are doing in Switzerland to support us. As a next step, we could create something like a ‘Startup Manufactory,’ with even more access to expertise in industrialization, clinical trials, commercialization strategies and scaling, that would help us become global leaders and bring our solutions into the hands of the doctors who really need them around the world.

Having now being exposed to the U.S. healthtech industry, we return with many useful inputs to immediately implement in our action plans and a renewed sense of how many borders our startups can breach. Thank you Venturelab!