Venture Leaders Life Sciences and Medtech pitch to an audience of international investors, VCs and experts in Harvard, Cambridge

From September 26 to October 1st, the exceptional Swiss National Startup Teams of the Venture Leaders Life Sciences 2020 and Medtech 2021 had their residence at Swissnex Boston for a joint roadshow: 17 top-class startups presented their innovations to international investors, fine-tuned their pitches, and participated in a series of business development workshops to deepen their knowledge of the American market and regulations. Let's immerse ourselves in this highly inspiring atmosphere.

Venturelab has been organizing international roadshows for the Swiss National Startup Teams for 16 years. The ambitious entrepreneurs and their promising startups are introduced to high-class investors and potential customers in leading technology hubs such as Silicon Valley, Boston, New York, China, Hong Kong, and Barcelona.

The Venture Leaders Medtech and Life Sciences embarked on their roadshow to Cambridge, Boston to dive into the US medtech startup ecosystem, meet international investors and industry leaders, and access industry-specific expertise and networks. The program is organized by Venturelab, hosted by Swissnex Boston and supported by EPF Lausanne, ETH Zurich, Hansjörg Wyss, Kellerhals Carrard, Paul Scherrer Institut, Swissnex Boston, University Zurich, Canton of Vaud, and Canton of Zurich.


Swiss Medtech and Lifesciences startups impresses US investors
 
The week-long roadshow in and around Cambridge, Boston - Massachusetts included pitch sessions with some of the US' most established firms and famous names: VCs such as Gurnet Point Capital (an investment fund of Bertarelli), Sanofi Ventures, MedScience Ventures, and Novartis Venture Funds.
 
The Swiss National Startup Teams 2021 impressed investors with their Medtech and Lifesciences solutions. After this roadshow, Valerie Malfroy Camine pictured on the left, co-founder of Flowbone is convinced about the impact of the program and the potential to grow a global Medtech startup from Switzerland “Venture Leaders Medtech in Boston was a fabulous opportunity to get a sense of the Biotech / Medtech innovation ecosystem in Boston through a complete immersion for 5 days. Beyond the unique possibility for Flowbone to get in touch with US investors at an early stage, it was also a unique chance to develop personally as a founder in direct contact with other founders facing similar challenges. It really gave me a real sense of the expectations of US investors as well as the challenges on the road to the US market. It allowed me to make contacts, in particular with local clinicians, that will prove very valuable on the path to bring Flowbone to the US market."



Fueled by investors' feedback and experts advice during workshops

The entrepreneurs also benefited from a series of workshops to help them understand better the particularities of the U.S market. In her presentation "Compelling Financials for US Investors", Lisa Frusztajer, Investor in Residence at the Capitol Network in Boston, as well as an independent angel investor at Portfolia and Pipeline Angels and a Venture Partner at Converge Venture Partners, helped startups tell their company's story through financial information. In another session led by Rothschild & Co, founders learned about the best ways to use banking partners for successful fundraising. The FDA Workshop run by Marc Sanchez from BioPort USA provided an overview of the FDA process for biotech and medtech, including case studies of common misconceptions and mistakes. By the end of this intense first day, the Swiss National Startups Teams were welcomed by Swissnex's CEO and Consul Benjamin Bollmann and Head of Innovation Alicia Evangelista at the Consul General's Residence for some mingling in their cohorts.
On the next day, experts Devin Quinlan (MPM Capital), Jens Eckstein (Apollo Health Ventures), Jennifer Joe (Vanguard), John Fletcher (Fletcher Spaght), Richard Meiklejohn (M2D2), Lisa Granick (Fletcher Spaght), and Doug Zingale (Blue Goose Capital) gave feedback on the startups' products and businesses.
"This program will definitively have a large impact on the future development of my startup. Not only for the exposure we receive to investors but also all the feedbacks from both investors and other members of the Venture Leaders team were of great value to me. Not only on pitching and how to further improve but also refining our market entry strategy and looking deeper into different potential end-users." enthusiastically says Gwenael Hanema, Co-Founder of Innospinna, pictured on the right.

CEO and Founder of BioPort USA Mark Lesselroth walked them through some of the misconceptions and assumptions European startups have about the US healthcare market that get in the way of going to market.  Nicolas Mosimann, Partner at Kellerhals Carrard explained what to consider when onboarding VC's and strategic investors and how to successfully negotiate the best deal terms for their company. 
 

Next week join us and meet the next generation of #Medtech & #BioTech startups from #Switzerland. Perfect for investors in the life sciences and experts who can mentor. Register here: https://t.co/SuecT5NH1y
_#startups #lifesciences @venturelab_ch @VentureCafe @innovatestudion pic.twitter.com/LgTJHV3XZt

— Swissnex in Boston and New York (@swissnexBoston) September 23, 2021

On Wednesday, entrepreneurs had 3 minutes to pitch, and 3 mins of expert feedback and questions at a Public Pithcinar organized by Swissnex partnering with Innovation Studio, one of Boston's biggest entrepreneurial networks, to broadcast their pitches to the local community in real-time. The following day, the startups met Joe von Rickenbach, founder of Parexel, and pitched to Christopher Ford, Managing Partner at MedScience Ventures, Professor Rifat Atun, Professor of Global Health Systems at Harvard University, and John Tremblay, Practice Lead at Healthy Context Consulting. In the afternoon. the last workshop on Legal and IP was presented by Morrison & Foerster, an international law firm with lawyers practicing throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe, that kindly invited all the team to their lodge at the TD Garden to watch a hockey pre-season game of the Boston Bruins. Finally on Friday, a brief intro about Novartis Venture Fund with Shangari, Nandita enabled the founders to practice their last pitch of the week.
 
Learn more about the Venture Leaders Medtech 2021 and Lifesciences 2020 and check the complete slideshow at the end of the article: