Science Entrepreneur Club

🤝 Last night, we hosted the inaugural #BioEntrepreneurClub Midlands Social - the Science Entrepreneur Club’s first-ever event outside of London! 🖼️ Together with SPARK The Midlands, we filled the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham with over 25 life science C-suite and founders from across the Midlands for some relaxed peer-to-peer socialising and an exclusive viewing of the Ikon’s latest exhibition. 🫶 A very special thanks to the SPARK The Midlands team for co-hosting the event - Chynna Pascual, Luke Southan and Randhir Tindal. 💪 Building a start-up is no mean feat and the value of peer-to-peer support cannot be underestimated. So, we’re building the BioEntrepreneur Club. 🤝 All of our events to date have taken place in London but our community of over 350 entrepreneurs are distributed across the UK. So, we recently partnered with SPARK to launch a Midlands chapter of the BioEntrepreneur Club and deliver in-person socials in the region. 💪 As with all BioEntrepreneur Club initiatives, the Midlands chapter is centred around creating a relaxed, safe, collaborative and supportive environment exclusively for life science entrepreneurs to socialise, get to know each other, discuss common hardships, share advice and have a little fun. 🤩 We look forward to many more BioEntrepreneur Club Midlands Socials in the future! 🇬🇧 Wherever you’re based in the UK - if you’re a C-suite, founder or entrepreneur building in bio, you are most welcome to join our community - you can apply to join the BioEntrepreneur Club here 👉 https://lnkd.in/ej886h2V 👀 You never know, if we have enough people in one area - we may launch a Chapter there next! Matthew McCann Ariyana Rayatt #Midlands #founder #entrepreneur #community #lifesciences

🚀 As our incredible team continues to grow, we’re excited to bring you the final post in our #TeamTuesday series. Meet our co-lead of the social media team - Jade Serfaty! 🔬 Science Entrepreneurial Drive: Jade has a deep interest in neurotechnology and aims to broaden her knowledge across the biotech landscape. 💪 Joining the SEC Mission: Jade joined the SEC core team to connect with like-minded individuals driven to build a strong, supportive community around shared interests. 🎓 During the Day: Jade is a London Interdisciplinary Biosciences Consortium PhD student in computational psychiatry at UCL. ✏ Fun Fact: Jade loves learning new languages—she’s onto her fifth!

This week on the #InnovatorsClub, the cohort received three masterclasses covering a series of essential topics for life science start-ups. 🛡️ Luke, Jasmine and Rebecca from Gallagher got everyone thinking about the risks their companies are facing and the different strategies they can utilise to remove, reduce or transfer that risk. 💸 James from Taylor Wessing led a deep dive discussion on the common pitfalls facing founders during their term sheet negotiations with investors. 🔬 Helen, Richard and Marcus from FTI Consulting delivered an eye-opening informative session on the new R&D tax scheme and how our founders can access one of the best forms of funding available internationally. A huge thank you to the experts for sharing all of their insights and guidance! Daniel Vilafranca García Matthew McCann Cambridge Medixine Ltd. Cellertia ClotProtect Deep Blue BioTech EVE Medusa Pharmaceuticals MOMO Biotech Panthura Innovators Club Cohort V is powered by Gold sponsors Marks & Clerk and London BioScience Innovation Centre (LBIC). #legal #investment #venturecapital #insurance #risk #taxcredits #tax

“Have faith in your own resourcefulness” 🦸♀️ Last night, the wider Women in BioCapital community came together for the first time for a truly incredible and inspiring convening. 💸 With a room full of women investors in the life sciences, Emily from HSBC Innovation Banking expertly moderated a panel of four esteemed Partners - Francesca (Check) from Ada Ventures, Pamela from THENA Capital, Rika from LifeX Ventures and Vanela from H Tree Capital. 💬 Together the room discussed critical topics such as work-life balance, prejudice, imposter syndrome, starting a family and the importance of support networks. 💪 There were so many uplifting points raised but perhaps our favourite quote of the evening was “Have faith in your own resourcefulness”. 🙌 A huge thank you to the panel for their openness, transparency and support. 🫶 Sonal and Susannah - you were hugely missed but we look forward to having you with us next time! 💪 The Women in BioCapital community is built by investors, for investors. We're on a mission to change the status quo by building a community of women investors in the life science ecosystem, from across the UK and beyond, focused on empowerment and allyship. 🫶 With special thanks to HSBC Innovation Banking for supporting the event - Shamik J Parekh, Emily Pilkington, Helena F., Radhika Patel and Paula Burke. To be involved in future Women in BioCapital events, join the #BioCapitalNetwork here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eepcRVXQ #diversity #venturecapital #lifesciences #investors

Exciting news! We’re thrilled to be an official partner of Investival Showcase 2024!   This 9th annual edition combines fundraising, investment opportunities, and the chance to reconnect with the ever-evolving life science community, all under one roof.   Mark your calendars for 18th November, as 1,000+ attendees gather in London for this year’s showcases. The event features eight distinct stages, spanning biotech, medtech, healthcare and biopharma services - all designed to cater to different growth phases, from startups to publicly traded companies. Whether you’re eager to pitch your ideas, explore investment prospects, or simply network, there’s something there for everyone. Members of our #BioCapitalNetwork are entitled to a free Investor ticket. Members of our #BioEntrepreneurClub are entitled to 15% off (contact us for details!)   Find out more here 👉 https://lnkd.in/gpGHdnYt

🚀 Our incredible team continues to grow! Today, we’re excited to shift our focus to the social media team in our #TeamTuesday feature. Meet our co-lead of the social media team - Kate Ferguson! 🔬 Science Entrepreneurial Drive: Kate is particularly interested in women's health but has a strong passion for strategy and operations within biotech as a whole. 💪 Joining the SEC Mission: Kate joined the SEC core team with the goal of creating a community with no ulterior motives—just bringing the industry together to make things happen. She especially enjoys refining the SEC’s processes to make the team more efficient in serving the community. 💼 During the Day: Kate is currently working as Chief of Staff at Samphire Neuroscience. 🏃♀️ Fun Fact: Kate runs as often as she can, but she's not great at it!

This week on the #InnovatorsClub, the fantastic Kat from First Create The Media delivered a session titled "Every Startup Needs a Story". 💬 As effectively communicating your business is an essential skill for any founder, Kat introduced the Cohort V companies to the principles and importance of storytelling. 📖 Each of the cohort founders were tasked with stripping back their companies to their core mission and essence in order to then build an effective story. 🛗 With Kat's guidance, the founders perfected their elevator pitches to ensure the world gets to hear the incredible innovations being developed by the cohort. Once upon a time... A huge thank you to Kat Arney for delivering the fantastic session! Daniel Vilafranca García Matthew McCann Cambridge Medixine Ltd. Cellertia ClotProtect Deep Blue BioTech EVE Medusa Pharmaceuticals MOMO Biotech Panthura Innovators Club Cohort V is powered by Gold sponsors Marks & Clerk and London BioScience Innovation Centre (LBIC). #storytelling #pitching #lifesciences #innovation

🦸♀️ ONE WEEK TODAY! 🦸♀️ Since establishing Women in BioCapital (WiBC) in July, we've grown to a community of over 80 women investors in the life sciences and established a consortium of 10 WiBC Champions - each a Partner at their respective fund - to advocate and promote our incredible community that is built by investors, for investors. In one week, on 23rd October, we'll be bringing this wider community together for the first social event and we are so excited! Sonal (our WiBC Lead and Investor at First Spark Ventures) will moderate a panel with five of our incredible WiBC Champions, each a Partner at their respective fund, to discuss balancing work and life in the gruelling investment industry. The panel will be followed by some relaxed socialising and networking. A huge thank you to Francesca (Check) from Ada Ventures, Pamela from THENA Capital, Rika from LifeX Ventures, Susannah from Clean Growth Fund, and Vanela from H Tree Capital for their support. And another huge thank you to HSBC Innovation Banking for supporting the event. We're on a mission to change the status quo by launching Women in BioCapital, a community of women investors in the life science ecosystem from across the UK and beyond, focused on empowerment and allyship. If you're an investor in the life sciences and would like to attend the event, join the #BioCapitalNetwork here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eepcRVXQ then you can access the WiBC community and all events! Already a member of the #BioCapitalNetwork? Head to our platform to RSVP! Sonal Pai Matthew McCann Shamik J Parekh Emily Pilkington Helena F. Radhika Patel Paula Burke #WomeninBioCapital #genderdiversity #equality #diversity #allyship #empowerment #venturecapital

🚀 Our incredible team continues to grow! Today, we’re excited to reintroduce and welcome new faces in our #TeamTuesday feature. As we wrap up our science writer series, meet our final spotlight from this group - Bill Carton, PhD! 🔬 Science Entrepreneurial Drive: Bill is passionate about biotechs and startups that are using new and innovative technologies to tackle health issues. 💪 Joining the SEC Mission: Bill joined the SEC core team to expand his network and connect with like-minded individuals who are also passionate about the biotech startup space. He's also eager to gain more writing experience and help publicize the exciting work these companies are doing. 💼 During the Day: Bill is currently working as a Senior Scientist at Pneumagen. 🏊♂️ Fun Fact: Bill loves sea swimming and can name all the capitals of the countries of the world—an impressive (though arguably useless!) talent that comes in handy at pub quizzes. 👉 Check out the latest news in biotech and research from our talented team: https://lnkd.in/evdeDG9w

This week on the #InnovatorsClub, each of the cohort companies were paired up with a relevant investor from the #BioCapitalNetwork for a 1-to-1 "no detriment" conversation. We call these conversations "no detriment" as the investor is there to provide friendly and honest feedback on the company's value proposition, pitch and deck but at no detriment to the company's future potential to raise from that fund! Having this sort of investor input so early in development is critical to ensure our founders are creating an investable proposition. A huge thank you to Lee and Robert from Mercia Ventures, Filippo from Pioneer Group, Alex from SOSV, Arvind from Calculus Capital, Everett from RYSE, Elizabeth from Par Equity, Loukik from Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, Caroline from Delin Ventures and Hassan from Future Planet Capital for offering their time and expertise to sit down 1-to-1 with our Cohort V companies! Daniel Vilafranca García Matthew McCann Cambridge Medixine Ltd. Cellertia ClotProtect Deep Blue BioTech EVE Medusa Pharmaceuticals MOMO Biotech Panthura Innovators Club Cohort V is powered by Gold sponsors Marks & Clerk and London BioScience Innovation Centre (LBIC). #venturecapital #investment #innovation #lifesciences Somewhat terrifying but brilliant Image courtesy of OpenAI