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Fall Mixer and Fireside Chat with Shark Tank Winner Anna Skaya

biotechconnections

On Tuesday September 24, BCLA hosted its first networking mixer of the 2019-20 academic year. Featured in our mixer was a fireside chat at Studio 55, Pasadena, with Basepaws CEO Anna Skaya, moderated by Christy Conner.


Anna began the fireside chat talking about the history of Basepaws, from her initial idea to the whirlwind of start-up life and where she sees the of the company. Basepaws, now based in the Lundquist Institute accelerator (formerly LA BioMed), has allowed for the growth of knowledge for better understanding feline diseases. In the search for start-up funding, Anna Skaya was featured on the popular TV show Shark Tank, where she successfully attracted investment.


Aside from the investment, Anna spoke of how the Shark Tank experience made her a much better presenter, and helped her pitch the company to a larger consumer base. Anna also discussed the importance for the motivation of a company. ‘The desire to make something that matters will motivate you much longer than monetary rewards’. Moving onto the future, Anna spoke of her goal to develop technology for personalized pet therapeutics, as well as generating a feline genetic database. On this note, she gave one particular funny story! Through their testing they were able to explain to a customer that their cat was not actually overweight, the cat was just a special breed! A networking mixer followed the fireside chat, giving attendees the opportunity to talk to Anna and other attendees. BCLA hopes to see more LA-grown biotech companies gain recognition and success in the future on a national scale.


We would like to thank all of our sponsors for this event as well as all the attendees for their continued support and helping grow the biotech community.

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