On Jan 19th, BCLA successfully held our first event of 2021. We collaborated with the world’s leading science accelerator, IndieBio, and presented “A Roadmap to Your First Successful Startup: Tips From Founders on Creating Your Own Business.” Our two-session virtual event included a 60-min panel discussion with startup founders followed by office hours with IndieBio.
This event was tailored for early stage entrepreneurs and anyone who is interested in embarking on the entrepreneurial journey. There is no time like the present to start your own company, especially with the support of accelerator programs like IndieBio. IndieBio has funded 136 biotech startups and created over $3.4 billion in enterprise value over the past years. Most companies are founded by graduate students who translated their academic discoveries into solutions in human and planetary health. During this event, IndieBio was represented by Alex Kopelyan, Senior Director & Partner; Po Bronson, Managing Director & Partner; Jun Axup, CSO & Partner and Pae Wu, CTO & Partner, who talked about how IndieBio operates, companies that are funded, and lessons to be learned from these startups. Four successful founders also joined the panel: Nicole Scott, CEO of Cybele Microbiome; Michelle Zhu, CEO of Huue; Mickey Pentecost, CEO of Diadem Therapeutics and Austin Quach, CSO of Dalton Bioanalytics; who provided insight into their own start up journeys. They shared their challenging yet exciting experiences with having started a company, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the panel discussion, our funders shared their invaluable experience from idea development, to composing a team, joining IndieBio, to getting their first seed round funding all while adapting to the pandemic. Each step was a test but also a reward when they started to expand. All the founders received tremendous support, resources and network opportunities by joining IndieBio and highly recommend this program.
In order to provide instant and concrete help to entrepreneurs, we held office hours following the panel discussion to provide our audience the unique opportunity to meet with IndieBio one-on-one and pitch an idea for their own startup. We are very excited and encouraged to see so many brilliant entrepreneurs taking initiative and taking part in the LA Biotech ecosystem.
There is no time like now to start putting your ideas into action. BCLA is here to be a resource, please feel free to reach out to us if you need help or connection with accelerators like IndieBio. We encourage you to embrace your entrepreneurial dream and apply for a spot in the IndieBio’s 2021 cohort!
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