On Wednesday March 29th, Biotech Connections Los Angeles (BCLA) hosted a virtual workshop as part of the Innovation Series exploring Federal Undiluted Funding for Start-ups. With the growth of biotech innovation across the great Los Angeles area, this seminar was tailored to help connect researchers and prospective entrepreneurs with key resources and provide insights to help fund and accelerate their ventures.
This panel of speakers featured Gunjan Siroya— Director and Senior Advisor at Larta Institute, Erik Pierstorff— SBIR/STTR Program Director at NSF, and Rupak Doshi— Co-founder and CEO of Omnisync and the discussion was moderated by Jim Cooper — Co-founder and CSO of Braid Theory. With a reverse-pitch style presentation offered from each panelist, the audience had a chance to navigate the funding journey of each speaker and see how they were able to secure funding for their entrepreneurial endeavors. These presentations described the panelist's current position within the funding ecosystem and how they were able to help other entrepreneurs secure funding for their start-ups.
The second part of the workshop opened up a Q&A session where the audience could ask specific questions to the panelists.
One resounding piece of advice panelists encouraged was to reach out to the Program Director of the funding announcement you are interested in early. Since program officers know what specific projects fit the criteria an organization is looking to fund, an entrepreneur can resolve whether an organization matches their expectations and needs in starting an early conversation about your specific endeavor. This will save applicants time when developing and writing proposals, helping them tailor their ideas to better align with the sponsor's missions.
If you missed this Innovator Series, a recorded version could be found here.
BCLA would like to thank our panelists, BCLA team members, and attendees who participated in this event. Without your continuing support, pursuing our mission of growing and diversifying biotech in Los Angeles would be impossible!
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