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Navigating the MedTech Fundraising Environment
For many years, the fundraising environment for MedTech companies has been exceedingly difficult. Venture firms that were historically active in MedTech shifted their investment allocations to other areas of life sciences and capital became constrained. New entrants...
Q3 2017 Trends in Life Sciences Finance
Each quarter Locust Walk experts compile key statistics and trends on strategic transactions and financings. Our Q3 report uses the latest data to analyze current trends in the life science deal landscape. In this report you can find an overview and analysis of:...
Demystifying the Venture Capital Term Sheet
Raising capital for an emerging biotech company is rarely easy. Tremendous time and effort goes into crafting the perfect story, determining the amount of capital you need to raise and what that money will be used for and reaching out to investors. It can be a long...
When to use a structured deal process?
Though often overlooked or made by default, decisions about the structure and timing of a competitive deal process can have a significant impact on the ultimate value realized by the sell-side company. There are many important decisions that must be made in the...
Key trends impacting Japan partnering
Over the past years, I have had the fortune of participating in negotiations and ultimate deals between Western and Japanese biopharmaceutical companies. Doing deals is never easy, no matter the geography. However, it does seem that negotiating with Japanese companies...
Getting Taken to School: Key Considerations and Differentiators of why “Academic” Transactions Have Typically Lower Deal Values than Industry Transactions
With the new school year just around the corner here in Boston (and already underway in other parts of the country), transactions involving academic and research institutions are on our minds. Specifically, while research doesn’t stop during the summer vacation, as...
Maximizing the Likelihood of Closing a Deal This Year
A few months ago, I posted a related article about deal timing titled ‘Maintaining Deal Momentum in the Summer Months’. Now it is early August, and we are deep in the summer slowdown. Many of us are enjoying the last stints of our summer holidays before returning to...
Why is Family Office money so hard to find for life science companies?
As an early advocate for the importance of the family office in the biotech financing landscape, I have learned from recent experience what many entrepreneurs already know. Raising money from family offices is hard. While there are several challenges to attracting...
Ask the Experts: The Importance of Including Subject Matter Experts in Deal Discussions
One of the most important elements of successful deal discussions is establishing your credibility to a potential partner. This can be done in a multitude of ways, but one of the most direct is by including relevant subject matter experts in the process to speak to...
Q2 2017 Trends in Life Science Finance
Our Q2 report analyzes current trends of 2017, and how life science strategic deal activity has been performing in recent years. In this report you can find an overview and analysis of: Biopharma public indices Biopharma IPOs Deal activity for strategic partnership...
Helping to Ensure Success After the Deal
One of my favorite places to hang out in Tokyo is the Apple Store in the Ginza area. It is a beautiful four-story venue, complete with a theater (where one can sit and receive non-stop sessions on all of Apple’s products) and, of course, the Genius Bar. One of the...
The Best Buyers Are The Best Sellers
As it is often necessary to structure creative deals with deferred and/or ongoing value delivered to the seller, an important but frequently overlooked component of the deal process is to position your company as the ideal partner for the acquired asset. Recently, the...
Maintaining Deal Momentum in the Summertime
Fresh off Memorial Day Weekend, I had to face the reality that summer is here! When the kids are out of school, the regular schedules that we have enjoyed throughout the year become replaced by a multitude of summer camps, travels, and family fun. But as we know,...
Looking at Deal Value Beyond the Headlines
The press release is the public’s first (and oftentimes only) view into the details of a transaction. However, while the press release is the victory lap of a transaction process, it rarely provides the full details of the transaction. Sure, it provides basic...
Companies are bought, because they are sold
Every entrepreneur hopes that if they build it, someday someone will come knocking at their door with a large check. But what does it take to get someone to knock on that door? And, how do you make sure your caller actually has a large check? Selling. Companies are...