#83: Donna LaVoie - How to Tell Your Story in 15 Slides

What is the best methodology for presenting your Company to investors, industry partners, and public funding organizations?

Here is the answer:

In this episode, Donna LaVoie presents her famous “15-slides-methodology” in great detail.

Donna is a proven strategic communications leader in health and science innovation. She is a trusted advisor on strategic communications issues, especially around complex problems affecting multiple stakeholders. She brings a unique combination of public and investor relations expertise, including product launch experience.

LaVoieHealthScience was launched in 2001 after a corporate career with signature biotech companies leading strategic communications functions during tremendous growth, product and business launches, and international geographic expansion.

As an acknowledged leader in health science communications with public and investor platforms, LaVoieHealthScience is recognized as a top 30 independent healthcare agency in the US. The agency has received more than 35 awards for its client work. It is recognized by INC.5000 Hall of Fame – Fastest Growing Private Companies, Boston Business Journal’s top Massachusetts PR firms, PharmaVOICE 100, and O’Dwyers.

We are talking about:
↪️ Why 15 slides are sufficient in corporate presentations
↪️ Why you should have an Agenda slide
↪️ Why an Appendix is important
↪️ What is Better? Detail or Simplicity?
↪️ The interplay of Problem and Solution
↪️ Why the Team slide matters
↪️ Why you need to adapt the presentation to your audience
↪️ And much, much more

Youtube Video

🕛 Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(00:45) Donna LaVoie and LaVoieHealthSciences
(02:35) Content of the Episode
(03:00) Review of #bio2022 in San Diego
(04:04) The 15 Slides Presentation Methodology
(08:42) Why is the 15 Slides Methodology Relevant for Experienced Presenters?
(12:15) Why are you here – What is your ask?
(14:00) Why are conventions important?
(16:05) Should Presenters consider the different cultural backgrounds when preparing for presentations?
(16:51) The Importance of Colours
(19:33) Storytelling, Simplicity, Novelty, and Clarity – The Ingredients of Successful Pitch Decks
(24:00) Industry Dilemma
(24:30) What’s Your Story? – 15 Slides Topics Overview
(27:45) Title Slide
(31:15) Company Snapshot
(32:12) The Agenda  Why Creating Anticipation as a Hook Matters in Presentations
.(33:00) Describing the Problem and the Solution – Why it Matters
(37:15) The Market and Target Product Profile
(40:00) Competitive Positioning
(42:20) The Team
(46:45) The Pipeline and Clinical Data
(50:00) Regulatory Strategy
(51:00) Manufacturing Strategy
(52:35) Commercial Strategy
(55:00) Financials
(56:45) Summary of the Presentation
(58:30) How Specific Should Deal terms be in a Pitch Presentation?
(01:01:45) Ending Slide – Cultural and Diversity Considerations
(01:03:00) How Much Time Should Executives Take to Prepare their Corporate Story for Fundraising?
(01:05:00) How LaVoie Health Science Helps Life Science Entrepreneurs and Investors

Podcast Links:
Podcast Community: https://lsg2g.substack.com/
Community Partner: https://linktr.ee/lsg2g
Christian Soschner: https

Transcript

00:00:00:04 - 00:00:04:02

Christian Soschner

What is the best methodology for presenting your company to

00:00:04:02 - 00:00:05:02

Christian Soschner

investors,

00:00:05:02 - 00:00:06:15

Christian Soschner

industry partners,

00:00:06:15 - 00:00:09:08

Christian Soschner

and public funding organizations?

00:00:09:08 - 00:00:10:18

Christian Soschner

Here is the answer.

00:00:10:18 - 00:00:12:00

Christian Soschner

In this episode,

00:00:12:00 - 00:00:16:02

Christian Soschner

Donna LaVoy presents her famous 15 slides methodology in

00:00:16:02 - 00:00:17:17

Christian Soschner

great detail.

00:00:17:17 - 00:00:43:09

Donna LaVoie

and it is more focused. It's more specific and it's really about how to tell that company story. And 15 slides. It's also meant Christian. And I know from our conversations that, you know, your audience is a combination of early entrepreneurs, scientists that want to start a company all the way up to public companies, companies that are, you know, already been at this for quite some time.

00:00:43:11 - 00:00:47:12

Donna LaVoie

And so this methodology really does work

00:00:47:12 - 00:01:08:12

Christian Soschner

Donna is a proven strategic communications leader in health and science innovation. She is a trusted advisor on strategic communications issues, especially around complex issues where multiple stakeholders are affected. She brings a unique combination of public and investor relations expertise to the table,

00:01:08:12 - 00:01:11:15

Christian Soschner

including product launch experience.

00:01:11:17 - 00:01:28:01

Christian Soschner

Live. Why Health Science was launched in 2001 after a corporate career with signature biotech companies leading strategic communications functions. During tremendous growth, product and business launches and international geographic expansion

00:01:28:01 - 00:01:49:17

Christian Soschner

for almost 20 years, Donna's efforts combine building LaVoy Health sciences, health and science consulting practice while overseeing key account strategies, agency strategic direction, core competency and methodology development, growth strategies, and team development.

00:01:49:24 - 00:02:25:21

Christian Soschner

In 2019, Donna led the efforts with Omnicom Public Relations Group to form a strategic alliance to bring health companies a broader set of capabilities and geographic expansion. As an acknowledged leader in health science communications with both public and investor platforms. LaVoy Health Science is recognized as a top 30 independent health care agency in the United States. The agency has received more than 35 awards for its client work and is recognized by Inc. 5000 Hall of Fame.

00:02:26:00 - 00:02:29:03

Christian Soschner

Fastest growing private companies.

00:02:29:03 - 00:02:36:18

Christian Soschner

Boston. Business. Journals. Top Massachusetts PR firms. Pharma. Boys hundred and by O. Trials.

00:02:36:18 - 00:03:00:05

Christian Soschner

In this episode, we are talking about why are 15 slides sufficient in corporate presentations? Why you should have an agenda slide. Why an appendix is important. What is better, more detail or simplicity? The interplay of problem and solution. Why did team slide matters?

00:03:00:07 - 00:03:07:06

Christian Soschner

Why you need to adapt the presentations to your audience needs. And much, much more.

00:03:07:06 - 00:03:11:10

Christian Soschner

I hope you enjoyed this episode the same way as I did.

00:03:11:10 - 00:03:16:08

Donna LaVoie

Donna, it's good to see you again after the Pio in San Diego. How was the bio for you?

00:03:16:10 - 00:03:19:06

Christian Soschner

It was terrific. It was so exciting to get back

00:03:19:06 - 00:03:39:09

Donna LaVoie

and see everyone and to be back on stage. I will tell you, Christian, that, you know, it had been I had been doing that presentation, I think, for I think this was my 12th year and I had one year off and I had one year that I had to do this.

00:03:39:11 - 00:04:04:11

Donna LaVoie

Digitally and talk to myself for an hour, which was really painful for me. And it was so great to be back on stage, but I was, I will say I felt very rusty and I felt a little nervous about it. So I really had to work on my game, just like, just like everyone else. And I guess that's what we're here to talk about today.

00:04:04:14 - 00:04:20:09

Christian Soschner

Yeah, that's true. Your presentation was perfect. I loved it in San Diego. So. And I'm very happy to be twice as happy after listening to your opening words that you are back in front of the computer screen. And now talk to me and yourself again. Well.

00:04:20:10 - 00:04:26:07

Donna LaVoie

No, it's different when I'm talking to you. In the year that I had to do this online for bio, I wasn't talking to anyone.

00:04:26:10 - 00:04:27:19

Christian Soschner

Really? Really. It was.

00:04:27:19 - 00:04:33:04

Donna LaVoie

It was quite difficult for someone who, who gets their energy from other people.

00:04:33:09 - 00:04:35:01

Christian Soschner

So it was prerecorded.

00:04:35:03 - 00:04:36:05

Donna LaVoie

It was prerecorded.

00:04:36:06 - 00:04:41:19

Christian Soschner

Oh, I thought you had some sort of like we're doing right now. Some webinar setting and. Yeah. Audience.

00:04:41:19 - 00:04:46:12

Donna LaVoie

No, no. In that year that we, was prerecorded.

00:04:46:14 - 00:04:50:08

Christian Soschner

I fully understand it's quite interesting to prerecorded.

00:04:50:10 - 00:04:53:17

Donna LaVoie

Very or not.

00:04:53:19 - 00:04:59:20

Christian Soschner

And how was San Diego for, for you after I think two years of, online experience.

00:05:00:03 - 00:05:45:17

Donna LaVoie

It was terrific. You know, it was so interesting to see, I mean, in the environment that we're in, in particular at that time where the markets, were in complete meltdown and we had seen a huge drop off in investment into our, into our sector. The folks came out in droves for the partnering forum. And so, you know, I think that bios attendance in the last, you know, week to ten days, right before the conference shot up substantially and everyone was there and the hallways for the partnering forum were bustling, absolutely bustling.

00:05:46:02 - 00:06:10:20

Donna LaVoie

That's true. I also was locked up here in Vienna for two years, so no real life conferences and violence. And Diego was, for me, the first attempt on going to a conference. And I thought the two months before it should get tried would be get another lockdown, or will the US or Europe restrict again? Traveling. So just after two years and need to come back and listen to some amazing presentations?

00:06:10:20 - 00:06:34:10

Donna LaVoie

And one of the best presentations that I saw in San Diego was yours, because it is a topic that I believe is very important for life science entrepreneurs, especially in these days. As you said, when capital is becoming scarce again and investors think, 2 or 3 times more before investing, you what you call your methodology into presentation, the 15 slide presentation.

00:06:34:12 - 00:06:36:17

Donna LaVoie

What is the reason for that?

00:06:36:17 - 00:07:12:07

Donna LaVoie

That's correct. So that is a term that we coined. And when we submitted to the US, Trademark Office, they actually came back with this recommendation. And so we probably submitted something like this. And this is what came back. And the official trademark that we received from the trademark office, this is actually our second trademark. The first one is on our the LA submission process, which is our positioning, and that's the messaging methodology that is quite popular.

00:07:12:13 - 00:07:41:20

Donna LaVoie

So the 15 slide presentation is an offshoot of that and it is more focused. It's more specific and it's really about how to tell that company story. And 15 slides. It's also meant Christian. And I know from our conversations that, you know, your audience is a combination of early entrepreneurs, scientists that want to start a company all the way up to public companies, companies that are, you know, already been at this for quite some time.

00:07:41:22 - 00:07:46:16

Donna LaVoie

And so this methodology really does work for a range

00:07:46:16 - 00:08:11:04

Christian Soschner

of companies, for sure. And, you know, that is sometimes the difficult thing for me when I'm even presenting at bio is to really understand who's in the room and, how I can be most helpful to the folks there. But you'll see from, from the methodology that there's a lot of flexibility to it and you can really mold it to your specific situation.

00:08:11:06 - 00:08:12:17

Christian Soschner

So shall we get right into it?

00:08:13:03 - 00:08:42:13

Christian Soschner

Let me ask you one final question before we get into it. When I work with startup founders coming from science, and I sit down with, the women and the men and raised the topic of, guys, we need to talk about presentations. They look at me puzzled and say, we are presenting for decades now, and we know how to do that and then come back and say, no, I don't think that you know how to present to a certain audience.

00:08:42:15 - 00:08:54:00

Christian Soschner

I would like to hear your opinion. Why do you think it's important to train scientists? So you should have 1 or 2 decades of presentation experience in the science field into the 50s. Like methodology.

00:08:54:19 - 00:09:20:14

Donna LaVoie

Yeah, I think that that that's a that's sort of the million dollar question. Right. And it's something that I will, bring up in my talk. A little further into the slides is that, you know, we as an industry have a huge dilemma. Most of our companies are led by scientific minds and scientific minds is what sets us apart, right?

00:09:20:14 - 00:09:47:09

Donna LaVoie

In many cases, it's what sets us apart from large pharma. And one of the reasons that large pharma, continues to do significant deals with companies in the biotech biopharma, life science space. And so I think one of the challenges is, is, is that we want everything to be technically accurate. And when we're trying to be technically accurate, we're not telling a broad a story.

00:09:47:10 - 00:10:18:02

Donna LaVoie

We're focused on the detail rather than the story. And you know what I'm going to show you in this deck is, is that we need to be cognizant of both. And I'm not saying when we tell stories that we should let go of the detail, because the detail in our business matters is just, it's it just really comes down to when do you share the detail to what audience and at what time?

00:10:18:02 - 00:10:47:24

Christian Soschner

this presentation, you know, as I talk at bio about is is really about how do you introduce your company. And then the detail comes later once you get into diligence and broader discussions, more detailed discussions with, you know, the scientific groups at Roche or, you know, something in that health, then, you know, your presentations will become more tailored to that specific meeting.

00:10:48:05 - 00:11:11:15

Donna LaVoie

So what we're really talking about is how do we capture how do we capture audiences, how do we capture investors, investors or people, people or investors? And how do we tell a broader story so that it's not just about our companies? We have an obligation as a sector? Honestly, I think it's come down to that. Right.

00:11:11:21 - 00:11:41:02

Donna LaVoie

We have an obligation as a sector to educate people and about what we're doing and make our case because we have a lot of, we have a lot of obstacles ahead of us, you know, with continued discussion on price controls and everything else. And if we can't communicate what we're doing and why it's important, then our our investor audience for public companies is going to continue to remain a small

00:11:41:02 - 00:11:42:08

Christian Soschner

field.

00:11:42:10 - 00:12:02:17

Donna LaVoie

I couldn't agree more. It's at the end of the day, it's all about serving the patient. And I think your methodology is the best way to catch the attention of investors and keep them interested, and also from from industrial partners after the first meeting. So let's get right into it. I would say, and lead us through your methodology.

00:12:02:21 - 00:12:11:16

Donna LaVoie

Great. And feel free to jump in with any, any questions, or any comments for that matter. You know, things you don't agree with and happy to.

00:12:12:06 - 00:12:13:21

Donna LaVoie

I'm happy to do so.

00:12:13:21 - 00:12:34:13

Christian Soschner

So just very quickly on us and I won't spend much time on it at all. We've been at this for quite some time. The methodology, was born about I'd say about ten years ago. We're very excited that we announced last week that the trademark office actually extended, the trademark on both of our methodologies.

00:12:34:13 - 00:12:36:20

Christian Soschner

So that was exciting news for the team.

00:12:37:02 - 00:13:10:08

Donna LaVoie

So let's start with, you know, why are we here? In your presentation, your audience is presentations to various audiences. It's much like what we just talked about is, you know, the goal of the presentation is to suit the needs of your audience and your objectives. So if this is a presentation for a highly technical team that Roche, this is not going to be the presentation necessarily.

00:13:10:11 - 00:13:14:09

Donna LaVoie

Right. That would maybe a more detailed presentation.

00:13:14:09 - 00:13:35:24

Christian Soschner

The objective of this is, is to really set your objectives of what you're trying to accomplish in this case, you know, my example is that that this company is seeking a partner from Asia markets and currently has partners in both the EU and and US. So it's a very specific ask.

00:13:36:01 - 00:13:49:12

Christian Soschner

There may be a specific ask of we've you know we've covered series A and we're currently in a series B or crossover round or whatever the case may be.

00:13:49:12 - 00:14:10:20

Donna LaVoie

So being true to what you're there for is really important and respectful to the audience and to the other side. Just like my objective today is to communicate the 15 slide topics and hopefully, have your audience understand how to tell their story more broadly.

00:14:11:12 - 00:14:44:02

Christian Soschner

So we talk about conventions and conventions being important and why why conventions are important. And we don't always think about this, but I often see slides that are, that are that are not done correctly in that our eyes are trained to move from left to right or up to down and not the opposite. But many times I see the point of the slide in the opposite direction, which confuses the mind.

00:14:44:02 - 00:15:12:10

Christian Soschner

So it makes it very difficult to, to process that. And, you know, your brain is, is trained, to use experience in cognitive shortcuts and so I know that when I look at information, I want to do things fairly quickly. And I think, you know, you shared with me some data about the amount of times, that amount of time that people spend on looking at somebody's presentation.

00:15:12:10 - 00:15:16:01

Christian Soschner

I think it was two minutes or something. Is that correct?

00:15:16:01 - 00:15:17:03

Donna LaVoie

Yeah, I think, I.

00:15:17:03 - 00:15:18:22

Christian Soschner

Think minutes 30s something.

00:15:19:01 - 00:15:37:06

Donna LaVoie

Yeah. And so when I look at things, I'm automatically going to the right, I want to see what the bottom line here or at the bottom, I'm not spending time if I have to find spend time looking at the chart or the graph or the side or whatever it is, I I'm very disinterested.

00:15:37:06 - 00:15:38:02

Christian Soschner

Quickly

00:15:38:02 - 00:15:58:19

Christian Soschner

may ask you one question on the convention side. Before the pandemic, I was traveling with the Austrian trade agencies quite frequently to China, to Japan and to South Korea, where they have a little bit different conventions. I also heard from colleagues who did, business with, African countries, Saudi Arabian countries that also the conventions might differ.

00:15:58:21 - 00:16:16:12

Christian Soschner

What is your expertise and experience in that field when it comes to international presentation? Is it sufficient that we go with, the conventions that we use in Europe and the United States, or would you recommend to also take the cultural background into your considerations when preparing for representation?

00:16:16:15 - 00:16:43:21

Donna LaVoie

No, I think that's a great point. I think you certainly have to. That's that's a great point. And I and I don't make that in this presentation. Is that. Yes, you certainly need to think about the conventions in the culture and in the market in which, you're presenting to and that, that the ask is with this particular focus is because this is designed, this deck particularly is designed for the U.S. market.

00:16:43:23 - 00:16:52:24

Donna LaVoie

And, and the majority of companies are seeking investment in the US market. So, so, yes, I think that that is 100% accurate.

00:16:53:04 - 00:16:56:20

Christian Soschner

Especially the European wants to see the U.S. market.

00:16:56:22 - 00:16:57:18

Donna LaVoie

Exactly.

00:16:57:18 - 00:17:34:13

Christian Soschner

Also, colors, you know, colors have, have an effect on people. And, and how people think about, you know, their mood when they're talking to you. How your slides look, how you come across, these are the, the small things that, you know, may not seem like they matter that much, but, you know, they certainly can help to add to, you know, the, the, the audiences receptiveness to what you're communicating.

00:17:34:15 - 00:18:00:19

Christian Soschner

So we talk about, you know, colors and conventions improving learning by 75%. So just something to think about in our industry. There's a lot of blue used certainly in the pharma sector. And, and I would say that, you know, most companies have some form of blue. When I asked at the bio convention, you know, how many companies are using some forms of blue?

00:18:00:19 - 00:18:26:01

Christian Soschner

The majority of the hands were people raised. I, you know, we had a client, not that long ago actually was a European company. And they had, a very, I guess different view is that they actually were people who didn't come from the sector, and they actually felt differently. They wanted to not, be part of convention.

00:18:26:01 - 00:18:49:05

Christian Soschner

They didn't want blues they wanted in, especially from a brand perspective. They want something truly unique. And, you know, I guess that's that's okay too. They could just has to be, that would have to be tested for sure. You know, companies like, vertex, who is a client of ours for many years, went with purples in the early days.

00:18:49:07 - 00:19:12:15

Christian Soschner

And, yes, you know, purples depict royalty, creativity. And, it certainly has worked for them. I don't think anybody sort of thinks about, well, vertex is the purple logo here. I'm here in Boston and just down the road, you know, it's the vertex, headquarters and is huge purple vertex saying

00:19:12:15 - 00:19:18:15

Christian Soschner

so it's interesting but look amazing. Yeah, it is amazing, actually.

00:19:18:17 - 00:19:46:04

Christian Soschner

So, you know, there's there's a lot of wisdom out there from a lot of folks, many people in our sector know Dennis Purcell. You know, his one from Aisling Capital is the founder of Ascend Capital. And he often has said, tell me something I don't already know. Of what interests him. Albert Einstein said, if you can't explain it simply enough, you don't understand it well enough.

00:19:46:09 - 00:19:53:19

Christian Soschner

I thought that was. That's a very interesting quote, right. Something to think about for sure,

00:19:53:19 - 00:19:55:02

Donna LaVoie

I think.

00:19:55:02 - 00:20:23:16

Christian Soschner

Let me ask one question so that I think, I mean, it's a tough cookie for scientists, especially in the early stages. Just thinking about, Emmanuelle Charpentier, for example, Crispr Terapeutica gene editing when they were fundraising. When I look at this slide, are you telling me that, you encourage scientists? To do their best to also make their pitching presentations very simple initially for the first conversation with investors, even when the investors are from the field.

00:20:23:21 - 00:20:56:10

Donna LaVoie

Correct? I mean, even if they are from the field, right? I mean, the the you know, you're going to get a you're going to get a mixture for sure, right? You're going to get a mixture and as we all know, especially in the early phases, unless you're going with angels, or non-classical investors. And that's sort of what you have to think about is, you know, right now more than ever, classic biotech investors are on the fence.

00:20:56:10 - 00:21:21:01

Donna LaVoie

They're not putting money to work. And there's been a few deals announced, but I you know, I feel pretty comfortable that many of those deals were in the works for some time before they were announced. So the, the this the pickings are very small right now and is a lot of companies sitting out there thinking that they would have been capitalized by now and they're not.

00:21:21:03 - 00:21:43:18

Donna LaVoie

And so they have to look at alternative sources. And if they don't have a story that's easy enough to understand and could be, you know, grunt or a diligence process on the details, then that makes it tough. You know, there's a lot of capital in this country. There's a lot of capital in the world to be put to work.

00:21:43:20 - 00:21:53:18

Donna LaVoie

But not everybody is a PhD. MD understands clinical development and, you know, has got drugs to like it.

00:21:54:08 - 00:22:13:08

Christian Soschner

So basically, if you want to expand your audience or your target audience within amongst the investor community, it's best to keep it really simple. At the beginning. It captures the attention of, investors who are familiar with biotech, but also opens the possibility to engage with investors who have never before invested in any life science company.

00:22:13:10 - 00:22:40:01

Donna LaVoie

Correct? Correct. And so I would say that that, you know, for most of most companies, I don't think I've met a company yet who, who walks through the door with the deck without detail. The details and the gory details are in every presentation. And we're working with a company in the Car-T space, actually, and they're a terrific company.

00:22:40:01 - 00:23:10:06

Donna LaVoie

They just signed a very, very large deal with that. Over 100 million upfront today, with Roche, that's beside a Therapeutics, by the way, and they're terrific company. And they have a very detailed science, very detailed technologies. And there's a lot of names for a lot of things. So, you know, with that we've got to sort of unwind that a little bit and then wind it back up.

00:23:10:17 - 00:23:16:06

Donna LaVoie

Must be a long work to go through all the data and select, few bits and pieces.

00:23:16:08 - 00:23:19:18

Christian Soschner

Not easy, not easy. So

00:23:19:18 - 00:23:44:10

Christian Soschner

here's another sort of thought. Many people know Peter Lynch. He was actually, from Massachusetts. Continues actually lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts, in the town next to me. And you know, Peter is well known. Portfolio manager. Fidelity investments has written many books and world renowned and I, you know, took these quotes, which I think is interesting.

00:23:44:10 - 00:23:57:07

Christian Soschner

Invest in what you know, and he's written many books on this. Right. If you can't explain to a ten year old why you own a stock, you should know it.

00:23:58:21 - 00:24:04:21

Christian Soschner

He's a big idol, for me. And he explains all the mistakes I frequently make.

00:24:05:06 - 00:24:31:06

Christian Soschner

Right. So, you know, another, you know. And so I entitled this slide industry dilemma. Right. Because that's exactly the problem that we have. We have this issue not just with investors. We have this issue in Washington. We have this issue, you know, maybe sometimes with even the FDA, the regulatory authorities. So communication becomes front and center more so than ever before.

00:24:31:15 - 00:24:59:09

Christian Soschner

So let's get right into it. And what I'm going to cover now is the 15 slide topics. So, you know, for ease of time, I'm going to breeze through this pretty quickly in the bio presentation because I had more time. I have a number of, slide examples. I still include some slide examples here, but nowhere near as many.

00:24:59:11 - 00:25:23:09

Christian Soschner

So I'll just, you know, so that that presentation from bio is available. They, they did make it available to folks so that you can get it through that. And then the older versions of this talk, are on YouTube somewheres. It just Google it. So here are the 15 slide topics. And I'll just say this is sort of the overall.

00:25:23:09 - 00:25:47:04

Christian Soschner

Right. I've seen many companies kind of take this and meld it and make it work for them. All right. Let's say you don't plan to commercialize it, don't plan to commercialize. You're not going to have a whole section commercialization strategy. You're going to talk about partnerships and how you and what's your business model and that you intend to partner or that you already have partnered.

00:25:47:06 - 00:26:15:23

Christian Soschner

So so, you know, these are the topics starting from the overview to the agenda to the problem, to the solution in the market, competitive positioning, the team. I'm going to spend a little bit more time today on the team, the clinical pipeline, the supporting data, regulatory, manufacturing and again, manufacturing may not be something that folks are planning on doing themselves or it may not be relevant, financial roadmap.

00:26:15:23 - 00:26:26:07

Christian Soschner

And what the ask is investment thesis milestones and any closing slides. I do think that there are a lot of companies that will have appendix slides, and that's for the very reason,

00:26:26:07 - 00:26:46:07

Donna LaVoie

let's say, Christian, you get into a meeting and you have a deck, and it's a pretty general deck. And then sitting there on the zoom or in the meeting, you have, you know, investment company that brings their MD, PhD, who is a specialist in the sector that you're in.

00:26:46:09 - 00:26:50:10

Donna LaVoie

Well, you know, you're going to take out your appendix slides probably for that meeting.

00:26:50:10 - 00:26:57:21

Donna LaVoie

like put the slides. Let me let me go to the appendix and answer those questions and show them, so

00:26:57:21 - 00:27:04:24

Christian Soschner

that's how I would handle that. So let's talk about that. The title slide. The title slide I think is is very important.

00:27:04:24 - 00:27:34:03

Christian Soschner

It's important because it's your company's brand. It's your tagline. This is where you may say why you're excited about the opportunity and why you're here. Speaking with either a group or in a 1 to 1 meeting. And what the ask is and, you know, I talked about that earlier. So you're going to have here your company name, your speaker name and your conference name, etc., etc..

00:27:34:05 - 00:27:59:13

Christian Soschner

I left this slide in because I really love this slide. I'll tell you why I love this slide because it shows you how there are different types of companies, and there's no right or wrong, right. What's right for arena or what's right for grow or for vertex or pad med may not be right for your company. It doesn't really matter.

00:27:59:15 - 00:28:35:07

Christian Soschner

The point is, is that it's very clear in each of these situations what the company's positioning is. And, and, and really, you know, communicates the vision in just one slide. And I show you this, this slide, from vertex from you can see the date, okay. 2003. And this was in my archives and we were working with Josh in the in and the team at vertex in the early days.

00:28:35:09 - 00:29:02:14

Christian Soschner

And he had one vision building a major drug company. He didn't say rare diseases. He didn't say infectious diseases. He had a big vision. And you could see the end of the pills there, which is, you know, it's more pharma like, but that but the, you know, the history and the, the rest sort of follows suit. Right.

00:29:02:16 - 00:29:29:17

Christian Soschner

Vertex started out with a huge pipeline. They ended up in HCV. We worked with them when they were in HCV as they had a market of product in that area. And then they pivoted, to the rare disease space. We actually were involved in a project with them, with the original team on the rare disease side, figuring out how do we get the investment community to actually value these assets.

00:29:30:05 - 00:30:02:16

Christian Soschner

And so I think this this slide is really key to success, as you say, not only presentation, I think also pitch decks tend to be center centered around your image. And when you look at the, oh, your vertex example being a major drug company from my own experience and know that some investors liked it and others don't. So when you put the, let's say, the hook, the call to action, or the vision at the first pitch, you let the audience self-select whether the opportunity is interesting or not.

00:30:02:16 - 00:30:13:02

Christian Soschner

And those who say, I don't want to be the major drug company, you want to sell it immediately to the pharma industry won't open the tech, which saves a lot of time down the road in fundraising.

00:30:13:02 - 00:30:16:12

Donna LaVoie

Yes. No, that's a great point. That's a great point. And then you have

00:30:16:12 - 00:30:38:05

Christian Soschner

a company like, grow, you know, which is, you know, working specifically, in, protein therapeutics, you know, the tagline redefining protein therapeutics with an expanded amino acid alphabet. It's a very specific program, you know, geared to a very specific audience.

00:30:38:07 - 00:30:48:16

Christian Soschner

It's very high science, but it has a very different feel from building a major drug company. And neither one is correct, is just what is the right thing for you.

00:30:49:12 - 00:30:58:16

Christian Soschner

And T6 you should be some time to find out before going going fundraising to have, the goals clear at the beginning.

00:30:58:24 - 00:31:27:12

Donna LaVoie

Right? Because, you know, investors or even employees for that matter. Right? We have a number of clients who are very worried about attracting employees. They want to know, where is this? Where is this company headed? Is this aligned with what I want? Do I want to work for a company that's building a big company, or do I want to work for a company that's that deeply rooted in science and and that's, you know, what their main focus is?

00:31:27:12 - 00:31:30:23

Donna LaVoie

And culture. The two different things for sure.

00:31:31:04 - 00:31:34:09

Donna LaVoie

I couldn't agree more.

00:31:34:11 - 00:32:10:18

Christian Soschner

So company snapshot, this is where, you know, the company overview, this many of you know this there's many things you can put on these slides. You know, the product category, the year started, perhaps. You know, some people like to say, you know, founded in Vienna, founded in Boston or what have I, but having, you know, with blue chip investors or, you know, with, seasoned management team cash raised to date, partnership mentioned if you have them or grants or what have you.

00:32:10:20 - 00:32:14:13

Christian Soschner

So, yeah, that's an important slide to have.

00:32:14:13 - 00:32:22:14

Donna LaVoie

The second topic and not everybody does this is to have a, an agenda

00:32:22:14 - 00:32:34:02

Christian Soschner

with, you know, what you're going to cover and tell them what you're going to cover. And then it gives them the opportunity to say, well, are you going to cover this today?

00:32:34:02 - 00:32:43:01

Christian Soschner

And then you have the opportunity to say, you know, I wasn't prepared to do that, but I have those, an appendix, slides, or I can send that to you afterwards.

00:32:43:03 - 00:33:05:08

Christian Soschner

I think a lot of times what happens in presentations is I know it happens to me a lot. When people present to me is I don't know what's coming next. And when you tell them upfront what they expect, they can say, okay, this is how we're using our time. I'm going to get what I want or I'm not going to get what I want.

00:33:05:08 - 00:33:06:13

Christian Soschner

Today.

00:33:06:13 - 00:33:19:09

Christian Soschner

Topic three is describing the problem in layman's terms. It perhaps use of infographics, back up facts in any use of research that you might have.

00:33:19:09 - 00:33:37:11

Donna LaVoie

I have noted, that sometimes companies and I think it's terrible, but sometimes what they will actually do is put on the slide at the top. The problem, and then the next slide says that solution.

00:33:37:13 - 00:34:05:17

Donna LaVoie

It's not wrong, but there are better ways to do that. You can still have your slide in your, you know, in your template or your starting phase when you're developing it and call it the problem. And then reimagine your headline to be more focused on something more interesting rather than the problem.

00:34:05:19 - 00:34:24:13

Donna LaVoie

Right. It could be something, you know, taking, you know, say, in the presbyopia space is that, you know, there's a presbyopia remains a key, a key problem globally, for example, rather than to say the problem, it's just another way to say it

00:34:24:13 - 00:34:25:08

Donna LaVoie

makes sense.

00:34:25:11 - 00:34:36:02

Christian Soschner

Let me ask one question. So the problem and the solution why? Why, in your opinion, is that important to have that? At the beginning of the presentation, these two topics or the talking about problem and solution?

00:34:36:02 - 00:34:55:22

Christian Soschner

when you think, for example, about gene editing, I mean, gene editing is a is an invention, is something, that, is scientifically sound or has been scientifically sound. So because of that, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna cuts the Nobel Prize. And when you look at the presentation, you talk a lot about problems and solutions.

00:34:55:24 - 00:35:14:20

Christian Soschner

Coming from a different angle and talking about problems and solutions for the real world, for the farm industry or for patients data down the road. Why is that important to make the switch from pure scientific problems, towards more corporate problems, towards more real world problems? Why is that key to success and fundraising?

00:35:14:20 - 00:35:17:08

Christian Soschner

I get this question quite frequently when I talk to scientists.

00:35:17:09 - 00:35:47:22

Donna LaVoie

I think you can do either, right? I think I think, you know, there's to your point. There's there's two things to address. One is, is why do we need gene editing at all. And then then the second thing, which is what where most companies I find focus on because in their minds they already think that is accepted. The gene editing is a technology that's here to stay and that people understand it, and it's accepted.

00:35:47:24 - 00:36:01:03

Donna LaVoie

And so they focus more on. Here are the challenges with that we've seen in gene editing, and here's why our technology is addressing those challenges and why we think we're going to be more successful.

00:36:01:19 - 00:36:02:21

Donna LaVoie

Make sense.

00:36:03:02 - 00:36:32:07

Christian Soschner

So those are two different things. And again it depends who you're talking with. If you're walking into a room of of, of, angel investors that are not necessarily sector people, you may have to explain to them a one slide or two slide primer on gene editing and why it's important, and then talk about why what you have is different or why it's needed.

00:36:32:09 - 00:36:34:09

Donna LaVoie

Make sense?

00:36:34:22 - 00:37:07:17

Christian Soschner

And I think that's, you know, and that's what we're finding too, as as the industry evolves and, continues to grow with more and more companies is it's kind of what the problem is in general, as we've seen so many IPOs, so many companies get funded is why do we need another company doing X, y, z. So for example, in oncology, you know we have hundreds and hundreds of companies.

00:37:07:19 - 00:37:28:17

Christian Soschner

Why do we need another oncology company. And and so you've really got to make your case as to everybody understands why we need oncology solutions. That's easy. But what do you have that's different. And why is this going to have a chance to be more successful than what's already being studied?

00:37:30:09 - 00:37:57:07

Christian Soschner

So topic five is about the the market and the target product profile. I will say that most of the time, companies and entrepreneurs, executives do cover the patient population or the market fairly well. I don't think that that's usually in question. I think what's more in question and where folks need to spend more time is on the target product profile.

00:37:57:10 - 00:38:28:22

Donna LaVoie

I can tell you that the number of times I've sat with companies and I would say, all of this sounds terrific. So fast forward, how would this be used in a clinical setting or in a real world setting based upon the fact that we already have X, Y, and Z that's being utilized? And that's kind of the key money question.

00:38:28:24 - 00:38:58:08

Donna LaVoie

And many times, you know, we have to change, workflow and behaviors, because if it's a hospital product, you know, the hospitals are geared to do things a certain way. And so all of a sudden you have something totally different. It's going to disrupt the workflow. And so really taking time to explain that because I think sometimes stories get stuck here.

00:38:58:10 - 00:39:18:16

Donna LaVoie

It's like, this is a great idea. But actually even if we get it approved, how is it going to be used? So it's less about whether you can get something approved, but more around once it's accepted and on the market, are people going to buy it and what and what that is going to take.

00:39:18:16 - 00:39:28:14

Christian Soschner

So really two different things you know, I think a lot of times we focus on regulatory because regulatory is so challenging in particular right now.

00:39:29:07 - 00:39:58:05

Christian Soschner

I agree to you. The implementation in the hospital setting is, science. Right. So I would say, especially in Europe, you have a lot of different countries, a lot of different systems. And, thinking about that before pitching to the industry or to investors. So I have at least some outlook at hand. Makes sense. But I know from my experience here in Europe, especially talking with early stage scientists, it's usually creates a huge uproar.

00:39:58:10 - 00:40:01:11

Christian Soschner

So why is that important? It's good that you pointed out. Thank you very much.

00:40:01:16 - 00:40:03:00

Donna LaVoie

Sure. No problem.

00:40:03:00 - 00:40:40:16

Christian Soschner

So topic six is about competitive positioning. And this is within the limitations of the data. Right. So the most successful charts show a salient point. Sometimes chart, you know, we want to be able to do is to show a chart that is easily understood without having to explain it. And I guess, you know, understanding a chart depends on the audience and the level of sophistication of the audience and whether they're used to seeing slides that look a certain way.

00:40:40:16 - 00:41:14:04

Christian Soschner

Certainly, if you're presenting in a medical audience and peer review, that's easy. And I think, you know, very scientific entrepreneurs walk into fundraising thinking that they're in that setting. And so it has to be simple, but it also can't be, it has to be simple, but it has to be as accurate as possible. So it doesn't look like your,

00:41:14:06 - 00:41:39:03

Christian Soschner

That you're not tight with your data, so to speak. Right. Because there's certainly a lot of that sometimes out there where there's questionable data and, you know, people get turned off if the if they think it's questionable data. Right? So there's a fine line there. And so, you know, not suggesting dumbing it down so much that, that, it doesn't give you credibility.

00:41:40:09 - 00:41:41:07

Donna LaVoie

Does that make sense?

00:41:41:07 - 00:41:50:13

Christian Soschner

Yeah, absolutely. I think investors, particularly are trained in finding mistakes and, inconsistencies. It absolutely makes sense when you say accurate.

00:41:50:14 - 00:41:51:20

Donna LaVoie

Correct. So

00:41:51:20 - 00:42:29:15

Donna LaVoie

it also, this is also where that if you have peer reviewed publications, you don't necessarily need, you know, sometimes people put in like all the charts from all the posters or all the publications, you don't need to do that. But wouldn't it be nice to just see, you know, screenshots of the of the publications that you're in and show the credibility of the fact that you publish the data, and if they want to do the diligence and start looking at that, you can share all of that in an afterwards.

00:42:30:10 - 00:43:11:11

Christian Soschner

So topic seven is really about the team. And I think the team especially for early early stage companies. But honestly, for any company, regardless of the of the size, it's really about the, you know, the pedigree and the team and the backgrounds of the people and that the backgrounds would be different for different stages of company and, you know, if you're going towards a commercial footprint, if you're a digital health company, you're going to get there faster, that you may need different talent than you would if you're an early stage clinical company.

00:43:11:13 - 00:43:40:05

Christian Soschner

So having that, the photos and the backgrounds of each key member. But that doesn't mean, you know, all the backgrounds, every detail. It just means being able to tell the story about the unique culture or how you came together. You know, it might be part of the storyline is, you know, this team worked together and was successful in bringing XYZ product through phase three or whatever the story may be.

00:43:40:05 - 00:43:53:01

Christian Soschner

Or, you know that we have a diverse group of talent from different sectors who brings the best of the best, whatever that storyline is. That's what you need to tell.

00:43:53:16 - 00:44:23:04

Christian Soschner

I think one point to add to the team, I think the this page particularly should radiate that the team is the best possible solution for investors to tackle the problem and work on the solution. Yes, this should be the mapping and the key point. In the end of the day, when I look at early stage companies, the I mean, besides patterns and publications, which is quite nice, but the only thing investors really invest in are teams at the end of the day, because there's so much more.

00:44:23:06 - 00:44:33:06

Christian Soschner

And if this slide nails it and the investor gets the feeling it's really a team and they're the best in that area, even when the technology fails, it's an asset for the investor.

00:44:33:06 - 00:44:33:23

Donna LaVoie

correct?

00:44:34:01 - 00:45:01:06

Christian Soschner

Correct. So this is you know a little company very successful grow bio. And Dan Mendell, who's the CEO is actually a protege of Professor George Church is very well known. So this is, you know, this is a great team. And, all of these folks have worked together. They have a a nice initial group of investors.

00:45:01:08 - 00:45:09:12

Christian Soschner

So it's a nice slide. That kind of, you know, tells that story. And Dan does a great job of of telling his story for sure.

00:45:09:12 - 00:45:45:11

Christian Soschner

I guess just because this is arena and I talked about arena a lot at bio, is a company we've worked with prior to the company being sold to Pfizer, and this is actually a mock up slide that, that, we were playing with for the JP Morgan conference actually last year, the year before that, they announced the acquisition and, and, you know, for a company like arena, they what they really wanted to accomplish was less about, you know, we have this person and that person is there, you

00:45:45:11 - 00:46:09:09

Christian Soschner

know, multibillion dollar market cap company. It was really more about the leadership team with the expertise and resilience to take the company forward, the commercial regulatory M&A success, as well as the clinical success and, that they had built over over the years, just pivoted from one key area to a much broader focus.

00:46:09:18 - 00:46:16:24

Christian Soschner

I find this like very interesting. I love it, actually. Was this slide in addition to the team slide, or did it replace the team slide?

00:46:17:01 - 00:46:17:09

Donna LaVoie

And

00:46:17:09 - 00:46:51:22

Christian Soschner

actually in the case for arena, replaced the team sign this this is voice for the JP Morgan presentation. And, you know, most of the investors there, know the team. You know, the team, that was, you know, presenting and that was there at the helm. So this was more about bringing to bear sort of the collective senior management team under Emmet Munshi, who was the CEO credit.

00:46:51:23 - 00:46:53:02

Donna LaVoie

Yeah.

00:46:53:04 - 00:46:54:09

Christian Soschner

Thank you.

00:46:54:09 - 00:47:28:16

Christian Soschner

So, pipeline and clinical data. So this is, in my view, kind of a section I call this topic eight nine. Right. Because this might be a couple of slides and they'll be backup slides in your appendix. This is sort of the overview of, of compounds or, or products. If it's not a pipeline, it's products you're going to talk about whether they're partner of proprietary timelines and a summary and top supporting evidence.

00:47:28:18 - 00:48:10:18

Christian Soschner

And so this is really meant to be kind of at a high level. Sometimes what happens is in companies that have big pipelines, they'll come to us and they'll say, well, you know, we only have 15 or 20 minutes to talk. We can't cover everything. So in that case, what you have to do is to show the pipeline and then perhaps pick one particular whatever is kind of the leading area that you want to focus on or if you're at bio and you want to partner a certain asset or group of assets, we may say this is our pipeline and these are this is the data on the assets that we're looking apart around.

00:48:10:20 - 00:48:14:08

Christian Soschner

Nobody cares about something that you're taking forward on your own.

00:48:14:08 - 00:48:21:13

Christian Soschner

So, you know, again, it's a judgment call. Here's arena's pipeline.

00:48:21:13 - 00:48:43:13

Christian Soschner

It's a little hard to read. This is an awful lot here, but I guess that was the point, right? I do like the design of this slide. That are designers, worked on here, under each key category in the GI derm and, cardiology area.

00:48:43:13 - 00:49:10:04

Christian Soschner

And then at the bottom you can see the partnerships, which is, it's nicely laid out and on a big screen you can see this, and then, you know, in a case you, you may want to focus on GI or Durham or what have you, but it gives, you know, the, the, the focus of where the trials are being run and the indication and then the stage and next step, the next step actually inside of the

00:49:10:04 - 00:49:11:13

Donna LaVoie

of the line.

00:49:11:13 - 00:49:15:22

Christian Soschner

There was this slide for the JP Morgan presentation.

00:49:15:24 - 00:49:20:12

Donna LaVoie

Yes it was. Yeah. This is part of that same deck that was that we developed. Yeah.

00:49:20:14 - 00:49:48:16

Christian Soschner

In my opinion it makes sense because at JP Morgan you usually take the investors who later stage investors. Correct. And with a pipeline you can demonstrate probably the risk mitigation within the company. So don't bet on bouncing assets, but on a very mature pipeline with phase three projects and also early stage pipelines. So the risk profile of this company is different than, for example, an early stage company with nothing in the clinic.

00:49:48:18 - 00:49:56:09

Donna LaVoie

Correct? Correct. Exactly, exactly. And we've seen all, forms of that for sure.

00:50:00:13 - 00:50:30:23

Christian Soschner

I'm going to skip through this one. This is more of just a summary slide for grow on, you know, initial data. Right. Just to show you kind of the difference right now because much earlier stage company focused on you know, here's what the initial data suggests. And with the two high profile high value profiles, for the two areas in which they're working, very different approach and focus.

00:50:32:00 - 00:50:59:12

Christian Soschner

Topic ten is where you move move into the regulatory strategy. This is where, you know, you might cover, oops, excuse me. Geography highlight milestones, achievements to date. And then also, you know, talk about sort of where you're at, you know, whether you're fast track status, pediatric wave or sector, etc.. And so the many ways to do this, I'm just giving one example.

00:50:59:12 - 00:51:10:17

Christian Soschner

This is a diagnostics company. Actually Binx health, which is a client of the voice. They do have a clear waived

00:51:10:17 - 00:51:25:22

Christian Soschner

product is called the Binx AI. Oh, it's a molecular platform enabling single visit diagnosis and treatment for chlamydia and gonorrhea. And actually, this is a nice slide because the FDA actually put out a press release on this.

00:51:25:22 - 00:51:35:05

Christian Soschner

Right. So it really does give kind of a nice validation. And I would say that most of the time that doesn't happen. Right. So

00:51:35:05 - 00:51:58:18

Christian Soschner

a nice slide manufacturing. Certainly if you were in gene therapy, Car-T, you know, want to talk about manufacturing. Certainly important, important aspect. And, you know, if you're a vaccine producer, for example, manufacturing is is critical path.

00:51:58:20 - 00:52:18:10

Christian Soschner

And so, you know, you need to decide yourself, what's important to discuss. You know, this is Lucid Diagnostics. It's a client of la vois public company. Actually, we have helped to take public and it is a, a subsidiary of Padman, which is a another medical technology company that's public.

00:52:18:10 - 00:52:29:09

Christian Soschner

They have a product called ISO check. Which is, you know, if you think about, cologuard for colorectal cancer is the diagnostic test.

00:52:29:11 - 00:52:43:24

Christian Soschner

This is basically the same principle only for esophageal cancer. And they are a commercial company rolling out. So of course, you know, manufacturing and logistics is is pretty important aspect to their commercial plan.

00:52:45:24 - 00:53:11:00

Christian Soschner

Topic 12 is commercial strategy. If you're not going to commercialize this is where you talk about partnerships, what you're looking for, what you might already have in place, or just your partnering strategy. If you are going to commercialize, talk about maybe your marketing plan. It might be as simple as you've hired a new chief commercial officer and you have begun advocacy relationships.

00:53:11:02 - 00:53:35:11

Christian Soschner

You know, if you're in Alzheimer's, for example, that would be important in your medical communication strategy. What commercial development that you've done and you publication and medical meeting strategy. And if you're beginning to really work on, presenting data at key medical meetings, this is where you may want to talk about that. It doesn't all have to be in the slide, but could be part of your talking points.

00:53:35:15 - 00:54:01:07

Christian Soschner

This is a slide again on the theme of of arena. Really, leaning in to a message around launch readiness for their assets. And again, rather than a lot of detail really just focusing on, you know, how of putting the critical pieces in place for transition, which is what the key asset that Pfizer was interested in for market entrance.

00:54:01:09 - 00:54:22:17

Christian Soschner

And they talk about, you know, developing insights and clinical evidence, participating in client exchange, ensuring, access and harnessing, tools like AI and then really, building out the customer engagement model.

00:54:22:19 - 00:54:31:22

Christian Soschner

This is also a slide of arenas talking about their global presence as they were beginning to really communicate a common commercial strategy.

00:54:33:17 - 00:55:08:07

Christian Soschner

This is a slide from a company working in presbyopia that's also a client of LA chess, and was part of a marketing strategy to really, you know, begin to share data. This is, data from a cuvette, which talks about, surveys from optometrists and ophthalmologist, about about presbyopia and whether they would, based upon the, the target product profile, whether they would prescribe this product, which is in this case vertical

00:55:08:07 - 00:55:11:08

Christian Soschner

winding down here.

00:55:11:12 - 00:55:58:08

Christian Soschner

Patient. This is top. It's 13. It's just a summary of your financials. If you're if you're a public company this is where you may talk about market cap shareholder share shares outstanding any insider holdings. But if you're a private company you may just simply say we've raised 35 million to date. You may verbalize the fact that your current value is $60 billion, for example, and that you're currently, you know, in a series B and moving into a crossover for an IPO in 2024, for example, as a public company, you're going to want to stick to whatever your, current, communication is and guidance, to the street so that

00:55:58:08 - 00:56:00:19

Christian Soschner

you have remaining consistent.

00:56:00:19 - 00:56:19:23

Christian Soschner

So this is a slide for a private company of masses because it is, a confidential company, but it does talk about the capital requirements for their phase two and how they plan to do that with each of their assets and and how they plan to use, use the capital

00:56:19:23 - 00:56:26:16

Christian Soschner

topic 14 would be about milestones and summarizing those key milestones.

00:56:26:18 - 00:56:36:11

Christian Soschner

This is arena's near-term milestone slide I like it. It talks about the product, the indication, the event, and the time frame. And just a little tip.

00:56:36:11 - 00:56:46:03

Donna LaVoie

I hope that companies are not giving specific dates to their milestones and that they're giving themselves enough leeway.

00:56:46:03 - 00:56:54:05

Christian Soschner

I actually don't agree with this milestone that says for Q4 2021, I would never give a quarter.

00:56:54:05 - 00:56:56:14

Christian Soschner

I would always give at the minimum. Has,

00:56:56:20 - 00:57:02:03

Donna LaVoie

in particular in these markets, because no one's getting credit for it anyway.

00:57:02:03 - 00:57:08:07

Christian Soschner

Topic 15 is your summary. Here's, summary for

00:57:08:07 - 00:57:11:22

Christian Soschner

private company working in the vaccine space.

00:57:11:22 - 00:57:27:12

Christian Soschner

And, you know, for quick ideas about about why you should be interested with their plan series B round of 75 million to take them through a phase one, two.

00:57:27:14 - 00:57:31:04

Christian Soschner

A POC, proof of concept studies.

00:57:31:04 - 00:57:38:01

Christian Soschner

And this is a, a large public medical technology company. Very different focus, but,

00:57:38:01 - 00:57:50:23

Christian Soschner

and its focus on profitability and value to customers and advantaged market positions. Again, public company focus, but key high life, high level investment.

00:57:50:23 - 00:57:52:12

Donna LaVoie

catalysts there.

00:57:52:14 - 00:57:57:03

Christian Soschner

May ask you some question, on the deal you proposed on the previous slide.

00:57:57:03 - 00:58:07:20

Donna LaVoie

So this one, you right here. Plan 75 million service B round, advanced clinical development. What's your recommendation? How specific should people be?

00:58:07:22 - 00:58:36:17

Donna LaVoie

On this detail? I had two opinions. So one opinion is, be as specific as possible because investors want to know how much, you should invest. And, what milestone they achieve. And ideally also, tell them what valuation you expect. So it helps, shaping their expectations. And the second opinion I heard on the market is don't do anything of that because, the investors should come with the first of, and should tell you how much money they want to invest.

00:58:36:19 - 00:58:41:16

Donna LaVoie

What's your opinion? After a few hundred companies that you and your team worked with?

00:58:41:16 - 00:58:42:07

Christian Soschner

Yeah,

00:58:42:07 - 00:59:13:04

Christian Soschner

it depends who you're talking with. So if you're talking, with established players that have a lot of money and you have here that you're planning to raise 10 million and a series B, you may be talking to the wrong people. And so most of the, you know, larger investors need to put 20, 30 million to work to make it work for them.

00:59:13:06 - 00:59:48:04

Christian Soschner

And of course, markets are changing. And, you know, we're, we're actually seeing a lot less and, and some of these funds putting a lot less money to work at the moment. But, you know, so this is, this is a moving target. But I will say historically, if you weren't looking for at least a decent amount of capital, then they're wasting their time talking to you because they're not going to put if they want to lead around or co-lead around, they're not going to put 4 million.

00:59:48:04 - 01:00:09:12

Christian Soschner

It. There may be a follow on later down the road, but I mean, I've been in meetings, with investors, with a company actually European company private. And we went into the meeting, I think we were asking at the time for 35 to 50 million.

01:00:09:12 - 01:00:17:10

Donna LaVoie

and, the investor love the story at the first meeting and said, how would you feel about 75?

01:00:19:08 - 01:00:23:08

Christian Soschner

But if you do, they took.

01:00:24:09 - 01:00:38:20

Donna LaVoie

They took they took the money. And the company was then sold to Novartis. Oh, great. So it's a highly successful company and and the product is actually on the market right now, I don't know, virus. Ophthalmology company. Yeah.

01:00:38:20 - 01:00:50:18

Donna LaVoie

And so, you know, it was a highly, highly successful situation. Not all situations are like that. And it's wonderful when you can be part of that.

01:00:50:20 - 01:01:14:20

Donna LaVoie

But I think, you know, the thing is, is that if you're a clinical stage company, you have to ask for a lot, otherwise you're not going to be taking your programs forward. Depends on which therapeutic area you're in. If you're a digital health company or a medical technology or diagnostics company, you might only need 15. And so you need to be talking to different people.

01:01:14:22 - 01:01:25:03

Donna LaVoie

So that's part of, you know, what is not part of this lesson today, which is how do you figure out who to talk to and who do you spend time with?

01:01:25:11 - 01:01:29:18

Christian Soschner

Great point, great point.

01:01:29:20 - 01:01:35:12

Donna LaVoie

Which is, you know, things that we help clients with all the time.

01:01:35:14 - 01:01:38:16

Christian Soschner

Don't do we have slides left in the presentation?

01:01:38:22 - 01:01:41:01

Donna LaVoie

This is this is it.

01:01:41:01 - 01:02:01:24

Christian Soschner

It's only appendix, which is I put this in here to remind people about patents and, and, somewhere that should be covered. It doesn't have to be its own slide, but it should maybe should be in the overview. And then also just the ending slide. I wanted to share this because this is actually a true story.

01:02:02:01 - 01:02:40:11

Christian Soschner

This is a company we worked with. And the team and the CEO liked this slide. This was their style. They liked this photograph. And then it went to the board. And the board said, well, it's you know, I mean, you need to show more diversity than that. And this is actually for shingles vaccine. And so this one was developed and I don't know what the final final was, but the point is, is that, you know, we're working in global markets.

01:02:40:13 - 01:02:45:07

Christian Soschner

This is this to me is a very, U.S focused photograph for sure.

01:02:45:07 - 01:03:06:05

Donna LaVoie

You know, we have to think about it's not just sort of goes back to colors and themes and photography. We didn't have a slide on photography, but images matter because images tell you something to.

01:03:06:07 - 01:03:37:18

Christian Soschner

I agreed with that. Let me ask you a final question. Sure. When I look at the conversations in the last 16 years, I had since I'm in the finance industry, I frequently met the expectation on the market that, putting together a pitch deck isn't much work. And, it's not really the major part of the success in fundraising or sending a company to an industrial partner.

01:03:37:20 - 01:03:55:00

Christian Soschner

From your expertise and from the expertise of your team. And, with all the pitch decks you designed and all the teams that you've worked with, what is your recommendation to companies on how much time they should invest as a minimum to develop their story in a pitch deck?

01:03:55:10 - 01:04:18:04

Donna LaVoie

Well, look, I mean, it really is, you know, much of it is about is it, you know, it's the presentation, but it's also the delivery. Right? So, you know, we have the Canaccord presentation coming up next week. We're working with a company right now on their deck and their delivery. They're they're new to that kind of a conference.

01:04:18:04 - 01:04:25:05

Donna LaVoie

And it's not just the deck, but it's what it's a what they say. It's how they say it.

01:04:25:07 - 01:04:27:12

Christian Soschner

And.

01:04:27:14 - 01:04:56:18

Donna LaVoie

Right. So, equal weighting. And we didn't talk about that today either. All right. So all we're talking about is, is what goes into things, not just how do you actually communicate what you need to communicate and get people on board. So leadership in, in, you know, is this company in a leader's leadership team that we can that we can invest in and feel confident?

01:04:56:18 - 01:05:14:08

Christian Soschner

are a lot of questions open. Let me ask you the final question. In which areas can you and your team provide help to dive sense companies, on the in the presentation? Or do you also train people in storytelling? Help them develop the stories? What's your positioning on the market?

01:05:14:13 - 01:05:42:23

Donna LaVoie

So we are a full service agency. So we are working with clients from from our immersion process, which is a messaging and positioning through execute and visibility and programing around visibility, whether that be from a media relations, PR, medical communication. You know, we have news flow. So for example, I was excited about the exciting news today. Our team is working on that.

01:05:42:23 - 01:05:59:11

Donna LaVoie

So that was very exciting. Yesterday our team was working on the Alzheimer's news with with Roche and AC immune. So, you know, we do a lot of that and then, you know, we certainly help with presentations and presentation training as well.

01:05:59:17 - 01:06:07:04

Christian Soschner

So in case someone from the audience is interested, engaging your team, what's the best way to reach out to you?

01:06:07:06 - 01:06:10:08

Donna LaVoie

The best way to reach out to me. And I thought I had a slide. Here

01:06:10:08 - 01:06:15:02

Christian Soschner

Here we go. Here's my contact information.

01:06:15:04 - 01:06:22:18

Donna LaVoie

So I will also put it in the description of the podcast episodes and on YouTube so that people can find it easily.

01:06:22:20 - 01:06:23:23

Christian Soschner

Terrific.

01:06:24:22 - 01:06:42:09

Christian Soschner

Kind of. Thank you very much for your time and your presentation. It's great to get some insights in how to structure presentations in the life science industry. And if anybody from the audience is interested working with you, I'm pretty sure they pick up the contact data from the episode.

01:06:42:11 - 01:06:45:14

Donna LaVoie

It sounds like they need you to question.

01:06:45:16 - 01:06:53:18

Christian Soschner

I think you're a much better choice. Trust in you. Your team is perfect and your presentation is absolutely awesome. I love this 15 slide methodology.

01:06:53:20 - 01:06:55:21

Donna LaVoie

Great. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

01:06:55:23 - 01:06:58:07

Christian Soschner

Thank you for your time and have a great day.

01:06:58:09 - 01:07:00:04

Donna LaVoie

You to take care. Bye now.

01:07:00:04 - 01:07:13:09

Christian Soschner

Did you like the episode then? Please, please, please leave a five star review on Spotify and Apple and make sure that you like, comment, and share the YouTube episode.

01:07:13:11 - 01:07:18:10

Christian Soschner

It helps that the algorithm delivers the episodes to people who also

01:07:18:10 - 01:07:22:15

Christian Soschner

benefit from it the same way. Then use it. Have a great day!