Last week, I was one of the sponsors of Toronto Biotech Initiative's second annual Research to Revenue seminar. This was a forum where CEOs, CFOs and CSOs from the biotechnology sector met to discuss and network to drive through their commercialization strategies.
One of the presenters was by Michael Denny, managing partner of Westwind Partners. Michael is a captivating speaker and had some key messages for anyone trying to gain influence.
- are you interested in being #1 or are you serious about being #1? The difference is self-discipline and execution.
- you should have a memorable pitch that sums you or your company up in one sentence. e.g. Chrondrogene is going to diagnose colon cancer from a drop of blood rather than a colonoscopy. [now that's memorable!]
- Michael told a revealing story about a founder of a new Canadian life science company. He was trying to raise capital from American Venture Capitalists. Rather than the standard cold-calls or unsolicited submisssions, he phoned 2 influential friends in New York and Los Angeles. Both gave him phone numbers of key US VC with the instructions "call these guys, use my name." Concurrently, he also sent out a number of unsolicited submissions to other VCs. None of the latter resulted in interviews or investments but the referred VCs ended up in a "pile-on" of capital as they were all competing to invest in his new company. Same company...different response.
What can we all learn from Michael's presentation?
1. Don't waste peoples' time. Get serious about what you want. When I talk about the 4 attributes of "a good guy" - reliability and accountability is the area many people need to improve.
2. If you can't be first - be different.
3. Reputation matters. Being "a good guy" will open doors and may results in millions of dollars. And it's all about POI> People first, objects second, ideas third.
Sign up for for the November 2 talk - practise these concepts and let's figure out a way to keep Canada's knowledge-based companies in Canada!
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