How to Found a Life-Science Startup
Disclaimer:
Everything below is a mix of what I observed and heard during the event. The goal isn’t to pinpoint "who exactly said what," but to share (usually) an outsider's view and overall perspective on these industries. I’m not here to act as a definitive firsthand source—readers should do their own research. I hope this inspires you to attend events, explore new industries, and hear what leaders are presenting. These notes combine my observations with thoughts on how things could run smoother and how ideas connect (IMO). I’m not an expert, you know? Just hanging out in the room with them. Enjoy!Topics Covered: Entrepreneurship, Small Businesses, Startups, Health, Medicine, Science and Tech, Marketing, Grant Writing, Financing
Initial Conference Overview: This event is RIGHT up my alley. It’s a semi-random topic, however the topic is not a waste of time to learn about (healthcare) and the topic is used to teach someone how to get their startup going. This is genius. It’s like a big analogy you can learn from. At these types of things, it’s certain that MOST of what they talk about can apply to MANY other businesses. So, I was excited to learn. It’s so fun and useful to learn advice on how to build startups - and these advisors founded billion dollar companies, so they had some good experience.
Conference Overall Ratings: Venue (4/5) - Food (4.5/5) - Speaker Content (4.5/5) - Networking Opportunity (3/5) - Likeliness to Return (5/5)
PHOTOS + Reflections
Bullet Point Notes from Conference :
ARRIVAL
This building was so hard to find. It was among a big hospital/research campus, so when I thought that I was going to the front door, I found out I was on the complete wrong side of the building. It was the second time I’ve just circled blocks and blocks of huge buildings looking for an entrance for an event hahaha. Just like the UnConvention for UX.
When I arrived things had just begun and there were even people pouring out of the door. I was like, wow! This is crowded… but then I saw many people were just polite and didn’t want to get a seat now that the speaking had begun.
For me, I don’t think that logic makes sense. When I’m speaking, I want people to be comfortable. So, if they need to politely find a seat as we begin, go for it!!
That’s what I did, I went and got myself a seat and started to take notes.
PANELISTS INTRODUCTIONS:
PANELIST 1 -
The first panelist was just finishing speaking when I arrived. He said he and his friends had started companies together. He had started a few billion dollar companies.
He said, “It is a long road, but there’s a way of doing science better.”
Get to your hypothesis better. There is a lot you can learn from the grey area -and a lot we dont consider in metrics. But once you own the company, you own the process.
Your decisions need to make sense from both a logical and scientific point of view
PANELIST 2 -
Scientist since 16, first job was a company he started himself. He and students developed tech and collaborated with other scientists, very common for this setting.
But there were always so many projects he couldn’t do because of restraints and requirements, so he started doing littel projects on the side and in secret. The teachers didnt love it, but they still let him do it.
He stumbled his way through building a company with his friend. They both used to work at Microsoft.
They’re not a drug company, so they build it sorta “mom and pop pizza shop of science” with new tech, new products, push them out. It’s bootstrappy scrappy.
PANELIST 3 -
The next panelist started as a PhD student and scientist, and different twists and turns got her to where she is today. She got her PhD in Biomedical engineering and had good jobs out of school.
At one of her jobs, they said, “Tomorrow, marketing is coming… we’re all going to dress up and get nice food. Then they showed us the roadmap of our product…”But then suddenly I was triggered… why are they telling me what I’m building?”
So one year later, I joined a consulting company for biotech and a few other things.
They said, build a map of all the departments who are going to use our sales effectiveness across the whole country - 400 people…
“You can not go slow, you must go fast, and make choices.”
Later joined Amazon as a forecaster, prelaunch products and then seeing what products look like. She was seeing which products generate 50M in sales every week, getting great insight. So that was a transition from research to business development.
Rather than looking at percentages of forecast… it’s important to Wall Street, but not me.
At that time I had a preschool son who went to Camp Engine, he had nonstop fevers every weekend. A cold, taking every week off for weeks and weeks. I thought, “this is a big deal, at the prime age of productivity, this is hindering performance.” Instead, I had to take months off in a year. So that triggered me to look into care.
Kelly being cocky/appreciative moment: My daughter has only gotten sick when other took care of her btw. She has never been sick more than one day with me, and literally that was for one day. Knock on wood, but I think that people say, “kids get sick easily” too easily… I think it’s a lifestyle thing, nutrition, mindset, etc. My background in working with kids internationally for over 10 years… it think a lot of sickness can be avoided and is misdiagnosed (like a lot of the times, its as simple as “the kids are cold”. ) So, part of me pushed back internally when I heard her say that now she wants kids getting on more and more medication, more health. She didn’t say that exactly, but… just as a mom who has had success keeping her kid healthy, I feel like… medicine isn’t always the answer!!! Prevention is more important than reaction… and prevention can be super natural!!
PANELIST 4 -
Journey from scientist to investor:
"I’m a scientist and investor. How do you sit at the intersection of amazing research, fundamental science, and bringing it to the world?"
Earned a PhD and began work in BioTech, starting in product management at well-known companies.
"It was like marketing, kinda. I’d go talk to the scientists and tell them, ‘Here’s what we need to sell. Here’s what we need to build. Here’s what customers want.'"
Later, got a job by talking his way into a conversation with the CEO, asking to be hired to do a range of tasks to help.
I told him I could help and he gave me a chance. It was an amazing ride, but lots of 70-80 hour weeks, though we sold to one of the largest power diagnostics companies in the world.
“I got a taste of what it feels like to be a piece of the machines.”
Investing Philosophy and Mission:
Maintains a broad portfolio, seeking amazing areas where data and data science can create powerful synergies.
“We have about 15 companies in our portfolio, we add 2-3 a year… this year a bit of discovery, but also diagnostic and tool tech as well.”
What stands out to him as an investor? "Hearing all the journeys, as an investor, I’m looking for 'founder market fit.' They’re all trying to solve a problem they’re very passionate about, which is a fantastic place to start."
Identifies when someone sees a market need and feels compelled to solve it.
"Your background and career up until that point make you uniquely qualified to solve that problem. That’s what I’m looking for in the early stages."
Invests in visionary founders, recognizing the lack of proof points early on but betting on their ability to create an iconic company over 10-15 years.
CONVICTION TO START
At what point did you feel you had enough convinction to start a company? What was that process? How did you build the team?
Quite often we work with those coming out of academia and into incubators… at what point do you feel you have enough data to go forward and launch a many.
Balancing Data and Intuition:
“Everyone in this industry is data and analytical heavy, the other side is possibly a little suppressed even.”
“The urgent care you went to last night was wrong,”my doctor said this. You should go see the results yourself!! He told me. He said they misdiagnosed my toothache!”
That was an inflection point, a revelation on a personal level. I wanted to start my own business.
All the mom groups were like, “yeah, that’s a good idea” - but that’s not enough. You need to talk to people to start…
Overcoming Fear of Sharing Ideas:
Lots of people say, “I can’t tell anyone my idea or else they’ll steal it”
NO! That’s a fear to overcome. Talk to as many people as you can and get as much traction and support as you can. People you like or you hate… you gotta get their feedback and opinion. Suck it all in and build a case for yourself.
Understanding Service and Product Usage:
If you think about a service, who is using the service, who might be using the product?
Having Security and a Safety Net:
You need senses of security in your life (you must have a safety net and not be totally at risk if this fails… if this fails, I’m okay). For many its a salary, for others its time…
“For a couple years, I’m find just living in a tent”.
Just think about that, what can you check off? Are you personally ready? Do lots of peopel support you?
Failure is Not the End:
You know if you fail you won’t starve.
Slow roll things, gather data, have a safety net. There isn’t a clear moment to say, “okay, now we’re doing it”. We already had peopel coming to us asking for this stuff. They’re wiling to pay us and do little classes here and there.
Funding Sources:
GAP FUND GRANTS, innovation award, where they pay part of your salary but you work not eh project words the company
Spent over a year gettin closer and closer to funding.
- A GIRL TOOK OUT HER WATERBOTTLE AND I THOUGHT IT SAID MMTLP. Nope.
Taking the Leap:
If this doesn’t work, I won’t get ex-communicated from the industry.
Is the data the limiting factor?
Is it your own confidence? Saying, “Okay, I’m ready to do this”. You need to jump off and say, Okay! For everyone, there is a different point. You’re never ’ready’; you just gotta do it
Starting With Ideas and Capital:
Start with a few ideas, own capital
“It’s fascinating to hear everyone’s stories…”
When we first started, I knew I wanted to start a company cause I saw how much founders made. If you look at the top 10 employees versus founders versus investors….
When I work at any company ,I work super hard… why is everyone else benefitted financially while scientists aren’t? But I knew it was hard, I didn’t want to start one by myself, so with a network of 6-8 people maybe we can figure it out.
KELLY COMMENT: NO one looks like their profile pictures btw, everyone looks like siblings - I’m like “Am in in a simulation?” Hahah.
People always say the matrix will glitch sometime, so I’m like, okay, now? Hahahahah. Jk, sorta.
Faith in Your Team:
You have to have complete faith in your partners. It’s the only way to succeed.
You need peopel doing different jobs, you need to trust the person is doing what’s right - it’s how you will succeed. You need peopel who really trust each other so even if it sounds like they’re doing something weird, you can trust they’re working well.
Creating Luck Through Execution:
In a lot of ways, we create our luck by knowing what we need to do and executing on a plan.
Why Take the Jump:
Everyone has their own stories their own moments, their different life stages. And they say, I can’t make less than I’m making today, so why not take the jump (versus someone who has a lot to risk and lose).
Are you losing sleep over your NON involvement. It indicates you’re solving the right problem.
Test w / people, ppl who did drug development before, before you make this big life choice.
You gotta make the jump0… your world won’t end if you fail!!
Especially here in the USA. Fail is okay - you tried. You’ll get another job and get credit for trying so hard
FUNDING
Huge challenge for companies. How do you get the data and then get support from companies?
How do you get the data and then get support from companies?
How do investors feel comfortable investing in a company?
Are there differences in life science vs. other tech?
Different sources of funding include:
Investing is boutique:
There is no formula — every investor is different, and you only need one investor.
You need to have 100 conversations before finding the one who believes in you.
Assemble your story, test it with people, then go talk to as many people as possible.
Certain pieces are helpful… what you have at any time is worth what it’s worth.
The more value you grow up, build a lot of tech in foundations before you spin it out…
Try to raise money on a better valuation so you’re selling less of your company and your control. Often times they wonder, “will this person run through walls to solve this problem?” and that determines if we can trust our money with them, as an investor.
Fundraising as a Sales Process:
As an entrepreneur, nearly everything you do in your life involves sales.
Early on, small teams may still do science, but the founder’s primary job becomes bringing in people and selling the vision.
Constantly sell ideas to gain buy-in from investors, employees, and partners.
Your’e constantly selling teh vision and selling ideas
Scientists need to be excited and interested, that’s who buys it, thats where they employees come from. You’re recruiting in the sales process. IT’s convincing someobody to put money in
Rejection Is Part of the Process:
Anytime there’s a sales process, you have to get ready for somebody to say, “no”. Bearing your soul to them, they say no, you grow a callus. But you have to be ready and get ready to hear lots of “no’s” and just ignore them and keep going.
Prepare for constant "no's" and rejections; it’s emotionally challenging.
90% of the time, rejection builds resilience.
"You probably already have enough science; now it’s time to focus on sales and marketing." A lot of peopel keep thinking, If I do more science, it’ll be so science they have to buy it… but no!!
You probably have enough science now, it’s the sales process you need to crank up. You need to understand the value of sales and marketing…I used to think, “science is good, but they should be coming to me” —- NO!!!
Sales Tips:
Selling science is not just about creating great products; it’s about actively marketing and showcasing their value.
“Science is good, but they should be coming to me” is a flawed mindset.
You must sell, sell, sell, and it can be emotionally grueling.
Drug development-specific needs:
For drug development, often times just based on the data… ask what it takes to raise the money?
As people who know the ‘reality of today’. You need a really ROBUST display of what you need to make this happen in your industry
Do industry in your niche…Drug development looks different from, for example, COVID vaccine development in terms of data production.
There is a bunch of data about what HAS been funded, and usually venture funds are more than happy to talk you through what they’re seeing int he market and make sure you’re appropriately adjusted for every stage of funding
Most people, especially in life sciences, want to see the entire field move forward and succeed, so we try to be helpful in the funding side
Timing considerations:
This may not be a fit today, but in two years may be a fit when we’ve hit a few inflection points.
Investors want to see the entire industry succeed, so it’s valuable to have these conversations.
Grant Writing Expertise:
Some founders rely heavily on grants, particularly in the early stages.
Not all companies can have customers early on, especially in drug development, where early-stage customers don’t exist.
“We joke we were a small company before a profit.”
As two people, you can charge a lot for services, but as you grow, margins shift.
One founder became a "grant writing machine." Wrote about 15 grants with a strong hit rate (2/3 success). At one company, grant writing was part of the business model, with each person writing 8 grants per year.
Within a few months, two grants brought in half a million dollars for the company.
"If this is possible, I need to quit and work for myself. I’m only making an $80k salary.”
Thinking Commercially:
Shift your mindset to think in a commercial framework.
The journey is to think commercially for yourself. I’m saying, exercise your brain to think in this framework… think within your research .
Exercise your brain to assess your significance, team, traction, data, and environment.
Find tools to guide this process, including mentorship or “hand-holding tools.”
Raising funding, investors… if they’re savvy enough, they think in unique frameworks.
Sales Process & The Right Fit
You must also be a “fit”!! You are not failing when you’re not the right fit. IT’s a sales process, your idea need to be sold, you need to find a buyer. Think of how hard it is to get your mom to buy something that you make! Hahahahah
Example: "It’s hard enough to convince your mom to buy something you made—imagine convincing a stranger to write a million-dollar check!"
You think a stranger is going to write you a million dollar check the first time you meet him? NO! You need to build the relationship. They may say, “no no no” 10 times before they say yes.
You are not failing if you're not the right fit; it’s about finding the right audience.
Persistence in Fundraising:
Expect 99% rejection — it’s common for years.
FFF = finally found a founder
Talk to as many people as you’d like to start.
If people are already taking their money out of their pocket, it’s a good indication of fit + possibilities.
Strategic Decisions:
Build or buy? Don’t waste time building what you can buy — save time and focus on partnerships.
Work with people who will support you from the inside.
Think of the pillars in your life, think of the machine you can rely on to file a patent, get a new project to take on…. Don’t build, BUY! Buy yourself time.
Resilience as a Female Founder:
Women are resilient and observant, with unique problem-solving skills.
Women notice and address customer pain points effectively.
Example: "Everyone has had a fever before—you take Tylenol and rest at home, not go to the emergency doctor. That’s the customer journey.”
That’s the customer journey, you learn from peopel and solve pain points
Women have an acute ability to solve problems that they easily discover.
Take advantage of your resilience and your observance. Emotionally, we dance a lot. Not that men don’t, but we’re able to bounce back.
We have the hormonal drive to survive, take advantage of that.
Talk to investors who are supportive.
We need to overcome the shame of failing, it’s not a failure, it’s try. It’s risky but do you want to take this risk?
Will my kids starve if I risk this? If not, go for it!
Leveraging Networks
FFF: Friends, Family, Free:
Many free resources, including support from friends and family, can help in the early stages.
We’re working in an industry where we’re trying to make the world a better place. We’re making drugs, therapeutics, science and tech that will help us and our friends be healthier. It will help us be free in society.
People often ask, “How can I help?” once they know you’re starting a company.
Build a group of advisors to support and guide fundamental decisions for the company.
Networking and Relationships:
K2VC funded one startup after founders traveled to Suzhou, near Shanghai, to find investors. (Any relation to the K2 mall? I love that mall in Shanghai hahaa -it’s like an incredible mall with all of this art mixed throughout it.)
Sharing your story can create unexpected opportunities.
Investors may hear about you through referrals and cold calls. People called in who were investors and said they’d heard of you (see! It’s good to tell people)
Being recognized as an expert in your field leads to trust and interest.
Stand Out to Investors:
Figure out who resonates with your story, team, and vision.
Investors are inundated with ideas daily—most of which sound similar.
Execution is key: only a few teams can turn ideas into successful companies.DRUG DEVELOPMENT COMPANIES
Positioning for Funding
Data as a Selling Point:
Phase 1 and Phase 2 data are often critical for attracting pharmaceutical companies.
Preclinical data that stands out can also capture investor interest.
International Considerations:
Conducting work in China can be significantly cheaper, though delays of 1-2 years are common.
Innovation in AI for Drug Development:
AI is transforming the drug discovery process by optimizing drug structures and increasing success probabilities.
AI applications are still in a testing phase, with significant advancements expected in the next few years.
JP Morgan’s healthcare insights emphasize looking to China for innovative early-stage solutions (e.g., antibodies, phase 1 clinical trials).
Differentiation and De-risking
How to Differentiate:
Focus on areas of true innovation where competition is minimal (e.g., unique AI applications).
Consider in-licensing from China or U.S. biopharmaceutical companies for standard development pipelines.
Derisking Strategies:
Hire experts with FDA experience to help navigate the regulatory landscape.
Manufacturing is often overlooked but critical—failure to scale manufacturing can derail even successful drugs.
Many Complete Response Letters (CRLs) from the FDA are due to manufacturing issues.
Importance of Experience
Drug development is experiential and takes time to master.
Partner with individuals who have successfully navigated the process.
If you can’t manufacture at scale, even the best drug is worthless.
“Not too many people in this world can make a 2 Billion Dollar Company”
AI IN DRUG DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT
Building AI Companies in Biopharma
Challenges in Building Venture-Scale AI Companies:
Only 2-3 biopharma companies have achieved massive success.
Building venture-scale software businesses in this environment is difficult.
Change is coming, but it requires convincing major investors for $10M+ checks and smaller ones for $5K-$1M investments.
Without this, building a viable business is nearly impossible.
Opportunities with Big Pharma:
Pharma companies realize internal development is often inefficient.
Take the lean approach, it’s cheaper than easier to build tools. Go build use that to bootstrap your business a little bit.
Lean Approach:
Build tools to solve acute pain points.
Bootstrap the business by creating products that address immediate needs.
Focus on product-market fit: is your product solving a significant problem?
We’re slowly entering a new area and building the bridges to drive across it right now.
AI’s Role in Drug Development:
New software enables what drug development looks like. It’s exciting for drug companies to recruit trials better, manage data better— make clinical test go from 10% success to 15% success.
This excites investors.
Talk to buyers, cause often there’s a disconnect behind what buyers want to buy and are actively looking for, versus what you’re offering.
Significant potential exists to create billion-dollar exits:
Requires drive, experience, and reputation.
The reality: most efforts fail, and everything takes more funding than expected.
Investing in AI Companies
Investor Considerations:
AI technology must provide tangible value rather than a broad, unfocused approach.
“Cool tech that does a billion things” doesn’t secure funding.
Products need to demonstrate clear utility.
Pharma and biomedicals thrive on big data:
It’s very important… Pharma/biomedicals love big data. So much big data. Gigabites and Terabites of data… even the biggest dharma’s are fundamentally driven by peopel who don’t understand computer science, Ai, and the impact they have
But everyone around them is saying, “we need to get it done, we need to do it”
Companies are often run by people unfamiliar with AI and computer science but who demand actionable solutions.
An AI company needs to emerge as a leader, showcasing efficient processes at half the cost.
The Future of AI in Biopharma:
AI is comparable to DNA sequencing—once novel, now foundational.
Today, skepticism about AI persists.
Within 15-20 years, AI will be integral to every biopharma operation.
Ai is like DNA sequencing. That’s an analogy. Really new instrument. Every single pharma company has peopel doing NGS all day long, it’s fundamental to all we do. People are sequencing every patient. We will see the same thing with Ai.
People hype it up, claim it changes everything… then a big blow up saying it failed, but then 20 years from now, every single Ai and pharmacist will have huge Ai arms— of course it was!! Of course we’re going to have Ai everywhere.
Right now there’s a lot of skepticism but we’re going to get there….
The next 2-3 years are critical for identifying “diamonds in the rough.”
Types of AI Companies:
Users of AI: Companies applying AI to optimize workflows.
Creators of AI: Companies developing new AI systems for drug discovery.
AI’S IMPACT ON HEALTHCARE AND DEVELOPMENT
AI’s Role Across the Industry
Customer Journey Applications:
AI can assist in guiding doctors and researchers:
Identifying key patterns.
Filtering unnecessary data.
Enhancing efficiency with meaningful insights.
Ai can assist along the customer journey for multiple things. You often want a guide when you’re working… like it can show doctors what they shoudl be looking for. It can filter out things that are not necessary to upload. You need manful data and anatomy.
Different AI systems serve different purposes across the workflow.
Limitations of AI in Biology:
Training data in biology is less structured than in areas like text generation:
Biology involves multivariant, ambiguous problems (e.g., mutations with unclear significance).
Protein structures are one exception where AI shows clearer utility.
The problem with Ai… the reason thet Chat GPT works so well is cause there’s so much training data online. Biology, though… its a much more fuzzy/multivariant problem. There is tons of data but no one knows what it means.
As Chat GPT to write you a poem, then you can decide is it good or bad
I ask CHAT GPT to make me a protein, I have no idea if its a good or bad protein
We need to close the loop in the wet lap… we need to be able to loop and see ground truth.
You still have to test your hypothesis and thats the regime we’ll be in. We have to close the loop and we’ll be here a while.
Make predictions, test it, and then close the Ai model sayin g if that was a good or bad prediction, rather than just pretending that whatever output it gives you is actually yrue.
Closing loops is going to be the training data that connects that value
If you just say, “there are these models, I have more data than you, my Ai is smarter than you!” That’s not quite right. But if you have a data set well set and validated, if you create a loop - that gives you the ability to create things that are useful must faster than folks just relying on massive data sets.
AI in biology requires closing the loop between predictions and real-world testing:
Predictions must be validated in wet labs.
Hypotheses need rigorous testing to refine AI models.
Challenges and Future Directions
AI companies must focus on creating validated, high-value datasets.
Current skepticism about AI will diminish as tools prove their effectiveness.
What the Future Holds:
AI will reduce the cost and time required for drug development.
As sequencing becomes cheaper and more integrated into healthcare, AI will further improve diagnostics and treatments.
In Genome sequencing, you’ve heard of it for decades and how it’ll revolutionize healthcare. But even today if you go to the hospital, they’ll do little tests.. not this. So, there’s been this promise that genomics will do all this healthcare stuff, but hospitals very rarely use it.
But now we’re seeing that some companies are making big success in this way. Where people are starting to use sequencing based info in healthcare.
You wouldn’t know it from the newscycle but it’s taken forever, and finally it’s penetrating now.
Somebody who can sequence and figure out what to do with this information, there are huge goals to cross.
Ai will help in shortening the path to answer. Just say, “give me something useful.” Sequencing becoming cheaper and more widespread in the health system. Tools that people like doctors can use are starting to come up in a way that is real.
Healthcare efficiency and costs are not looking good. Lots of friction in insurance and issues. We want more data to validate our Ai development. We want to look into things deeper and faster, cause at some point they need to realize there’s a huge disconnect of FDA approved technologies… many are already approved (Ai healthcare related tools) but reimbursement… you can count with two hands, how many are reimbursed as a procedure and a way that the Ai is the process. Think about surgery, is Ai the process? Diagnosing, therapeutics?
INDUSTRY INFRASTRUCTURE AND GLOBAL OPPORTUNITIES
Improving Data Infrastructure
Key Innovations:
Harmonizing data across countries and research groups to unlock insights and accelerate human health.
Enhancing clinical trial design by matching patient groups effectively.
AI in Healthcare Efficiency:
Current challenges:
Disconnect between FDA approvals for AI tools and insurance reimbursement systems.
Long-term goals:
Broader adoption of AI in diagnostics, therapeutics, and surgery.
A fundamental wave to transform this industry to be more “data forward” over the next 10-15 years.
Global Collaborations
JPM and others emphasize China’s role in biomedical innovation.
China offers significant cost savings, particularly in phase 1 clinical trials.
Opportunities exist to build unique, differentiated companies that are off most competitors’ radars.
JPM is one of the freakiest companies on Earth IMO… so them being a fan of things doesn’t leave me at ease.
Seattle as a Hub for Life Sciences and AI:
Local platforms and collaborations can position the city as a leader in innovation.
The panelists encouraged leveraging the region’s strengths to drive global impact.
NO time left for Q&A.
CLOSING THOUGHTS FROM HOST:
Ai, Innovation, it’s really vast… it’s’ a vast opportunity over there in China, but we know it’s far. It’s very hard to navigate even for a Korean, let alone for your caucasians. We’re local, nonprofit, non bias. IF you want to host something like this in the future, talk to us. One step further, want to setup some incubation time, whatever - you can! We have a good multimedia system here. We are non bias. “His boss is Chinese… his wife!”
The opportunities of working together and making Seattle a hub of life science and Ai is really, very very promising. If you want to use this platform, we are always there. With that, we are closing this panel discussion. Plenty of coffee and tea outside. Stay as long as the panelists are around and talk to each other.
(What a spectacular closing!!! So welcoming and funny and engaging and humbling hahahah)
Conference “Overall Ratings” Further Elaboration:
Venue 4/5 - Food 4.5/5 - Speaker Content 4.5/5 - Networking Opportunities 3/5 - Likeliness to Return 5/5 - - -
Venue 4/5 - Food 4.5/5 - Speaker Content 4.5/5 - Networking Opportunities 3/5 - Likeliness to Return 5/5 - - -
VENUE - 4/5
Room for Improvement: This place was too small for this crowd and hard to find. Even so, it was awesome because it made it feel really exciting to be a part of. It had a lot of energy packed into the room and lots of great info. But it’s a hard room to find.
FOOD - 4.5/5
Room for Improvement This is a non-profit, so anything is above and beyond. Then again, they suggested a fair donation, which I gave, so the fact that was met with plenty of drinks + some treats, great!! Though I wish they’d had healthier options instead of just cookies and brownies at lunchtime!
SPEAKER CONTENT - 4.5/5
Room for Improvement: They were fantastic. I loved the variety of voices, hearing from women founders, investors, billionaires hahaha. It was a good mix and so useful. The only thing missing was the Q&A!!
NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES - 3/5
Room for Improvement: It wasn’t forced on anyone but it wasn’t super simple either. The room was not setup to easily mingle, there was no time for networking except at the end… yet they did say you can stay as long as you’d like to talk to people. I didn’t hahaha.
LIKELINESS TO RETURN - 5/5
Allow me to Elaborate: This was an info-packed event that was so useful. The time flied and the panel was great. I’d love to give this group another shot.
Until next time, I wish you the motivation and success to search for opportunities around your area. Search and explore: Who is out there giving talks? There are new things happening all of the time
Find relatable or interesting topics you like and check them out! Maybe even something hosted at a cool venue, if there’s no other reason to go. Let’s see what you can learn and discover not too far from home. 😊
