OTMA’s Engagement & Opportunity Development (EOD) team at UCSF plays a crucial role in fostering new ventures around promising technologies. They adopt a market-first approach, identifying potential products and market opportunities at the outset. To gather feedback from investors, EOD launched annual Investor Panels in 2021, where they present their most promising startup opportunities. The investors provide valuable feedback, help identify commercialization gaps, and refine the pitch.
Working closely with UCSF faculty inventors, EOD assists in various aspects of the startup process, including identifying unmet market needs, defining the product, conducting competitive analysis and market sizing, gathering initial feedback from the KOL Feedback Network of industry experts and venture capitalists, prioritization, pitch deck creation, and recruiting Executives in Residence (XiR) as well as Entrepreneurs in Residence (EiRs) as needed.
It was wonderful to return to the University of California, San Francisco, last Friday, this time wearing my investor hat, to participate in the UCSF Therapeutics Opportunities panel. Kudos to the brilliant academics and EIRs for showcasing their innovations and entrepreneurial spirit, and a big thank you to the UCSF Innovation Ventures team for hosting such a great event!
Zak Doric, PhD
Investment Partner at Andreessen Horowitz
Inspiring biotech startup pitches make my day! UCSF faculty and their teams made May 17 a great day - by sharing scientific insights that they're translating to new medicines - at an event hosted by UCSF Innovation Ventures. It was a pleasure to participate on the Investor Panel for Therapeutic Opportunities, alongside fellow panelists from GV (Google Ventures), OrbiMed, Foresite Capital, A16Z, and TCG Labs-Soleil.
Nicely done! Hosts Darya Bubman, Todd Pazdera, Lorraine Johnson, Kristin Agopian; UCSF presenters, and XiRs, / EiRs; and Co-panelists Eric Gomez, Scott McIsaac , Evan Caplan, MD, Zak Doric, PhD, and Karthik Ardhanareeswaran.”
KT Moortgat, PhD
Former Investment Partner
Droia Ventures
What a fantastic event by UCSF Innovation Ventures, Darya Bubman, Lorraine Johnson, and Todd Pazdera! We had the opportunity to hear about cutting-edge, healthcare-impacting technologies from entrepreneurial researchers. Thank you to the presenters and the VC panelists.
Priya Balachandran, PhD
Executive in Residence, UCSF Innovation Ventures
Fantastic VC Day for UCSF therapeutics company academic spin-outs. Incredibly grateful for the stellar VC panelist advice and guidance for these exciting NewCos!
Eileen McCullough, MBA
Executive in Residence, UCSF Innovation Ventures
See our agenda and the bio pages for all those who participated:
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