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PROPEL Intel - December 2009

December 18, 2009

During November and December 2009, two companies joined PROPEL. In addition, two PROPEL workshops were held, on Basics of the FDA for Early Stage Life Sciences Companies and Preparing to Partner with Big Pharma. Since its launch in June 2007, PROPEL has helped or is helping 52 early stage life sciences companies.

iBIO Institute’s SBIR/STTR Grant Writing Workshop, February 22 and 23
iBIO Institute’s next SBIR/STTR grant writing workshop led by Lisa Kurek of Biotechnology Business Consultants (BBC) is scheduled for February 22-23, 2010 from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. in Urbana-Champaign.  This two-day workshop combines the SBIR/STTR 101, Proposal Preparation and NIH Electronic Submission Workshops into a two-day intensive workshop. The workshop is targeted to life science companies, covering DOD, NSF and NIH, with detailed emphasis on NIH. If you plan to submit an SBIR or STTR proposal in 2010, PROPEL highly encourages you to attend. The registration fee is $200 per participant / $150 each additional participant from the same company. For public registration, click HERE.
February 22 and 23
9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
Enterprise Works - Conference Room 130
60 Hazelwood Dr., MC-659
Champaign, IL 

Attend BIO2010 in Chicago as a Volunteer
If you want to attend BIO2010 May 3-6, 2010 in Chicago, consider volunteering. BIO is looking for volunteers, which allows you to attend without the high registration fee. For more information, click HERE.

2010 PROPEL Entrepreneurial Business Plan Competition
PROPEL will soon announce details for the 2010 PROPEL Entrepreneurial Business Plan Competition, iBIO’s 2nd annual life sciences competition. Watch this space for future announcements or send an email to propel@ibio.org to receive first notice.

Congratulations to Sword Diagnostics, Winner of the People’s Choice Award at the Elevator Pitch Olympics
Sword Diagnostics, a biotech firm that is developing a method for better disease detection and a PROPEL company, was the winner of the People’s Choice Award at the Elevator Pitch Olympics, an event within the Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium in which presenters had 90 seconds to present their businesses to a panel of investors.

2009 BIO International Convention Workshop Series
The iBIO EC along with PROPEL invite you to attend at no cost any of the workshops originally recorded at the 2009 BIO International Convention in Atlanta, GA that are now available through iBIO. Each session has the audio and slide presentations of the speakers and is roughly an hour and a half in length. The workshops are grouped in 23 different tracks: Business Development, Achieving Regulatory Approval, Finance, Technology Transfer/Licensing and many more. Click HERE for a full list of workshops available. Contact Josette Fletcher, iBIO Operations Manager, at 312.422.1111x6 or jfletcher@ibio.org for scheduling. 

Business Insights Reports Available from the iBIO EC and PROPEL
The iBIO EC and PROPEL provide our clients with over 175 market research reports from Business Insights at no charge. Titles include “Autoimmune Market Outlook to 2012,” “Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement” and “Regulatory Affairs: Paths to Approval.” Click HERE for a full list of available reports or contact Josette Fletcher, iBIO Operations Manager, at 312.422.1111x6 or jfletcher@ibio.org for more information.

iBIO Entrepreneurship Center on Illinois’ eCenter Direct
In addition to some iBIO EC forms now available online (click HERE), iBIO EC conferences are listed on the Illinois Entrepreneurship Network’s eCenter Direct web site. Click HERE for the main site, or visit HERE to see all the conferences throughout Illinois for entrepreneurs, early stage companies and small businesses.

Upcoming Events and Other News within the Community:

ITA’s Sales Roundtable: Zen and the Art of Networking/Selling, January 6 
This ITA workshop will be led by Daniel Harris, who has over 20 years of award winning sales success in the entertainment and IT industries. Writing and producing for movie and television studios, winning a Grammy and selling film libraries worldwide are a few things Daniel did in Hollywood. He also taught self defense to security officers. In Information Technology, Daniel has thrived selling to C-Level executives at the Fortune 1000 for Sprint, 360Networks and SKC. Daniel has combined his passion for the Martial Arts and Sales experience into a unique philosophy that shows how giving back allows you to get back. Helping others and helping worthy causes allows a salesperson to increase their networks, their paychecks and their success. There is no cost to participate. To reserve a spot or for questions or more information, click HERE or call 312.435.2805.
January 6, 12 - 2 p.m.
ITA TechNexus
Conference Room A/B
200 S. Wacker Dr., 15th Floor
Chicago, IL

DePaul’s Entrepreneurial Quest GROW Peer Roundtable, January 15, February 19 and March 19 DePaul’s Coleman Center Peer Roundtables are a place where business owners can:
- Look to their peers - other business owners - for objective points of view that are experience-based
- Receive support from others who have "been there and done that"
- Refresh their perspectives both personally and on their companies 
- Learn to transform their fears into aspirations for further success
- Have a sounding board for problem-solving to address business challenges and objectives
For more information, click HERE.
January 15, February 19 and March 19, 8 a.m. - 11 a.m.
DePaul Center
1 E. Jackson Blvd., Room 8012
Chicago, IL

Best of Biotech Life Science Business Plan Competition, Submission Deadline February 1
Apply to this international life science business plan competition, sponsored by Life Sciences Austria, with total prizes of over Euro 45,000. Eligibility: a company must have formed a legal entity no earlier than March 2009. Travel to Austria is not required. For details and applications, click HERE.

ITA’s Business Intelligence Roundtable, February 9
Cost is $0 for Members and Non-Members. For more information, click HERE.
February 9, 8am
ITA TechNexus
Conference Room A/B
200 S. Wacker Dr., 15th Floor
Chicago, IL

ITA’s Human Resources Roundtable, February 25
Cost is $0 for Members and Non-Members. For more information, click HERE.
February 25, 9 - 11a.m.
ITA TechNexus
Conference Room C
200 S. Wacker Dr., 15th Floor
Chicago, IL

Applications Being Accepted to Present at 11th Annual InvestMidwest, March 24 - 25
The 11th annual InvestMidwest is scheduled for March 24-25, 2010 and will be hosted by Wells Fargo Advisors in St. Louis, MO. InvestMidwest is now accepting applications for companies to present at the 2010 InvestMidwest. Over 300 attended the 2009 InvestMidwest in Kansas City including 74 venture capital professionals. The event showed 43 companies from throughout the Midwest in the three industry tracks of life sciences, IT/general business and cleantech/alternative energy. The 2010 InvestMidwest will feature these same industry tracks. InvestMidwest encourages high-growth companies (revenue projections of $20 million or higher within five years) from throughout the Midwest to apply. Companies that apply by the early application deadline of November 13 will receive preferential consideration by the selection committees. The final application deadline is January 8, 2010. The selection committees include venture capital investors from throughout the Midwest and legal and financial professionals that specialize in entrepreneurial practice areas. For more Information, click HERE. To download a .pdf of detailed information, click HERE.
InvestMidwest
St. Louis, MO

Coleman’s Advisory Boards: Build Accountability, Leverage Connections and Benefit from Experience, April 12
Advisory boards are priceless. In addition to keeping you focused and helping you build value, advisory boards bring cost-effective expertise into your company and open doors to new business relationships.
In this course, you will learn how to create an effective board, select the right members and manage them as individuals and as a group. With peer business owners, you will engage in hands-on activities and achieve milestones such as:
- Articulating the board’s purpose and role
- Deciding how to compensate members
- Identifying prospective board members
- Running productive board meetings
This course is part of the Business Owner Academy, a curriculum of courses open only to owners of companies generating up to $25 million in annual revenue. Limited seats are available. Registration open exclusively to Coleman Center members through Jan. 4 at a special course fee of $1,395. After Jan. 4, any remaining seats will be made available to non-members at a course fee of $1,595. Deposit of $250 due upon registration. Course fee includes materials and refreshments. For more information, click HERE.
Every other Monday, April 12 - June 21 (6 sessions), 6 - 8:30 p.m.
DePaul Center
1 E. Jackson Blvd., Room 8012
Chicago, IL

The Planning Shop’s Improve Your Elevator Pitch Workshop – No Cost Online
In the business world, one question comes up repeatedly: "What do you do?" That’s where your elevator pitch comes in. An elevator pitch is a short, clear description of your company. USA Today asked me to work with an entrepreneur to improve his elevator pitch. To learn how to improve your own elevator pitch, click HERE. To learn more about what makes a great elevator pitch, click HERE. To download a FREE worksheet to craft or improve your own elevator pitch, click HERE.

4 Common Venture Capital Myths
By David Young, December 1, 2009, from entrepreneur.com
If you want to start strong, steer clear of these funding fantasies. Raising venture capital financing, as a first-time founder in particular, is a difficult task, even in the strongest of financial markets. At a recent conference, a panelist opined that over 95 percent of entrepreneurs decide not to raise venture capital. The response from another panelist: "Just like over 95 percent of my friends have decided not to date supermodels." Knowing what to expect can often be half the battle. The following are a few common misconceptions entrepreneurs often have when seeking early-stage venture capital financing. For the full article, click HERE.

Six Secrets to Success — How to Build a Sustainable Biotech Business
From Nature Biotechnology
What are the core elements of a successful biotech? Each individual biotech business is unique: founding entrepreneurs have their own visions, strategies and goals; the science and technology that drive companies is inherently exclusive; and every business is exposed to a wide range of external factors, risks and market forces. With that said, do successful biotechs share common characteristics?
Yes, they do, and this article looks at the main facets of sustainable and long-term biotech businesses. Of course, it always starts with the science, but then you'll need to focus on management, adaptation, timing, location and cash. To read the full article, click HERE.

“Making of a Successful Entrepreneur” Study Released
In conjunction with Global Entrepreneurship Week, the Kauffman Foundation has released a new study, “Making of a Successful Entrepreneur,” which provides insight into company owners’ beliefs about what influences the success or failure of a startup business. The survey researched the beliefs of 549 company founders of successful businesses in high-growth industries, including aerospace, defense, computing, electronics and health care. Here are a few of these entrepreneurs’ views:
- Prior work experience, learning from previous successes and failures, a strong management team and good fortune as the most important factors in their success. Nearly all of the company founders surveyed – 98 percent – ranked prior work experience as an important success factor, and 58 percent ranked it as extremely important.
- For 73 percent of the entrepreneurs surveyed, luck was an important factor in success.
- Professional networks were important to the success of their current businesses for 73 percent of the entrepreneurs. In comparison, 62 percent felt the same way about personal networks.
- Only 11 percent of the first-time entrepreneurs received venture capital, and 9 percent received private/angel financing. Of the overall sample, 68 percent considered availability of financing/capital as important.
- In identifying barriers to entrepreneurial success, the most commonly named factor – by 98 percent of respondents – was lack of willingness or ability to take risks. Other barriers cited by respondents were the time and effort required (93 percent), difficulty raising capital (91 percent), business management skills (89 percent), knowledge about how to start a business (84 percent), industry and market knowledge (83 percent) and family/financial pressures to keep a traditional, steady job (73 percent).

Chicago’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection Small Business Education Workshops
The City of Chicago’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP) offer workshops each Wednesday and Friday downtown in City Hall Room 805 at no cost and open to anyone, not just residents of Chicago. For a full list of topics and schedule, click HERE and look for the BACP Business Events listings.

SmartBrief on Entrepreneurs, a Daily e-Newsletter
Sign up for your daily briefing on entrepreneurship, free. SmartBrief on Entrepreneurs delivers the latest news entrepreneurs need in their quest to turn good ideas into great business. The editors become your personal research assistants, handpicking, distilling and disseminating the best, most useful entrepreneurship stories from a wide range of sources. For details, click HERE.

For more information:
Visit http://www.ibiopropel.org
E-mail propel@ibio.org