On Thursday, May 12, the Yale Entrepreneurship and Innovation Summit brought together the largest-ever gathering of early stage investors in University history. The event, now in its third year, has grown to encompass leading biotech and technology innovations across campus with investor panels, keynote speakers, a poster session and two pitchoffs for monetary prizes. More than 400 people—including faculty, grad students, undergrads, postdocs and alumni—attended all-day sessions at Evans Hall, mingling in the sunny courtyard between talks where 50+ posters displayed cutting-edge, Yale-based discoveries.
“This event was a showcase of groundbreaking research happening at Yale with the potential to make a real impact in the marketplace,” says Bill Wielser, PhD, Director of New Ventures at the Office of Cooperative Research which presented the event in tandem with its partner organization the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute. “It also presented a unique opportunity for faculty and student innovators to connect with investors and learn the steps necessary to attract investor interest."
The Summit kicked off with a keynote talk from Crystal McKellar, Managing Director and General Counsel at Mithril Capital, who asked participants to think about what made a company a technology company. “At its core, a tech company means offering enhanced capabilities that didn’t exist before. Solving business problems and building a sustainable high-value business.” She told the many Yale attendees that there was tremendous opportunity for the “Apple of healthcare” to emerge from Yale innovation and leadership and encouraged them to seek not only a well-defined market, but an attractive market.
The event included a biotech bootcamp and a tech bootcamp, with panels covering topics such as engaging biotech or tech investors at the earliest stage, finding opportunities outside of oncology and trends in tech investing. Each bootcamp held a pitchoff featuring a selection of faculty and student entrepreneurs presenting their startup ideas in five minutes before investors.
Wellinks, a wearable health technology company founded by Yale alums Ellen Su (’13), Levi DeLuke (’14) and Sebastian Monzon (’14) that has developed a smart strap and related app for braces, took first place in the Tech Bootcamp Pitchoff. A startup called Epikalypsis Therapeutics from Richard Flavell, Sterling Professor of Immunobiology and Noah Palm, Assistant Professor of Immunobiology, won first place in the Biotech Bootcamp Pitchoff. The venture has discovered a novel way to pinpoint specific members of the microbiota that drive chronic inflammation that can be exploited with an oral vaccination. Both first-place winners won a $5,000 award from event sponsor Canaan Partners. Other event sponsors included Connecticut Innovations, Elm Street Ventures, Goodwin Procter and Kolltan Pharmaceuticals.
Second place winners (who received $2,000), included Supercool Metals from Mechanical Engineering Professor Jan Schroers and CEO Evgenia Pekarskaya, which is making bulk metallic glass sheets for easy processing for everything from watch parts to electronic casings. Samuel Katz, Assistant Professor of Pathology, took second place on the biotech side for his venture Gene-in-Cell which offers innovative, proprietary methods for regulating the immune system to fight diseases. Third place winners receiving $1,000 included Verinomics, a genomics company for seeds, from Stephen Dellaporta, Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology; and Spring, which offers an app for identifying and treating depression based on machine learning from April Koh (YC ’16), Abhishek Chandra (YC ’16) and Adam Checkroud (PhD ’20).
George D. Yancopoulos, MD, PhD, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., gave the final keynote of the day, sharing his personal journey from scientist to entrepreneur of what would become one of the world’s most successful biotech companies. “If you stay true to the science,” Yancopoulos told the audience, “you can build a worthwhile enterprise, delivering good to patients and society.”
CONTACT: Brita Belli, Communications Officer, Office of Cooperative Research and Yale Entrepreneurial Institute, (203)804-1911, brita.belli@yale.edu
http://ocr.yale.edu/news/entrepreneurship-and-innovation-summit-marks-largest-gathering-early-stage-investors-yale-s