Raising Capital in Biotech
Hi! My name is Marcus Dovigi and welcome to my new blog.
I co-founded a biotech startup in San Diego in late 2023 called Stem Cell Implants. We’re at a very early stage, still looking for our first outside investment. I’m starting a blog to record my journey as I build a company for the first time. I’ve encountered a steep learning curve, and sharing my thoughts might help founders in a similar situation. If nothing else, readers will likely sympathize with our struggle to raise capital.
It’s definitely been a struggle. Our stem cell-based product will require full FDA approval before it can be launched. As such, we are pre-revenue, and likely will be for some time. This, coupled with being a first-time founder and the overall poor investment climate, are considerable hurdles to overcome. We’re a couple hundred cold emails and a few ‘warm intros’ in, and we’ve yet to raise a single dollar.
There have been a few missteps along the way, to be sure. On our very first phone call with an angel investor, we mentioned that we’re raising our seed fundraising round. One would have thought that a seed round means the first round, given the word’s definition, but not so: I was embarrassed when corrected that, actually, we are better classified as preseed given our lack of previous outside funding. We flubbed through the rest of the conversation because I could tell that our confusion indicated a critical lack of experience for this investor. Lesson learned: Master the jargon! (Also, if you’re not sure, you’re probably preseed.)
I plan to update this blog regularly, at least once a week, and will be back soon. Stay tuned!
