Gold Coast Business Forum

Forum Hopes to Boost Biotech Firms- Conference to help startups find funding, network, compile advice

admin — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:32:59 +0000

Ventura County Star Tuesday, March 18, 2008 By Allison Bruce The downturn in the economy could spur Ventura County’s biotechnology and medical devices industries to diversify and grow. That’s the hope of organizers of the Biotech Forum, which hosts a conference in Westlake Village on March 27. The membership-based forum helps those starting companies network with those who want to fund the startups, local governments and research universities — and to gather advice and war stories from those who have gone before. Employees who took voluntary buyouts or were laid off in Thousand Oaks-based Amgen Inc.’s restructuring are now looking at their options. Some are considering starting their own businesses. It’s a way to take the negative of job cuts and turn it into a positive for the area, said Brent Reinke, forum co-founder. The challenge is that many of those people have great expertise, but have spent their careers in a large international company, he said. ”There’s a totally different mind-set and different criteria you need to address when you work at a startup,” he said. That was a main reason for the Biotech Forum — to offer resources and support to build a “cluster” of businesses along the Highway 101 corridor that grow and diversify biotech. That cluster could strengthen the local economy, organizers speculate. ”Innovation is always in vogue with the financial community at some level,” forum co-founder John Dilts said. Some of the greatest innovations in the coming decades will be in life sciences, said David Cremin, a managing director and founder of DFJ Frontier venture capital fund in Santa Barbara. The local region has a growing venture capital pool, but the greatest challenge is that there is a smaller population of entrepreneurs and startup workers than would be found in a place like Silicon Valley. That makes it harder to recruit talent, but by no means impossible, he said. There is some concern that the weakening economy could take its toll on early-stage startups. Venture capital has been strong, but individual investors may be feeling a pinch in their wallets lately. Bill Watkins, executive director of the UC Santa Barbara Economic Forecast Project, said initial stage funding is becoming more conservative — even though there’s still a lot of money for later- stage businesses. Because California’s economy tends to be more volatile than the U.S., the probability of a recession in the state is increasing, he said. Because venture capital funding is one of the state’s strengths, a downturn in funding available could negatively affect California. Randy Churchill of PricewaterhouseCoopers said his research shows that venture capital funding is robust, with no signs of a drop-off. Venture funds are general partnerships with institutional investors that tend to allocate their wealth in different areas. Venture funding reached $29.4 billion in 2007, the highest yearly investment since 2001, according to the MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association. The report is based on data from Thomson Financial. The report attributed a large part of the investment increase last year to interest in clean technology and life sciences, which includes biotechnology and medical devices. It was a record year for life sciences, with $9.1 billion in investments in 862 deals. Churchill said venture capital is somewhat insulated from what’s going on in the economy. During the last economic downturn, a lot of today’s strong companies were formed from venture funding during that time, he said. While it may be prime investment time for later-stage companies, very early startups may have a harder time. Churchill said individuals investing their own money have more incentive to slow their high-risk investments during an economic downturn. He’s seen that already with some angel investor groups. Cremin said there is a handful of venture capital firms, such as Frontier, that focus on early-stage investing. The remaining support comes from wealthy individuals — angel investors — who rein in capital when the economy tightens. There is hope, however. Cremin said Web networking allows savvy entrepreneurs to start their companies with practically no money — keeping that new innovation going on less than a shoestring budget. Some move forward without taking on investors, which means a bigger payout chunk for the founders if the company is acquired. ”Even though there may be a shortage of certain types of capital, there are companies doing without it,” he said. And there are those investors who are still investing. Dilts said members of Maverick Angels, the angel investor group he started, are looking at early-stage deals as an alternative to declining investment returns. ”One of our investors commented at a recent meeting that he has lost confidence in his public stock investments and prefers to invest in private equity deals where he can have more personal influence on the deal and a better possible return,” Dilts wrote in an e-mail. The Biotech Forum focuses on Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. While Silicon Valley and New England still have a tight hold on the leading positions for venture capital investment, Los Angeles has been growing venture capital investment in the past 10 years, according to the MoneyTree Report. In 1997, the area had $459 million in venture capital investment in 73 companies. Last year, it was $1.15 billion in 124 companies, according to the report. Growth breeds growth, according to the president of the National Venture Capital Association. “Once a critical mass of companies is funded in a certain region, a new ecosystem will develop,” association President Mark Heesen said in a statement. Cremin said DFJ Frontier is participating in this month’s conference not only to get the word out about funding in this region, but also to seek out new ideas. ”We’re actively investing right now,” he said. “It’s a good time to be an entrepreneur.” On the Net: www.thebiotechforum.com

Biotech Boosters are Seizing the Moment

admin — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:29:54 +0000

San Fernando Valley Business Journal March 17, 2008 By Jason SchaffSomething good is coming out of the problems at Amgen. As the Thousand Oaks company has struggled in the past year – laying off 700 people since last summer – renewed attention is being placed on the biotech firms along the so-called 101 Corridor from the West San Fernando Valley into Ventura County and beyond. Many of these laid-off employees are scientists and budding entrepreneurs who love our area and don’t want to move to biotech businesses in San Diego, Northern California, Boston and other parts of the country. They’ve got great knowledge of the biotech business and are incredible resources for our area and what has been always not much more than a nascent biotech 101 cluster. There are several dozen biotech firms here but throughout the years they have been overshadowed by Amgen – the world’s largest. Any major growth was with Amgen itself. The emergence of a large cluster of biotech businesses has lacked momentum. Enter the Biotech Forum, a local organization that is promoting the expansion of biotech in our region. It is seizing the moment and trying to get all the different partners together to foster growth in the overall 101 Corridor biotech industry in light of the changes at Amgen. As part of its efforts, the Forum is sponsoring what is probably the biggest biotech gathering ever in our area. It’s called “The Perfect Storm: Forecasting an Emerging Regional Biotech Industry.” This half-day event, which takes place in the Grand Ballroom of Westlake Hyatt Plaza in Westlake Village on March 27, is more than just a networking event. There are plenty of those at anytime throughout the area. This will deal with more substantive issues of how to grow our biotech industry here by combining the talent of the people in our area (whom we want to keep here) and the infrastructure of academic institutions, capital and public-private participation that is needed to support them. Panel topics include: “The VC Perspective – Creating the Local Biotech Cluster,” “University Tech Transfer Programs – Turning Research Into Revenue,” “Been There, Done That – Four Amgen Entrepreneurs Share Lessons Learned,” and “Supporting the Cause – Public and Private Sector Resources for Start-Ups.” Keynote speaker is Beth Seidenberg of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and a former Amgen executive. The panel of former Amgen employees turned entrepreneurs seems especially interesting because their experiences will undoubtedly mirror others as the corridor hopefully grows. The event is by invitation only and is geared toward executives, scientists, entrepreneurs and investors in the life sciences/biotech industry but what is learned there will, I’m sure, grow into something more for the entire regional business community. John Dilts, co-founder of The Biotech Forum and founder and CEO of Maverick Angels and his own Dilts Ventures Firm, said he grew up in the Silicon Valley and “watched that ecosystem form” as industries grew there when the investment, academic communities and others came together. He believes the same thing can happen here. “This is the first event of its kind,” said Brent Reinke, Forum co-founder and corporate partner at the Westlake Village office of Musick, Peeler & Garrett. He and others in the biotech-related community are hoping that the event and the contacts people make there will be a springboard to major economic growth along the corridor. Michael Reilly, senior director-strategy at Baxter and formerly of Amgen, will be at the event. Baxter, which has a major biotech unit, is a major player along the 101 Corridor. He sees opportunities here and believes the event will be fruitful. Reilly cites the need for a biotech incubator to help small startups and the current lack of enough local venture capital money to help local growth. Hopefully the event will address these and many other issues critical to growth of biotech in our area. The timing is right.

Biotech Forum is Area’s Hedge Against Recession

admin — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 23:32:23 +0000

Pacific Coast Business TimesMarch 7, 2008By Stephen NellisNationally, I take the R-word – or something that feels a lot like the R-word – as a forgone conclusion. But if any single effort decides whether a recession visits the Tri-Counties, it probably will be The Biotech Forum. The Biotech Forum is the brainchild of Brent Reinke and John Dilts, founders of the Gold Coast Business Forum and Maverick Angels, respectively. The group’s mission is to foster the biotechnology, medical device and healthcare industries along the 101 Corridor in Ventura, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties, aiming for a sector hub on the order of San Diego or the San Francisco Bay area. The forum’s first major educational and networking event will be from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. March 27 at the Hyatt Westlake Plaza Hotel in Westlake Village. But more to the point for our regional economy, the forum could help turn the hundreds of jobs cut at Amgen’s Thousand Oaks headquarters into a recrudescence of entrepreneurial activity in the area, anchored by a biotechnology incubator. Composed of an invite-only membership, the forum focuses on practical business information and networking time for executives, entrepreneurs, scientists and investors. To those ends, the forum’s first outing is jam-packed with valuable speakers and panelists, such as keynote Beth Seidenberg, a partner at venture capital giant Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Panels will include representatives from DFJ Frontier Ventures and Prospect Ventures and a sampling of la crème de l’Académie régionale. The University of California, Santa Barbara; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of Southern California; and the California Institute of Technology will all have speakers on hand. A cocktail hour finishes off the day. “From what you can see in the quality of the panel we’ve put together, clearly there is an interest in this region,” Reinke said. “Our goal is to take what is an unfortunate situation with layoffs at Amgen and turn it into a huge positive in this region. We think we’re going to have a good turnout. It’s an opportunity to really jumpstart this effort.” Baxter Healthcare, which has large operations in Ventura County, has come aboard as a corporate sponsor of the event, and Reinke said rumors are simmering about “another fairly large pharmaceutical company in the region that may or may not follow suit.” Reinke said the group has finished the business plan for a biotechnology incubator and is searching for advisory board members to guide its nascent stages. Also on deck is a members-only section of The Biotech Forum’s Web site for online social networking. “It’s starting to take on a life of its own,” Reinke said. “I hope in 12 to 18 months we can look back and say it was a worthwhile endeavor.” Admission to the invitation-only March 27 event is $195 and will be credited toward the $395 membership fee for the forum. Visit www.thebiotechforum.com for more information.