Expert class ‘Business and Sales Development’ review
On the 18th of March, Iventus and LifeSciences@Work had the honor to host the second expert class of this year.
The 15 participants, each representing a (soon to be) start-up company within life sciences and health came to learn from industry experts on business development and sales.
It was a great pleasure to learn from André Hoekema, Senior Vice President Corporate Development at Galapagos, who lectured about different financing strategies, finding investors and making deals with big pharma companies.
After André, Paula van Rossum, Chief Business Offices at Toxys talked about ToxTracker® and how making a deal with Charles River affected the company. She also gave the audience a sneak peak into her daily worklife and how she keeps track of clients and prospects.
The final speaker, Martin Bakker, Director Business Development at SeraNovo, introduced us to the art of sales. How do you present yourself when you’re with a potential client, what type of deals does SeraNovo make and how do you close that deal.
The most important take away of the day:
Never give away your intellectual property! It has to stay with you in all cases. If the deal ends, the IP stays with you. Make sure that’s in the contracts.
After the lectures and Q&A sessions, it was time for drinks and bitterballen. Some valuable connections were made here. For example Paula offered to help one of the start-ups with setting up a CRM system and André shared his details so a start up with a similar business model could keep in touch.
All in all it was a very successful expert class and we’re looking forward to the next one, probably about attracting talent. We’re always open to topic suggestions, so please e-mail info@lifesciencesatwork.nl if there is a specific topic you would like to learn more about.
What is an Expert Class?
An LS@W Expert Class is a targeted workshop organized in close collaboration with industry experts and Alumni on relevant topics for Life Sciences and Health start-ups. We like to keep things personal and offer the opportunity to have 1-on-1 discussions and consultations with industry experts. Therefore we keep the group size small (15-20 participants). Usually the expert class is held in the afternoon and consists of 3 lectures by expert speakers and alumni. We make sure there is plenty of room for questions and networking. Please keep an eye out for upcoming expert classes here.
An impression
