Seed Funds Panel
Investing in Emerging Science to Pursue High Rewards
Tuesday (3/14) – 10 AM EDT
Investing in the earliest stages comes with a high risk and a potentially high reward. Whether investing in a therapeutics or digital health company, seed investors have to make difficult decisions with a lot less data than other investors. The panelists will discuss topics such as:
- How much proof-of-concept validation is needed for seed funding
- What increased benefit is needed to mitigate the increased risk
- What is unique in the structure of seed-stage deals (convertible notes vs straight equity)
- Does the early stage of the company lead investors to take a more active role
Many investors prefer to wait for later stages due to the decreased risk of failure. Those investors who are willing to take the risk of seed-stage investment will share their approach and selection criteria when assessing early-stage companies.
Panelists:
Yaniv Sneor, Founding Member, Mid Atlantic Bio Angels (Moderator)
Yaniv Sneor is one of the founders of MABA – Mid Atlantic Bio Angels a life science angel investor group, where he also administers MABA’s internal investment pools, and MABA’s co-investment Sidecar Fund for non MABA member investors.
Mr. Sneor is also Chief Executive Officer of Native State Therapeutics, an early stage biotechnology company in the neurodegeneration field, and President of Blue Cactus Consulting a business strategy consulting group.
Yaniv Sneor is originally a physicist, who made the transition into the business world about 30 years ago, at which point he took the helm of his first company. Mr. Sneor has senior merger, acquisition, capitalization, turnaround leadership experience with companies ranging from start-up to growth. He has held positions of CEO, COO, President, and General Manager at a number of companies, including a bio-informatics company, a surgical laser company, a manufacturing and distribution company, a software and network integration company, and several others.
Mr. Sneor has mentored numerous life science and technology start-ups through BiomedX (formerly, the Columbia-Coulter Translational Research Partnership), the Bench-to-Bedside Initiative jointly sponsored by Weill-Cornell Medical Center, and the E-Lab for Life Science Entrepreneurs sponsored in part by the New York City Economic Development Corporation.
Until recently, Mr. Sneor was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Institute for Life Science Entrepreneurship, is currently a member of the NJ EDA’s Technology Advisory Board, and a past Chairman of the NJ chapter of the Licensing Executives Society (LES).
Brock Reeve, CEO and Co-Founder, Eos BioInnovation
Brock Reeve is CEO and Co-founder of Eos BioInnovation, an investment company focused on incubating and launching companies in the regenerative medicine field. From 2006-2022, Brock was the Executive Director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, a research center that grew to over 350 faculty spanning the schools of Harvard University and its affiliated hospitals and research institutions. Brock’s prior experience was in the commercial sector in both management consulting and operations for technology-based companies, with a focus on life sciences.
Brock was the former CEO of IVIVA Medical where he is now on the Board of Directors. He is a co-founder of Elevian, on the Board of Directors of Thrive Bioscience, an advisor to other companies, and on the Board of Trustees for the Pioneer Charter School of Science in Everett, MA.
Brock received a BA and MPhil from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.