BYO Lunch & Learn: Venture Financing 101

During this virtual BYO Lunch & Learn you will learn the basics about how medical device & biotech ventures get financed and how that impacts your company and you as an individual. Various topics will be covered, including:

– The importance of planning

– Pitching to investors

– What investor types to target/prioritize and their link to company stage and strategy

– How dilution and vesting can impact you personally

Bill Yelle: Entrepreneur in Residence, Partners Innovation Fund

Bill is both an Entrepreneur in Residence at MGH-Brigham Innovation and an Adjunct Faculty Member at The Manning School of Business at UMass Lowell. Bill has over 30 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, ranging from large pharma to early stage, venture-backed companies. He currently serves as founding CEO of FireCyte Therapeutics, a neuro-ophthalmology spinout of Mass Eye and Ear Institute. Previously, Bill was Executive Chairman of Envisia Therapeutics. Prior to Envisia, Bill served as CEO of Aldea Pharmaceuticals, where he successfully completed a Series B raise and brought two programs into the clinic. Prior to Aldea, he was Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Licensing for Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (formerly Sepracor Inc.), where he was responsible for the consummation of over 30 material transactions, the most notable being the company’s sale to Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma for $2.6 billion in 2009. Bill was also instrumental in Sepracor’s transition from an early stage clinical organization into a fully integrated pharmaceutical company. Prior to joining Sepracor in 1995, Bill held various positions of increasing responsibility in Pfizer’s U.S. Pharmaceuticals Group.

In addition to serving on the board of the Jack M. Wilson Center for Entrepreneurship, prior board assignments include Envisia Therapeutics, LQ3 Pharma and Aldea Pharmaceuticals.

Bill has an M.B.A. in Management/Marketing from Columbia University, an M.S. in Organic Chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley and a B.S. Cum Laude from the University of Massachusetts Lowell.