The RESI Conference is a gathering of early-stage investors, fundraising CEO’s, scientist entrepreneurs, strategic partners and service providers all with the shared goal of building connections.
The Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) Conference, is essentially a melting pot for all those who have or wish to have a stake in early-stage healthcare investments. The RESI Conference Series has found success through its numerous events across North America and has set its sights on Asia for their inaugural RESI Asia Week. This undoubtedly provides a wonderful testament for the potential within the region with regards to early-stage healthcare companies, early-stage investors and strategic partners alike.
The conference series aims to be the catalyst for healthcare partnerships across the silos of drugs, devices, diagnostics and digital health. The thesis of having a healthcare conference exclusively for early-stage investments is twofold. RESI has identified that the abundance of early-stage companies seeking investment is staggering and the barriers to get in front of the right investor or partner is uncomfortably high.
The inaugural RESI Asia Week played host to events in both Shanghai and Taipei respectively. Our team from BE Capital and its adjacent accelerator program, BE Accelerator, was fortunate enough to attend the event as a Gold sponsor. We were also delighted to provide additional encouragement to two of our startups, Guzip and AESOP respectively. Guzip eventually went on to take top honors among other RESI Innovators at the RESI Innovation Challenge competition.
The event was an impressive display of global investor panels, entrepreneur workshops, partnering forums and all-day entrepreneur pitch sessions. The main theme of the RESI Conference Series was to maximize the capability of finding partners who are a good fit for the stage of development and product type of a startup. This encompassed a broad range of topics including fundraising, branding & messaging, international collaboration and success stories from both within Taiwan and beyond.
One of our own, Arthur Chen, Executive Director of BE Capital was able to use his extensive industry knowledge to conduct an insightful panel on “Digital Health & AI in Healthcare”. The main themes that emerged throughout all the panel discussions revolved around storytelling, relationships and market-fit.
Storytelling: “Get Your Story Straight”
It was emphasized that startups must be ample to deliver clear, compelling messages that succinctly inform potential partners, investors and other stakeholders about their business. Often the marketing or branding component is overlooked or undervalued in early-stage companies and this can lead to a market disconnect further down the line. At the very least marketing activities will help startups better cultivate their message by better understanding there positioning, competition and value proposition. Whilst building your product you should also build your brand, all great companies have mastered the art of storytelling.
Relationships: “Keep Working on Your Relationship, Not Only When You Need Money”
Relationship building was a focus point and can be perfectly summarized by a panelist that said, “Keep working on relationships, not only when you need money”. Whether it be in a business capacity or personal one, we mostly tend to reach out to others only when we need something. This isn’t necessary a bad thing, as we are all pretty busy, but continuously working on a relationship without expecting anything in return, will make it a lot easier to turn that “No” into a “Yes”. Most of us wouldn’t ask our future partner to marry us on the first date, we first fumble through the courtship process until we eventually ask them. This is probably how one should approach any business relationship as well.
Market Fit: “How The Technology Works Within The Healthcare System”
Lastly, the market-fit of technology was a reoccurring theme. As health technologies are the latest trend, companies were urged to be aware how they will fit and function within the healthcare system. It is not beneficial if your product solves one problem, but creates six more further down the workflow. Thus, startups must understand their products, but more important they must understand the landscape in which they will operate. This could probably be summed up by the word “Empathy”. Startups must be empathetic towards those that they approach when trying to sell or promote their products.
The inaugural Taipei RESI conference proved to be a success, as attendance was recorded to be over 400 delegates. This certainly shows a positive intent and optimism towards the space of early-stage investments for healthcare companies within the region.
We urge all startups to start telling their brand story, irrespective of what stage they might find themselves in, how much capital they have raised or how many customers they have acquired. Remember, some of the most iconic brand stories come from the most humble beginnings.
We are proud to have been associated with the inaugural RESI Conference in Taipei and we look forward to fostering this relationship and sharing our evolving story with others.