How does a biotech investor decide whether promising science is worth the risk?Please join the BRET Career and Professional Development and Vanderbilt Graduate and Postdoctoral Career Success (GPCS) for Job Sim: Venture Diligence. David Consoli, a Vanderbilt alum who transitioned from the bench to consulting and then venture, will give an inside look at how investors evaluate early-stage therapeutic opportunities.
The first session is open to all who are interested. The second session will be an optional hands on project led by David and will have limited spots available.
David Consoli, PhD
Senior Associate, Foundation for A Better World
A neuroscience consultant, PhD, and Vandy alum bridging research, business, and venture. With Big 4 consulting experience, I lead scientific communication, strategy, and diligence by evaluating early-stage research, assessing market opportunities, and informing funding decisions that accelerate breakthroughs in neurodegenerative disease research.
Session: Inside the Biotech Investor’s Diligence
Great biology doesn’t automatically make a company fundable. As biotech financing pulls back amid clinical disappointments and regulatory uncertainty, major players have raised the bar when evaluating earlier-stage science. Come learn from David Consoli, a Vanderbilt alum who moved from the bench, through consulting, into venture. David will walk through how he stress-tests therapeutic opportunities: evaluating target biology, human translation, competitive differentiation, and management execution, and he’ll compare two real companies — one that made it to acquisition, and one that failed under the same headwinds. Whether you’re building a company and want to know what to include in the pitch deck, or you’re aiming for a career in investment diligence and want to know how that call gets made, you’ll leave with a working sense of how investors read a deal, and examples of ways the science can fall apart.
Project: Conduct Your Own Investment Diligence
Date and Time TBD
Virtual Via Zoom
Registration link for this session will be sent out at the end of the first session. Attendance at session one is required. Space limit 10 participants.
Now that you’ve learned how investors stress-test the science and business case behind a therapeutic, put it into practice. In pairs, you’ll pick a company and run it through the same diligence framework. Note what you found, what’s missing or hard to verify from public information, what you’d want to confirm in a data room, and where you land — would you back this company, or not, and why. Each pair will present findings in a 15-minute informal group discussion. You’ll leave with direct feedback and a diligence project you can point to the next time someone asks how you would evaluate a deal.