Startup companies are financed primarily by venture capital. However, this path to financing started to change 15 years ago. This pace of change has been accelerated dramatically by the 2008 global financial crises, the global reach of digital platforms, and the current pandemic.As a result, the entrepreneurial environments in which startup companies are created have also been changing rapidly all around the world.This workshop will explain

• how early stage companies get financed,
• how this path is changing,
• the opportunities for an entrepreneurial Ph.D. candidate.

If I was scouting deal flow, will I find your company or your idea, and what do I think about it? Participants can choose to submit, up to one week before the session, any already publicly available information about your work (e.g. journal publications, published patent applications, LinkedIn, GitHub, awards, whatever) to [email protected] I will search out your domain and present anonymized feedback at the session on what I found.

Note: Registrants will be sent the link to connect via Zoom within 24 hours of the presentation.

About the presenter

Sam Lee was the founding partner of an accelerator for startup companies, based in New York City. He spent eight years as Head of External Innovation for an Indian pharmaceutical company, based in Princeton. He was senior director of research for a U.S. biopharmaceutical company that developed two new medicines, based in Toronto. Sam has also scouted technologies for corporate and private investments and held roles in advancing those investments, worldwide. He started his career at DuPont’s Research and Business Development Centre in Kingston Ontario. He has a doctorate in chemistry.

About the host

Queen’s University’s Partnerships and Innovation (QPI) supports the Research Portfolio’s mission to be an essential catalyst for advancing research and knowledge mobilization, strengthening Queen’s local, national and global impact.