By Bryan Brown
The Bioscience Association of West Virginia, in partnership with TechConnect West Virginia, the West Virginia Jobs Investment Trust, INNOVA and the WVU Health Sciences’ Innovation Center, will host the West Virginia Business Accelerator Bootcamp for a range of early stage to mature companies operating in the life science and high technology fields in West Virginia. The boot camp event will be held Wednesday, April 26 at the WVU Health Sciences Innovation Center on the Evansdale Campus in Morgantown. The event is designed for researchers, entrepreneurs, growth-focused small businesses, product designers, economic developers and funders.
West Virginia’s bioscience industry has many individuals and companies that are developing new products, and they benefit from professional guidance and advice on how to commercialize their research and raise capital for their ventures. This boot camp is designed to provide a wealth of information in order to help entrepreneurs and companies in the life science and high-tech fields.
The bootcamp’s sessions will provide attendees with information and insights on four key areas: corporate structure, raising capital, giving an effective pitch for funding and intellectual property strategies. Each session will be led by multiple experts in their respective fields. Among these will be the CEO of Valtari Bio, the chairman of the West Virginia Growth Investment Fund, an executive in residence at Pittsburgh’s Innovation Works and a director with intellectual property law firm KramerAmado in Washington, D.C.
The boot camp’s format will begin with a general overview of each of the different sessions, which will be followed by four breakout groups covering the individual issues in depth in a casual format intended to allow for questions. This will enable participants to sit in on each of the four breakout sessions and afford participants the ability to get assistance on the real-world problems they are facing.
“This is a unique opportunity to hear from experts and specialists who will share information and answer questions on intellectual property, capital formation, business organization and pitching for funding,” says Anne Barth, executive director of TechConnect West Virginia. “Take advantage of this boot camp event to interact with these experts and make plans to accelerate your venture’s growth and success.”
About the Author
Bryan Brown is the executive director of the Bioscience Association of West Virginia. He can be reached at bryan@browncomm.com.
