Financing Neuroventures ~ VC Panel @ NTV09

Great guest panel of venture capitalists joined us in our MIT Neurotechnology Ventures class last night...

Dr Jonathan Behr ~ PureTech Ventures ~ Senior Associate charged with unearthing and evaluating venture creation opportunities. Part of the founding team of Endra and technical consultant to Enlight Biosciences, both PureTech portfolio companies. Earned his BS at Rice University and his PhD at MIT, both in Biological Engineering.

Dr Mikhail Shapiro ~ Third Rock Ventures ~ Senior Associate focusing on new company formation and due diligence. Co-Founder of Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, a neurology medical device company, and Epernicus, an enterprise software company. Holds a PhD in Biological Engineering at MIT and a BSc in Neuroscience from Brown University.

Dr Ann DeWitt ~ Flagship Ventures ~ Senior Associate. Previously at 3M and co-founder of Novophage Therapeutics. Has a BS from the University of Illinois, Urbana and a PhD in Chemical Engineering with minor in Biology from MIT, and MBA from Harvard Business School. While at Harvard, she was the Lead Organizer for the Biotech Track of the MIT $100K Business Plan Competition.

Wide-ranging advice including the power of networking, the need for best-in-class advisors and team members, the role of intellectual property, and more. We also discussed the challenges and opportunities in pursuing neuropharma and neurobiotech versus more consumer neurotechnologies and the impact of regulatory structures. Fascinating stuff!