How to Nail Your Seed Raise—From Biotech CEOs Who’ve Been Through It

Once you make it through pre-seed funding and have raised between $100,000 and $6 million, you are ready for seed funding. With your business making its way to customers, you may be in a position to offer investors equity in exchange for capital. These investments allow you to launch your product, market it, add employees, and conduct market research.

As you get started, consider tips from entrepreneurs who have been through this stage.

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Lead With the Problem—Not the Personal Story

If your innovation is tied to a personal story, this can give you credibility and be impactful when pitching to investors. However, Marissa Fayer, CEO of DeepLook Medical, which aims to transform how radiologists and healthcare professionals visualize and interpret medical imaging, said this isn’t always the case.

“I think a lot of people tell a personal story in the beginning or spend so much time on educating the problem and less on the solution,” she said. “There absolutely has to be time spent on educating what the problem is, but not everything has to be personal.”

Sometimes your innovation may simply be a smart solution with strong market value. For instance, if pitching an imaging solution that can detect dense breasts, the stronger pull is that more than 50 percent of women have dense breasts.

“So it’s a business opportunity to do this, in addition to helping myself and other women,” she said. “Tell the problem and explain how your product makes it better in actual economic and financial market opportunity size.”

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Let Go of Ego to Keep Momentum

In 2016, Chandrabali Ghose, PhD, founded Bioharmony Therapeutics to fight multidrug-resistant bacteria. The company closed in 2022 due to funding struggles. In hindsight, Ghose said she learned that startups should be flexible and open to all potential investors.

“When we start our own company, we might pass on an investor who is willing to give $100,000 in exchange for 10 percent of the company. But the way to think about it is that if you don’t get that money, then 100 percent of zero is still zero, so whatever you need to do to move the company forward, do it,” she said. “You have to let go of your ego a little bit sometimes.”

Match Your Investors To Your Stage

Oriana Papin-Zoghbi, Co-Founder and CEO of AOA Dx, which developed an AI-driven blood test for the early detection of ovarian cancer, said that during the seed stage, knowing which investors fit best is essential.

“I would have loved to bring in larger investors at the seed stage who could continue supporting with more capital throughout the lifetime of the company. That said, many seed-stage investors—particularly in women’s health—tend to be smaller, highly specialized funds. They play a crucial role in getting companies like ours off the ground, even if they may not be positioned to participate as heavily in later rounds,” she said.

Seed-stage funds are limited, and in a tough market—like when Papin-Zoghbi was fundraising in 2023—she said to take the capital where you can get it.

Understand Investors—And Cast a Wide Net

Know what investors are investing in, what they are looking for in a company, and where they are in their investment journey.

“Small funds are always raising, so be mindful of that. Know if they have capital to deploy because they may still be raising their funds,” said Fayer. “If they just made their last investment and they haven’t done a first close of the next fund, then they don’t have any money to deploy in you, so it’s worth speaking to them, but I wouldn’t put them as a priority on the list.”

Rather than staying narrow, Fayer said to cast a wide net. Reaching out to women’s health investors is useful, but expanding to broader health investors can increase opportunity.

“When we pigeonhole ourselves simply into looking for women’s health investors, it is a small pool,” she said. “Our lead investor is not a women’s health investor; they’re a tech investor. They saw the opportunity and thought they were smart. And now they are looking at other women’s health companies.”

RELATED: What Not to Say to Investors: 5 Messaging Mistakes That Can Derail Your Pitch

Network Relentlessly

Fayer said funding success comes down to your network. Keep connecting with people through research, LinkedIn, targeted outreach, and introductions from colleagues.

She constantly asks her network: Who do you know? Who invested in you? Can you make an intro?

“Keep asking and keep your eyes open,” Fayer said. “Don’t just talk to your investors; talk to your advisors, board members, friends and family, and the press.”

Putting herself out there has worked.

“I was at an event and hadn’t seen this person for years; they came to a pitch that I did. The company they worked for got invested by these people, and they introduced me to them. That led to the investor now being our lead investor,” she said.

If you have a spinout from a university, she said to lean on its network.

“That starts to spiral as well,” Fayer said.

RELATED: 7 Networking Strategies That Will Get You Funded, Validated, and Seen

Use State Programs and Grants

Look into grant opportunities and accelerator programs offered in your state.

“Almost every state has an innovation authority or economic development corporation, so they want to foster the companies that are in their state—that is a benefit to them,” said Fayer.

When DeepLook Medical moved to Arizona, she was impressed with how much support the state provides for startups.

“We raised a lot of money, and we just won a program that comes with grants and publicity-driven introductions to investors,” Fayer said.