🧭 Don't wait for September

Hey {{first_name|default:there}}, it’s Vadim 👋

Before we dive in, one timely opportunity for therapeutics founders and investors:

SOSV is hosting its VC-Founder Therapeutics Matchup this week, July 13–17.

It’s a free virtual event designed to connect therapeutics startups and investors through 1:1 meetings scheduled online. The event will bring together 200+ startups and 100+ investors, across modalities, disease areas, and stages of development.

You can register here: SOSV’s VC-Founder Therapeutics Matchup July 13–17

Now - to be honest, I was tempted to write about another topic this week.

We’re in the middle of the Pitch Deck Intensive, and I’m having a blast working with a small group of founders on their stories and how they can position themselves for investors.

So, I have no shortage of thoughts and insights on how tell your story, how to avoid common pitfalls, and what I’m seeing in the market right now.

But, we’re also in July, and I know this can cut both ways.

On one hand, it’s slow. People are traveling, partners are in and out, investment committees can be harder to coordinate, and follow-ups often take longer. As a general rule of thumb, I’d be cautious about kicking off a brand new, active fundraise in July or August and expecting things to move with real urgency.

On the other hand, founders who plan to raise in the fall probably shouldn’t just sit on their hands until Labor Day.

That’s where I think the summer fundraising conversation gets a little more nuanced.

If you’ve been fundraising for a while, you may have noticed that biotech fundraising has a seasonal rhythm.

Fall is often the harvest window, from September through mid-November, when investors are back at their desks and there is a natural push to get serious processes moving before the holidays.

Winter is the reset, when JPM pulls the industry back into motion and the January narrative starts to form.

Spring is momentum, with smaller conferences, partnering meetings, investor check-ins, and relationship-building leading into BIO.

So where does that leave summer? In my view, summer is about preparation.

Founders hear “summer is slow” and naturally ask: is summer even a good time to raise?

I actually think that’s the wrong question to be asking.

The better question is: what type of activity is summer best for?

If you already have momentum, keep going. If investors are engaged, keep the process moving. If you’re closing a round, don’t pause just because someone told you that investors are checked out at Lake Como.

But if you’re planning to start a more active raise after Labor Day, July and August can be used for higher-leverage work: tightening the story, cleaning up the deck and one-pager, organizing the data room, building the investor map, and designing the process before you’re caught up in the day-to-day of the raise.

This is the work many founders only realize they need to do once the fall process is already underway.

That’s what we’ll focus on today.

🧭 HERE’S WHAT WE’LL COVER:

Let’s dive in 🙂