Discovery Foundation BC Excels Program

LifeSciences BC has historically offered the BC Excels Program which was targeted at early stage companies. This year, the organization has received support from the Discovery Foundation and is partnering with ACETECH to deliver a variation of BC Excels, which will remain a comprehensive program predicated on the pairing of entrepreneurs in life sciences with business leaders in their respective industry sector. This program has been renamed the Discovery Foundation BC Excels Program to reflect our new partnership and program delivery method. ACETECH will deliver the first phase of the program in September, which will focus on market validation, and LifeSciences BC will follow with a highly customized, interactive and industry-specific educational program comprised of the following elements:

Mentorship - Participants will be paired with highly experienced and successful business leaders who will work with them throughout the program. Mentors will advise entrepreneurs and guide them through each educational module and think tank (see below), and will regularly meet outside of the program to discuss ongoing business issues.

Education modules - Participants must complete the following three modules:

Modules will be interactive, half-day workshops with educational material delivered by experts in their field. Participants must complete preparation materials and work with their mentors and other participants while at the session. At the end of each module, they will develop tasks and milestones to complete for presentation at the next think tank.

Think tanks - Participants will have the opportunity to attend think tanks two to three weeks after each educational module. They will be highly interactive and enable entrepreneurs to report on their progress and assignments to the mentor group, and will allow for feedback from the mentors and experts about the related topics.

Upon completion of the Discovery Foundation BC Excels Program, participants will have a "ready-for-success" seal of approval having completed a program where they withstood a high level of scrutiny by proven industry experts. More important, they will have the skills, tools and knowledge to grow their new life science business venture.

The following is a testimonial from Dr. Euan Ramsay, Chief Operating Officer for Precision NanoSystems, who participated in the program last year:

"The BC Excels Program provided a comprehensive overview of the elements required to transfer research ideas into commercial products. The combination of working one-on-one with an experienced mentor plus the interactive workshops covering issues from intellectual property to sales and marketing established a platform for Precision NanoSystems to develop its business model. In particular, I found the pitching sessions where our investment slide deck was critiqued by the mentor panel extremely valuable. The program enabled Precision to work with a mentor who still supports us today, and introduced us to others in B.C.'s business community who have helped us progress to the stage where we now have our first customers."

Total cost: $1,995 - this fee represents both the ACETECH (market validation) and LifeSciences BC (industry-specific training) components

The program is flexible in that participants may elect to register for one or both of the components ($695 for market validation and $1,300 for industry-specific training). To register or for more information, please contact Rosine Hage-Moussa at 604.602.5228 or rhage@lifesciencesbc.ca.

As a result of the partnership with the Discovery Foundation, LifeSciences BC is pleased to offer one subsidized registration. Companies wishing to apply for this subsidized registration should submit a letter expressing why their participation should be subsidized. The successful recipient company will be chosen by an external comittee to LifeSciences BC. Please note that in order to be eligible for this subsidized registration, companies must be accepted into both the ACETECH (market validation) and LifeSciences BC (industry-specific training) components.

LifeSciences BC would like to recognize the generous contribution from the Discovery Foundation in order to make this program available.



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