There’s no one way to fund a startup

Thanks to the superlative influx of money into biotech, scientists and entrepreneurs who once had to take whatever they could get can now be a little pickier when it comes to funding. And the route they take — whether hitching to a single investor or recruiting a syndicate — can have existential implications.

STAT’s Kate Sheridan has a guide to the increasingly complex world of taking money in exchange for science. You’ve got your venture creation model, in which a single fund bankrolls an idea until it blossoms into a startup. Then there’s the old-fashioned idea of pitching a gaggle of backers. And then there are the corporate folks who pick their investments based on what their bosses might want to acquire.

“We have a much broader group of investors investing in life sciences now,” said John Hallinan, the chief business officer of MassBio. “Twenty years ago, I probably could have given you a list of all the investors and told you exactly where they invest, at what stage. That’s not true anymore.”

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