Investment Process

Pappas Ventures encourages entrepreneurs and their advisors to contact us with investment proposals. A detailed business plan is most helpful, but a brief, well-conceived description of the company or the underlying technology will often enable us to determine our level of interest. We try our best to respond to investment proposals within three weeks of receipt.

If our initial evaluation is favorable, we will assign a small team to thoroughly assess the proposal based on our investment criteria. This can take as little as a few weeks or as much as several months, depending on the quality of information available. This process is a rigorous one, aimed at gaining a detailed understanding of the company's intellectual property, clinical programs, competitive landscape, capital structure, and management team. We are most interested in making a thorough assessment of the key "value-changing" technical or commercial milestones that the company must attain in order to attract future financing and ensure eventual liquidity for investors.

For those deals that are ultimately funded, the due diligence process becomes a sort of mutual courtship. The process not only informs us about the prospective portfolio company, but also tells the portfolio company about us and what kind of partners we aim to be. We believe you will find Pappas Ventures to be among the most knowledgeable life science venture investors in the industry, committed to the goal of adding value to our portfolio companies through partnership-style relationships.