b'Emily Wilson, Director of Communications, Innosphere Ventures and Mike Freeman, CEO, Innosphere VenturesLEARN MOREMeet Innosphere VenturesGROWING COLORADOSPROMISING STARTUPS INNOSPHERE VENTURES Fort Collins-based Innosphere Ventures beganEximis Surgical and RedDrop Dx count amongWeve demonstrated making an impact for Colorados early-stageInnosphereVenturesmanygraduates. companies a quarter century ago. It has itsRedDrop Dx joined the inaugural Coloradothat Colorado can own investment arm, and leases space toLife Sciences Incubation Program cohort.consistently produce startups, including an 8,000-square-footFord-Serbu of Eximis says her company was Biosafety Level 2 (BSL-2) lab opened in 2022,blessed to have had the opportunity to workresults in the life which nascent life sciences companies canwith Innosphere in its early days.book at below-market rates. We needed structure around how we shouldsciences. Innospheres focus is supporting the busi- be thinking about scaling the business, and MIKE FREEMANness development of early-stage companiesInnosphere provided that structure, she says.CEO with strong technical founders, defensibleRedDrop Dxs Buchanan adds that, despiteInnosphere Venturesintellectual property, and reasonable com- his long experience as a technologist and mercialization timelines, as Innosphereproduct-development consultant, the programkey commercialization milestones and secured Ventures CEO Mike Freeman puts it. Fourteenwas vital in helping him navigate the world ofadditional funding. of Innospheres 49 clients are in life sciences. venture-funded startups. The program includes business fundamentals, In 2022, Innosphere received a two-year,How do you know how to go about packagingraising capital, building a team that will attract $244,000 Advanced Industries Businessyour company for investors and doing aninvestors, defining early customers, dealing AcceleratorGrantfromOEDIT.Workinginvestor pitch? How do you do market analysiswith grants and grant-related reimbursement, in collaboration with Colorado BioScienceand research? How do you organize yourintellectual property, regulatory strategy, and Association and Colorado BioScience Institute,data? How do you find investors? How do youmore, Freeman says. Innospherelaunchedanew,year-longscreen them? All of that Id never done before, program that transforms promising bioscienceInnosphere and the Advanced Industries Buchanan says. Accelerator Grant awardees progress are startups with a focus on incubation, collabo-ration, and education. This was the first time weve collaborated spe- further proof that Colorado has achieved cifically on incubator startup content, and thethe critical mass to sustain it as national life The Colorado Life Sciences Incubation Programfunding is allowing us to do that, Freeman says. sciences hub. offers the specialized support startups need at a cost thats manageable for founders. TheThe program delivers results in record time.Weve demonstrated that Colorado can con-state grant covers half of the $10,000 fee forSince graduating, Eximis Surgical, RedDrop Dx,sistently produce results in the life sciences, each of the 10 participating companies. and other members of the first cohort have hithe says. 40 BIOSCIENCE COLORADO 2023-2024'