Great science doesn't guarantee investment. Funding decisions happen based on factors that rarely make it onto slides: market validation, team composition, regulatory strategy, and business models that actually work. This panel explores what investors are really evaluating when they assess animal health opportunities.
- What separates fundable companies from well-pitched ones
- Market validation: what investors need to see before they believe the opportunity is real
- Regulatory strategy as an investment signal: how pathway choices affect risk and return
- Team composition and what investors are actually backing
- Business model scrutiny: the unit economics and revenue assumptions that get stress-tested hardest
Natalie Marks
Dr. Natalie Marks is a small animal veterinarian with over twenty years of clinical experience. She owned the largest animal hospital in Chicago. More recently, she has been the founder and president of MarksDVMConsulting, an educational and strategy consulting firm working with companies of all stages nationally and internationally. She is also on the Executive Committee of VANE, the premier veterinary angel network investor group. VANE currently has 28 portfolio companies and provides direction, connection, and funding to start-ups in the animal health space.