Continued Growth Seen in Western PA Life Sciences

The Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse (PLSG) is pleased to report significant accomplishments for the first half of 2019. The economic development organization has invested a total of $155K in 4 start-up companies; RIMSYS and Clinical Platform are both in Health IT, CytoAgents is in Therapeutics, and NKI is in Medical Devices.

“Our objectives are 3-fold,” states James F. Jordan, President and CEO of PLSG, “to provide Knowledge, Connection, and Capital to western PA’s Life Sciences community.” PLSG has assisted over 30 companies so far this year, investing nearly 400 hours of time through the Executive-in-Residence program. “Providing this support is essential in the early life of a company. It literally makes the difference between success and failure,” continued Jordan.

Effort has also been placed into creating free resources for the community. Work has been conducted in Digital Health and Life Sciences, covering topics such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, Gamification, Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), Robotics, Wellness Marketing, and Gene Editing Technology. “Offering these informational resources to students, researchers & academics, entrepreneurs, and investor communities is an essential part of what we do,” said Jordan. “These types of tools are especially important as companies plot their commercialization strategies and business models.”

PLSG believes in reaching out to other specialty organizations to provide support for regional companies. When building effective sales teams was seen as an issue for several key portfolio companies, PLSG engaged a local Pittsburghcompany, M. Masters Corporation, and supported several start-ups to attend a 10-week course on Sales Leadership. Also, PLSG has become a ‘HubSpot for Start-ups Partner’ and has worked with several local start-ups to utilize the HubSpot platform for customer acquisition via its Health IT Pittsburgh initiative.

“The collaborative nature of our regional economic development organizations benefits entrepreneurs in profound ways,” Jordan said. “A prime example is earlier this month, a local angel investment group, Blue Tree Allied Angels, invited an angel investor from California to Pittsburgh. And in collaboration with Innovation Works (IW), six PLSG portfolio companies were asked to present,” Jordan continued, “That type of integration and collaboration is what makes our region so special.”

SOURCE Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse