The programme journey

The Yorkshire Forward Access to Finance for Healthcare Technologies journey starts with an invitation to an Introductory Seminar. This is an opportunity to find out about:

• The current state of the Investment Market;
• What investors are looking for;
• Allows the team to find out more about your company.

Stage 2 of the journey is a Market and Technology Assessment. This can take half a day and involves a meeting with at least two members of the consortium. You don't have to prepare any special material for this, it is an opportunity for the consortium team to find out in depth your business goals, team, where you are at in development, etc. During this interactive session you will receive immediate feedback from the consortium members, with a written report and action plan delivered about a week later.

Companies invited to participate in the Investment Readiness Workshop can expect to spend 4 days (spread over three weeks) learning from investors. The modules cover 4 key areas - Financial, IP, Legals, and Route to Market. The workshop culminates in an opportunity to practice your pitch to a roomful of investors who will provide feedback on the business opportunity, and the quality of the pitch.

Stage 4 of the programme is an intensive mentoring stage where companies can expect to get up to five days in total of mentoring from the consortium team focused on tidying up issues identified during the workshop phase, and the production of an opportunity note - your elevator pitch converted into two pages of text and graphics.

The final stage of the programme is Investor Introductions. Different companies will be presented to different investors in ways that are most appropriate for the company (for example, not everyone is able to present confidently to a roomful of investors, performing much better in 1:1 meetings).