Biotechnology Venture Capital and Fundraising for the Future

Stanley Chen faces complicated challenges at work.

Chen is a biotechnology, life-science, and healthcare-focused venture capital investor at VCapital.  

Based in Chicago, VCapital focuses on providing national and international investors access to institutional grade venture capital investments.  

One of VCapital's newest investor initiatives led by Chen is geared toward providing global investors access to these scientific venture capital investments through the U.S. EB5 Visa program. 

A large portion of Chen's career involves partnering with high-net-worth domestic and international investors and families to identify and invest in the right early-stage companies that can save lives, change the future of healthcare, and provide significant returns to early stage investors.  

The mission is straightforward, but making the case can be challenging.  

 “Investor relations and fundraising for venture capital and startups is very complex, especially for frontier technologies” said Chen, who started with VCapital in January. “You're working with investors who can sometimes be difficult to get in contact with and you are working hard to be able to connect with the right investors to fund visionary founders who have potential to revolutionize healthcare and the life sciences.”  

Chen focuses mostly on scientific investments in the life sciences and healthcare.  

Chen’s role differs from many of his fellow graduates from Northwestern Engineering's Master of Biotechnology Program (MBP). It showcases the breadth of opportunities opened up by an MBP diploma, he said.  

“MBP was an incredible program that enabled me to access Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine and Kellogg School of Management, alongside the McCormick School of Engineering,“ he said. 

Discover the breadth of career opportunities that come with an MBP degree.  

There are several keys to thriving in the venture capital ecosystem — skills Chen honed in MBP. Those lessons include being able to: 

• Dive deep into highly technical and scientific topics 
• Present information concisely  
• Speak confidently and purposefully in public  
• Be an effective communicator. 

“Fundraising is non-linear, requires patience, emotional intelligence, and the ability to convey highly technically complex information in concise ways to all different types of investors,” he said. “MBP’s focus on deep diving into highly scientific and technical areas and then zooming out to be able to present this information to many different investors was one of the most useful aspects of the program.” 

Chen entered MBP with an early career focused on working with biotechnology and healthcare technology commercialization. He was first attracted to the program because of its flexibility for students to pursue a variety of interests before honing in on their path forward. 

At the time, he was still figuring out which path was right for the next stage of his career: launching a startup, pursuing a PhD, transitioning into management consulting, continuing in the startup world, or entering into the investments and venture capital world.  

“MBP allowed me to keep all those doors open until I was ready to choose,” Chen said. “I found the flexibility of elective classes to be very useful to understand healthcare and pharmaceutical commercialization at a much broader level, and then diving deeper to understand the scientific backbone of things has helped immensely as well.”  

Chen also was drawn to the program by its small cohort size, which led to stronger bonds among students and greater networking possibilities.  

In fact, Chen said he wouldn’t be where he is today if not for MBP’s flexibility and the networking opportunities he had while in the program.  

“Through MBP, the highly entrepreneurial community at Northwestern, and convenient access to the broader community in Chicago, I was able to access a lot of opportunities that led to my career path today,” he said.  

Now, Chen finds himself working with investors and industry leaders who have the financial resources to support the efforts of early stage, potentially life-changing companies. It is work he thoroughly enjoys.  

“One day I'm speaking with the lead of technology adoption for a healthcare system, and the next I’m speaking with a scientist or a founder who is at the cutting edge of a certain technology,” he said. “Learning from all those people on both the business and scientific side is really enjoyable for me.”