What I Wish I Knew at Series A: Building for What's Next
This event is part of DC Startup & Tech Week and BioBuzz’s Insights to Impact Series, a curated program designed exclusively for life sciences industry leaders and ecosystem builders. Our guest list is intentionally built to foster a high-quality, peer-driven experience.
Overview
Every company scaling past Series A hits the same wall: the systems, governance, and financial infrastructure that carried it this far stop working — usually before anyone notices. What worked at 15 people breaks at 50. What satisfied a seed investor doesn't survive diligence.
Series A is where that shift becomes unavoidable, but it isn't where it starts. The decisions that determine whether a company is ready get made much earlier — and the ones that come back to hurt are rarely the ones founders were worrying about at the time.
This session brings CEOs who have been through it into unscripted, peer-to-peer conversation about what they got wrong, what they'd do differently, and what they'd build today to stay ready for whatever comes next — a raise, an acquisition, an IPO, or something they haven't imagined yet.
Whether you're approaching that inflection point, well past it, or building the companies and infrastructure around the founders who are, this is the conversation the BioHealth Capital Region rarely gets to have out loud.
No moderator. No slides. No panel.
Who should attend: Founders and executives across every stage, investors, and the finance, legal, and operations leaders building the infrastructure behind them.
Agenda
4:00 PM — Networking + Startup Showcase
AccufyDx | Jeffrey Hung, PhD, Co-Founder & CEO
5:00 PM — Welcome + Opening Remarks
Chris Frew, CEO, BioBuzz Networks
Patricia Campbell, Director, Emerging Company Solution, PwC
5:10 PM — Looking Back: The Scar Tissue Conversation [Fireside Chat]
Every founder has the version they tell investors. This one is about the rest of it — the hire made a year too late, the system that held right up until it didn't, the thing everyone in the room worried about while the real problem sat somewhere else entirely.
Two CEOs who have scaled past Series A. No moderator, no deck — just the two of them, talking to each other about what broke, what it cost, and what they'd do differently with the same information.
If you're raising now, or about to, this is the conversation you'd pay for over coffee — happening on stage instead.
They'll discuss:
What did you worry about too early — and what did you wait too long to address?
What broke as you started scaling?
When did investors start asking different questions?
What did you underestimate about commercialization?
When did finance and governance shift from back-office functions to strategic necessities?
5:35 PM — Building Forward: Ready Before You Need To Be [Fireside Chat]
Nobody gets to prepare for diligence once diligence starts. By then you're just showing what you already have — or explaining what you don't.
Two CEOs further along the curve on the unglamorous work that decides how the next round goes: what sophisticated investors actually look for, how to build credible financials and real governance without over-engineering them at a stage that can't afford it, and how to tell when the infrastructure that got you here has quietly stopped working.
If you're two rounds from a transaction you can already picture, this is the session that tells you what to start now.
What do sophisticated investors expect as companies mature?
How do you establish credible financial information and build governance without over-engineering too early?
How do you prepare for diligence before you're actually in diligence?
How do you recognize when existing infrastructure no longer supports growth?
What changes when an IPO or other major transaction becomes a realistic possibility?
What would you put in place at Series A if you were starting again today?
6:00 PM — Closing Synthesis
Johnnie Lewis, Partner, PwC
6:10 PM — Networking + Start-up Showcase
Venue
PwC
At PwC, we help clients build trust and reinvent so they can turn complexity into competitive advantage. We’re a tech-forward, people-empowered network with more than 364,000 people in 136 countries and 137 territories. Across audit and assurance, tax and legal, deals and consulting, we help clients build, accelerate, and sustain momentum.
Find out more at pwc.com.
Partners
This event is made possible by the TEDCO Equitech Growth Fund, which empowers Maryland’s innovation economy through strategic grants for infrastructure and workforce development.
And our incredible sponsors:
Agilent (agilent.com)
Conner Strong & Buckelew (connerstrong.com)
Fulton Bank (fultonbank.com)
Heffron Company (heffroncompany.com)
Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc. (HJF) (hjf.org)
Kymanox (kymanox.com)
Pharmaron (pharmaron.com)
Pureflow Inc. (pureflowinc.com)
PwC (pwc.com)
TEDCO (tedcomd.com)
Workforce Genetics (workforcegenetics.com)
Xcellon Biologics (xcellon.bio)
Important Information
We encourage you to share this with those in your network who are passionate about strengthening the BioHealth Capital Region’s biotech ecosystem and would benefit from attending.
NOTE TO VENDORS + SERVICE PROVIDERS
Vendor and Service Provider attendance is limited to ensure a high-quality, peer-driven industry experience. A select number of Vendor / Service Provider tickets ($75) are available using access code VENDOR.
Vendors and Service Providers operating in the same category as any of our sponsors will require pre-authorization from the associated sponsor. BioBuzz reserves the right to restrict registration and entry as necessary. Refunds will be provided when tickets cannot be honored.