From Labs to Entrepreneurship: Keys for Scientific Founders
Join us for an inspiring panel discussion, co-organized by Goodwin, Nucleate and Sistafund, at the intersection of science and venture building. This panel brings together founders and leaders who have navigated the journey from the lab bench to long-term company leadership.
The panelists will share their journey from the scientific world to entrepreneurship, highlighting:
- The pivotal choices they made throughout their careers, including when building their founding team
- How they leveraged their scientific background
- The challenges they faced as scientific founders in running companies over the long term
Panelists:
Eugénie Pezé-Heidsieck, PhD, Co-Founder, Numi
Diane-Laure Pagès, Co-Founder, Orakl
Célia Belline, CEO, Cilcare
Cécile Dupont Redon, CEO, BrightHeart, Partner Sofinnova Partners
Moderator:
Anne-Charlotte Rivière, Life Sciences Partner, Goodwin
Agenda
07:00 PM – 07:30 PM CET | Welcome & Registration
07:30 PM – 08:30 PM CET | Panel discussion
08:30 PM – 10:00 PM CET | Networking Cocktail
About the Hosts:
SISTAFUND is the largest European early-stage investment fund dedicated to financing startups founded by female or gender-balanced teams. It invests from the pre-seed stage in high-potential technology projects, notably in the fields of AI, deeptech, health, and strategic infrastructure.
Adopting a pioneering gender-lens approach, SISTAFUND aims to combine financial performance with structural impact by supporting teams whose diversity is a driver of excellence and long-term value creation. The fund is backed by leading institutional and industrial investors, including the European Investment Fund (EIF), Bpifrance, BNP Paribas, FDJ, and L’Oréal. SISTAFUND has already invested in several innovative startups, including The Exploration Company (spacetech), Vizzia (deeptech / AI), and Orakl Oncology (healthtech).
SISTAFUND I is a French Professional Private Equity Fund (FPCI), managed by its management company SUNSHINE.
Goodwin. Opened in 2016 with an initial focus on private equity, and mergers and acquisitions, our Paris office is a one-stop shop for clients seeking counsel across a wide spectrum of corporate transactions. We represent investors, entrepreneurs, and disruptors at the convergence of and within the private equity, life sciences, technology, and financial industries. We work closely with lawyers in our other European offices, as well as in Asia and the United States.
Nucleate is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering the next generation of biotech leaders. With chapters spanning 41 geographic regions and participation from over 280 academic institutions, Nucleate sparks new intellectual communities and embeds emerging talent within a global biotech community. Through open-access educational programming, Nucleate helps democratize biotech innovation — removing barriers and helping founders concentrate on building transformational technologies. Visit www.nucleate.org for more information, and visit https://nucleate.org/privacy-policy/ to read our privacy policy.
We want to thank our HQ supporters for championing our open-access mission and empowering the next generation of biotech entrepreneurs!
Platinum: Eli Lilly and Company, Genentech, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, MilliporeSigma
Philanthropic Support: Lyda Hill Philanthropies
Preferred Partners: Pillar VC, Amino Collective, Fenwick, Excedr, Mercury, Brex, Fedsprout, Browne Consulting
In-Kind Support: AcademicLabs, Lens.org