Alex is the Co-Founder and Partner at Backed. He leads on investing and post-investment support. Alex believes that early-stage investing is about human capital, and thinks the best investor-founder relationships are built on empathy, earned trust and sheer hard graft - on both sides. He also geeks out on deep tech solutions for today's problems.

Yasmin is Investment Manager and focuses on investments in the life sciences sector, working at all stages of the process from sourcing and diligence to portfolio support and thematic strategy development. Prior to Backed, she studied molecular and cellular biology at Harvard, conducted research at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering in Boston, worked in management consulting at Oliver Wyman with a focus on healthcare and life sciences, and worked with the early-stage investment team at RA Capital as a full-time intern prior to getting her Masters degree at the University of Cambridge in biotech and entrepreneurship. Outside academia and her professional career, Yasmin was a silver-medal winner of the U.S. figure skating team and a performing classical pianist.

In this session, we will talk about addressing the red flags that investors get nervous about when considering making an investment:

• Not the right team

• Competitive awareness

• Flawed business models

• Lack of urgent market need

• Inadequate IP protection

• Incomplete or flawed regulatory strategy

• Lack of fundraising strategy

• Poor cash management