Combining scientific expertise and business savvy in one location

Viraj Mane, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Lactiga, has to deal with challenges most software-related startups don’t have to face: biotechnology startups have to navigate legal and regulatory requirements for medical products. When biotech companies fundraise, they need to show scientific traction in addition to more traditional business metrics like monthly recurring revenue or customer acquisition costs. Viraj and his team needed a single location where they could organize their scientific expertise and show Lactiga’s business fundamentals to potential investors.

Data room analytics enable proactive investor outreach

As Viraj explains, “We decided to use DocSend data rooms to organize our scientific results and market traction because they were so much cleaner than the alternatives we had been working with.” Prior to DocSend, Viraj and his team had been using cloud-based storage on Google Drive to house their research and business documents for investors. The problem? “Earlier solutions like Google Drive didn’t give me any tracking or visibility into time spent on specific assets. They didn’t tell me who had viewed what or which documents might have been forwarded on to other investors. To make matters worse, investors had to weed through many different files to find what they needed.”

With DocSend’s analytics, Viraj can see when potential investors view crucial documents, how long they spent, and what particularly they are most interested in. This visibility helps him create proactive investor outreach strategies. “Before DocSend, I didn’t know whether investors were reviewing our fundraising resources without me contacting them over and over again. I’m now able to see when investors look through our documents; a few days after they do so, I know it’s a suitable time to reach out and continue the conversation. DocSend’s analytics have taken the guesswork out of managing investor relationships.”

Before DocSend, I didn’t know whether investors were reviewing our fundraising resources. I’m now able to see when investors look through our documents - DocSend’s analytics have taken the guesswork out of managing investor relationships.

Viraj Mane

Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Lactiga

Powerful customization leads to better storytelling

Viraj and his team don’t just rely on DocSend’s analytics to proactively reach out to investors. They also take advantage of customization features to build unique data rooms for every investor. Some of Lactiga’s investors are family or friends, smaller angels, and family offices. But as Viraj puts it, “Each investor has unique concerns: some care about social impact, some just want to see the science or the patents, and still others want to see how you engage with manufacturers. Since all of our documents are already organized in DocSend, with just a few clicks it’s easy to create a customized data room with the files that are most likely to resonate with that particular investor.” DocSend’s customization features allow Viraj to hone in on what an investor really wants to see. “Since it’s so easy to personalize a DocSend data room,” he explains, “I don’t need to bombard investors with documents that might not even be interesting to them. Instead, I can focus on their most pressing interests.”

Customization also helps Viraj craft a better company narrative for investors. “I love that our DocSend data room is branded with our logo, tagline, and banner image alongside the investor personalization,” he says. “This way, potential investors already feel included in Lactiga’s story. Showing them the right documents is like rewarding their curiosity — and makes it that much more likely they’ll spend time on our materials.” For Viraj, DocSend’s data rooms are storytelling tools as well as user-friendly ways to share mission-critical documents.

I love that our DocSend data room is branded with our logo, tagline, and banner image alongside personalization in data room format for each investor. This way, potential investors already feel included in Lactiga’s story.

Viraj Mane

Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Lactiga

User-friendly access controls for peace of mind

Since Viraj and his team are busy running a business and conducting scientific research, having an easy-to-use data room is a top priority. This means that permissions and access controls are simple to set up and, importantly, not overly burdensome for external visitors. “We’re able to make sure the right people access our data room by asking them to input their email address when they visit,” explains Viraj. “We’re then able to see who’s looking at our documents without imposing lots of other restrictions that might seem too transactional for friends and family investors. What I love about DocSend is how easy it is to set up a level of access control that’s just right for our business.”

DocSend’s analytics also let Viraj know that his data room is as easy to use for visitors as it is for him. During a process with as much uncertainty as fundraising, having this peace of mind is crucial for the Lactiga team: “I no longer have to worry about whether investors are having access problems to our fundraising documents. Thanks to DocSend’s analytics, I can keep an eye on user activity–this visibility assures me that investors have smooth access to our documents since they don’t need to keep track of any login details.”

Anticipating the next raise with DocSend

With an award-winning business and robust science to back it up, Viraj and his team already have their sights set on their Series A fundraising round. This means they’ll have to organize their data room differently, adding new categories and levels of complexity that top-tier investors want to see from rapidly-maturing companies. Says Viraj, “DocSend allows us to be proactive when thinking about our next raise, not just our current one. We’re starting to get advice for our Series A round and we’re already able to organize our data room to anticipate the high standards that future investors will have.”

Whereas friends and family investors might have more targeted interests when making investment decisions, larger institutional investors expect to see a wide variety of documents. “This is where DocSend really puts me in control of our next raise,” Viraj states. “Taking our data room to the next level will involve creating new categories for our documents and reorganizing how we present our business. This might seem daunting at first glance, but with DocSend I’m able to make these updates seamlessly. This is an easy way to show that we are building the sophistication and organization needed to impress investors at the Series A stage.”

DocSend has allowed Viraj and his team to bring scientific and business documents together in one easy-to-use data room. With DocSend’s analytics and customization features, Viraj is able to proactively manage Lactiga’s current fundraising efforts and build out a next-level data room for the future.

DocSend allows us to be proactive when thinking about our next raise, not just our current one. We’re starting to get advice for our Series A round and we’re already able to organize our data room to anticipate the high standards that future investors will have.

Viraj Mane

Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Lactiga

The post Lactiga uses DocSend data rooms for proactive and personalized fundraising appeared first on DocSend.

Before DocSend, the MetOx team used individual letters, email, and meetings as well as annual meetings to communicate with both existing and prospective investors.

With DocSend, the MetOx leadership team can quantify investor engagement according to time spent per slide, total time spent in-deck, frequency of access, forwarding activity, and more. They can even receive real-time alerts when a new visitor reviews key documents.

A strategic approach to fundraising

Access to DocSend’s document tracking analytics has revolutionized MetOx’ approach to raising funds. By establishing a well organized, easy to access virtual data room, and uploading and distributing key documents through DocSend Spaces, the MetOx leadership team can quantify investor engagement according to time spent per slide, total time spent in-deck, frequency of access, forwarding activity, and more. They can even receive real-time alerts when a new visitor reviews key documents.

These analytics empower the team to prioritize follow-up with prospective investors who show interest in MetOx and its growth. By identifying trends in investor engagement within the virtual data room, the team can respond by optimizing the contents for best performance.

In the past, every time the team had a new version of a deck, the team had to send out a follow-up email. With DocSend, version control is as simple as clicking “Update”—no delay, no new link, and no permission changes. MetOx can even draw upon engagement data from the original version to follow-up only with those investors who have already viewed the deck.

MetOx can also invite any involve other team members as admin guests. In this way, the management team rolls out the red carpet for new members, and keeps all assets organized, uniform, and updated—without sacrificing the security of our other files.

A modern, data-driven approach to investor relations

MetOx applies a similar data-driven mentality to its investor relations. Our large group of investors are experiencing better communications from MetOx because we can easily send periodic updates that they routinely access.  By using DocSend to upload and distribute all widely distributed materials for existing investors, the team can determine which investors are keeping up with the company, and which aren’t. The MetOx team finds that investors have regularly initiated contact after receiving information.  For those who do not reach out, MetOx can limit follow-up to investors who haven’t engaged with critical company updates.

MetOx can also keep confidential investor materials more secure than they ever have before, with password protection, viewer verification, link-based access, and the option to enable or disable downloading. The ability to send all of their confidential information as a virtual data room link makes their experience even more seamless.

By sending out key announcements through DocSend we have much better engagement from them with each update than we used to have. Then for those that did not reach us, using DocSend saves us time and guesswork to see who is keeping up on our information, and lets us engage where we see a need.

Jim Jewitt

CEO, MetOx

What’s next for MetOx?

As MetOx scales market presence and growth, DocSend becomes more and more useful to the team. Next up: Incorporating DocSend into MetOx’s enterprise sales prospecting processes, so the team can seamlessly and intelligently continue the expansion of their business.

Curious how you can do the same? Click here to get started with DocSend for free.

The post MetOx Thrives with DocSend’s Document Analytics and Control appeared first on DocSend.