Health Tech Panel: Navigating VC-Founder Relationships
Published in Oxford Venture Capital Network, 2026
An in-person panel bringing together founders and venture operators to examine investor relations and what actually secures venture backing.
Panellists
- Lily Elsner and Nick Shipley, Jack Fertility
- Anse Asif, Proximo Ventures
Format: 45 minutes in total. 3 minutes of introductions, 32 minutes of moderated discussion, and 10 minutes of audience Q&A.
Themes covered
- The decision to raise. How founders know it is the right moment to go out for equity, the tension between continuing to build and stopping to fundraise, and the signals that tell an investor a founder is raising at the right time rather than too early.
- Non-dilutive funding as a launchpad. How grant funding got the team into a position to raise a proper round, how competitive those applications were and what had to be presented, whether grants change how investors perceive a company, and the long-term constraints they can impose on IP and operations.