Yves Lawson ’11Journal #1
This summer I am interning with Bali BioSciences LLP in business development. The goal of Bali Biosciences is to reduce death and disease through the development of a novel class of proprietary medical food formulations to eventually be included as part of HIV/AIDS and malnutrition treatment worldwide. So far the internship has been an excellent opportunity to leverage the core skills that I have developed in my first year at Columbia Business School in an entrepreneurial setting. I also have no prior experience in the area of “medical foods” or social enterprise and I am looking forward to learning more about both spaces.
Within the first couple of weeks, I have used the core accounting and corporate finance skills to create pro forma financial documents for the company. I have also used the marketing skills I have gained at Columbia to enhance Bali Biosciences’ business plan and executive summary. In the creation of these documents, we have encountered several strategic challenges and have had to adapt the documentation to account for these changes.
I am extremely excited about the potential of this company. The entrepreneur is expecting to grow from zero revenue to more than $50 million, in revenue over the first five years of operation. His business model seems rather lean, and he is targeting a wide array of markets. While I'm no agricultural or biomedical expert, if all goes according to plan, the products created by this company could save between 30,000 and 50,000 child lives in developing countries every year as part of HIV/AIDS, malnutrition, and sepsis treatment. It seems like an excellent opportunity to both save lives around the world while creating a financially sustainable company. I am getting some very good entrepreneurial experiences and am looking forward to learning more about the business and seeing what the rest of the summer has to offer.
Journal #2
In the past couple of weeks we have focused on finding potential business investors. So far, this has involved numerous adaptations of the documentation for different investor-types as well as longer hours. We have gone through several iterations of the business plan, executive summary, and financials. We have also begun to map out exactly the steps necessary to bring our first product market. There have been several adaptations to the original business plan, but at this point we feel that we have a strong case to receive the funding necessary to fulfill our first purchase order with a multinational food company. While the company has had some twists and turns in the past it seems to be better positioned for future success.
Given the tough economic climate and the owner’s outlook on the traditional investor community, we have been focusing our energy on alternative funding options. We have been trying to secure private loans from banks and municipal credit unions. I have also been helping the coordination of an application for a Small Business Innovation Research grant proposal. The proposal should be submitted in early September. As you can see, we are trying to be as creative as possible when approaching financing opportunities.
We have also begun development of a company website. From a marketing standpoint this first website is extremely important as it will be the first impression that investors and the world gets of the company. It has been a great experience leveraging my technical background to directly manage the business development of the organization.
