JPM ‘19 Entrepreneur’s Challenge

The JP Morgan Healthcare Conference is like a watering hole on the plains of the Serengeti—anyone who is part of the life science ecosystem, whether investor, executive, entrepreneur or anyone serving the industry, gathers in the hotels around the Westin St. Francis and Union Square in downtown San Francisco to plot the deals that will define the year. Sitting in lobbies, coffee shops, and restaurants around Union Square are financiers and company execs that could transform your brilliant idea with the stroke of a pen.

Unfortunately, however, for many entrepreneurs, the cost of the conference is becoming harder and harder to justify. While the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference is free by invitation, the hotel and hospitality industry in San Francisco has wizened up to the robustness of expense accounts and have massively increased their prices.

Chain hotels routinely have a per night stay of $800-$1000 and can go much, much higher.  For the first Monday of the conference, the JW Marriott had rooms listed at $5,000 per night!

And it’s not just hotel prices— meeting rooms and even public tables can have big costs. Twitter users quickly pointed out $21 cups of coffee and $100 fees just to loiter in a lobby. One group of entrepreneurial attendees were actually holding meetings in the women’s restroom! (To be fair, it was the swank loo inside the Westin St. Francis.)

Much has been said about whether JPM is worth it anymore, especially given the high costs and dominance of large companies and investor groups. Bruce Booth from Atlas Ventures recently wrote that his fund was reducing its presence because meetings are “superficial” and not value added. Fair enough, but if you’re an entrepreneur with the greatest idea in life science and you need funding, no place has a greater density to make that chance elevator pitch and create a spark that could lead to your Series A.  

So how do you manage this? Well, this year, as an independent entrepreneur again (with expenses coming out of my own pocket), I decided to take on a challenge:

How to navigate the JP Morgan Conference on no more than $100 per day.

I posted my efforts realtime on LinkedIn and Twitter (@SparkMedGroup) so colleagues could follow along. My goals were 1) of course, to save money, and 2) more importantly, to give some guidance to entrepreneurs on how they can achieve the same and get the most out of their investment.  

My Expense Report

Abo, you can see a summary of my expenses as well as the final tally—just over $70/day. Cheaper by far than most of the medical meetings I’ve attended.  At JPM, you rent no booth space, pay no conference attendance fees, and typically don’t have to pay for that expensive dinner for your sales team or customers.

In studying the report, you’ll see a couple of things that are not there, like my flights and hotel. Ironically, while hotel prices are sky high, I’ve found flights to SFO to be pretty reasonable in early January. Think about it—San Francisco, while a beautiful city, is typically pretty miserable in January. Who wants to tour Alcatraz when it’s 50 degrees and raining out? Plus, if you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve likely logged hundreds of thousands of frequent-flyer miles trying to get that lead investor for your Series A. Now’s the time to cash in those miles.  

Clearly, lodging cost was the biggest problem for the JPM Entrepreneur Challenge. Luckily, there are several strategies that happen to be en vogue, including AirBnB’ing with your closest entrepreneur friends, couch surfing with colleagues in their hotel rooms, and youth hostels. Keep in mind, for every AirBnB jackpot you hear about, there are 5 horror stories (same odds as early stage medtech investing).  

My strategy this year, and by far the most cost effective method, was staying with a local friend. I was fortunate enough to split time with a friend in Menlo Park and then a friend in the city whose place is only 10 minutes from Union Square. (Not ironically, the first friend had couch-surfed in my hotel one prior JPM when he was a starting his new biotech #payitforward.)

Last year, another friend of mine, because he’d recently become engaged, had a vacant apartment on the BART-line in San Mateo (golden!). Bunking with friends in the area can be perfect, but make sure they know your schedule. You’ll likely have early breakfast meetings and then not return until late after dinners and receptions. My advice? If you don’t have a friend in the Bay Area to stay with, you need to make one.

Other things you won’t see on the expense report are a lot of dinner bills or bar tabs.  One of the integral parts of the JPM experience is the myriad of receptions hosted by law firms, executive recruiters, and pretty much anyone wanting to thank customers or potentially find new ones. These receptions range from rented restaurants, all the way to the mysterious and highly exclusive “Cigar and Scotch” tasting (where most likely the drug price hikes for the year are planned). Most of these receptions are invite-only, but many of them will allow on-site registration with a business card, if space is available. These receptions are a great place to reconnect with former colleagues or that VC who passed on your Series B (feel free to waive your recent IPO in front of them).

A great way to manage your meal expenses is by strategically planning your guest lists. I posted a primer on LinkedIn (here: http://bit.ly/2SWIaye) where we ranked and discussed who is responsible to pay for the dinner tab in a group at JPM. Bottom line: when in doubt, invite your corporate attorney. Don’t feel guilty, it will even out in the long run!

Once you’re in the city, most of your meetings will be in and around the Union Square area. On $100/day, you have to tightly manage your expenses, so don’t be tempted to take that Uber from your last meeting to your first reception.  Plan on walking. Lots of walking. Here you’ll see my actual data for this year’s meeting—an average of 5 miles per day M-W! (Please, no comments on the lazy start and finish to the week.)  And be sure to pack an umbrella—you’ll most likely need it.

INSERT WALKING CHART HERE…

Also, you don’t need to blow $40 on an Uber from the airport to downtown. Either take the BART ($9), or share a cab with an employed industry colleague you saw on your flight, and conveniently have your wallet packed in your bag when time to pay the fare. (I’ve been on both sides of this strategy.) You could even take the bus for $2, but c’mon, we aren’t desperate Healthcare App-entrepreneurs…

So, if you’re a smaller company, or a “gainfully unemployed” entrepreneur like myself, it is possible to keep your JPM expenses down and make the most of your dollar. For me, this year, it was a great experience to reconnect with a number of colleagues, meet with entrepreneurs pitching exciting new ideas, and spend time with good friends. I have one annual dinner with a hodge-podge group of investors and entrepreneurs that is now in its 10th year. We don’t even discuss deals anymore. We just enjoy sharing the stories of our voyage toward making innovation in healthcare a reality.

Dennis McWilliams is a serial life science entrepreneur based in Austin, Texas. He is the managing director of SparkMed Advisors, an organization dedicated to driving innovative ideas to the market.

McWilliams is always searching for the next great idea in healthcare.