If you are a biotech CEO and the round is taking longer than the runway.

How it felt

"It was brutal because it was a Friday afternoon, late afternoon... you're coming from a high, you know, falling down a cliff, right?"

Sezai Taskin, two years into his Series A, on the first no that came just before the finish line.

"It was more likely to fail than to succeed in the first year."

Erich Tauber, twelve months between signing the term sheet and money in the bank, with something like 500 euros left in the account.

"We were out there fundraising for months and months and months."

Oliver Schacht, in the 2001 ice age, the investor syndicate underwater and the company close to running out of money.

"Two weeks ahead from basically having to refile the papers with BaFin and knowing that the cash reach wouldn't be long enough to have the company survive until BaFin gives us clearance."

Achim Plum, on a follow-on that had to close before the papers expired.

"It would have been maybe sustainable if we had 10 million in the bank and we could develop this for three years. Maybe it would have worked, maybe not, but not in our current situation with a couple of hundred K on the bank account."

Tilmann Bürckstümmer, four or five months from being out of business.

"Essentially I went from a lot to little to nothing... it did hurt at the time and it still does."

Simone Sabbione, on her salary in the year before the money came.

CR Look at the time in those: twelve months, two years, months and months and months, two weeks. Not one of them raised on the schedule in the plan. The round was late for every one of them, and they are on this page because of what they did while it was late.

All of them came out. This is what they came out with.

Sezai Taskin. Two years of no's, two of them just before the finish line. Then a Series A of up to 12 million euros, led by SPRIND and Huma. The money goes into the phase 2 study.

Erich Tauber. Twelve months from term sheet to money, with about 500 euros left. Thirteen years in which Themis was never funded for longer than twelve months, then the sale to Merck in May 2020.

Oliver Schacht. Every outside term sheet disappeared a few days before signing. The insiders did a round at a massive down round valuation, it saved Epigenomics, and in 2004 the company went public, the first European biotech IPO after the bubble.

Achim Plum. Two weeks before the papers had to be refiled, the investor across the table stood up, held out his hand and asked: so, do we have a deal? Today he sits on the other side of that table, at HTGF.

Tilmann Bürckstümmer. A couple of hundred thousand in the bank and four or five months to go. Pivoted in one afternoon and built Myllia on revenue. It exists today, with customers, without venture money.

Simone Sabbione. One year without a salary, by her own deadline. Closed the pre-seed in February 2025 and was raising the seed when we spoke.

Klaus Weinberger. When an acquisition went wrong, his investors took a down round and stayed with the company.

And in the room with them: Jan de Kerpel, the banker who sees every year where the money goes; Melissa Simon, the investor who tries to say no early; Pierre Morgon, forty years in life sciences, who sits on boards and watches CEOs through long rounds; and Thaminda Ramanayake, who told the CureVac board to plan a sale because the money it needed was not going to come.

The questions you are asking yourself, answered by them.

"Is it just me, or does every round take this long now?"

Everyone on this page waited longer than they had planned. Erich needed nine months for the first investor traction and twelve more from term sheet to money in the bank. Over the whole life of the company:

"We never had funded the company for longer than 12 months during the 13 years."

Erich Tauber

"To find that investor that gives you the first 3 million or 5 million euro check, that, to my understanding, has gotten more difficult. For sure than it was in 2020, 2021, 2022."

Tilmann Bürckstümmer

"The money is there, but what you see is that money is floating in a direction of the winner takes it all."

"15 percent of the number of transactions that took place in 2025 represented 50 percent of the capital put in those companies."

Jan de Kerpel

"These cycles in the biotech industry or in the public capital markets are usually multi-year cycles."

Oliver Schacht

CR The hard year is real; Jan has the numbers. He also said the money is there. In 2025 it went to the companies whose story an investor could retell in their own partner meeting. You can work on that part, and it is the only part you can work on.

Takeaway. Plan the round as a twelve-month project. Erich's took twenty-one. The money is going to someone this year, so make your story the one an investor can retell without you in the room.

"Why does everyone like it and nobody commits?"

Erich had many investors who gave him a very good feeling after the meeting and never put in money. And this, from the same thirteen years:

"I had so many meetings, hundreds of meetings where people said something like, I wish you all the best and I mean it, but this will never work."

Erich Tauber

"A lot of time people don't want to say no, they don't react, they don't answer. But I think asking for a no is also very important. But getting it is hard."

Sezai Taskin

Melissa Simon, from the other side of the table:

"It is often more difficult to say no actually than to say yes, especially if you had already a deeper interaction with the founder, the team and the company."

"I really always try to say very quick no, you know, not running the full process and then saying no at a time where the founder thinks already he has a term sheet secured."

Melissa Simon

Oliver had the term sheets. They did not hold.

"Miraculously, that term sheet always, a few days before agreeing or signing, disappeared."

Oliver Schacht

Thaminda, on what changes the count:

"If that story is very clear, you're not picking the phone up for ten thousand people. You're picking up the phone to call five, right, and out of that five you're going to be at least getting two term sheets."

Thaminda Ramanayake

CR A warm meeting costs the investor nothing. Melissa told me herself that no is the harder word on her side of the table. So the fund that has been very positive for three months is often a no that nobody has said yet. Sezai asked for the no, and it hurt, and he still says it is the right ask.

Takeaway. Ask every fund for a yes or a no by a date. Erich's warm meetings never sent money, and Oliver's term sheets disappeared days before signing.

"What do I tell my investors, and when?"

Achim, from the investor side now:

"Keep in mind that you have to watch your cash reach and the patience of your investors."

"Bring them up early, bring them up with a good analysis, bring them up with potential solutions and preferred solutions and then we can discuss."

"In the end, you will have to disclose it anyway, only then you're in a stress situation, and you also may not have the time anymore to come up with a solution."

Achim Plum

Melissa, on the deal underneath every round:

"I'm putting my money into it, I'm putting my trust into you, but you are promising me to stay there, do your job and reach the next milestone we are agreeing on."

"If a crisis comes, it's not a reason, at least for me, to immediately walk away, but it's really more how do we tackle that together."

Melissa Simon

Klaus, when it went wrong:

"In this situation the investors were actually pretty calm and, well, had a down round in the end, but still they stayed with us."

Klaus Weinberger

Oliver, after the outside term sheets were gone:

"In the end we ended up doing an insider round at a massive down round valuation."

Oliver Schacht

It saved the company, and it made the 2004 IPO possible.

CR The round most likely to close this year is often the one with the people already on your cap table. They only do it if they hear the real date from you, while there is still time to choose. Achim put cash reach and the patience of your investors in one sentence for a reason. Both run out.

Takeaway. Tell your insiders the real date now, with the gap and two options, one of them the round where they carry you to the next milestone.

"Do I cut, bridge, or find other money?"

Tilmann and his co-founder sat down for an afternoon, said "let's do something completely different", and built Myllia on revenue. His view on why that counts more now:

"Even if it's 50,000 or a hundred thousand, right? That is little money. In the bank, you cannot keep your company going for a long time, but it's a sign of I'm doing something that somebody else respects to a degree that they put in real money."

Tilmann Bürckstümmer

Pierre, on why the decision cannot wait:

"Any slippage, any delay means an extra week, month, whatever of base burn, which takes them closer to the end of the runway."

And on the other money:

"You've seen also a bigger appetite for deals with corporates, early stage deals, option deals. They're not necessarily the panacea, but they're a good solution to keep a company afloat. Put some gasoline in the engine until you generate more data to appeal to a different breed of investors."

Pierre Morgon

Erich, on running small while the competitor down the road raised ten times as much:

"At the end, we were forced to be super focused. We were forced to work with minimal employees, minimal effort, and really focused only on success."

Erich Tauber

Jan, on who is in the round:

"If everybody from your investor base is sitting in the same corner, something happens in that corner, it might become very, very dangerous for your next step."

Jan de Kerpel

CR None of them waited for a lead investor to decide this for them. Tilmann decided in an afternoon. Erich kept the team small on purpose. Every week you put it off is a week of burn you pay for without a plan.

Takeaway. Decide now what you cut if the round slips another six months, and which other money, a grant, a corporate option deal, a first paying customer, could carry you to the next data point.

"How do I keep going while it drags?"

This is the part that does not go into the board deck. I include it because it is the part you are in.

Sezai, after the first no: "Especially the first time it took me a couple of weeks, I must say, to recover." Who he called: "During these moments, I usually call my wife... that's the person that should hear first from you before you talk to anybody else." And what kept him moving:

"Every day one call is very important... two calls even more. So having that discipline to, you know, be consistent all the time is very important for the success."

The worst part, in his words, was not the no. It was the meeting he was not in: "Other people challenge your story, your data, your technology, where you can actually not influence it." So he worked out in advance which questions would be asked there. When I asked him whether that is why he won the deal: "I think so, yeah."

Simone, in the deepest moments of her year alone: "I really felt like this is not working, I'm by myself, what am I doing here. I also knew keep going because it will result either way: either you stop or you become successful."

Erich, on the travel nobody sees: "Sitting in the plane every Sunday, flight to San Francisco, then fly over to New York the next day and flying home on Wednesday is tough."

Pierre, on what he watches for as a board member: "I've seen this more than once where people, especially CEOs, are psychologically worn out by how intense it is because of the fundraising that took more time that was not as productive."

Jan, on what it costs the company: "CEOs spend 20, 30% of their time on managing this funding and the investors."

CR Sezai needed a couple of weeks to come back from the first no. Plan for those weeks. They come with the round, like the data room does.

Takeaway. Set your stop date, make one investor call every day, and find out the questions they will ask in the room you are not in.

What to do this week

Write two dates on one page: the day the cash runs out, and the day the round closes if it slips another six months. If the second date is later than the first, this is your week. Then, in this order:

1. Ask every fund in the process for a yes or a no by a date. Sezai's rule: asking for the no is part of the job.
2. Call your insiders before the next board meeting, with the gap, the analysis and two options. Achim's format, word for word.
3. Write down what you cut if the round slips six months, and one source of money that is not a VC: a grant, a corporate option deal, a first paying customer.
4. For every fund that says maybe, write down the three questions its partner meeting will ask without you in the room, and answer them before they ask.

Questions to ask yourself

• Which fund in your process has been very positive for more than two months, and what would it say if you asked for a no by Friday?
• Do your insiders know the real date the cash runs out, and did they hear it from you?
• If the round slipped another six months, what would you cut first?
• What gets said about your company in the partner meetings you are not in?

Watch and listen

The full conversations behind this page, on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.