Advice From the Vineyard

I've been down at the annual Convergence Forum on Martha's Vineyard since Thursday (an event I help organize)... and the audience and the speakers have been great. Yesterday featured Mark Levin of Third Rock Ventures in conversation with Infinity Pharmaceuticals CEO Steve Holtzman (they worked together at Millennium); Alkermes chairman Richard Pops; and Oxford's Jonathan Fleming moderating a panel on "Exit Scenarios."

My favorite quote of the day, though, came from the opening panel. Dicerna CEO James Jenson had been talking about how he pitched 70 VCs on his previous company before getting funding.

"The most important thing for the entrepreneur is, don't die," he said.