Top 5 Lessons from a Decade of Attending JPM Healthcare in SF

This is my 10th year anniversary of flying to San Francisco for the events around the J.P. 摩根 Healthcare conference, as the founder and CEO of women's health biotech Celmatix . I have been reflecting on how much has changed for women and women’s health in that decade. We talk a lot about disparities in female leadership and access to capital. Everyone cites the dreaded “2%” funding rate for female founders (myself included). But looking back on how things were 10 years ago, I can’t help but feel that we have made tremendous strides that will no doubt translate into real change in the coming years. In addition to my reflections, I am adding the top 5 lessons I have learned as a veteran JPM attendee for those of you who are attending for the first time.

2014 was my first JPM. I had just turned 35 and had a 1-year-old (who still had two solid naps a day) and a 6-month-old in tow (who in addition to the naps, was still exclusively breastfed.. he didn’t love bottles). My soft landing into the conference was a CEO event at the 四季酒店 downtown the preceding weekend. One of the hardest and first lessons I learned about JPM is that:

1)??? Virtually every room in San Francisco gets booked up to a year in advance of JPM week. Plan ahead for everything! Flights, rooms, reservations for any sit-down meals you want to have that week, including in the hotel restaurants. Otherwise, you are going to end up on the outskirts of town like we did that year…

It was California, and the weather was relatively warm, so I assumed I could dress accordingly. I wore white jeans, smart flats, and a sleeveless blue silk top, grabbed my badge, and headed down to the first session of the CEO conference. When I walked into the room, I couldn’t have felt more out of place. Virtually every person in the room was wearing an identical blue suit, formal shirt, and tie. I counted about five women in the room (other than the ushers and attendants who were all female). All of the female attendees were dressed like the men. I paused, gathered my strength, and started to look for a seat. Uncomfortable is an understatement for how I felt with the looks I was getting. So, I walked confidently back out of the conference hall, up to the room I had managed to secure with difficulty, and burst promptly into tears as soon as the door closed behind me. I don’t look like any of these people. I’ll never be taken seriously as a CEO. They are all at least 10 years older than me and are all dressed the same. I stick out like a sore thumb. I felt so uncomfortable! So, I did what countless women in business have done before me: I put on an ill-fitting navy-blue suit, uncomfortable heels, and went back down to the conference dressed to blend in better.

The big topic that year was artificial intelligence, which still wasn’t called that. It was called “Big Data” at the time. The most memorable moment was when the CEOs of several of the biggest Pharma companies were asked if they lose any sleep about Silicon Valley Tech companies disrupting their industry the way they had recently disrupted the taxi, media, retail, and hotel industries. The answer was rolling laughter among them and a confident and unanimous response that Pharma was immune to the risks of tech disruption because healthcare is so heavily regulated. So far, that confidence has aged well. We’ll see in a few years…

At the CEO conference, I learned that there were two annual “women’s” events at JPM. One was a Sunday dinner event preceding the conference called “Fabulous Pharma Females” and the other was hosted by a now defunct, but pioneering corporate venture firm that was a rarity in venture world in that the firm was a helmed by a woman. This latter event was hosted in the shoe department of Saks Fifth Avenue. “You can shop while you meet other amazing women in biotech!” the person who told me about it declared. I cringed through my smile but was grateful to find other females, and so had the privilege of attending both events that year. Both of the events were exactly what I needed. I had found my tribe. Women who had the audacity to lead in an industry dominated by males. They were all much older than me and all tremendously supportive and generous with contacts and advice. I mentioned the strained logistics of navigating a packed JPM schedule with on demand breast feeding and heard similar war stories. Having role models gave me the strength to navigate the crazy and exhilarating week that followed.

Second most important lesson from JPM:

2)??? Come prepared to do A LOT of walking. On day one, I canceled one of my meetings and detoured to a Nike store to purchase some shoes I could actually walk in. I would pause in the hallway outside of a meeting room, swap out my tennis shoes for my heels, and then reverse the swap after the meeting and then typically RUN to the next meeting or to feed my infant.

Third most important lesson from JPM:

3)??? It’s San Francisco in January. Come prepared for the rain. Sometimes light rain. Sometimes diluvial rain. It will rain. Check the radar. You will look like a complete amateur if you show up wet to a meeting. Everyone knows rain is an issue at JPM.

Fourth most important lesson from JPM:

4)??? Leave enough time between meetings. And if you have a meeting at the Marriot Hotel.. know that there are multiple Marriott Hotels in downtown San Francisco (lesson learned) and also that you need to leave about 15 minutes commute time just to get up the Marriot elevators.

Which leads me to the fifth most important lesson from JPM:

5)??? Less is more. The first years, I would be on my feet from 7am to 11pm every day, with timers going off in meetings to make sure I didn’t go a minute over and running from place to place. What I found is that the magic of JPM, especially now in the era of zoom, doesn’t happen in the scheduled meetings. The magic of JPM is in the unplanned, cosmic collisions: the meetings that end up on the calendar with short notice after a serendipitous introduction, typically in a loud room. So, do yourself a favor and build in some buffer time for the magic... And have a great JPM!

Final note is about what has changed the most dramatically in 10 years. Well, for one, the list of women’s events is SO LONG this year that I can’t attend even a fraction of them. Also, I received an update that one particular women’s health related satellite event is so oversubscribed that they are going to open the doors an hour in advance for attendees and then limit participation due to the fire codes of the building. When I read that email, my heart swelled with pride. The tribe of audacious women who dare to lead in biotech is so large now that we are literally straining building fire codes. Now that is progress.

I’ll have my blue suit with me this year. But after writing this, I feel like maybe this will be my year to resurrect the white jeans and wear them with the pride of my accomplishments. I have a feeling I won’t feel so out of place doing so in 2024.

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