The FemAging Project and Keiretsu Forum SoCal are providing a unique opportunity for founders focused on innovations/ business opportunities relevant to women ages 40+.
How might we support the health, vitality and wellbeing of women ages 40+ with emerging technology (e.g., software, diagnostics, devices, nutraceuticals, wearables, pharmaceuticals, clothing and other products and services)?
$10,000 CASH GRANT
WINNER ANNOUNCED JULY 21, 2022
Winner Receives
- 1:1 with Investor
- Eligibility for-AARP Innovation Labs Accelerator
- Keiretsu Participation-1yr
- Pitch Coaching
- Free Professional Services
Sponsored by
Partners
Thursday, Feb 27, 2023
9:00 am to 11:30 am PDT
12:00 pm to 2:30 pm EDT
Apply by Jan 19
Schedule, Speakers and Topics, See Below
Fast Pitch Competition
July 21, 2022 - Results
Grand Prize Winner
10 Finalists
Frendii
Frendii, a subscription based social club for women over 50, is helping women do more, live more, and make meaningful connections.
Mina Health
Mina Health is a platform to diagnose, treat, and educate the 1 Billion women experiencing menopause. We are currently selling our proprietary menopause diagnostic testing kits on our website and in CVS.
GlycanAge
GlycanAge helps you measure your real health and predict your future health through biological age testing, menopause prediction and personalized health recommendations, utilizing the human glycome and their proprietary technology for glycan analysis.
Hydro Gummy
Hydro Gummy is an innovative and alternative way to supplement water intake for women who want to improve hydration and to feel and perform at their best. Hydro Gummy is a bite-sized chewable snack, made of 90% water, and enhanced with electrolytes.
GLISSANT
GLISSANT Intimate Wellness was created by women for women. With a doctor's knowledge and beauty entrepreneur's eye, GLISSANT fills the need for hormone and chemical free, intimate, luxurious products that improve women's sexual wellness by using only the highest-quality, clean ingredients based on science and nature.
PhenomX Health
At PhenomX Health, there is life after the period. As the trusted source in personalized nutrition, health and wellness, PhenomX Health empowers women to personalize their nutrition to treat their hormone imbalances and health symptoms during their menopause and healthy aging journey.
THE FEMAGING ERA:
Advancing Women’s HealthTech Innovation and Investment
Watch Here!
Women over the age of 40 represent a growing, diverse and economically powerful group.
Women’s health is not just about fertility. Women over the age of 40 represent a growing, diverse and economically powerful population. However, the unique health, wellness and innovation needs of 53 million U.S. women ages 40-65 have been largely ignored. This population is worried about their health, particularly in the era of COVID-19, as well as hormonal changes and its effects on their day-to-day lives.
Women over the age of 40 represent a growing, diverse and economically powerful group.
Women’s health is not just about fertility. Women over the age of 40 represent a growing, diverse and economically powerful population. However, the unique health, wellness and innovation needs of 53 million U.S. women ages 40-65 have been largely ignored. This population is worried about their health, particularly in the era of COVID-19, as well as hormonal changes and its effects on their day-to-day lives.
KEYNOTE
Carolee Lee
CEO & Founder, Women’s Health Access Matters (WHAM)
WHAM, a 501(c)3, was launched by Carolee Lee in July 2018 as an initiative to focus on increasing awareness of women’s health issues, investing in women’s health research and implementing strategies to improve the inequities and bias in research while accelerating scientific discovery. The Connors at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School is WHAM’s Lead Scientific Partner. Other partners include the American Heart Association, La Jolla Institute for Immunology and BrightFocus Foundation.
Carolee Lee was the founder and CEO of Carolee Designs, one of the world’s leading accessories brands. After the sale of her business to Luxottica, Carolee’s vision was to create AccessCircles, a by invitation network to enrich the health and wellness, financial expertise and life balance of women through informative gatherings, transformative knowledge, unique experiences and access to preeminent thought leaders and alliance partners in the fields of health and wellness, financial expertise and life balance.
Throughout her career, Carolee has embraced mentoring and leadership roles in many diverse business organizations and is active in numerous civic, philanthropic and educational organizations.
Carolee currently serves on the board of the La Jolla Institute for Immunology as of May 2021. She is a past president of the Committee of 200, the organization of preeminent businesswomen and served as the Chair of its Foundation Board. Carolee served as a director on the board of DSW, Inc., the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and the Women’s Leadership Board at The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She also served on the board of The Society for Women’s Health Research.
Carolee has been recognized with numerous awards for her professional and philanthropic achievements.
Carolee Lee
CEO & Founder
Women’s Health Access Matters (WHAM)
Beyond Fertility: Exploring the Why Behind the Women’s Health Gap
Leading physicians in women’s healthcare discuss how we can push past the ignorance, fear and stigma that prevents women from living their fullest lives as they age.
MODERATOR
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Denise Pines
Immediate Past President, Medical Board of California
Denise Pines is a trusted resource for women as they pursue midlife wellness. She’s the immediate past President of the Medical Board of California. She is the co-visionary and head task master for Tea Botanics and the inspiration behind Hot Flash Tea. She is founder of WisePause (www.wisepause.com), a pro-aging health and education platform and co-founder of The FemAging Project (www.femaging.com), a research and education that helps drive global innovation focused on the health and wellness needs of women ages 40+. Denise cofounded of Women in the Room Productions who produced the award-winning film PUSHOUT: The Criminalization of Black Girls in School. She has a BS in marketing and an MBA in international trade.
Denise Pines
Board Member
Federation of State Medical Boards
SPEAKERS
Rachel Braun Scherl
Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Business Builder, Marketing Strategist & Vagipreneur,
SPARK Solutions for Growth
Rachel Braun Scherl has a long track record of success as a growth strategist, marketing expert, VagipreneurSM and public speaker. Over her 25+ year career, Rachel has grown some of the world’s leading brands and businesses as well as helped many start-ups achieve market dominance, with a specialty in female health and wellness. As Co-Founder and Principal of SPARK Solutions for Growth, Rachel counsels a global client base including Johnson & Johnson, Allergan, Pfizer and Bayer. Rachel was Co-Founder and President of Semprae Laboratories, Inc., a venture-backed company focused on developing and marketing women’s sexual health products. The company was sold to Innovus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in 2013.
As an accomplished speaker, Rachel is featured at leadership and entrepreneurship events at colleges, universities and conferences, including Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Duke University, The Fuqua School at Duke University, Yale School of Management, Barnard College, and Entrepreneurship Week. She has appeared on ABC’s Nightline, CBS News and MSNBC, and been interviewed for major platforms including The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Forbes, The Huffington Post and CNN. Rachel writes a monthly blog for The Huffington Post, and contributes to INC.
She earned her BA from Duke University, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa and her MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. In 2015, Rachel was recognized as one of Best Fifty Women in Business by NJBiz. In addition, she is the recipient of SmartCEO’s BRAVA Awards honoring top female CEOS.
Rachel Braun Scherl
Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Business Builder, Marketing Strategist & Vagipreneur
SPARK Solutions for Growth
Nanette Santoro, MD
Professor and E. Stewart Taylor Chair, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Colorado School of Medicine
Dr. Nanette Santoro completed her medical training in the 6 year BS-MD program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Albany Medical College, followed by residency at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City and a fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she remained on faculty for 3 years prior to joining the faculty at New Jersey Medical School in 1988.
Dr. Santoro has had continuous NIH funding since 1989, with serial R01, R21, U10, U54 and R25 grant awards focused on reproductive endocrinology, menopause and the effects of obesity on reproduction in women. She has authored over 300 peer-reviewed scientific publications and edited 4 books. She has personally mentored over 100 students, residents, postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty, many of whom have gone on to illustrious academic careers. She has been a Board member or elected officer for the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Inc. (1996-2009), the American Gynecologic and Obstetrical Society, the American Association for Gynecologists and Obstetricians Foundation, the Society for Reproductive Investigation, the North American Menopause Society, and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. She is Past President of Women in Endocrinology, Society and the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, past Vice-President of the Endocrine Society, and is President-Elect of the Society for Reproductive Investigation. She has been recognized by the Endocrine Society (Mentor Laureate Award 2016), the North American Menopause Society (Award for Research in Perimenopause 2004), the ASRM (Distinguished Researcher Award 2020), and the International Menopause Society’s Perimenopause Research Award (2020). In 2018, Dr. Santoro was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
Dr. Santoro has been named a Castle Connelly Best Doctor and “Best Doctor in America” for many years and has been a ‘Best Doctor’ in Westchester Magazine, New York Magazine, and 5280 Magazine. She helped recruit talent to make the University of Colorado’s Department of OB-GYN #8 in the country for NIH funding in 2017, has tripled the faculty within the department, and quintupled the department’s annual revenue.
Nanette Santoro, MD
Professor and E. Stewart Taylor Chair
University of Colorado School of Medicine
Women’s Health Investors on the FemAging Opportunity
Women’s health investors discussing the types of products and services investors will be interested in funding over the next several years.
MODERATOR
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Connie Harrell
President, Keiretsu Forum Southern California
Connie’s unique business sense and creative vision is the blueprint for her proven successes in various industries as both a serial entrepreneur with retail, telecommunications, printing, graphics and forms design, technology, Internet community development, and CEO/COO over companies in publications, telecommunications, technology with enterprise management systems, public relations, and private equity fundraising. With a belief that people and relationships are the most vital part of life, along with her pioneering attitude and an insatiable desire for new experiences, Connie supports the growth of innovative entrepreneurial opportunities.
Connie Harrell
President
Keirestu Forum Southern California
SPEAKER
Jolene Anderson
CoFounder/Managing Director, VectorPoint Impact Partners
Jolene Anderson is the CoFounder/Managing Director for VectorPoint Impact Partners, a seed through early growth stage purpose-driven impact venture firm and advisory team. VectorPoint’s team launched VectorPoint Impact Partners L.P. (VIP) to fund and accelerate emerging companies that are addressing some of society’s most pressing challenges, global health and climate change. Ms. Anderson served as advisor for Kineta Bio, based in Seattle, Investor Relations for a public company, Chapter President for Keiretsu Forum Northwest Region, and advisor/mentor to women led impact companies in the U.S. and Canada. She is a current Board member of the Evergreen Bioscience Innovation Cluster for the Washington State Department of Commerce, a member of the Angel Capital Association Life Science Committee and Keiretsu Forum Northwest Life Science Screening Committee, and member of Life Science Innovation Northwest. A former Board member for the St. Alphonsus Hospital Foundation, the Chris Elliott Fund for Brain Tumor Research, Board member of American Cancer Society Great NW Region and MIT Enterprise Forum NW, she has served as a committee chair for WeRoc ™, Women Accessing Capital, events in Idaho and Utah and moderator or member of investor panels for angel capital and venture summits.
As the founder of a corporate wellness education company, Ms. Anderson, produced a radio show and was a guest speaker on healthy aging, exhibitor at anti-aging, spa industry and consumer health tradeshows in North America from 2000-2003. She wrote frequent guest editorials in a global spa trade journal and other publications focused on corporate and consumer wellness.
Jolene Anderson
CoFounder/Managing Director
VectorPoint Impact Partners
What Does Agile Innovation Look Like in the FemAging Era?
Discussion with innovation, product development and design specialists on how to develop products and services for women 40+ and their strategies and tactics for innovating successfully in the FemAging era.
MODERATOR
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Fard Johnmar
Founder and President, Enspektos, LLC
Fard has extensive experience in digital health innovation development, commercialization, marketing, research, diffusion, implementation and related areas and has worked with a range of leading health organizations and well-funded startups.
His extensive client list includes Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Roche, Sanofi, Humana, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the United Kingdom and Canadian governments.
Fard is also co-author of the number one global bestseller, ePatient 2015: 15 Surprising Trends Changing Healthcare.
Fard Johnmar
Founder and President
Enspektos, LLC
SPEAKER
Celeste Lee
Founding Partner, Caire Beauty
Celeste Lee has held key advisory and management roles in the beauty & fashion world for over twenty years, across a wide range of capacities including COO of Bill Blass New York, CMO with Hello Kitty and Russell Simmons fine jewelry, and Advisor to the CEO and Board of Directors at Coty Inc. Other key clients and advisory positions include such storied names as Pernod-Ricard, Tocca, Tourneau, Fresh Beauty, Colorescience and Avon. She is recognized for successfully integrating marketing and operational strategies so as to achieve key objectives whether it is driving topline revenue growth, achieving retail or category expansion or leveraging product from customer insight to commercial launch. Recent successes include working with Kopari, a coconut premised skincare brand in creating a signature brand campaign while strategizing product expansion pathways. Kopari achieved significant funding including private equity including L. Catterton and first tier celebrity including Karlie Kloss and Ashton Kutcher.
Previously Celeste was Head of Fine Fragrance Marketing for Givaudan, the world’s largest creator of fragrances & flavours. Celeste also attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where she received her B.S. in Economics. Celeste serves as CMO at Caire.
Celeste Lee
Founding Partner
Caire Beauty
Lorrie King
Founding Partner, Caire Beauty
Lorrie King is a business development veteran who has successfully brought beauty brands to success in the United States and vice versa. Specifically, she was CMO for the launch team that brought globally renowned Boots London including the No. 7 skincare brand to North America. Subsequently at beauty powerhouse Coty, she turned Halle Berry’s signature confidence & glamour into multiple award-winning fragrances, growing the business in under 3 years to $200 million globally. Most recently, she launched SiO, a skincare startup into a multi-million brand, leading all marketing, product, operations and finance verticals. Lorrie brings management, marketing, operations and product expertise across all beauty categories to Caire including haircare (John Frieda), skincare (King of Shaves, SiO Beauty, Boots London) and fragrance (Elizabeth Arden/Unilever and Coty).
Lorrie graduated from Howard University in Washington DC and later received an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, where she focused on entrepreneurship. She and co-founder Celeste have collaborated in beauty & skincare development for over a decade on behalf of brands, large and small. They never expected to discover a skincare void with a potential value of $5BB in under 5 years, but they have and are proud to bring Caire Beauty’s hormone-defying, age-empowering mission to women worldwide. Lorrie serves as CEO at Caire Beauty.
Lorrie King
Founding Partner
Caire Beauty
Alessandra Henderson
Founder & CEO, Elektra Health
Alessandra Henderson is the Co-Founder & CEO of Elektra Health, a next-gen women’s healthcare platform on a mission to smash the menopause taboo. Elektra empowers the 50M women navigating menopause in the US – and the millions more abroad – with evidence-based education, care & community. Prior to Elektra, Alessandra spent 10+ years building early stage consumer businesses from the ground up at Artsy, the MIT NYC Startup Studio, and Human Ventures. She holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and MBA from Sloan MIT, where she received the Martin Trust Community Fellow Award and the Patrick McGovern Entrepreneurship Award. Her work has been covered by The NY Times, Fast Company, Techcrunch, and the Financial Times.
Alessandra Henderson
Founder & CEO
Elektra Health
Debbie Dickinson
Co-Founder, Thermaband
Debbie is an experienced Harvard Law benefits attorney and Wharton Business School lecturer, advocate and entrepreneur. As a perimenopausal woman battling hot flashes to no avail, she and her daughter co-founded Thermaband, a fem-tech company aiming to reframe midlife and empower women to control their thermal comfort naturally. She is passionate about women’s health, wellness and rebranding menopause as a natural and empowering phase of life through her multigenerational sisterhood community. She’s also a married mom of four incredibly compassionate and talented kids.
Debbie Dickinson
Co-Founder
Thermaband
Beyond Fertility: Exploring the Why Behind the Women’s Health Gap
Leading physicians in women’s healthcare discuss how we can push past the ignorance, fear and stigma that prevents women from living their fullest lives as they age.
MODERATOR
Denise Pines, Immediate Past President, Medical Board of California
Women’s Health Investors on the FemAging Opportunity
Women’s health investors discussing the types of products and services investors will be interested in funding over the next several years.
MODERATOR
Connie Harrell, President, Keiretsu Forum Southern
What Does Agile Innovation Look Like in the FemAging Era?
Discussion with innovation, product development and design specialists on how to develop products and services for women 40+ and their strategies and tactics for innovating successfully in the FemAging era.
MODERATOR
Fard Johnmar, Founder and President, Enspektos, LLC
SPEAKERS
Lyndsey Harper (Founder & CEO), Rosy Wellness
Holly Rockweiler (CEO), Madorra
FemAging Fast Pitch Innovators
FemAging Innovators given 5 minutes to present their product/service and market success.
OPENING REMARKS
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Deborah Jordan
Director Design Thinking, AgeTech Collaborative
Deborah Jordan (DJ), Director, Design Thinking AgeTech Collaborative from AARP. Deborah and her team work with AgeTech Collaborative participants and internal Business Units to implement human-centered approaches to problem solving and solution development.
Prior to AARP, Deborah worked in consulting with IBM, B2B Marketing in Science & Technology, and brand management & new product development in Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) on brands that include Shake ‘N Bake, Prego and Campbell’s Soup.
Deborah Jordan
Director Design Thinking,
AgeTech Collaborative
JUDGES
Maria Toler Velissaris
Founding Partner, SteelSky Ventures
Maria Toler Velissaris is a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist. She is the Founding Partner of SteelSky Ventures, the largest women’s healthcare venture capital fund with over $72 million in assets under management. Current fund investments include: 23andMe, Zipline, Lark, Motivo, Origin, Twentyeight Health, Cayaba Care, Mae, Proov Raydiant Oximetry, Bend Health, Midi, Huma.Ai, Moving Analytics and Ruby Love.
Maria founded her first business, Wakeboxes, which became Collegeboxes, and was later acquired by U-haul. She started her career as a technology strategy consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton and was awarded the National Women of Color in Technology Rising Star Award. Throughout her 19-year career, Maria has been at the forefront of marketing, strategy, and technology solutions. Maria developed a passion for healthcare while working as Head of Marketing and Product Development at Schweiger Dermatology Group, which she helped scale to become the largest dermatology chain in the Northeast, which now has over 100 locations.
Maria is extremely passionate about developing a funding pipeline for female is a member of Pipeline Angels and a charter member of the NJ Golden Seeds Chapter. She is personally invested in 20 female-led companies. Maria is also a mentor for international entrepreneurs at Entrepreneurship Roundtable Accelerator (ERA Global) and 500 Start Ups. She speaks regularly on investing and entrepreneurship panels including Amazon, LinkedIn, Google for Startups, NYU Stern, Johnson & Johnson, Bayer, and Samsung and judges pitch competitions nationally. She’s been featured as a top VC to watch by Forbes, profiled on ABC News and has recently been honored with the 2020 NYU Stern Alumni Changemaker award and named to Business Insiders’ List of Rising Stars in Venture Capital.
Maria obtained a B.S. in Information Systems from Wake Forest University, an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship from the Stern School of Business at New York University and a certificate from the Venture Capital Unlocked Program at Stanford University, an invite-only investor training program for emerging leaders who want to shape the future of the venture capital industry. She also serves on the Yale School of Medicine Center for Health and Innovation Advisory Board, The Executive Board of The National Patient Advocate Foundation, Advisory Board of MassChallenge and the Urban League of Greater Atlanta Board of Directors.
Maria Velissaris
Steel Sky Ventures
Jolene Anderson
CoFounder/Managing Director, VectorPoint Impact Partners
Jolene Anderson is the CoFounder/Managing Director for VectorPoint Impact Partners, a seed through early growth stage purpose-driven impact venture firm and advisory team. VectorPoint’s team launched VectorPoint Impact Partners L.P. (VIP) to fund and accelerate emerging companies that are addressing some of society’s most pressing challenges, global health and climate change. Ms. Anderson served as advisor for Kineta Bio, based in Seattle, Investor Relations for a public company, Chapter President for Keiretsu Forum Northwest Region, and advisor/mentor to women led impact companies in the U.S. and Canada. She is a current Board member of the Evergreen Bioscience Innovation Cluster for the Washington State Department of Commerce, a member of the Angel Capital Association Life Science Committee and Keiretsu Forum Northwest Life Science Screening Committee, and member of Life Science Innovation Northwest. A former Board member for the St. Alphonsus Hospital Foundation, the Chris Elliott Fund for Brain Tumor Research, Board member of American Cancer Society Great NW Region and MIT Enterprise Forum NW, she has served as a committee chair for WeRoc ™, Women Accessing Capital, events in Idaho and Utah and moderator or member of investor panels for angel capital and venture summits.
As the founder of a corporate wellness education company, Ms. Anderson, produced a radio show and was a guest speaker on healthy aging, exhibitor at anti-aging, spa industry and consumer health tradeshows in North America from 2000-2003. She wrote frequent guest editorials in a global spa trade journal and other publications focused on corporate and consumer wellness.
Jolene Anderson
VectorPoint Impact Partners
Kerry Amato
CAE, VP, Business Development and Partnerships, MDisrupt
Kerry is an award-winning leader with expertise in the global health innovation ecosystem and a strong track record in identifying new market segments and launching products. Before joining MDisrupt, she served as VP and executive director for innovation at the Health Information and Management Systems Society. She has a passion for building relationships aimed at accelerating the development and adoption of health technologies and is a proud graduate of the University of Iowa.
Kerry Amato
MDisrupt
Thomya Goode
Associate Investor, RH Capital
Thomya is an associate investor with RH Capital, a venture fund of Rhia Ventures. She spends her days translating her passion for eliminating disparities in health tech and wellness for women and people of color into startup investments. Before joining Rhia, Thomya served as a student investor at the University of Michigan while completing her MBA, investing in early-stage tech companies and helping to identify and create processes that eliminate gender and racial investing bias. Thomya spent a decade leveraging her chemical engineering degree from Howard University to lead medical device operations growth teams with Abbott Laboratories, helping to scale products through commercialization. Thomya is incredibly motivated to democratize access to better healthcare for all people. She believes the way we build solutions for healthcare must have women at the center of the design process. As an investor and builder, Thomya is excited to work with founders innovating strategies that will change the world and drive the economies of tomorrow.
Thomya Goode
RH Capital
Yuriy Dovzhansky
Investor, Victress Capital
Yuriy Dovzhansky is an investor at Victress Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm that provides visionary and diverse founding teams in the consumer and consumer-tech space with capital and resources for growth. Yuriy heads the Firm’s presence in New York City and works closely with portfolio companies for financing and operational initiatives. Prior to Victress Capital, Yuriy worked at DNA Capital, a multi-stage investment firm focused on digital health and at SWAT Equity Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in high-growth consumer brands. Yuriy began his career as a management consultant at Deloitte, where he worked in the firm’s Strategy & Operations practice and advised companies in a variety of industries including retail, technology, and healthcare. Yuriy earned his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and his BBA from the University of Texas at Austin.
Yuriy Dovzhansky
Victress Capital
FemAging Fast Pitch Innovators
FemAging Innovators given 5 minutes to present their product/service and market success.
JUDGES
Adrianna Samaniego, Female Founder’s Fund
Alice Zheng, McKinsey Silicon Valley Office, Leads Women’s Health
Maria Velissaris, Steel Sky Ventures
Faz Bashi, Portfolia, Portfolia
FemAging Fast Pitch Applicant Criteria !
- Business solutions must serve women ages 40+
- Company must be based in the U.S. or have a U.S. office and may operate in any industry, with the exception of nonprofits
- Must participate in the Fast Pitch Event on July 21st
- Early-stage plans are welcome (need to show some indication of customer interest, such as customer sign-ups, LOI’s, etc.)