ACG San Diego Women's Series | Daring to Be Different: A Founder's Path from Idea to Public Company

Daring to Be Different: A Founder's Path from Idea to Public Company

Tuesday, November 17, 2026 | 5:00 – 7:30 pm

Hosted by: Mintz — 3580 Carmel Mountain Road, Suite 300, San Diego, CA 92130

Event Description: 

Some companies chase a market. Others build one.

For decades, women's health was treated as a niche — underfunded, under-researched, and largely passed over by an industry with bigger bets to make. Sabrina Martucci Johnson built a company on the opposite conviction, and then did the harder thing: she took it public and kept it funded through years of clinical development.

Join us for a candid conversation with Sabrina Martucci Johnson, Founder, President and CEO of Daré Bioscience, and Tali M. Tuchin, Member at Mintz. Sabrina founded Daré in 2015 and took it public in 2017 — not through an IPO, but through a business combination with an already-listed company. She has since carried a product from license to FDA approval in under five years and built a portfolio reaching across a woman's entire life. Tali has spent more than 20 years structuring the licensing and collaboration deals that let companies like Daré advance their science.

They will talk through the decisions that determine whether a company survives long enough to matter: how to choose a path to the public markets, how to fund years of development before there is revenue, and when a partnership is worth more than a raise. Expect a frank, unvarnished conversation — for founders, investors, and the advisors who back them.

About Dare Bioscience:

Daré is a female-led biotech built on a single conviction: women's health is not a niche category, it’s non-negotiable. Sabrina founded the company to close a gap she had seen firsthand. Since then Daré has taken a product from license to FDA approval in under five years, published more than 20 peer-reviewed papers, and put roughly $200 million into women's health research and development.

Discussion Topics: 

· The path in — from research scientist to CFO and COO of a public biotech to founder, and the moment women's health became the mission.

· Taking the company public — what it takes to reach the public markets, and how a founder picks the route that fits the company she's building.

· Funding the vision — partnerships, NIH grants, royalty monetization: the creative capital that carries a company through years of development.

· The power of partnership — with the eight programs and what a smaller company can win at the table.

· Building the commercial model — prescription, direct-to-consumer, and compounding working together to get products into women's hands.

· Advice for the next founder — then open Q&A with the room

Agenda: 

5:00-5:45pm Registration and networking 

5:45-5:50pm Welcome & Introduction 

5:50-6:50pm Panel Discussion 

6:50-7:10pm Audience Q&A 

7:10-7:30pm Networking 

ACG Members: $55 / Non-Members: $95