Entrepreneurship Meets Academia - How Academic Institutions Bring Science to the Public
Summary
Entrepreneurship Meets Academia - How Academic Institutions Bring Science to the Public Panel
Loren Busby – Loren is the Director of the Bioventure eLab. She worked for multiple venture capital firms throughout her career. In her most recent role before joining Weill, Loren served as CFO/COO/CBO at Cresco Advisors and has experience in various industries such as healthcare, technology, AI/machine learning, and manufacturing in the US and abroad.
Carlo Yuvienco – Carlo is the director of the Ford Center Incubator at Rockefeller University. During his career, Carlo has founded multiple companies and was Vice President of New York City Economic Development Corporation.
Andoni Mourdoukoutas – Andoni is the Associate Director of Programs at the City Innovations Collaborative at the City University of New York. Before joining CUNY, he was a life sciences consultant at Charles River Associates.
Joe Borrello – Joe is the head of engineering at Mount Sinai BioDesign. He is also the acting chief technology officer of BioSapien, a late-stage pre clinical company focused on novel drug delivery platforms. Joe has also co-founded multiple companies and is widely known for his newsletter GroBiotech.
1. For Everyone: Tell us a little about your background. What is the occupation you hold today, how did you get to this position, and what is a typical day like?
Loren: Worked in a role she loved which involved due diligence of life science companies. She served as CFO/COO/CBO to gain experience and worked with Weill. This led her to connect with those who got her the position she is in today as Director of the Bioventure eLab.
Carlo: Went to career fairs and made many connections. He learned how a device worked and this showed him that he needed to get a higher degree then he had so he went to graduate school. He always wanted to work for a large company like Regeneron but it was difficult to find a job. In the meantime, he worked with the someone who led to the creation of the EDC and continue making connections which eventually led to his current role at Rockefeller.
Andoni: Went to CUNY for undergraduate and then did a PhD at Berkeley where he developed microfluidic tools and was immersed in entrepreneurship. He joined club meetings about entrepreneurship while at Berkeley to learn about venture creation. At the end of the PhD, he had ideas of how companies could propel their science from the lab to the public. At his job in consulting, he worked to find why science is not taken as far as the public in many cases. He used the connections he made at CUNY and beyond to get hired at his role at CUNY where he does a lot of relationship management and creates ways which students could get their science to the public.
Joe: Stayed connected with people at Mount Sinai and had a ton of experience with 3d printers so he started working with BioDesign. He spun out 4-5 startups at BioDesign. He had been working there during his PhD and they asked him to stay on full time after graduation.
2. For Everyone: Briefly, what does your organization offer to graduate students and/or postdocs?
Loren: Bioventure eLab is a physical facility with the goal to foster an innovation mindset and entrepreneurial ecosystem to educate people on what the pipeline is to launch companies and offer access to operating talent and connections with investment.
Carlo: RU incubator is space for 8-10 companies with things to keep people happy. They take pre-seed to early stage companies. Real estate is expensive they are picky about who they take. They do not take equity. They give out one year term for licensing and expect companies to have IP and some funding.
Andoni: CInC is very young and has not really started processing students yet. They serve CUNY companies and are an incubator space with wet lab and 3d printer. PhDs or postdocs can rent the space or get an internship with companies when they are moved in. They are also trying to build an environment to connect early talent to stay longer for venture creation as well as provide educational resources for their community.
Joe: They do not have space to be a real incubator at the hospital. Staff come with an idea and need help to build their idea with the lab. For 4-5 last years, they started programming more, like the Thrive program, that educates people on how they can do venture creation. So far BioDesign has led to patents but not full startups yet. They will never turn anyone away who is willing to work to get their technology created.
3. For Everyone: What stage(s) of development in the ideation stage should someone interested in bringing their science to the public come to you?
Loren: Montra is care, discover, teach. Ideation is the specialty and they help with formulated ideas and also generating new ideas. Can bring in specialists to help create the best product given an idea. Bring in industry experts to help graduate students and postdocs to lead them to a career path they will enjoy. They help you feel through the dark and find what is most interesting to you.
Carlo: The company can’t be more than 15 people or founded for more than 10 years. Anyone around the area can ask for advice about the next step for their company. The companies can be pre-seed to series A.
Andoni: The space is not free so 2-15 people companies can join. The companies can be pre-seed to series A.
Joe: They have had people come with napkin sketches to full devices that are not sufficient to be scaled up. The goal is to be there at any stage to help them move forward.
4. For Carlo: What is the process of applying to be in the incubator? What are the benefits of incubators founded through academic institutions compared to other incubators for those applying? What are the benefits of academic institution founded incubators for the academic institutions themselves?
Carlo: The application process is paper based and applications are reviewed 3 times a year. You will describe what the company does, its IP, what funding the company has, and more. Unique to the incubator application, each applicant has to send in a 20 minute prerecorded presentation. A Q&A about the company with an emphasis on its weaknesses which leans into the science is given. They select scientific companies that are more advanced in their science. The location of the RU incubator is important since it is immersed in the tri-i. Also the core facilities are on campus which are not that common.
5. For Loren: You lead many incredible opportunities for Weill Cornell students, staff, and faculty to learn about entrepreneurship and immerse themselves in it, such as the Accelerating Bioventure Innovation course and the $100K Biomedical Business Plan Challenge. How did the eLab conceptualize these amazing programs, and how do you continually provide an environment which fosters interest and success in entrepreneurship?
Loren: Accelerating Bioventure Innovation (ABI) was previously the brain child of bench 2 bedside. This course helps you et experience with industry skills in addition to its focus on life sciences entrepreneurship. The 100K business challenge for faculty is conducted by the eLab to advance science in faculty labs.
6. For Andoni: The City Innovations Collaborative was founded less than two years ago (not exactly sure that is true). What led you and your team to begin working towards filling this unmet need? What challenges have you come across as an early stage accelerator? Was there anything unexpected that you had to overcome?
Andoni: The goal is to expand the core of city college. They want people to be able to get their science from CUNY to the public. CInC is different from RU in that there is a lot of different parts so the logistics can get very difficult. There is a lot of bureaucracy. A lot of the day is meetings and making friends so that the pipeline can be created to move science forward in a streamlined way.
7. For Joe: You were one of the first employees at BioDesign. What was the original goal of BioDesign, and how has it achieved that goal? What are the most important attributes of BioDesign that have led to its success throughout your time there?
Joe: BioDesign was headless for a little bit and fell under a neurosurgery professor who is very passionate about creating devices to help different fields advance. They needed to figure out how to sustain BioDesign to pay for everything they were doing, which is why industry and medtech design emerged. They moved around and found a way to fit what was needed to create their role in the community.
8. For Everyone: What advice would you give to a student or postdoc interested in pursuing a career as a founder?
Loren: Do not be afraid of failure. She has been part of failure as an operator and investor where things do not work out even though they were great ideas. Do not always think there is a soft landing.
Carlo: Do not dismiss getting experience first. IT is good to work for a company to get general advice and knowledge about how to start a company. You can then create your own IP or join a company where you believe in the IP. There is a lot of respect given to people who have been in an early stage company team or created their own venture multiple times.
Andoni: Your PI can be your greatest champion or greatest saboteur. You should have conversations about entrepreneurship as early as possible so there is not a negative relationship later on.
Joe: To found or get involved in a company is very difficult and you have to learn a lot of business stuff you will not like. Nobody has ever come out on the other side worse. You get a badge of respect for being part of this journey.