Breaking into Life Science Entrepreneurship Panel
Summary
1. When did you start exploring entrepreneurship: what helped you decide to proceed?
Hourinaz – Postdoc in lab and started working with patient groups. Started reaching out to TTOs like eLab. After that week of reaching out, decided to pursue it. Took on part time job and developed the company.
Paul – Heard nothing back originally when trying to get something with initial data. Some companies showed interest but when they got there, they did not see any interest. Mindset changed when they decided to do it themselves.
Prakrit – Wanted to start his own lab after being postdoc in Dan Heller’s lab. A lot of people wanted to use his platform. Sometimes you are the only person that will move your product forward and that is enough to motivate if you know it will be useful.
2. What training did you receive in entrepreneurship? How did training help you advance?
Hourinaz – Exposed to a lot of resources through FxF. Went to a category agnostic accelerator. Best place to start when having just a first thought because they helped build the foundation. Then got connected to Mary. There are lots of different programs and seminars that can be used to learn about entrepreneurship.
Paul – Went to business school and engineering school. Have to read a lot of books to learn more about different aspects of business. This leads to learning what you do not know. Then formal work with accelerator programs are important. It is also imperative to talk with business people because they understand everything about how to sell the product. You need to find someone you believe in and trust to follow.
Prakrit – First time out of academia in WCBA which was informative for a table of contents for a startup. Went to Bench2Bedside (now ABI) and then did NSF i-core program. Then did frontiers which was very helpful to learn.
3. Mentorship: How did you connect with mentors? What is the role of mentors in developing your startup?
Hourinaz – Postdoc advisor is scientific advisor for company so a lot of the scientific help comes from there. Mentors needed from business side. They must be trustworthy and someone you can ask dumb questions to.
Paul – Engineering is about finding a solution. Need to get to the point where it is no longer just a research project. People who have made the most progress in the company are the business people. Licensing for example is very necessary to get help with. Tripod is scientific, business, and law that are necessary for success. Need to have real answers to business questions. People chosen early on have a huge impact on the success of the company. Fight through people that do not work out and then you learn from what did not work.
Prakrit – Had good mentors throughout. Found CEO who sees the possibilities on the horizon that are much further on in the future. In different stages you meet different people and so the company will move in different directions.
4. What was the role of participating in the WCBA/ELab program?
Prakrit – Critical first step that was positive experience. Gave me the confidence that when company got shut down there was stil the idea to make another company. Need to do these first steps before you get good with it.
Paul – Meet people you learn from and find the nuggets that become critical resources. Also it helps you identify where the holes are in your own understanding. You need to immerse yourself in this environment with like minded people who can help you reflect and learn what you need to do to be better moving forward.
Hourinaz – Learn the language for both the specialized and lay audience and business people. A lot of help with pitching and figuring out blind spots where you do not even know about. Also the network is very helpful. Applied for first SBIR as a result of the program.
5. Funding mechanism: Where are you in funding and how do you start?
Paul – Funding is a necessary evil. Science with a clinical vision is difficult because the world is there to make money, not to help people. Needed a disposable product because investors needed a constant source of income to consider investing in the company. Self-funded organization founding and then had to go to 7 figures for the rest of the company so they had to be compelling and do a lot of work to sell the product. You cannot lose sight of the funding and what other people are thinking about the company. Have to start early to get your lawyers, business, and finance people aligned.
Hourinaz – The way to know what you need for people to fund you is to talk to investors. It does not have to be a pitch. Figured out by going through WCBA that they were not at that stage yet so they started trying for non-dilutive funding.
Prakrit – Fortunate that got 250K angel investment. Exist to have a VC funded pharma exit company. Liver cancer therapeutics has no market so they could not go into that area. Talking to VCs leads to next inflection points. A bit stressful because have to produce a result to get a return on the investment for those who believe in you.
6. Looking back, what would you do differently? What are challenges today that you did not expect when you started?
Paul – Wish I talked to right lawyers early on. Would have streamlined a lot of uncertainty. The team that was put together has gone through multiple iterations. Investors invest in a team. People say that but you will not understand what a good team is until you see a mediocre team. Would get the business and legal team together earlier during investment talks.
Prakrit – Thought that the tool could be ubiquitous but that was not really possible based on the market. Found abandoned drug that could be repurposed and get IP around it. But this did not survive contact with pharma because it was not a new therapeutic. Things made sense to the MSK group of clinicians but it did not make business sense.
Hourinaz – Would have brought on a legal team sooner. Try to do things as cheaply as possible but need to negotiate with who is coming on board to make things as profitable as possible to stay alive. Wish I would have been a little more mindful about who would have been the right fit at that time.