Jeff Behrens, Founder, CEO, Scholar - The Gap in Biotech Funding

Invest Alongside Boston's Top Angels: Our Investment Syndicates How to fund scrappy biotech startups is foremost on Jeff Behrens' mind. He was CEO if a startup that raised $20 million in funding but not one cent from VCs. An invaluable interview for anyone thinking of starting or investing in a life science company. Highlights include: Jeff Behrens Studied Philosophy at Harvard but Stumbled Upon Entrepreneurship: Renaissance Man for the 21st Century MIT/Harvard Medical School Collaboration, HST, is Discussed Siamab Therapeutics Siamab Pursues Therapies Based on the Work of Ajit Varki on the Weird Sugars on the Surface of Cancer Cells Siamab Did Not Go the VC Route, I Took a Scrappier Approach to Funding from Other Sources Ovarian or Pancreatic Cancers Are Tough to Fight; Siamab Targeted them Based on the Unique Sugars on the Outside of the Cancer Cells Creating Lethal Molecules that Attack only the Cancer Cells Standard Chemotherapy Is a Carpet-Bombing Approach, Doing Harm to Healthy Cells Jeff Behrens Has Started and Run Companies but He has an Unusually Thoughtful Approach to the Work VC Are Making Large Bets on "Big-Idea" Companies, Leaving More Targeted Startups Struggling for Funding More Targeted Approaches May Be Promising but How Do They Get Funding? The Early-Validation Trap "So, I think there's an opportunity, there's some funding available, but I think there's a real need for more attention and more creativity around sort of those next stages of how we take those ideas forward". Sal Updates Us on Portfolio Company SQZ Biotech How Jeff Behrens Went from Philosophy Major to Entrepreneur "…my roommate said at the time, "You're really a business person. Why don't you just make this your thing."" Built Telluride Group to 35 Employees & It Got Acquired by a Fidelity-Backed Group "And we had enough money from that exit to be able to support that so I started thinking what would I be interested in learning about the life sciences…" "…but in biology, it struck me, we just don't know what we're doing. It's just it's hard". "…who makes more money, drugs, devices, healthcare IT or other healthcare investments?" Unusual PhD Program for Business People at Lausanne's EPFL "…how often do angel-funded companies go on to raise venture capital?... in tech companies that's true only 8% of the time…" "…only about 4 to 5% of biotech firms start in angel land and then transition on to venture land." Venture Capitalist in Life Sciences: "…have evolved their model dramatically from 10, 15 years ago. So, they're doing much larger rounds. They are syndicating a lot less. They're taking more of the early equity, and most importantly they're creating companies." "...companies that are born out of this model start... They are born with $50 million…" Crucial Question for Biotech Entrepreneurs: "…how you get to that pharma exit without needing the venture money?" Capital Efficiency Is Growing in Biotech How LabShares Newton Came About Tenancy in Shared Labs Has Low Turnover Since It's Not Easy to Get Your Lab Up and Running A Discussion of Meenta as Part of the Trend Towards More Capital Efficiency in the Life Sciences Jeff Behrens Urges Entrepreneurial Postdocs to Spend Time in Large Companies to Learn How they Work, Before Venturing Out on Their Own "One of the few ways you can get to know pharma is working at pharma for a while." Savran Technologies as an Example of a Scrappy Life Science Startup "…memo to founders. When you're offered money, take it. You will need more than you expect." Different Paths of Lives Well Lived – The Life of Joe Tosti Getting into Business Alongside Your Spouse "It's not easy working with your spouse…And you're never far away from the company and all those things." Having His Wife as His Co-Founder Was Key to the Success of Jeff Behrens' First Company "I think there is this unsolved problem of funding, not the first steps of an entrepreneurial scrappy biotech, but sort of the next steps."