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Into the venom mines
Animal toxins are nature’s precision tools, evolved primarily to immobilize, kill, or deter. They hold the largest known arsenal of biological warfare, shaped over billions of years through an endless arms race with their prey to become both highly efficient and remarkably selective. They’re not only a marvel of natural engineering but have also helped Continue reading
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Why we have to pass on startups
The crummiest part of venture capital is having to tell people no. We, like many other early-stage deep tech funds, often need to make tough decisions, and can often with the resources we have only invest in less than 1% of the companies we connect with. I thought it would be helpful for founders to Continue reading
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How to scale hiring from 2 to 200
When building a company, one of the most critical skills (and also one of the least popular ones) is hiring. The process can be extremely tedious, making you grind through 100s of applications until finding a great fit for a critical role. It is a very important process to get right though – companies are Continue reading
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Make complex stories simple
Great communication can be extremely powerful for swaying investors, bringing in talent, and coordinating teams. It’s one ability that is really worth investing time and energy in because of its strong upside when done well. We talked to many founders over the last few years and I wanted to share here a few thoughts about Continue reading
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Great science companies can start with little funding
Many scientists we’ve been talking to think that it’s not worth starting a company unless they have significant funding on hand because research-intensive startups are so capital-intensive. Research and development can burn through a lot of money very quickly, but that doesn’t mean that only having limited resources available is a deal breaker – in Continue reading
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Founder-led biotech is not a new concept.
Founder-led biotech companies are becoming increasingly common. While we are seeing inspiring companies emerging, there is still a lot of skepticism around this concept. It’s important to remember that this is not an entirely new phenomenon and that (even very technical) founders have built and led very successful, multi-billion dollar biotech companies. Some of these Continue reading
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How to make sure you team up with good advisors
The right advisors can be an asset to a company but founders should make sure that they get value out if for the long-term. Continue reading
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Co-founders (and where to find them)
Good co-founders are very hard to find. Make sure it’s the right chemistry before you tie the knot. Continue reading
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Set up your own lab early on
Setting up a research lab is a time-consuming and capital-intensive endeavor. Because of that, many early-stage bio start-ups flirt with the idea of postponing that step and running early experiments through contract research organizations and that’s (partially) the wrong approach. Outsourcing experiments might feel like a safer and faster plan in the short term, but Continue reading
Alex Schubert 