24 Biotech Investors in 2024
Rising stars in biotech investing and creation discuss how they got started, lessons learned, scientific trends and tips to break into the industry.
How does a scientific discovery make it from paper to patient? Let’s ask the experts.
“When I started in the 1970s, I was naïve enough to think that if I wrote papers people would use them, but that didn’t happen…if they were going to lead to therapies for patients you have to form companies,” says Professor Bob Langer.
Yet biotech company formation is a risky proposition. Fledgling and mature companies alike, need skilled shepherds to provide expertise, connections and capital. “Some of the most extraordinary scientists in my lab in the last few years have wanted to take their discovery and impact human health. They realized that by working with the venture community, they could tackle major problems and have the resources to do so,” describes Professor Stuart Schreiber.
Who are these shepherds of scientific discovery, and what skills do they bring to the table? Many trainees now seek to fuse science, medicine and finance as investors. “One way to succeed [in investing] is to be good in a couple different areas and find the intersection of these strengths. In other words, be one the few that knows how several variables are moving and uniquely position yourself to find the intersection,” says Adam Koppel of Bain Capital Life Sciences.
One thing is clear: biotech investing requires hard work, and a high tolerance for risk. “Biotech is an industry of incredibly high risk…It's not easy, and there are less stressful ways to make money,” says Arjun Goyal of Vida Ventures. Often, successful investors find gold where others see only a pile of rubble: “When you go to a conference, you’ll often see two biotech companies, one on the left, with investors flooding around it, and one on the right, totally neglected. Go right. That is where you find something that might be irrationally unappreciated,” describes Rajeev Shah of RA Capital. On some level, pattern recognition and gut instinct are essential: “there's definitely an element of this business based on intuition and gut instincts. You have to learn to trust that…intuition and judgment is what separates the highest quality investors from the rest of the pack,” states Simeon George of SROne.
How does one develop this instinct as an investor or company creator? When considering a career path, it helps to hear first-hand from those in the trenches—folks actively learning how to build and identify successful early-stage biotechs, or back public companies poised to change the way medicine is practiced.
To this end, Biomarker interviewed 24 rising stars in biotech investing and creation in 2024. Those with enough experience to provide sound counsel, yet early enough in their careers to render any advice actionable. We start with how these folks, many coming from an academic background, first got involved in investing: “I’ve always found investing to be an exciting career path – it’s analytical, involves constantly learning, and, over the long run, is extremely meritocratic…the fact that venture perfectly marries [science and finance], drew me in,” describes Alim Ladha of MPM. Others came to investing after first working at a company: “I worked at a biotech before grad school and loved my experience. I knew I wanted to dedicate my career to developing novel therapies to treat patients with devastating disease after grad school,” says Linda Vo of Third Rock Ventures.
We discuss what it was like to first close a deal, and lessons learned along the way. “Venture is definitely a career where the best way to learn is by doing. Sprinting on a fast-paced deal facilitated a huge amount of learnings in a very short timeframe,” says Harry Won of OUP. “The biggest lesson I learned in my first deal was how important it is to quickly establish a solid investment thesis as your North Star. You then need to be disciplined about triaging new information in the context of this thesis during diligence,” asserts Amanda Chen of Vertex Ventures HC. Others, like Kevin Li of Frazier Life Sciences, speak to starting their public investing careers in a bear market: “Macro is an important short-term consideration when considering investments in both public and private companies. However, this experience illustrated the necessity of maintaining a long-term view of the fundamentals, especially in highly dynamic market conditions.”
In 2024, what gets these rising stars excited about an investment or creation opportunity? Some walk us through their mental model: are the right team members and investors at the table to maximize success? Will the [asset] truly make a difference to patients?” describes Aniqa Tasnim of 5AM Ventures. Others boil it down even further: “Just do good work and don’t speak in circles! Combining these traits with an exciting translational biology hypothesis, which can improve upon patient need, gets me really excited,” says Artie Arumov of Qiming. Others are somewhat circumspect about what motivates them initially: “I don’t think it’s always possible…to boil down why I start to gain conviction. I’ve become a bigger believer in ‘the prepared mind’ – that is to say the more you understand and think about an emerging modality or interesting piece of biology the more likely you’ll be able to quickly and appropriately become excited,” says James Buxton of NEA.
Lastly, we touch on advice for aspiring venture investors and creators. How does one break into the exclusive (and perhaps intimidating) world of biotech investing? Danjuma Quarless from Abbvie Ventures speaks to the relationship-based nature of the industry: “each person wishing to join venture must intentionally build strong relationships, which takes time. I’d recommend attending as many ecosystem and investor events as possible and ensure that you understand the market and current state of investing.” Others emphasize the importance of “testing out” the job before you buy: “VC fellowships can be a good entry point into venture if you can spare the time, so be on the lookout for those opportunities,” urges Nil Gural of Polaris. Noelle Hutchins of Omega says to use your strengths to your advantage: “I would recommend that you stay true to your authentic self, as these characteristics can be used to your advantage…the key to this job is that you must stay quick on your feet, organized, and always on the hunt. Bring the best catch back to the pack, don’t bring sticks and bones.”
Developing drugs is one of the most difficult endeavors we undertake as a species, and there are many requisite skillsets for success. We hope that this article serves as a resource for those interested in investing or creation—disciplines necessary to support our ecosystem and get new treatments to patients.
The article below includes selected responses from the 24 rising stars. An appendix containing all responses is attached at the end of the piece
What is one of your favorite science papers you have read in the past year? What excites you about this work, or the area more broadly?
David Baker put out a paper on computational design of passively permeable macrocyclic peptides that I found interesting (link). Macrocycles are a bit of a “tweener” between small molecules and large biomolecules. In certain cases, you can get macrocycles that engage a target akin to a biologic but are also sufficiently small molecule-like to enable oral delivery (e.g., MK-0616). Peptide chemists can only churn through so much chemical space, so accelerating that process with a computational approach could be super interesting, and might practically help drug developers generate more of these types of therapies down the road. - Alex Loftis, Vida
Building upon elegant work out of the Sanger Institute a couple of years ago, Wang and colleagues elegantly showcased translational utility for the emerging concept of somatic mosaicism – clonal remodeling of cells via postzygotic mutations – as a driver of pathology in NAFLD. The researchers introduced somatic mutations into mouse livers and proceeded to study the clonal competition and downstream fitness effects these clones conferred, observing that a protective phenotype was attributed in certain scenarios of increased genetic somatic mutation carrying clones. We’ve classically thought of somatic mutations as genetic drivers in cancer but have yet to thoroughly look at the opportunity outside of oncology, and thus this work suggests there is a new opportunity ahead for elucidating the genetic predisposition of non-cancer diseases (I&I, metabolic, neurodegenerative), potentially offering a new frontier of genetic-led precision medicine. - Artie Arumov, Qiming
Li et al., 2023 is a notable example of the intersection of next-generation biology with cutting-edge chemistry. My background is in computational biology, but the fundamental basis of drug discovery is chemistry by nature, so the transition to venture has help me appreciate this spectrum. Examples like this highlight instances where both fields contribute to accessing the non-druggable space to positively impact patients. - Danjuma Quarless, Abbvie Ventures
I like outliers. So I get excited when I read something that is very different from anything I’ve seen in the past. A recent example is this preprint from Andrew Fire’s group where they discover RNA “Obelisks”. These obelisks are circular RNAs ~1kb in size, predicted to form rod-like secondary structures, and even have ORFs coding for a novel protein superfamily they term “Oblins”. From a biotech perspective a few things come to mind of potential interest: (1) the mechanism of circularization for such a large circRNA molecule (could it compete with other RNA circularization methods?), (2) the stability of the molecule, and (3) translation efficiency. The science here is obviously very early (too early for a company), but nonetheless gives an example of the types of science I like to track. - Patrick Lundgren, Hummingbird VC
“Glioblastoma remodeling of human neural circuits decreases survival” Nature 2023. This is beautiful work at the intersection of neuroscience and tumor biology. Here, Michelle Monje and Shawn Hervey-Jumper explore the role of functional connectivity between glioma cells and neurons and how these connections influence cognition and drive disease progression. They go on to show that disrupting communication between neurons and glioma cells inhibits proliferative and migratory potential of GBM, leading to improved survival. One of my take-aways is a call to broaden our aperture to include non-cell-autonomous aspects of tumor biology to think about ways of deliberately identifying and targeting tumor-parenchymal interactions in high-grade gliomas and beyond. - Travis Hughes, Digitalis
One of the papers that took me down many rabbit holes in the past year was “Emergent autonomous scientific research capabilities of large language models” by Boiko et al, which was also recently published in Nature. Currently, lab automation enables scientists to regain time that can be redirected toward higher risk/reward experiments that do not require industrialization (exploration), in addition to enhancing the reliability and replicability of workflows that are repeated often (exploitation). This paper, FutureHouse’s mission statement and several other papers like this one, highlight how an AI copilot can enhance scientists’ productivity even further by shortening the experimental cycle. It aids in the design of experiments, accelerates execution of experiments and semi-autonomously analyzes results to propose improvements for the subsequent cycle. - Pablo Lubroth, Hummingbird VC
How did you get involved in venture? What initial misconceptions did you have about biotech venture investing or creation?
My journey to venture began in college when I enrolled in a biomedical engineering intro course at University of Rochester. With a curriculum focused on experiential learning and projects that frequently interfaced with the medical center, I was immediately intrigued by the potential to have a transformative impact in healthcare. A standout memory was from a final project in Biosystems & Circuits, in which we designed and built a communication platform for patients with Locked-in Syndrome, a rare disorder that causes total body paralysis except for eye movement. With this excitement, I did a speedrun toward any opportunity that would support my pursuit of a career as a tenured professor, which was (at the time) my end-all be-all. While working on my PhD thesis at MIT, located in the heart of the Kendall Square life science innovation cluster, I started to understand the diversity of opportunities within biotech/biopharma that stretch beyond academia. I tried on different hats, including in venture creation (Flagship Pioneering), healthcare investing (RA Capital), biopharma (Novartis), and boutique consulting (Clarion). After graduating, I joined Satellite Bio, a start-up spun out of my thesis lab. As one of the first employees, I focused primarily on operational excellence for our R&D and TechOps teams, but felt disconnected from strategic discussions that helped set the broader company timelines and milestones. I leveraged my network for warm intros to new potential roles to help fill this knowledge gap. I ultimately became most excited about a venture capital fund called Vertex Ventures HC (VVHC), and was fortunate to join the investment team in September 2022. - Amanda Chen, Vertex Ventures HC
After starting my career as a research scientist, my contributions over time earned me opportunities to join leadership and governance sessions at AbbVie. These were my first experiences with our BD and strategy groups, which led me to join a 2-year development program. AbbVie Ventures was one of the four rotations I completed, and I found the work incredibly engaging and exciting- it didn’t feel like work. What drew me in were 1) the ability to engage the entrepreneurial ecosystem at large, which is vibrant and exciting, and 2) the opportunity to review and have exposure to many scientific disciplines and technologies. An early misconception I had was that venture investing and company creation were solely about science and research. However, I quickly learned that relationships and the quality of a leadership team are broadly considered most important. - Danjuma Quarrless, AbbVie Ventures
When I was in my second year of medical school, the treatment paradigm for hepatitis C completely changed. It suddenly went from a largely incurable disease to a highly treatable infection with a 96% cure rate after only three months of taking a benign pill. I explored how the standard of care changed so quickly and discovered the entrepreneurs, scientists, and investors who helped make that change possible, including researchers at the University of Alabama. What surprised me was that transformative innovations can happen outside of the universities with the highest research dollars. According to the National Science Foundation database the University of Alabama ranks 143 in research spending in recent years. Innovation can be found in many places, and it’s important to maintain academic relationships to come across these interesting opportunities. - Jason Wang, Frazier Life Sciences
I joined venture from operating roles at both large companies (Davita) and startups (Synthego). Venture initially drew me in with it being one of the few places a background in both kidney care and gene editing could possibly be useful! Initially I had the laudable but naive perspective that simply selecting strong companies through diligence made for a good investment portfolio. Particularly in venture, so much more goes into the success of a fund - the access to investments you may have, how you operate on boards, timing of your investments, and more. The success of the investment really only begins with making the investment. - Shoman Kasbekar, Foresite Capital
I joined RA as an associate on TechAtlas (our internal research and diligence team who serve as subject matter experts and work closely with our investment team evaluating opportunities ranging from newco ideas to commercial-stage public companies) because I wanted to be exposed to everything I might want to do in biotech. Working in TechAtlas is like working at a hedge fund, a venture fund, and a consulting firm (where your only clients are RA’s portfolio companies) simultaneously. Of all the cool things I got to do within TechAtlas, some of my favorites were helping our newcos make strategic decisions and diligencing early-stage companies. I love the challenge of spotting something awesome before anyone else sees its potential. I love the creativity needed to find the perfect application for a new technology, the rigor needed to evaluate new science, the clarity needed to shape an idea into a story that can inspire others. I even love the pressure of working on early-stage investments. I think there should be a certain level of anxiety that comes with the responsibility to help make big-impact decisions like selecting indications and targets to pursue, designing make-or-break experiments, and hiring the people who’ll drive the company forward. But sharing that pressure with a team, all of whom are committed to realizing the same vision, is such a privilege. - Rebecca Silberman, RA Capital
What was the first deal you worked on that resulted in an investment? What are the biggest lessons you learned from this experience?
My first deal was Dren Bio’s Series A, where I had the opportunity to partner with CEO Nenad Tomasevic and team. I was excited about the lead asset, the CEO’s past work, and the possible upside on their platform. The company has since exceeded expectations in every axis I could imagine. I think this comes from Nenad and team’s absolute clarity on what needs to get done, which results in the speed and capital efficiency that the company has enjoyed thus far. It has become a trait I look for in founders. - David Yang, Lux Capital
BioAge Labs was the first deal I worked on that resulted in an investment. OUP participated in BioAge’s $170M Series D financing announced in February 2024, and I worked on this deal supporting Mitra Miri, a principal on our team, as well as Matt Cohen, one of OUP’s managing partners. BioAge is a clinical stage company developing an oral apelin receptor agonist in combination with incretin therapies for the treatment of obesity. Venture is definitely a career where the best way to learn is by doing, and sprinting on this fast-paced deal facilitated a huge amount of learnings in a very short timeframe. This includes the diligence, of course, but also all the dynamics that come into play after you build the conviction to get to a “yes” internally. A critical element, especially in fast-paced deals, is to run a rigorous process you can be proud of, and working on this deal with Mitra and Matt was an opportunity to learn that in action. - Harry Won, OUP
After almost 10 years in various venture internships and roles, I can definitively say that I’ve learned twice as much from of the deals that failed than the deals that resulted in an investment. So, sharing some lessons from the so-called “failures”: (1) Always replicate key experiments in an independent lab, this is never money or time wasted. (2) You will spend tons of hours working on ideas and diligence with founders, only to have them turn down your term sheet and go in another direction. This is not a loss. The fraction of time spent during ideation and diligence pales in comparison to the hours that would be required from Seed to exit. You’ve spent some time ‘dating’ the founder to figure out that you’re not on the same page for ‘marriage’ and learning that is hugely valuable. (3) Just because a deal falls apart doesn’t mean you have to stop rooting for the science/team that you were excited about. Careers are long and people remember when you are in their corner, especially when you don’t have to be. - Lauren Mifflin, Frazier Life Sciences
The first deal I worked on that resulted in an investment was Crossbow Therapeutics; a company developing TCR mimetic antibodies against intracellular targets. At the time we met the company, we were already forming a hypothesis around opportunity areas in cell therapy at Polaris and Crossbow was a wonderful fit in terms of what we considered the next frontier in cell therapy. Meeting the stellar team only strengthened our conviction. Crossbow is a company pursuing an ambitious idea, and fittingly has an amazing team behind it that is able to balance innovation with execution. We look forward to sharing some of the exciting developments later this year! - Nil Gural, Polaris
The first deal I worked on that resulted in an investment was Boundless Bio. What drew is to the investment was strong biology coupled with an exceptional CEO. What I learned, particularly in early-stage venture investing, is that while you can't precisely forecast how the science will evolve post-investment, betting on the team pays off. Luckily, that bet paid dividends with Boundless Bio! - Sahil Chopra, Vertex Ventures HC
For me, any biotech company that is bringing forward new technology or pipeline projects that will result in truly differentiated products for patients is exciting. Gaining conviction that the company and science is ready to do this with reasonable resources, both time and capital, is often the biggest hurdle in an investment. ‘Reasonable’ is obviously almost completely dependent on both a firm’s investment strategy and the company specific investment thesis. To clarify – At MPM BioImpact, it’s absolutely not an issue if early-stage companies haven’t figured out their product development path – it’s often exciting to partner with companies to put this path together. - Alim Ladha, MPM
What are some factors that get you excited about a company or company build? Is there a mental checklist or model that you construct during diligence?
For a therapeutics company (where 5AM spends most time), I get excited when I can articulate how a company’s technology or novel insight enables them to uniquely address a high unmet need area. While every opportunity is totally different, being able to answer the differentiation/”why now” questions unlocks some high-level “checklist” items for a platform or asset company: 1) Balanced biological vs. technical risk?, 2) Does the development plan create meaningful value for the next financing?, 3) Compelling exit path?, 4) Are the right team members and investors at the table to maximize success?, and 5) If the product is approved, does it make a difference to the lives of patients? - Aniqa Tasnim, 5AM Ventures
The exciting factors are a technology's or application's raw potential, especially in novel therapeutic drug platforms. New company builds are challenging in the beginning because the team doesn't have the resources, corporate structure, or maturity of an advanced company, which means investors and board members must contribute heavily to their development in the beginning. However, a much higher degree of aspiration, optimism, and excitement exists as the company attempts to succeed on a grand scale. A red flag would be a founder or executive team that signals a diminished ability to rely on their investment syndicate or scientific advisory members for insights. Capital inefficient companies would be a massive red-flag in this market. - Danjuma Quarless, AbbVie Ventures
We anchor to the exit (whether pharma M&A or going public) and what we think this company could be worth in success (for us, focusing on the lead program(s), not the platform). For therapeutics, this tracks well with magnitude of potential clinical impact, which is the source of my passion for this work, as it is for most biotech investors. A non-exhaustive list of considerations: 1) How validated is the target and the proposed MOA, and is the modality the best approach for a given indication (instead of having a promising technology and looking for a problem)? 2) How compelling is the preclinical data, how developed is the chemistry/PK/potency? 3) Does the clinical trial design make sense, is it possible to demonstrate PoC in a short time? 4) What is the competitive landscape, are there regulatory challenges or tailwinds? How easy is the drug to manufacture? 5) What are the value creating milestones this financing purchases, are they enough to get investors excited the next go around? Is there enough runway to get that raise done? These points are especially important in tough financing environments. 6) Last and most importantly, team is critical. Are there experienced drug developers around the table, whether at the helm or deeply involved as advisors? - Harry Won, OUP
I don’t think it’s always possible, nor fair to the companies, to boil down why I start to gain conviction in a particular company. I’ve become a bigger believer in ‘the prepared mind’ – that is to say the more you understand and think about an emerging modality or interesting piece of biology the more likely you’ll be able to quickly and appropriately become excited when the right opportunity presents itself. More recently the companies I’ve become excited about have tended to be tangentially related to ones that we’re very recently interacted with. Time will only tell is that’s a prepared mind or recency bias, but there are interesting subsections of biology which can helpful inform others. - James Buxton, NEA
Every project is different - a compelling therapeutic seed build can start from a clinical stage asset or from a technology idea on paper. There is no fixed starting point or universal data package & diligence recipe. What is critical for me is to ‘see the drug opportunity’ that a platform or asset could uniquely unlock, supported by a compelling data rationale of ‘why it will work’. In therapeutic discovery we are always chasing the intersection of the right drug, for the right target, for the right patient, with the right clinical trial. - Maurizio Fazio, Atlas
Things to get excited about: Does the company have a technology/product that is differentiated? Will their product or drug be a gamechanger in a particular disease and/or target indication? Is the overall science/ biology validated? Does the company have a mgmt. team that can execute? Do the timelines make sense, and what are the overall projected budgets and costs with the current fundraising? And, of course, does the company have a viable exit path? Is there a growing investor sentiment, i.e. how hot is this deal? Red flags: Technical risks (foreseen toxicity, difficult to reproduce academic laboratory results), regulatory risks (unclear efficacy endpts), clinical developmental path is not well defined - Noelle Hutchins, Omega Funds
During diligence, I try to remember that making an investment is as much a decision of “when to” as it is “whether to.” I ask the usual questions on biological rationale, market opportunity, and valuation. But I also focus on the key milestones achieved by this raise and whether this is the right time to invest, or if it would be more prudent to revisit at the next raise, even if that would mean investing at a higher valuation. I map the company’s development milestones onto the upcoming catalysts and trends in their field to try to understand what headwinds/tailwinds exist outside the company’s control. I try to put each company’s approach into the context of the history of their field to understand what technical/scientific breakthrough unlocked their solution (and whether another breakthrough is on the horizon which will totally change the competitive landscape). When I find a company at the right stage of development for us to invest and poised to capitalize on an opportune moment in the evolution of their field, I feel like I’ve found something special. - Rebecca Silberman, RA Capital
My focus is on therapeutics, and I ask myself the question "If this company were to succeed in developing this drug candidate into an approved product, why would a doctor prescribe it?" Asking this question early on in my diligence process helps me contextualize the investment opportunity and identify key questions I need to dig into. - Suan Tuang, TCG Crossover
Using your mentors as examples, are there any traits or skills that you have tried to develop to become a better investor or creator?
Balance is important to success in investing and company building. I continue to learn from Bruce Beutel about the importance of the day-to-day activities needed for success within a biotech company, and the constantly evolving scientific planning & scenario mapping happening, as one example, and certainly one that I leverage in both our company build efforts as well as in supporting portfolio companies as a board observer. The plan will inevitably change multiple times over (if it’s not, then you’ve got another problem!), based on experiments and emerging data, and being able to continue handing off the baton from one scenario to the next without losing momentum is critical. Anna French has taught me to not be afraid of thinking outside the box and in fact owning a personal brand of scientific creativity, but importantly never at a high level and always with an appreciation and understanding for the scientific nuance within the field of interest. There’s a lot of crowd sourcing for the same sets of drug targets and therapeutic approaches, yet often the best discoveries and inventions require a small subset of people to have taken the initial risk and pushed ahead. Handing off the creative baton while keeping the pace is key to success! - Artie Arumov, Qiming
I’ve learnt a huge amount from Ali Behbahani and Ed Mathers who have invested through multiple economic cycles. While they each have their individual investing styles, they’re both fantastic at understanding (and communicating) how time, risk and reward are intertwined when assessing a new opportunity. Specifically, I’ve tried to spend more time thinking about how risk can quickly compound when a company is addressing several unanswered questions – mechanism, delivery, patient population, clinical development plan for example. - James Buxton, NEA
I have to give a shout out to my high school biology teacher and one of my longest standing mentors, Jim Johnston, who deserves full credit for putting me on the science path in the first place and continuing to support me ever since. Jim has taught me the value of being humble and curious, staying hungry, and having people and ideals in my life that I would gladly run through a brick wall for. I’ll also give a nod to Howard Marks, who I don’t know personally, but his suggestion to be mindful of others being greedy vs fearful has been continuously applicable. - Roman Camarda, Novo Holdings US
If someone decides that VC is for them, any advice on finding a job in this environment? What are 1-2 things you would recommend doing to be proactive?
Do a fellowship! You won’t know until you try it. Also remember there are other career paths that give you exposure to what you do as an associate in VC. I think it’s really important to talk to as many people as you can before deciding what you might pursue after grad school – use those alumni networks. - Alex Loftis, Vida
Certain investing strategies will speak more to some people than others. If you are looking for a job, try to learn about firms’ investing strategies. See which strategies best match how you view the world. Alignment there will often make you successful in the hiring process and on the job. - Alim Ladha, MPM
There is no substitute for doing the job. There are now several venture firms that offer summer internships that provide exposure to the day-to-day activities in this world to current students. Equally important, you can get a sense of whether you really “like it” which is important to long term career success in venture capital. - Jason Wang, Frazier Life Sciences
Unlike banking and consulting, investment firms may hire irregularly and often on an as-needed basis. Finding the right role can require being in the right place at the right time. For those considering a career in investing, I encourage seeking conversations with people of different personal and professional backgrounds and at varying career stages. When I was starting out, this helped me identify and vet potential opportunities, as well as solicit career advice, which was invaluable to me as I was considering a future in clinical medicine vs. Investing. - Kevin Li, Frazier Life Sciences
Take advantage of any opportunities to gain relevant experience beyond your scientific skills. If you’re still in grad school, join the biotech club, look for internships/fellowships or consult for a company. Also, don’t be shy about emailing and networking. Often times, opportunities arise without ever being advertised so having a strong network is helpful. - Linda Vo, Third Rock Ventures
Offer to introduce investors to companies, scientists, future founders, or generally great people that haven’t already met. From my perspective, this is a better way to get your foot in the door than sending your CV or even a warm introduction. We have also found and hired investors all over the world through their writing. - Pablo Lubroth, Hummingbird
My two pieces of advice are knock on as many doors as you can find, and do your best to stay positive when invariably not all of them open. No one can tell you how long and winding that road will be. As far as I can tell, the only things you can control are how prepared you are when you do approach a door to knock on it, and how you feel after the process has gone positively/negatively/anything in between. - Roman Camarda, Novo Holdings US
Advice to prospective or first-time entrepreneurs in 2024, as they bravely pitch to VCs in the new year?
Take time to understand your audience (VCs) and communicate your pitch accordingly. It pays (pun intended?) to understand what governs the drug development industry. Many life science entrepreneurs come from academia, an ecosystem in which incentives will favor pursuit of novelty for the sake of knowledge advancement and scholarly discourse. While drug development certainly also rewards innovation, there are several other considerations for developing a new drug. Non-exhaustively: a new drug should serve an unmet need, be efficacious, be safe, be manufactured reproducibly, be produced/sold/reimbursed in a way that allows profit, address a patient population that is identifiable and understood, etc. There are risks associated with all the above, and the job of a VC is to understand the opportunities and risks associated with investing in a company, while also balancing their portfolio. Understanding this vantage point will help you tailor your pitch. - Amanda Chen, Vertex Ventures HC
The last couple of years have not been easy for entrepreneurs. Clearly articulating the “why now?”, your technology’s differentiation, and the bar for success in your field is important as ever. In the current environment, ensure that the financing plan efficiently drives to the next major value-creation milestone for your company. If a platform, clarity and discipline on defining the 1-2 key products/applications for the technology – that create value in themselves, and also de-risk the underlying technology – are particularly important right now. Finally, it’s never too early to build relationships with early-stage investors and gather feedback whenever possible. - Aniqa Tasnim, 5AM Ventures
It all comes down to effective storytelling – who are the cast of characters, what is the conflict, what is the resolution, and how do you get there? For biotech startups, telling the story in a clear and crisp, data-supported way is the best way to capture attention and get investors to understand what exactly you’re building. It’s worth remembering that investors have dozens of companies competing for their attention at any given time. Therefore, the extent to which you can compellingly answer both “why” and “why now” in a logical and transparent way, often determines whether your company gains traction internally at a given firm. - Harry Won, OUP
The first time you meet a VC should never be a pitch. For prospective entrepreneurs, this means that you should be spending a significant amount of time trying to meet investors and learn about them and their interests. Cold intros are generally very low yield, so build slowly from your existing network (e.g., your academic network) asking for 1-2 warm intros. This is not a sprint but a marathon. Set clear and actionable goals for yourself on building out your network, whether that be attending “X” networking events per month, new coffee chats, or even spending a certain number of hours engaging with your school’s tech transfer group. When I was at Chicago, I kept a very large Excel sheet where I had mapped the top 100 healthcare funds across the Penn and Chicago alumni networks, my LinkedIn network, and then mapped out key “nodes” of secondary connections. I’m not sure I would recommend this approach for everyone, but take building and maintaining relationships seriously. When you finally get to a pitch, it’s such a relief to see a friendly face and often that’s the person who can intro you to the rest of their group as someone that they know and respect. - Lauren Mifflin, Frazier Life Sciences
I can’t stress this enough: first, articulate clearly your target & product thesis. Second, in your early VC interactions ask for help and feedback to navigate the landscape of likely investor fit for your project. Lastly, remember that rejection is often about the idea/project, but just as often about fit/externalities (Fund cycle, portfolio strategy, timing etc.) - Maurizio Fazio, Atlas
A good first pitch is meaningful – prepare well, ask “friendly” investors to give you feedback before you get on the road, make sure you are delivering a crisp and clear message, take the time to cater your pitch to your audience Today, more than ever, efficient use of capital matters – make sure that you have a solid development plan and the capital you are asking for can take you to meaningful milestones Be resilient - there may be many “no”s along the way but you are your best advocate and all you need is a few “yes”s - Nil Gural, Polaris
Milestones, milestones, milestones. Exactly what will you accomplish with the capital, how can we be confident you will accomplish these milestones, and why will these accomplishments drive a value inflection for your company? We’re in an environment that highly scrutinizes fundamentals. While storytelling remains as key as ever, also drawing a logical bridge to derisking milestones is critical. - Shoman Kasbekar, Foresite Capital
Any predictions for what biotech will look like at the end of 2024?
I think precision oncology will return into the biotech spotlight, catalyzed by promising clinical readouts within emerging target classes and with novel drug modalities finally making value-accretive pushes! We’ll see investments and data readouts for therapies against novel targets, and learnings from the last ~4 years of antibody and cell therapy technology will finally begin to show themselves with exciting opportunities both entering and reading out in the clinic. The current sentiment is incredibly asset focused (show me a DC through clinical asset) and these are certainly getting financed – by the end of 2024 I think we’ll see an increase in more Seed investments, as the bullpen of high-value asset investments begins to empty out. - Artie Arumov, Qiming
While the PIPE activity in the public markets is certainly a recent positive trend the uncertainty surrounding what the Fed will do with rates in subsequent months and the upcoming US election doesn’t fill me with hope for the number of IPOs in the second half of the year. History tells us that M&A activity drops up in the months ahead of an election and I don’t see why that shouldn’t be the case this cycle. Finally, the XBI has been so tightly and inversely correlated with interest rates that we should expect to see private deal activity roughly follow activity in the public markets, all be it a few months behind. - James Buxton, NEA
After a very upbeat start to 2024, I foresee the biotech markets ending the year on a rather volatile note, especially with it being an election year. We can expect ongoing M&A or dealmaking frenzy among major pharmaceutical players, particularly in hot sectors such as cardiometabolic diseases, antibody drug conjugates and radiopharma in oncology. Additionally, I anticipate significant consolidation within crowded fields like cell and gene therapy. Biotech companies that prioritize strong science, data, and have the potential to improve patient care are best positioned to make a lasting impact, regardless of market fluctuations.- Sahil Chopra, Vertex Ventures HC
Starting at JPM this year, much of the uncertainty and anxiety of the past year has given way to a cautious optimism if not excitement. As I write this, the XBI turn-around appears to be well underway along with a re-opening of the IPO window. Despite an uptick in deal flow and numerous green shoots, I think investors are still approaching new opportunities with the increased scrutiny of the past year. Biotech investors are looking to reward high-quality clinical data (Series B+), while looking for promising new opportunities for early-stage investments (Seed/Series A). However, this leaves many great companies stuck somewhere in the middle. The biggest challenge of 2024 will be the pre-clinical Series B, as companies and investors alike search for ways to attract outside investors to transition promising programs into the clinic. - Travis Hughes, Digitalis
Appendix Attachments
Investor Bios
All responses from 24 selected investors
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