Gm Brazeryens. ATTN Sci-EOs: Brazen Summit is going down SUNDAY in LA!
[Welcome to Issue 07 of The House Brazeryen, where we break down the latest Brazen Bio, Brazen Capital, and bio-startup-related news for you fortnightly, in roughly 5 minutes.]
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BRAZEN SUMMIT: And our Keynote isâŚ
Bryan Johnson is not a household name [yet], but you likely have used his tech. This visionary founded and bootstrapped Braintree in 2007âa payment system for ecommerceâwhich eventually acquired Venmo in 2012 for $26M. In just 13 months, he flipped the merged companies (Braintree-Venmo) to PayPal for $800M.
WYD?
Since then he started two new ambitious projects with his own moolah: 1) a $100M hard tech venture capital fund called OS Fund and 2) kernel, a non-invasive brain-computer interface startup based in Culver City, CA. [He is also maximally optimizing his health in public and is presently ripped af. âed.]
BRAZEN BREAKDOWN
Closing the Summit with a BANG!!!! For this unique fireside chat, Bryan will be sitting down with dot.LAâs dedicated bioscience journalist and our friendâKeerthi Vedantamâto discuss âthe founderâs journeyâ and the promises and pitfalls of founder-led bio.
BRAZEN SUMMIT: The bio-VC Panel
A summit for founders wouldnât be complete without VCs in the mix. Just before Bryan takes the stage, we will be chopping it up with five early-stage bio-VCs from all over the map and all different backgrounds.
Monica Jain, MD â While her day job is endocrine surgeon (and Surgical Innovation Officer) at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles she is also the newest Venture Partner at Wavemaker Three Sixty.
Scott Alpizar, PhD â Armed with a PhD in neuroscience from Dartmouth, Scott â¨accidentally⨠found himself in venture capital and is now Senior Associate at the evergreen fund of the New Jersey Health Foundation/FVCG.
Chris Bostick, PhD â The newest full General Partner at OCV Partners based in LA, Chris has a PhD in pharmacological and pharmaceutical sciences and a completed a postdoc at Columbia University.
Joshua Eckelberry â Originally training to become a physician, Joshua is now Principal of Solas BioVentures, a $40M physician-backed fund based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We met Joshua on TikTok! WOT!
Dana Watt, PhD â Dana is Principal of Breakout Ventures based in the beautiful Presidio in San Francisco. She trained in neuroscience at Wash U in Saint Louis and is a Kauffman Fellow.
BRAZEN BREAKDOWN
Come meet these amazing young VCs in person andâhereâs your alphaâVCs from several other funds will also be attending the Summit!
VC CORNER: Donât Quit Your Day Job?
Contributed by Scott Alpizar, PhD â Another newsletter, another controversial tweet. This week itâs Renata Merino suggesting that founders working a full-time job âarenât ready to speak to VCsâ and should quit their jobs to focus on their startup. Itâs an interesting, and in my opinion unfair, take.
Many of us sacrifice that paycheck to do what we love. You need to be serious.
Basically every founder I work with has a day job â they are students, professors, or clinicians. While it can be frustrating that they cannot dedicate their full time to their startup and progress may be slower than normal, weâd never ask them to quit. Â It just isnât possible in every situation. A lot of people canât afford to not be able to take care of themselves or their families. Others have a great idea, but no personal interest in starting/leading a company.
But does that mean these ideas shouldnât be pursued? Of course not. In my experience, these ideas can still come to life if the right things are done.
Be honest with yourself. Biotech startups are a lot of work. Do you see yourself leaving your current job to run a company? Spending day and night fundraising? Reading every contract? If you know you canât put in 100%, understand how much you can put in.
Find the right person to take over. This can be anyone from a student in your lab to a seasoned veteran whoâs done it before. Even if you find someone who tried and failed, that experience is valuable. There are also people out there who want to be an entrepreneur, but just donât have the idea. Find someone coachable and hardworking and they will learn what they need toâIâve seen it.
Find the right investor. Being honest with potential investors is just as important as being honest with yourself. The right investor understands this personnel challenge and can either help you through the early stages of starting/growing your company, or can leverage their networks to find the right person. The right person may take a good chunk of their investment or the companyâs equity, so they need to know and understand that tooâitâs necessary. Â
BRAZEN BREAKDOWN
Now donât get me wrong: dedicating your full attention to your startup is the most ideal scenario.
There are cases where quitting the day job actually does make sense (i.e., Shawn did it) and resources out there to help you take the leap (e.g., Brazen Fellowship, Y Combinator, IndieBio). But if you canât presently sacrifice your income and livelihood for your startup, there are still ways to make it work. You just may need to get creative!
[COUNTERPOINT: Thankfully, these are not life or death decisions. You will ALWAYS be able to get a new job. Consider living more humbly and changing your mindset a la our friend, Gary Vee. âed]
đ Brazen Snax
đŚ Setting CRISPR out loose in the wild: Is this our Jurassic Park moment?
â° TikTokCrak: Are you among the 12M people who watched our CEO cry?
Unfortunately, we ran out of snax this week. Headed to Costco to restock⌠(i.e., we ran out of time and needed to ship this issue as is. Sue us. đ).
đŞ Carveout
ATTENTION FOUNDERS!!! âFrom Start-Up to Grown-Up: Grow Your Leadership to Grow Your Businessâ by Alisa Cohn is required reading. QED.
đđ˝ A Dose of Gratitude
We are grateful for ZÊcca Lehn, GP of Responsibly Ventures and host of posi2ive and Twitter spaces on VC impact. A much needed positive voice in the startup scene.
[PS: taking nominations! If there is someone you would like us to shout out let us know! If you are the first to nominate someone we feature, youâll get Brazen Bio swag!]
đ Brazen Meme
âď¸ Feedback
Please tweet all thoughts, questions, and insults to us @brazenbio. Bring it. No, really. COMEđđ˝ATđđ˝USđđ˝BROđđ˝