Gm Brazeryens. House of the Dragon looks fire, ngl. 🔥
[Welcome to Issue 05 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 Bio Raising Second Crowdfund
2021 was an amazing year for Brazen Bio. In just 6 months from founding, we exceeded our goals from recruiting nearly 50 Senior Fellows to establishing the world’s first biotech launch house (Brazen House) to successfully running the first Brazen Fellowship cohort (BRZN01) to launching our VC fund partner, Brazen Capital.
Everything is happening faster than anticipated so now it is time to fuel this momentum with a second community round fundraise on Wefunder!
Brazen Breakdown
By law, we are limited in what we can reveal here. Find out more on our crowdfund campaign page and invest before the public!
LEGAL DISCLOSURE: We are 'testing the waters' to gauge investor interest in an offering under Regulation Crowdfunding. No money or other consideration is being solicited. If sent, it will not be accepted. No offer to buy securities will be accepted. No part of the purchase price will be received until a Form C is filed and only through Wefunder’s platform. Any indication of interest involves no obligation or commitment of any kind.
Spend the Summer at Brazen House!
We are curating an exclusive 2-month coliving experience at Brazen House called the Brazen Summer Program (BSP)! If you are a budding founder/VC/creator in the life sciences and want to build side-by-side with other like-minded folks, keep reading!
In addition to various events, we'll provide a unique curriculum to learn about biotech, startups, and more. It's a great opportunity to build your network and learn a ton while spending the summer at the beach (especially if you have aspirations of becoming a Brazen Fellow)!
Brazen Breakdown
Spots will go fast! The application process is competitive and rolling. APPLY HERE!
ICYMI, here’s a 20-second TikTok tour of Brazen House.
VC Corner: Always Use Protection?
Contributed by Scott Alpizar, PhD — I recently binged The Dropout on Hulu, a limited series telling the story of Elizabeth Holmes and her turns out to be too-good-to-be-true startup company, Theranos. An interesting storyline within the series was the filing of a competing patent, which tied Theranos up in a lawsuit for years—not a great look for any startup.
This situation highlights how important it is for young biotech startups to know when and how to protect their technology. However, a lot of budding scientist-CEOs may not know the first thing about patenting. A useful primer published in Nature Biotechnology in 2020 provides an overview of all the important steps (and pitfalls) [but is made A LOT less useful as it is behind a pay wall 🤡].
For many academic researchers and would-be entrepreneurs, the world of intellectual property and patents can seem intimidating, opaque and difficult to navigate.
Y Combinator has also addressed the role of academia and your inventions.
Brazen Breakdown
The most common type of patent—a Utility Patent—protects new compositions, methods, machines and manufactures. Here’s how you get one [minus the 5-6 figures of funding and years of prosecution necessary]:
1. Decide whether you need a patent. If your invention has strong commercial potential and is novel, non-obvious, and useful, then you probably want a patent!
2. File a provisional patent application (PPA). There are many free (e.g., university tech transfer office, books, google) and not free (e.g., patent attorneys) resources.
3. Convert PPA to non-provisional patent application. You have about a year to line up the data and funding to proceed with prosecution. This requires an attorney.
4. Maintain patent protection. Utility patents are valid for 20 years (plus fees).
While patents take years to obtain and cost a lot of money, they are usually a necessary part of running a hard tech company. Theranos got themselves tied up in many issues and patenting needn’t have been one of them.
🤞🏽 ICYMI: NPV + Brazen Bio Happy Hour
Thanks again to Northpond Ventures for co-hosting a private founder happy hour last week at Brazen House! Thanks also to Xicama, Vermillion, and B Medical Systems.
😋 Brazen Snax
💉 This is FDA’s last resort: the J&J vaccine
🧠 CEO doses ketamine to test his own brain-computer interface (not Elon)
🦠 As for real estate, so too for vaccine boosters: location location location
🩸 Coming May 15: Blood Moon (total lunar eclipse or new Twilight film?)
🌍 “Global health challenges require global solutions,” says Hahvahd
😮💨 Did you know we have a VC fund, Brazen Capital (shameless plug)?
⏰ TikTokCrak: undergrad nails science communication masterclass
🔪 Carveout
If you are a first-time fund manager like us (or contemplating a career in venture capital) this is a must read: “How to Raise a Venture Capital Fund” by Winter Mead. All the VC basics that have never been compiled before in a highly digestible book.
🙏🏽 A Dose of Gratitude
We are grateful for the past year with our friend Lindsay Bourgeois, the amazing Site Director of BioLabs LA at the Lundquist Institute (home of our corporate HQ)!
[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, you’ll get Brazen Bio swag!]
🙃 Brazen Meme
✍️ Feedback
Please tweet all thoughts, questions, and insults to us @brazenbio. Bring it. No, really. COME👏🏽AT👏🏽US👏🏽BRO👏🏽