Gm in the PM, Brazeryens. Still here brazenly shipping one year later.
[Welcome to Issue Number 26 of The House Brazeryen, where we break down the latest #startup, #biotech, and #SciComm-related news for you fortnightly, in roughly 5 minutes. Brought to you by Brazen Bio, Brazen Capital, and brainsurgerydropout.]
Was this forwarded to you? Mash this subscribe button, homie.
RE: Mildly Celebrating One Year of THB
by Shawn Carbonell, MD, PhD — Happy anniversary to us! 🎉🍾🎈
OK, enough of that shit.
Anyway—like me—y’all are prolly fatigued of reading about last week’s banking debacle. Since it is now confirmed startups have been made whole (including my own clinical-stage company 😅), I will refrain from speaking directly of “They-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named” further at this time with the caveats that:
I did post about it a couple times on LinkedIn and
Every blurb this issue is in fact indirectly about it, haha.
However, to distract you, here is the latest edition of…
BRAZERYEN HOT TAKE:
1-ON-1 PARTNERING MEETINGS ARE AN EXPENSIVE WAY TO PRACTICE YOUR PITCH (AND NOT MUCH ELSE).
I’ve discussed previously how we were able to fund a therapeutics startup from bench to bedside with only angel money (eventually totaling over $20M).
The good: we were forced find ways to innovate in our development—because we couldn’t afford the conventional path—resulting in a superior product/program.
The bad: we were perpetually in fundraising mode for 8 years straight and it contributed to massive burnout and me abruptly leaving the company in 2019.
Every year I registered for 1-on-1 partnering at multiple annual regional and international conferences (to the tune of probably six figures in fees)… that’s several hundreds of 1-on-1 meetings with pharma and investors all over the goddam world. A few times, we even paid BD consultants to help facilitate thus burning even more cash.
The outcome? We did ultimately receive two seven-figure term sheets: one we accepted from a state fund (2018) and one from a regional VC that the board turned down due to onerous terms (2019).
However, these deals came late when we were already deep in clinical development. We definitely could have just emailed these organizations and gotten a meeting for free anyway (both of these meetings were organic, i.e., not facilitated by a consultant).
BRAZEN BREAKDOWN
In conclusion, absolutely NONE of the meetings in the previous six or so years had any redeeming value whatsoever (except for my air miles and LinkedIn following). This, despite nearly every meeting ending with enthusiasm for our technology.
So, for very early stage startups I don’t recommend paying for big conference investor speed-dating. In fact, it’s probably much higher yield to network at the evening receptions and skip paid registrations completely. And that likely goes for any conference in any sector in this era of IRL meetups and satellite groups.
Now, whether you have the skills to actually capitalize at networking events is a topic for another day. Love you, byeeeee.
TO BE CLEAR: The BrazenVerse is powered by FRB and Mercury
We are not a client of “They-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named”. 😅
BRAZEN BREAKDOWN
FRB is not a sponsor of this newsletter (yet), but previously sponsored our #LATechWeek party at Brazen House last summer. We love them. If you are interested in opening an account we can hook you up.
VC CORNER: Cash Crunch Crash Course (say that 5 times fast…)
Contributed by Scott Alpizar, PhD — In case some of you haven’t seen (if you haven’t… how?!), “They-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named” collapsed last week. A LOT of money was withdrawn in response to moves they made, leading to a bank run that left nearly half of all US venture-backed startups and over 2,500 VC firms with no access to most of their capital.
This could’ve had a massive ripple effect on the entire tech ecosystem (including biotech), but thankfully the FDIC stepped in and has since guaranteed that everyone would have access to all of their money. At first, I wanted to cover this in more detail, but seemingly every single social media post I see right now is talking about it (oh that’s how - you must not have a Twitter, LinkedIn, watch the news, use the internet, or talk to anyone else…).
Anyway, I want to talk about something a lot of startups thought they were in once the “They-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named” news dropped—a cash crunch. Even when massive banks aren’t spiraling, it’s something your startup may find itself in. I’ve seen a few companies stuck in tough spots, for varying reasons. Shit happens! How do you get out of it?
BRAZEN BREAKDOWN
Know Your Runway. Keep an eye on your balance sheet—the best way to get out of a cash crunch is to not let one happen in the first place! Manage expenses and have visibility on your runway. It’s hard to know what you don’t know, but the more unexpected costs you can anticipate the better.
Communicate. Let your board of directors and any investors know the situation if things get tight. If you have one, let your advisory board know too. They all likely have more experience and may have worked other companies through this. They’ll have ideas on how you can stay afloat and can leverage their networks to help make it happen.
Get Lean. Cut everything you don’t absolutely need. You may have to hold off on larger expenses for the time being, even if it means slowing progress until you know how you can get out of this. [N.B., relatedly be careful about running afoul of federal and, especially, state employment laws… if you catch my drift. —ed]
Create A Battle Plan. Find money! Being lean only extends the inevitable if you do nothing else. Will bridge financing help hit your next milestone ahead of a bigger round or do you go right for it? Ask your current investors for funds too, but don’t be too picky. You need to survive above anything.
In all the uncertainty over the weekend, when things looked their bleakest, a lot of blame was placed. But some VCs that didn’t worry about blaming anyone and got to work to ensure their startups would have access to capital if needed. Props to them. These are the partners you want when times get tough. Whether you have that luxury or not, be proactive about your company’s financial future.
😋 BRAZEN SNAX
💸 Now that the dust is settling… what should founders do next?
💉 One-shot hormone silver bullet for hangover recovery (in mice).
🎟 Golden Ticket to one year of lab space at Bakar Labs in the Bay!
🚀 Intergalactic mesh WiFi unnecessarily attributed to Hansel and Gretel
🧠 Neuroscience research award for early investigators and SciCommers
💃🏽 “Dance Your PhD” Winner: The Ionic Sponge (MOFs)
🧡 Enter the Y Combinator Summer 2023 batch: applications are open!
🙏🏽 Women’s leadership development programs: nature AND nurture
⏰ TikTokCrak: DIY propagation of special mushrooms at home (info only 💀)
🔪 CARVEOUT
Chris Hondros (March 14, 1970—April 20, 2011) was a Pulitzer-nominated war photographer who died covering the Arab Spring uprising in Libya for Getty Images. He was also Shawn’s friend. Jaime Lee Curtis and Jake Gyllenhaal produced an award-winning documentary about his life called “Hondros” which is definitely worth a watch. Please also consider supporting rising photographers through the Chris Hondros Fund. Happy birthday, Chris! 🥰
🙏🏽 A DOSE OF GRATITUDE
Grateful to Scott Alpizar, PhD for consistently contributing to every single issue for the past year. If you weren’t aware, Scott is a VC for the Foundation Venture Capital Group—an evergreen biotech fund of the New Jersey Health Foundation—and a great guy.
He has a PhD in Neuroscience from Dartmouth University and an interesting story about how he got into venture that he may tell you about one day when you are older (n.b., he wasn’t even trying to). We met through the Brazen network and he graciously flew out last June to sit on the epic VC panel at Brazen Summit. THANK YOU, SCOTT!!!
🙃 BRAZEN MEME (1 yr anniversary ed.)
✍️ FEEDBACK
Feel free to tweet all thoughts, questions, and insults to us. Bring it. No, really. COME👏🏽AT👏🏽US👏🏽BRO👏🏽
And let’s continue the conversation on LinkedIn: @brazencapital and @brazenbio.