The House Brazeryen: 26MAY2022 🐉
The [late] Brazen Summit Edition 🔥
Greetings Brazeryens. Oopsie… this issue is 2.291666+ days late. We were at VeeCon!
[Welcome to Issue 06 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 is Poppin’ Off Next Month in Los Angeles!
We believe it is the dawn of the Golden Age of the SCIENTIST-CEO!
Thus… we are establishing the FIRST EVER annual conference of its kind “for and by bio-founders”: BRAZEN SUMMIT!
Presented by Brazen Bio + Brazen Capital + BioLabs LA, this in-person event starts at noon on Sunday, June 12, 2022 at BioscienceLA in Los Angeles, California (specifically trendy Culver City).
Participants will have the opportunity to connect with top BIOTECH FOUNDERS and INVESTORS! Some of our SUPERSTAR speakers include: Andrew Gray, PhD from Karma Biotechnologies, Dana Watt, PhD from Breakout Ventures, Joshua Eckelberry from Solas BioVentures, Chris Bostick, PhD from OCV Partners, and Susanna Harris, PhD from Xontogeny. Full program and an exciting keynote speaker will be announced soon!
We will also be hosting an exclusive afterparty—THE VERMILLION PARTY sponsored by our friends at Vermillion Wine (Napa)—with DJ, wine, conversation, and great VIBEZ… so don’t miss out!
Check out BRAZENSUMMIT.COM for all the latest.
Brazen Breakdown
Come join a community of founders, scientists, students, and investors on a mission to advance human health. We have a limited number of tickets available, so grab your spot soon! This will sell out.
Tickets for industry/investors are available HERE (limited quantity).
Founders and students please fill out THIS FORM for highly discounted entry.
Like free swag? We are looking for volunteers! Inquire HERE.
BRAZEN SUMMIT FEATURE: Sponsor Appreciation
We are proud to bring you the Brazen Summit alongside our amazing presenting sponsors BioLabs LA at the Lundquist Institute and Bioscience LA! Both organizations have immeasurably helped us in our first year of operations and we love them lots. #LongLA
We are psyched to welcome six NEW Event Sponsors along with our repeat partners (with a special shout out to our own Rachel Strohmeyer for leading the effort):
Qualio: ready-to-use QMS for life sciences to unite your teams, processes, and data all in one place so you can get to market quickly!
LatchBio: end-to-end bioinformatics in the cloud platform & partner for cell and gene therapy startups (themselves a seed stage startup!)
Benchling: cloud-based platform for biotechnology research and development.
ALine Inc: Industry experts in microfluidics product development. Best-in-class rapid Design-Build-Test-Scale development cycle.
Breakout Ventures: home for creative bioscience entrepreneurs. Investing in early stage companies harnessing the power of cells to build solutions in human health and sustainability.
Pliancy: specializes in providing end-to-end IT solutions and ongoing support for Capital Management and Life Sciences organizations.
BC-LA: Biotech Connection Los Angeles inspires, educates, and connects emerging scientists and entrepreneurs to grow and diversify biotech in LA.
Our amazing promotional partners include: Biocom California, Nucleate LA, LaunchBio, and the LA Venture Association (LAVA)! Thank y’all!
In-kind sponsors include our friends at: Xicama, Liquid Death, and Vermillion Wine. We love and serve these products at Brazen House (stop by and try some)! BTW, we helped to sell out the 2018 vintage of Vermillion Wine and we are happy to announce the 2019 vintage is now available for online purchase!
Last but not least, Doritos. We [Shawn] love them but they are *NOT* yet a sponsor of the Brazen Summit. 🥺
Brazen Breakdown
It’s not too late to partner with us on Brazen Summit (or subsequent events large and small). Reach out to become a Brazen Event Sponsor HERE. We don’t bite. Hard.
VC CORNER: Buy the Dip!
Contributed by Scott Alpizar, PhD
Shit is getting really ugly in the venture capital markets.
The quote above by Zach Coelius is just one Twitter opinion of the many chiming in on the biggest news of late—the stock market drop and the anticipated impacts that this will have on venture capital funding.
It’s not just the Twitterverse either—Y Combinator sent an email last week to their portfolio founders warning them to “plan for the worst”. It seems all good things must come to an end.
Or do they?
There’s no doubt that we are seeing a (needed) recalibration of valuations and round sizes. But this is instilling fear in some founders. Will they still be able to raise the round they need? Or will investors be more hesitant now? It’s possible that the answer to both of those questions is yes.
Brazen Breakdown
The reality is that VC firms are still raising record-breaking money. And I think that some startups that have a better chance to tap into that money, specifically the early-stage companies. These are the startups that I typically work with, so I’ve had some of these conversations. Here is what I’m telling our founders:
Early-stage startups are somewhat shielded from the turbulence of the public markets. According to PitchBook, while the valuation of later stage companies have started to decline, early-stage valuations continue to increase. However, the longer this goes on, the more potential there is for these effects to trickle earlier into the venture life cycle.
The bar for fundraising may be higher than before, so be ready. There will be much more caution around where investor’s money is going, but early-stage companies typically have a high potential return in the long run—a level of upside that can’t be ignored.
There are still many VCs out there that are willing to take risks. Some investors may be diving headfirst into this economic situation because they still have the capital to deploy, or they just know that there can still be success.
I said a few weeks ago to not the let the trends scare you – the right investor will be out there. Be smart with your cashflow; keep adding value.
😋 Brazen Snax
🧠 Are jellyfish stinging cells just spicy neurons?
😔 Morbid May milestone: (at least) one million US deaths from COVID-19
💊 A pandemic in your pants: syphilis cases rise 52% since 2016
🐒 Smallpox’s mild-mannered cousin spreading rapidly on four continents
🐹 CRISPR study on social aggression confirms: hamsters are assholes
🦠 How did COVID-19 change biotech and medicine? Let us count the ways
😮💨 Hey rich people: Help us fuel scientist-CEOs with Brazen Capital (self-plug)
⏰ TikTokCrak: If THIS don’t give you serotonin, you are ☠️ (or Gen Z)
🔪 Carveout
Did you read Mark Manson’s hit book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck? Did you know he tokenized it into 1,111 NFTs in February? Now you can OWN a quote from the book including the rights to monetize it as you please (not financial advice).
🙏🏽 A Dose of Gratitude
We are grateful for Gary Vaynerchuk for his daily dose of positivity, for helping people find their own path to happiness, and for evangelizing kindness as the ultimate strength. BTW, VeeCon 1 was lit af… we’ll see you in 2023.
[wen Brazen NFT? 🤐]
🙃 Brazen Meme
✍️ Feedback
Please tweet all thoughts, questions, and insults to us @brazenbio. Bring it. No, really. COME👏🏽AT👏🏽US👏🏽BRO👏🏽