Gm in the PM, Brazeryens. Shawn got nailed in the face with a pickleball this weekend (heâs fine, but you should see the ball).
[Welcome to Issue Number 25 of The House Brazeryen, where we break down the latest #STEM, #biotech, and #SciComm-related news for you fortnightly, in roughly 5 minutes. Brought to you by Brazen Bio, Brazen Capital, and brainsurgerydropout.]
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RE: BRAZEN CAPITAL REALITY SHOW?
by Shawn Carbonell, MD, PhD â As a content creator for nearly a decade, it goes without saying that we are building our VC fund in public (thank you 506c).
I similarly documented my OncoSynergy startup founder journey on IG as âbrainsurgerydropoutâ for five years before my account was mysteriously banned for no reason (they still wonât give it back to me but Iâve started a new account: brain.surgery.dropout đ).
Looking back, IG was probably not the best platform for this purpose, but it did lead to a several opportunities includingâeventuallyâover 100M views on TikTok, 4-figure influencer deals, 5-figure investments into the BrazenVerse, deal flow, and LPs.
Twitter is usually the home of VC, but Iâve decided to mainly focus content creation effort on LinkedIn as an experiment because engagement is reminiscent of early Facebook. Indeed, for the past 5 weeks, Iâve posted every day on LinkedIn which has led to a 240% increase in engagement, many DMs and zooms, and new potential LPs.
BRAZEN BREAKDOWN
HBU? Are you taking advantage of this free thing called the internet? Building from zero is the essence of an entrepreneur⌠so too for social media content.
Feel free to follow along for a daily dose of âScientist-CEO confessionsâ on LinkedIn. Please also follow Monica Berrondo, PhD and our squad of Venture Fellows: Alex Lanjewar, PhD; Katie Pohl; and Liam Lewis.
BRAZEN CAPITALâS THIRD INVESTMENT: ACHIEVE CLINICS
Speaking of the power of the internet to make real-world impactâjust like Shawn met Ricky Barrett on TikTok in 2020 (a cofounder of our first investment, Guardian Bio)âShawn also randomly met Brad Heller, PhD on Lunch Club in 2021!
Brad is cofounder and CEO of Achieve Clinics, our third investment. Achieve is giving cancer patients the best chance for success with cellular therapies:
Despite the billions of capital invested among dozens of competing innovators, the current autologous cell therapy (e.g. CAR-T) ecosystem is mired in logistical bottlenecks and dependent on weakened immune systems ravaged by chemotherapy exposure and advanced disease. Achieve Clinics solves these issues by empowering patients to cryopreserve their immune cells before chemo starts (at no cost to them) and facilitating clinical trial enrollment. Achieve Clinics is unlocking a new paradigm of high-speed, high-performance clinical innovation in cancer cell therapy that puts patients first.
Monica and I love the patient-first ethos and the fact Brad was inspired to build this out of a dire unmet need he identified as a scientist working deep in the industry. More importantly heâs just a really great guy! Coincidentally, heâs also an old friend of BRZN01 founderâone of our favoritesâShu Li, PhD.
BRAZEN BREAKDOWN
We see Achieve Clinics as a multi-sided biomarketplace of sortsâwhich is probably the hardest thing to build (e.g., eBay, Etsy, AirBnB)âbut also has super massive potential for patients and investors alike. Needless to say, we are bullish on LA-based cofounders Brad and Paul to execute.
On that note, hear about it in their own words on the latest âWe Are LA Tech Podcastâ with guest host and friend of the BrazenVerse, Dave Whelan!
PS: Brazen Capital Fund I is soon to initiate its next closing. If youâd like to help us launch the next generation of scientist-CEOs consider becoming a Limited Partner (low-ish minimum).
VC CORNER: GREAT SUCCESS
Contributed by Scott Alpizar, PhD â I recently served as an Industry Mentor for a team participating in an I-Corps Short Courseâmy fourth time doing so!
If youâre unfamiliar with I-Corps, itâs an NSF (or NIH) sponsored entrepreneurship training program that explores customer discovery (something I touched on when I covered finding your LAM). Itâs there that I met John Blaho, a member of the Teaching Team for the course and the Director for Industrial-Academic Research at CUNY.
He was clearly passionate about supporting entrepreneurship, which is exemplified in a recent publication [co-authored by Brazen Bio Senior Fellow, Stephanie Marrus] where he discusses the power of innovator-led academic startups and puts an I-Corps spin on making biotech startups more successful. Letâs take a look at some of the highlights!
BRAZEN BREAKDOWN
Academic innovator-led startups succeed best at institutions willing to transfer exclusive intellectual property rights to the entrepreneur.
Hopefully they do this without nickel and diming you or fighting you every step of the way! Iâve seen license negotiations that seem to be ONLY in the interest of the university, ignoring the negative effects on the startup. Despite that, many universities now embrace commercialization and provide resources to empower scientist-founders. Leverage these resourcesâthey want your success too!
Technology is only useful if its application answers a need.
This is what the I-Corps is all about. Talking to potential customers, users, and other stakeholders should be a requirement for any early-stage startup. Each I-Corps experience Iâve had has provided instrumental feedback that has changed the direction of development. Save yourself the time and effort of getting all the way to the end product only to find out that it doesnât solve anyoneâs needs!
Completion of the I-Corps is just the end of the beginning.
I couldnât agree more! The I-Corps informs how your customers and other potential stakeholders fit into your market ecosystem. From there you need to take the next steps to define a plan, map out your business development activities, the resources you need, and the cost of getting to your next inflection point.
John also touches on what he sees as a solutionâan accelerator dedicated to graduates of the I-Corps program. As a first step in this accelerator, he brings up a concept that I really like: a âreality checkâ. Having your plan reviewed by biotech mentors can certainly seem intimidating, but is invaluable as youâre just starting out. Â
While Iâve talked it up, donât be beholden to a formal I-Corps program to get out of the building and speak with customers. You never know what youâll discover!
đ BRAZEN SNAX
đŤ Heartbreaking news for artificial sweetener fans. LITERALLY
đł Please vote for your favorite âInspiring Women in Scienceâ!
đ§ââď¸ The fungal science behind the latest zombie apocalypse: The Last of Us
𤯠How many manuscript authors is too many? How about 15,025!
đŚ This sea lion has goddam murder mittens
đĽ âSuper PIsâ with 3+ NIH grants least likely to be black women
đ¤łđ˝ Harvard Business Review considers the influencer economy
đđ˝ The latest victories for krusty pharma veterans: financial arbitrage machines
â° TikTokCrak: Bacon bits give massive dose of serotonin
đŞ CARVEOUT
The history of the cell, cell therapy, gene therapy, and more! Siddhartha âSidâ Mukherjee, MD, DPhil on the drive podcast with Peter Attia, MD.
đđ˝ A DOSE OF GRATITUDE
Grateful for the life and work of the late and great David Allis, PhD (1951-2023). The Lasker Award winning âfather of histone modifications, king of chromatin.â
đ BRAZEN MEME
âď¸ FEEDBACK
Feel free to tweet all thoughts, questions, and insults to us @brazenbio. Bring it. No, really. COMEđđ˝ATđđ˝USđđ˝BROđđ˝