Activate- Empowering scientists to bring their research to market
Release Date: 10/16/2022
Partnering to accelerate therapeutics: A primer on forming alliances and their management
Lab to Startup
Monica Rosoff, the founder and CEO of LBBAL™ Alianza. Prior to launching Alianza, Monica was a partnering executive with roles of increasing seniority at Genentech, Gilead, Kite and Exelixis. Over the course of over two decades, she had the opportunity to lead and participate in a wide diversity of deals, negotiations, diligence exercises, alliances, technology transfers, M&A integrations, dispute resolution negotiations, amendments and terminations–at all stages of the drug development and commercialization lifecycle and in multiple therapeutic areas. Dr. Rosoff earned a doctorate in...
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From Pitches to Stories: Transforming Complex Ideas into Engaging Narratives
Lab to Startup
Zack Shildhorn is an investing Partner at venture firm Lux Capital. He played multiple key roles that helped the firm scale from less than $100M to more than $4B in assets under management. After witnessing thousands of pitches, he saw that even the most disruptive startups often struggled to develop effective narratives. Having worked closely with leading technology companies as an investor and Board member, he brings a unique ability to connect with key stakeholders and distill complex ideas into engaging and relatable presentations. In order to help founders beyond Lux, He launched a firm...
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Turning great science into impactful medicine: Lessons from Corey Goodman, Pioneer in Science and Venture Capital
Lab to Startup
Corey Goodman, Ph.D., is the managing partner of venBio, a venture capital firm he cofounded in 2011. venBio already has 7 FDA approved drugs on the market, saving and improving lives. Corey spent 25 years as Professor of Biology at Stanford University and Evan Rauch Chair of Neurobiology at U.C. Berkeley, where he was a HHMI Investigator, Head of the Neurobiology Division, and co-founder and Director of the Wills Neuroscience Institute. Corey co-founded seven biotechnology companies, and led one of them (Renovis) as President and CEO from a private to public company until its acquisition by...
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Pushing Boundaries: Abhishek Tripathi’s Experience with NASA, SpaceX, UC Berkeley and Startups
Lab to Startup
Abhishek Tripathi, is the Director of Mission operations of the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. Abhi is also the Chair of the Air and Space track startups at Skydeck, which is UC Berkeley's startup accelerator program. For over two decades, Abhi has been at the forefront of human and robotic space exploration. At SpaceX, he spearheaded the certification of both the cargo and crew Dragon programs, a pivotal achievement in commercial spaceflight. His expertise was further showcased as Dragon Mission Director, where he orchestrated a dozen critical cargo...
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Lessons from Evolution of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem at UC Berkeley
Lab to Startup
Richard Lyons, Ph.D., is the Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer, at the University of California, Berkeley. Rich is an economist and the former dean of the business school. Rich will become the next chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley. We talk about a wide variety of topics around the Evolution of innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem at Berkeley. We covered topics like paradigm shifts, cultural transformations, overcoming inertia; global impact and many others. I hope you get some insights from this story, and walk...
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Civilization Ventures: Lessons learned from founding, exiting and applying them to support founders as an investor
Lab to Startup
Shahram Seyedin-Noor is the founder and managing partner at Civilization Ventures. Shahram received a JD from Harvard and worked at Wilson Solsinis and Cooley before going into investment banking at firms like Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. He then entered the startup world co-founding several startups. He eventually ended up Angel investing and in 2017, launched Civilization Ventures, focused on supporting cutting-edge innovations in health tech and biology. Shahram has over a dozen exits under his belt, which is a phenomenal achievement. Here are some of his investments: Rewrite (acq....
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Humba Ventures: Investing in Deep Tech Startups with Engineering Focus
Lab to Startup
Leo Polovets is the Co-founder and General Partner at Susa Ventures. Leo focuses on enterprise software and technical products at Susa. About two years ago, He also started Humba Ventures, a fund that invests in deep tech and critical national sectors like energy and defense at Humba. Leo led Susa's investments in Mashgin, People Data Labs, Scalyr, and Treasury Prime. Having been a software engineer for 10+ years, Leo approaches challenges with an engineering mindset and supports portfolio companies in vetting and hiring technical talent. Prior to Susa, Leo was the second engineering...
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Berkeley Skydeck- Catalyzing the growth of deep tech startups at the world’s number one ranked public university.
Lab to Startup
Caroline Winnett is the Executive Director of Berkeley Skydeck, a startup accelerator at the University of California, Berkeley. Skydeck started as a mentoring space in 2012 and soon translated into one of the leading startup accelerators in the world. SkyDeck was Formed as a partnership between UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, the College of Engineering, and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research. While it offers all the benefits of a traditional accelerator, what makes Skydeck special is the vast resources of the world’s number one ranked public university. The robust and...
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Medtech Innovator and Biotools Innovator: accelerator for medical device, digital health and diagnostic companies
Lab to Startup
Paul Grand is the founder and CEO; Ayelet Marom is the Program Director for BioTools Innovator, which focuses specifically on biotools; and Jim West is the Associate Director, BioTools Innovator, who was previously the Co-Founder and CEO of, Clara Biotech, which was founded in 2018 and was acquired by Innovaprep in the summer of 2023. Jim was the first founder to go through the biotools program. In this episode of lab to startup, we first discuss some of the challenges that affect medtech and biotool technology startups, and then go into ways that medtech innovator, an accelerator program is...
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Metcela - Treating chronic organ diseases using a novel fibroblast-based technology
Lab to Startup
Kenichi Nogami is the co-founder and CEO of Metcela, a clinical-stage biotechnology startup pioneering the research and development of fibroblast and stem cell-based therapy for chronic heart diseases that currently have limited therapeutic options. We talk about the current treatments for heart failure and how the fibroblast technology could help this space. We explore the founding story; setting smaller milestones and fundraising to meet those goals; the role of recruiting firms in hiring in japan; building a flat structure at the startup, as opposed to a hierarchical system that Japan is...
info_outlineMatt Price is the co-founder and President of Activate, a program teaching scientists how to bring their research to market. He was previously the Managing Director of Cyclotron Road, and comes with experiences in the Renewable Energy space , Materials Science, and Venture Capital industry.
In this episode of lab to startup, we talk about the Activate fellowship program, its origins, especially how they navigated carving out a niche but much needed space for supporting scientists to build startups. We will discuss details about the application process, challenges that the fellows generally face in this space, the support they provide, and what they actually look for in an idea or a founder trying to commercialize research. We will then find out more about the recently announced NSF fellowships for scientists and engineers in collaboration with the Activate fellowship program.
Shownotes
https://www.activate.org
- What is Activate?
- Origin story and Cyclotron Road
- Business model of Activate vs incubators/accelerators
- How VC funding model might not be appropriate for scientific entrepreneurs exploring technology translation
- Activate fellows receive money, time and space t find out what kind of capital will help them build a company
- Solving the brain drain problem
- Types of industries covered
- Activate fellowship: application process and selection criteria, timelines, fellowship amounts, and other benefits the program offers.
- What success looks like: Economic value created; understanding market dynamics-capture value; identify the right source of capital
- What they look for in an idea/founder
- Scratching the intellectual itch
- Activator readiness level
- NSF Fellowships: https://beta.nsf.gov/tip/updates/nsf-launches-entrepreneurial-fellowship-engineers
- Hit milestones and receive funding from partner VCs
- Delivering intimacy at scale
- Apply to the program: https://www.activate.org/apply