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How I raised a $5.1M seed as a first-time, female, solo founder for a biotech co

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Re: How I raised a $5.1M seed as a first-time, female, solo founder for a biotech co

#111

Post by atlasunshrugged »

biztos wrote: post #107
atlasunshrugged wrote: post #104

I've got a poll for folks in the thread who are interested in the space - what other services would you use for your dog that aren't out already? - Genetic testing to understand the best diet (and then a subscription for that food)? - Insurance so you can pay for surgery + clone your dog when it passes away? - Something else?

> clone your dog when it passes away I love how the darkest dystopian outcomes for humanity are kinda just fine to try out on our pets. Here, Fido Ten, good boy!

Not sure why it's dystopian necessarily. I'd be interested in cloning myself if it was possible/legal/not cost prohibitive. I'm already signed up for a cryonics facility. But I have loved all of my dogs and would seriously think about cloning them if I had the money even to get an imperfect copy when they passed away.

Re: How I raised a $5.1M seed as a first-time, female, solo founder for a biotech co

#112

Post by t_serpico »

crackercrews wrote: post #34
23B1 wrote: post #27

Really good advice in this article; I don't see a lot of good intel on biotech moonshots.

What is the definition of moonshot? What are other startups that have this designation?

I wouldn't really consider this company a 'moonshot', unless you want to label all drug discovery company moonshots.

Re: How I raised a $5.1M seed as a first-time, female, solo founder for a biotech co

#113

Post by ccvannorman »

Andrex wrote: post #60
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #50

>Loyal is developing drugs to extend dog lifespan and healthspan. Wow this is a huge undertaking. I wish you luck and I don't mean that sarcastically! If you can do that to a dog, it seems trivial to extend to humans. Have any drugs or supplements extended dog lifespan in the literature? Rapamycin I guess?

"Trivial" might be underselling it. Increasing a dog's lifespan by 5 years is massively noticeable. I've never seen a 20-year old dog. Adding 5 to a human's health is beneficial but isn't nearly as noticeable. This is ignoring the magnitude of differences between dogs and humans. They're mammals, sure... I can't recall just how many "successful trial on rats" stories have we gotten on HN that have to be tempered by r…

pardon me but 5 years of my life doesn't seem un-noticeable or less noticable at all, and I would certainly notice it much more than for dogs (much as I love them)

Re: How I raised a $5.1M seed as a first-time, female, solo founder for a biotech co

#114

Post by RachelF »

pseudolus wrote: post #83

I've read elsewhere that their approach involves using rapamycin - a drug used by transplant patients. Apparently, it has been reviewed positively as a potential anti-aging agent for humans [0]. The unique approach here is to treat animals, rather than humans, and thus avoid the extensive and expensive trials that human testing would require. [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6814615/ https://link.spri…

Rapamycin can have bad side effects, especially on the kidneys and making the patient more susceptible to bacterial infections. Wise to look at dogs, if that is the case.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31586989/

Re: How I raised a $5.1M seed as a first-time, female, solo founder for a biotech co

#115

Post by risyachka »

woeirua wrote: post #87

Kudos to her for landing investors for this idea, but her plan was actually to optimize her pitch for potential investors, and given enough pitches she eventually found a few who pulled the trigger. To me, this is not really a sign of a strong idea for a company, but rather a sign of a good saleswoman . I would expect companies with much better, stronger concepts to land funding much faster. Also, I think most people…

>> a sign of a good saleswoman

This is one of the most important qualities you need if you are building a company.

Re: How I raised a $5.1M seed as a first-time, female, solo founder for a biotech co

#116

Post by crackercrews »

t_serpico wrote: post #112
crackercrews wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the definition of moonshot? What are other startups that have this designation?

I wouldn't really consider this company a 'moonshot', unless you want to label all drug discovery company moonshots.

I agree. To me, moonshot is the intersection of incredibly high impact and significant technical uncertainty. Drug discoveries all have technical uncertainty. But extending the life of dogs does not scream incredibly high impact.

It would be different if this were pitched as a way to get to human life extension.

Re: How I raised a $5.1M seed as a first-time, female, solo founder for a biotech co

#117

Post by sdenton4 »

RachelF wrote: post #114
pseudolus wrote: post #83

I've read elsewhere that their approach involves using rapamycin - a drug used by transplant patients. Apparently, it has been reviewed positively as a potential anti-aging agent for humans [0]. The unique approach here is to treat animals, rather than humans, and thus avoid the extensive and expensive trials that human testing would require. [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6814615/ https://link.spri…

Rapamycin can have bad side effects, especially on the kidneys and making the patient more susceptible to bacterial infections. Wise to look at dogs, if that is the case. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31586989/

I actually just read your linked article a couple days ago... It's thesis is that the main side effects are easily detectable and reversible, and therefore greatly preferable to the aging-related problems that rapamycin keeps at bay. (ie, if you get a bacterial problem, lay off the rapamycin and maybe take a quick round of antibiotics. OTOH, If you get Alzheimer's, well...)

The story with kidneys is a bit stranger. Heavy rapamycin use seems to trip up 'normal' levels in insulin-related measurements, but this may have a lot more to do with the body being in a different state than the usual measurements are calibrated for, and doesn't seem to be causing diabetes in practice. (to paraphrase, perhaps badly: in many ways, rapamycin acts like artificial calorie restriction, which does strange things to insulin handling anyways.)

Re: How I raised a $5.1M seed as a first-time, female, solo founder for a biotech co

#120

Post by blueblisters »

Is it typically possible for a first-time solo founder to raise this much seed capital without having a product in the lab or an MVP? Maybe having an insider’s view of how the VC world works helped her push the right buttons (and find the right connections), but I am not sure this advice will help the typical founder with no VC connections.
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