Content I Enjoyed Reading and Watching in Week 35/2022
Content I Enjoyed Reading and Watching in Week 35/2022
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Time is moving forward, entrepreneurs keep building, and investors support them with capital.
The Godfather of Biotech
Stelios Papadopoulos, 74, has spent the past four decades becoming the living embodiment of biotech’s institutional memory. Starting out when biotech was more of a backwater than a banner industry, he was the rare Ph.D. scientist on Wall Street, an investment banker who understood base pairs and basis points in equal detail.
When I worked in M&A in the early 2000s, I heard tales of a vaccine-developing company and their CFO Werner Lanthaler, who had plans to go public. It was my first touchpoint with the term Biotechnology, companies that developed novel drug candidates, and their teams who wanted to help people access novel, safer, and more effective medications.
The origin of biotech companies dates back to the seventies when Genentech got venture funded in 1976. Two years later, Biogen got off the ground.
Here is a great read on one of the legends of biotech, Stelios Papadopoulos.
For the 'godfather' of biotech, saving Biogen is the final act of a singular career
Founders, here’s how top VCs are doing due diligence on you
“What we are interested in is the behaviour and abilities that you have relative to your peer group”
Deep tech and tech companies like Biogen, Genentech, and Facebook need Venture Capital to get off the ground.
Many founders today are familiar with the term Due Diligence and yet only learn what matters to VCs and Seed Investors during the process.
Here is an article that describes what matters the most to VCs.
Founders, here's how top VCs are doing due diligence on you
Why the Future of Entrepreneurship Is Small
In his book, Zero to One, iconic Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel famously argued that “Competition is for losers.” Thiel argued, “If you want to create and capture lasting value, build a monopoly.”
Find your niche and become the dominant force in it. I have heard such advice repeatedly since I went to business school in the 80s.
Once companies have established their product market fit, they strive to become a big player.
Is this really the best solution, or are there better ways to win as a small company?
Why the Future of Entrepreneurship Is Small
Scaling A Deep Tech Startup: Lessons From The Front Line
A deep tech company is a very different beast than a typical technology company. Although there isn’t a universally accepted definition, deep tech generally refers to the development of a fundamentally new technology platform as opposed to using existing technology in a new way.
Back to the beginning of the weekly summary.
Deep Tech is a term I heard for the first time 3 years ago. Before, I was just helping scientists to bring their innovations into the business.
Deep Tech sounded much cooler. What do you do for a living? I help develop Deep Tech.
The term is widely used for organizations that develop solutions rooted in science.
Wikipedia describes it as:
Deep technology (deep tech) or hard tech is a classification of organization, or more typically startup company, with the expressed objective of providing technology solutions based on substantial scientific or engineering challenges.
Since the pandemic, many “non-deep-tech” investors see the opportunities and want to be part of a story that safes the planet — like Biontech and Moderna did with their vaccines.
Here is an article that describes what investors must know before investing in deeptech.
Council Post: Scaling A Deep Tech Startup: Lessons From The Front Line
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