FROM ACADEMIC TO ENTREPRENEUR:9 LESSONS I LEARNED STARTING SCIENCE EXCHANGE

ELIZABETH IORNS?

SCIENCE EXCHANGE?

A marketplace for scientific collaboration, where researchers can order experiments from

the world's best labs

SCIENCE EXCHANGE NETWORK

SCIENCE EXCHANGE NETWORK

Labs from 400+ research institutions:

75 of top 100 U.S. research universities

SCIENCE EXCHANGE NETWORK

Example: Illumina HiSeq X Ten

Jan 15th: “Illumina’s HiSeq X Ten Sequencing System will prove affordable for only a few. The system...costs a whopping $10 million.”

Feb 8th: HiSeq X Ten at Garvan Institute (Sydney, Australia) listed on Science Exchange and available to any researcher in the world

GOLDEN AGE

AWS and cloud services fundamentally changed the economics of tech startups in the mid 2000s

Incubators and science-as-a-service platforms are having the same impact on the economics of biotech startups

3 years agoMulti-year leases

Equipment purchases

Large teams

++

“Fat Biotech”=

Now

+

“Lean Biotech”=

9 THINGS I’VE LEARNED

1. SOLVE YOUR OWN PROBLEM

2. SOLVE A REAL PROBLEM

3. BUILD THE RIGHT TEAM

4. FOCUS ON COMPANY CULTURE

5. GET STUFF DONE!

6. USE YOUR TIME WISELY

7. GET THE RIGHT ADVISORS / INVESTORS

8. DON’T GIVE UP!

9. SCIENTISTS MAKE GREAT ENTREPRENEURS

9 THINGS I’VE LEARNED

The best problems to solve are the ones that affect you personally.

1. SOLVE YOUR OWN PROBLEM

1. SOLVE YOUR OWN PROBLEM

SCIENCE EXCHANGE EXAMPLE:

• Frustrated with an inability to find and incentivize technical experts

• Thought there should be a way for researchers to order experiments from the world’s best labs

• Learned about online marketplaces… and wanted one to exist for scientific experiments

Work on something you’re passionate about … and that you understand!🔑

What set us apart from 95 percent of

other startups is that we served a real need.

2. SOLVE A REAL PROBLEM

2. SOLVE A REAL PROBLEM

SCIENCE EXCHANGE EXAMPLE:

• Increasing need for collaborative research driven by access to technical expertise…

• Era of team science

• Exponential growth in number of multi-author, multi-institutional publications

Source: http://ar.thomsonreuters.com/story3.html

2. SOLVE A REAL PROBLEM

SCIENCE EXCHANGE EXAMPLE:

• Traditional way of forming collaborations is inefficient, unscalable and has poor incentives…

• 52.3% think collaborations are one-sided

• 47.2% haven’t started a project because couldn’t find collaborator

Do your market research. Look at trends, size of market, existing solutions🔑

3. BUILD THE RIGHT TEAM

3. BUILD THE RIGHT TEAM

SCIENCE EXCHANGE EXAMPLE:

• Science Exchange was founded by a diverse team… a scientist, an MBA and a programmer

• Complementary set of skills help solve the wide variety of problems faced when starting a company

Mix with people outside your field (How? Check out meetup.com)🔑

4. FOCUS ON COMPANY CULTURE

4. FOCUS ON COMPANY CULTURE

SCIENCE EXCHANGE EXAMPLE:

• Building a world-class team and work environment is our #1 priority

• My co-founder spends ~50% of his time on recruiting, retention and culture

Decide what you want your company culture to be… and only work with people who ‘fit’🔑

5. GET STUFF DONE

5. GET STUFF DONE

SCIENCE EXCHANGE EXAMPLE:

• We went from idea to launch in 5 months

• We speak to users everyday and deploy new features constantly (based on their feedback)

• Our dev and business teams work in 2-week ‘sprints’… providing sense of urgency and momentum

Record what you really need to achieve each 1-2 weeks… revisit after 6 months🔑

6. USE YOUR TIME WISELY

6. USE YOUR TIME WISELY

SCIENCE EXCHANGE EXAMPLE:

• The whole point of Science Exchange is to help scientists use their time more wisely

• In startups, like in science, people who succeed make the best use of their time

Focus on your core… make use of experts for everything else🔑

Investors are employees you can never fire. We made

sure to pick investors that thought like us.

7. GET THE RIGHT ADVISORS

7. GET THE RIGHT ADVISORS

SCIENCE EXCHANGE EXAMPLE:

• Science startups ≠ Biotech startups

• Lessons we needed more likely to come from online marketplaces than biotechs

• Carefully selected for investors / advisors with relevant expertise

Build an advisor / investor network (e.g. through accelerator or E-club)🔑

8. DON’T GIVE UP

8. DON’T GIVE UP

SCIENCE EXCHANGE EXAMPLE:

• Press coverage proclaimed Science Exchange as the ‘eBay for Science’

• Negative reaction from some labs. Had to work hard to convince them to join the network

• Didn’t give up… now 800+ labs list their services

Remember that founding a startup is hard... persistence is everything!🔑

!Startups are like

science, where you need to follow the

trail wherever it leads.

9. SCIENTISTS MAKE GREAT ENTREPRENEURS

9 THINGS I’VE LEARNED

1. SOLVE YOUR OWN PROBLEM

2. SOLVE A REAL PROBLEM

3. BUILD THE RIGHT TEAM

4. FOCUS ON COMPANY CULTURE

5. GET STUFF DONE!

6. USE YOUR TIME WISELY

7. GET THE RIGHT ADVISORS / INVESTORS

8. DON’T GIVE UP!

9. SCIENTISTS MAKE GREAT ENTREPRENEURS

HOW CAN WE HELP?

• Advice

Happy to speak to existing and aspiring entrepreneurs, particularly those with an academic background… email me at elizabeth@scienceexchange.com

• Grants

Our grant program helps early-stage biotech startups get key experiments conducted via Science Exchange… Learn more by emailing grants@scienceexchange.com

HOW CAN WE HELP?

HAPPY HOUR…

February 19th 4.30pm-7.00pm

Fibrogen Building

THANKS!