Learn about the process of starting a biotech company through a hands-on, experiential learning process with guidance from experienced investors and company builders.
Learn how investors and entrepreneurs evaluate science, build companies and raise money. We bring in successful entrepreneurs and industry professionals to give guest lectures, and you will get feedback on your projects from several leading VCs.
Connect with leading investors and experienced entrepreneurs -- and the scientists in your cohort. Many alumni build on these relationships after the program ends and continue working with the investors we meet.
Every week we have a two-hour lecture, often with a guest speaker. Past speakers range from entrepreneurs who've started multiple billion-dollar companies to entrepreneurs who raised $10M+ before finishing their PhD. We keep cohorts small (8-12 people per cohort) to facilitate interaction and give everyone a chance to connect with the speaker.
Teams of ~3-4 students / postdocs develop and refine a startup idea with feedback from VCs. At the beginning of the program, a VC will "seed" teams with a topic they find interesting, and over the next ~8 weeks teams will turn that idea into a pitch for a hypothetical startup. Every 1.5-2 weeks, we will visit a different venture fund and get feedback on the projects.
The program is designed for Bay Area grad students and postdocs, especially those in molecular and cell biology or bioengineering programs, who are interested, or think they might be interested, in startups and VC.
No prior experience in biotech is required. To keep everyone on a level playing field, we don't allow anyone to work on any of their own tech or IP during the program -- you will come up with your project ideas with your team, with guidance from VCs.
In the past, we've only accepted individual applicants, but we are considering letting teams of 3-4 apply together, in addition to accepting individual applications. If you are a team who would like to apply, please let us know.
Any level of interest in startups and VC is welcome, whether you are set on starting your own company, or whether you just want to dip your toe in the water. The program is designed to replicate the unstructured nature of starting a company -- we create checkpoints and guardrails to guide you, but most of the project work is self-directed.
Bay Bridge Bio is a completely free and independent program. We are not formally affiliated with any university, fund or company. The program was created by Richard Murphey while he was a grad student at Berkeley's Haas School of Business. Richard had worked in biopharma startups and VC before grad school, and created this program as something that he wished had existed when he was a student. You can read more about Richard and Bay Bridge Bio here.
We offer a number of programs and products to the biotech community (with more to come!)
1:42 Panel start
2:56 Panelist introductions
15:00 How to get into venture
18:51 Getting in front of VCs
23:10 How early-stage funds source deals
25:12 How VCs start companies
30:14 Accelerators and incubators
31:29 What do late-stage funds look for?
33:07 What do early-stage funds look for?
34:33 What do VCs look for in a team?
37:39 How do VCs evaluate deals?
42:06 Advice for first-time scientific founders
43:52 Value of grit
46:25 How to handle feedback
49:33 How long does it take VCs to make an investment?
51:23 Interesting trends in biotech
52:07 Opportunities in CNS / neuro
55:37 Next-gen immuno-oncology
56:25 Getting to clinical proof of concept faster and cheaper
59:15 Precision medicine -- what it really means and why it matters
1:00:02 Programming organisms, new therapeutic modalities
1:00:42 Digital therapeutics -- need for evidence
1:02:45 What makes a great team?
1:07:38 Biotech VCs vs. angel investors
1:10:17 IP for early-stage companies
1:14:11 IP for late-stage companies
1:16:04 IP attorney's thoughts on startup IP
1:17:39 Valuing platforms vs products
1:23:31 The case for the entrepreneur
1:25:47 Lean startup principles applied to biotech
We'll be organizing more events for the Bay Area biopharma community, from happy hours to panel discussions