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Ep. 11 Chris Hoyt on Pitching and Raising – Perspectives from Tech and Biotech
49 Plays7 months ago
Chris Hoyt is a biotech exec focused on advancing cures for neurodegenerative disease, but he comes from a tech background. Listen in as he speaks candidly about what the field has been through, and how he relishes the opportunity to progress treatments for patients who need them.
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Transcript
Introduction to Mighty Spark Communications
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi, everyone, and welcome to Spark Time. I'm Dani Stoltzfus. And I'm Will Riddle. Of Mighty Spark Communications. Our mission is to use scientific innovation to drive transformative change. We believe that compelling storytelling is the most effective tool we have in our arsenal to motivate and inspire audiences to invest themselves in audacious goals. We are scientists by training, storytellers by experience, and entrepreneurs by nature. Let's get started. We had a great time chatting to Chris about his perspectives on the tech and the biotech industries. And I especially enjoyed hearing him talk about both his killer and his disastrous pitches, especially what he learned from those experiences. Because personally, I really enjoy hearing about the lessons others learn when pitches don't quite go right, as it helps me to continually improve my presentation skills.
00:00:52
Speaker
Yeah, we spend a decent amount of time thinking about comparisons to tech and biotech.
Intersection of Tech and Biotech
00:00:58
Speaker
In a lot of ways, the areas influence each other and Chris's perspective on how tech and biotech investors are colliding now more than ever because of advancements in AI was informative, especially what that means for companies who use it and for those who don't. I also really enjoy Chris's honesty about his experience of switching from the tech industry to biotech. He definitely joined the industry at a tough time to be seeking investment, and it's nice to hear him talk about that transition as well as his plans for the future. Well, Chris has obviously done well in the transition. It sounds like he's hooked on biotech now, so let's jump in.
00:01:36
Speaker
Chris Hoyt is an entrepreneurial executive with experience starting, funding, and operating venture-backed companies across a number of industries, including software, healthcare, and technology services. He currently serves as the CEO of KefirX, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the discovery and development of kinase inhibitors for neurodegenerative and i immune diseases. Prior to KieferX, Chris was the co-founder and CFO of Upskill, Inc., an enterprise software platform for enterprise use of wearable technology. Upskill raised over $65 million dollars in venture capital and recently sold to TeamViewer AG. Chris has raised over $400 million dollars in debt and equity, and has completed over two dozen acquisitions and divestitures totaling more than $2 billion. dollars
00:02:21
Speaker
Chris has been active in the early stage startup ecosystem as a co-founder and board member at organizations, including Yet Analytics, Digital Harbor Foundation, and BTS Software Solutions. Chris is a venture partner at Moonshots Capital and has been an advisor for a number of other high growth companies. Chris, it's great to have you on the podcast. How are you doing today? um And can you tell us a bit about ah your journey from tech to biotech? So what what drew you into ah working in biotech?
Transition from Tech to Biotech
00:02:50
Speaker
but Well, thank you very much for you and Danny for having me on the podcast today. And yeah, happy to talk about talk about that journey. um you know As you mentioned, I've spent most of my career
00:03:03
Speaker
particularly over the last 15 years or so in the startup world, probably on the technology side. and So I've been involved with founding a few different software companies. I've served on a bunch of boards and been involved with venture funds in that space. But during that time, I also had some exposure to the healthcare industry. I had advised a med tech company that had a product for aneurysms that sold to Medtronics a while back. I'd also been involved with a health services company that was doing essentially um urgent care in pharmacies, you know, 15 plus years ago. So I've always had some exposure to the space, but um specifically I had had an opportunity a little over three years ago to become an investor in, in key for X.
00:03:54
Speaker
ah because some of the founders were folks that I had worked with on the technology side, particularly some of the initial capital into the business. and um And so I first came into it really just with the expectation that I would be a passive investor in the company and was excited about the opportunity to sort of be involved in a space where, you know, you're helping to sort of move, uh, move the world forward, right? In a very positive way. Um, you know, most of what I did in the technology world, I think was, was generally useful, but it was nothing, uh, similar to an opportunity to help, you know, sort of millions of patients that are,
00:04:32
Speaker
suffering from sort of you know these very challenging diseases. and so so That's what first kind of brought me into into the space. um you know Over the course of a few months, I got to know like got to know the team ah you know well. and um We were in the process of selling a company that I had started with two other co-founders. This would have been sort of the summer to late summer, early fall of 2020. I was going to be looking for sort of the next thing for me to do. and
00:05:08
Speaker
you know One of my partners in Kiefer said, well, you know you should think about coming in and being the CEO. And um you know the idea that I would take the skills that I've i've developed in raising capital in other markets and and apply it here. And I thought, well, you know how hard could that be? right i'll I'll come there. We needed to raise a good $8 to $10 million dollars initially, and then, of course, much more over time. and um And like I said, I thought that couldn't be too, too
Challenges and Opportunities in Neurodegenerative Diseases
00:05:37
Speaker
hard. And so I jumped in with really the expectation that, um, you know, I'd serve in this, this role for awhile, and then we would raise capital and naturally bring in a, uh, sort of industry CEO into the business. And, you know, that was January of 2021, right? So a fair amount of time is, has passed since then. Um, I guess the other thing I would add is I just, you know, like I do really feel,
00:06:01
Speaker
uh, sort of very passionate about the opportunity to, to help patients and caregivers, uh, you know, in these diseases, I don't have, I don't have any particular sort of direct experience, for instance, with Alzheimer's or or Parkinson's, uh, in my family, which for which we're blessed, but I do know just how, uh, you know, to so devastating these diseases can be. So that's, that's a little bit of the backstory. Yeah, well, you definitely jumped right on into the deep end for sure and congratulations on taking that jump. And I mean, as you know, neurodegenerative diseases have been historically really hard to treat and there's very few ah treatments and certainly cures on the market.
00:06:45
Speaker
i What about that challenge was especially appealing? I understand you know you you haven't personally witnessed people with these diseases, but what else about it really wanted you to pour your time and energy into this therapeutic area, which has historically been very tough? Yeah. Well, I would say, um first off, ignorance is bliss. So coming into the role, you know I wasn't familiar with sort all of the history associated with you know attempts, particularly in, say, Alzheimer's disease, to find oh things that could positively impact those diseases. So I came in you know sort not fully aware, but obviously got up to speed sort of very quickly. um you know I think the fact that that the industry, Big Pharma particularly, had moved away from ah from neuroscience you know in the kind of late
00:07:37
Speaker
ah two thousand and ten s really opens up an opportunity broadly for companies to come in with new new approaches to neurodegenerative disease. Obviously, we're now seeing you know these companies come back into the space. and you know we're seeing sort of a lot more activity. But you know I do ah do think like in any market, the best time to be investing in in a space is when nobody else wants to be there, no particularly when it's just sort of obvious that the need is is so large. right Nobody questions that Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS, Levi dementia, these are all
00:08:15
Speaker
ah indications with huge unmet medical needs. And it's just not in question that these are going to be huge markets. But the problem is, as you referenced, Danny, the fact that there haven't been in a sort of good ah treatments or disease modifying treatments, particularly. And, um you know, and we think we have an opportunity to, to to change that, ah much like many other companies in our our space. And I think that's just really motivating the opportunity to have an impact. And and frankly, I think we can also have a very strong financial return for our investors. So we end up in a world where you know we can sort of do good, both in terms of ah ah moving the world forward, making a dent in the universe to use a kind of widely used phrase, but also generate strong financial returns. So both of those appeal to me.
00:09:05
Speaker
Yeah, I think this is the reason that a lot of us came to science in the first place is to make an impact on on patients and and bring forward valuable ah things to market. Of course, there's also a window of opportunity for people to make a financial impact as well. and so um I love that you've come at it from a different angle. and And here we are uniting over this topic. And I agree that there's a huge need for um treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. And on that topic, let's talk about, let's talk about Educanumab and Biogen. And so that's a good example because that met a really tough reception. um And I think the community was was devastated by that because the
00:09:53
Speaker
The results that Biogen had were a little bit less than stellar for Educan and MEB, Medicare limited coverage, and you know it hasn't had the effect that the community of patients and and people surrounding those patients were hoping to see. So I'm wondering with that with that lens, did you see an effect on investment in drugs for neurodegenerative disease, especially in relation to you know what KefirX was working on at the time um when when it had that tough reception? Yeah, and so just for a little bit of context, KefirX has licensed a set of compounds from Georgetown University, including the use patents for nalotinib and bazutinib in neurodegenerative disease. And so when we first launched, we were very focused on trying to to get a large phase three Alzheimer's trial ah with nalotinib
00:10:47
Speaker
financed. And so we were sort of right in that mix. And and when Adjuhal first came forward, you know there's always questions, obviously, about sort of efficacy and what impact it was actually going to have on patients. But from a purely financial markets perspective, you know it was it was sort of a huge, um initially a huge tailwind. right I mean, Biogen stock, you I don't know if it doubled or not, but it it went up dramatically. There was a lot of excitement, at least around what the the investment opportunities were in the space. and you know For the first part of 2021, that was helpful as it relates to at least getting in the door to have meetings with with investors.
00:11:29
Speaker
And this was $100 million dollars project that we launched with. So we you know we didn't start it with anything at all. And then, of course, as as the product launched and the pricing you know came out and you started to see some of the pushback, particularly from practitioners ah around you know effectiveness and use of the drug, um you know that ah obviously started to become more of a challenge. And you know one of our co-founders, is Dr. Fernando Pagan, who runs the um the movement clinic at Georgetown, and so is a practitioner in the space. And you know he was pretty clear with our team early on that he expected there were going to be significant and of pushback, particularly because of some of the inflammation issues that are well understood at this point. but um But eventually, it went from being a tailwind
00:12:22
Speaker
to a headwind. And um I think some of this was some of this was related to efficacy of the drug. But some of it was really sort of self-inflicted wounds you know from from Biogen here. And this has been sort of widely reviewed, analyzed, et cetera. So this is nothing. I'm not telling you anything that other folks haven't already confirmed. But just the way it was priced, I think, particularly became the problem, right? So the the price of the drug Plus, all of the ancillary costs associated with delivery of that drug just meant that you know you ended up with a world where Medicare looked at this and said, you know if 10% of Alzheimer's patients end up on this drug, we could you know we could potentially bankrupt the system. And I know they don't say that out loud, but that certainly was part of the um decision process. So I think we could have had a different outcome with different pricing, at least as it relates to, say, the the Medicare coverage.
00:13:19
Speaker
It wouldn't have changed, I don't think, sort of the the concerns in the neurology um practitioner space around you know sort of use of the drug benefit versus the risk around brain bleeds and inflammation. Yeah. I feel like there was a significant disappointment for the patients and um Yeah, I mean, let's hope there's something better in the future, especially coming out of your pipeline because there is so much unmet need here. Well, sorry, i'm just let let me comment real quickly on that. I think the other thing you saw with with this is just the fact that there is so much pent up patient you know interest and demand. And so you have the industry associations you know pushing very hard to get these first drugs approved. And I think it's hard to avoid that. I mean, you you want to, given that sort of dearth of time and opportunities, and
00:14:14
Speaker
people wanted something and that's where we we ended up. I think we're in a better spot today as a result. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, totally agree. Well, now I want to really like switch gears here and kind of take you back to your time when you were you know more in the tech space and less in the biotech because obviously the the world is very different and One thing that we know for sure is that tech has a much shorter time to pay out for investors, right? So with biotech, you need the science to be working, the science has to be on your side and it takes time to figure out, you know, what are the limitations of the science and are we pushing in the right direction?
Investment Strategies and AI's Role in Biotech
00:14:55
Speaker
So when you think about pitching and talking to tech investors versus biotech investors, what would you categorize as the main differences in the way you approach these two different classes of investors?
00:15:07
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's it's a good question. And I will tell you that the companies that deliver dramatic returns in the tech world have a similar gestation period. you know They are 10 to 15-year sort of stories for the companies that you know that we we're all familiar with. Certainly, there's opportunities in tech for shorter exits. But I don't know that it's so much the timeline as much as it is just that the businesses is and biotech is just a completely binary outcome. I mean, so all venture operate on a power law sort of model where the best investments deliver most of the performance. But in tech, there are at least opportunities you know to generate kind of one X, two X returns if a company doesn't perform as you would expect. And obviously a lot of tech companies go to zero as well. But I think biotech is just much more
00:16:01
Speaker
likely that you're either going to go all the way to zero, having used a lot more capital in tech. And it's you know so I think you you see a combination of the amount of capital required for a biotech to get to sort of exits is different than most tech investments. And then you know the the binary sort of nature of of biotech is interesting. um you know I'd say the other thing that I noticed very clearly in pitching these two different types of of venture investors is that on the tech side, you know there's much more of an expectation that firms are generalists, meaning you know they're looking at software across enterprise, consumer, they might be looking at social media companies, they might be looking at hardware, they might be looking at
00:16:50
Speaker
you know a variety wide variety of potential investments. whereas and And so as a result, you know their focus is on um it's just not as deep. and But in in biotech, you know every investor I've talked to you know understands the science at a level that is you know sort of much deeper than tech investors understand generally the technology. So it creates kind of a very different they're very different dynamic when you're you're talking to investors. Absolutely. Yeah. Biotech investors, you know, are often, they often have a PhD or they're surrounded by people with PhDs. I don't know if that's the the case in the tech world as well, but there's a ah serious um background associated with understanding the science. So you brought up pitching and investors and in in tech and and biotech and the difference between those that i'm I'm curious, you know, we sort of think a lot about how
00:17:49
Speaker
biotech follows tech in in trends around funding and pitching and and and building companies. So I'm curious, since since you were in tech not too long ago, what kind of trends are you familiar with from the tech world ah that you haven't seen in biotech but but you think might be coming into biotech as as more and more people you know start investing in biotech. The the field is or or the area is only growing um and and we expect that more generalist money will come here. Do you think that the trends around pitching wo will change as well?
00:18:23
Speaker
Yeah, it's a good it's a good question. um you know I don't know that there's any particular kind of innovation in the tech world that I would necessarily expect to come into the biotech venture world. you know If anything, you see some some of this going in the opposite direction. where you know the use of special purpose vehicles, the use of um kind of hybrid ah ah growth you know to IPO type financing. I think a lot of that came out of biotech and moved into tech. So I think if anything, there's a little bit of crossover going the other direction in terms of ah types of financing trends. Now, you know I do think we are starting to see, though, these two markets
00:19:04
Speaker
really ah start to come together a little bit, mostly driven by by AI and around these platforms that are using AI for drug discovery. And so that is pulling a lot of the kind of traditional tech investors into biotech because they understand this idea of like, okay, if I have a platform where I can use machine learning and artificial intelligence to better identify you know opportunities in any industry, right? But now I can do the same thing in biotech where this idea that if I can you know if if i can cut down the failure rate upfront ah by using better discovery tools, then we can start to tackle this really big problem in our space, which is just the fact that it's a billion dollars plus to get to ah you know an approved drug. And a lot of that is just because of the failure rates that happened earlier in the process.
00:19:58
Speaker
oh I will say I'm not personally completely convinced that AI-driven drug discovery is going to have the impact that that folks think it may, because I just think there's so much else to to at play in terms of what makes for a successful drug. But you know you are seeing a lot of crossover from tech investors into biotech as a result. And you know when I'm not talking to investors, and we've raised capital to date, you know predominantly from family office and high net worth individuals, a lot of whom have invested in tech. And so I do get this question quite a bit of like, how are you using AI you know in your drug discovery? And it's like, well,
00:20:39
Speaker
we're we're We're not as a practical matter. I mean, biotech has used machine learning forever in order to sort through data. But you know we have a very clear point of view on the targets that we're we're going after. And we have a set of drugs that we think are well suited to those targets. So a little bit of a long answer to your question. But I do see a lot of um do see a lot where we're now starting to have these two different segments of the venture community come together. and I think that's good for biotech broadly. Yeah, that's a really interesting point of view and thank you for highlighting that. because you know In thinking about it, we actually see that with a lot of our clients as well as that they'll have some sort of AI component to what they're doing and they do see interest in investment from both the biotech and the tech world. so I like that that you confirm that that's a trend that you're seeing and that's continuing to go forward. And as as as a side note, we could probably spend a whole hour talking about the value of um drug discovery using AI. i So we'll we'll flag that for a different conversation. But I'm going to ask you a kind of a tough question now, Chris, because you kind of talked about, you know, we have our compounds and we know our targets and
00:21:53
Speaker
I want to hear the speak to like how you've had to rethink pitching this story because we know that there's a set of people out there that think you know the kinase inhibitors aren't going to be effective in neurodegenerative diseases. so How do you think about talking about that in terms of when you do pitch investors that are familiar with some of the other failures in the field or the concept that the field is, quote unquote, dead? I'd love to hear how you think about communicating that. Sure, no, and I appreciate appreciate the question. Well, and I think, you know, first broadly in the biotech world, you know, there's very few areas where there's not critics, right? So in any space of of material size, you're going to have lots of different approaches and certainly neurodegenerative disease
00:22:39
Speaker
you know, falls into that category. So we're always going to have folks that are, you know, sort of questioning our mechanism of action and approach. But I think specifically in our space, you know, there was some work done looking at nalodinib in Parkinson's ah disease. And, you know, there were a set of trials that were looking at using, like I said, nalodinib there, one that was run by Michael J. Fox Foundation back in 2017 timeline. And that that trial was run out of Northwestern University. And um you know and it looked at at the impact of nolotinib in ah positive impact on symptoms over a six month period. And the trial what the trial found was that nolotinib was safe and tolerable, but during that six month period it didn't really have a positive impact on
00:23:28
Speaker
on the symptoms of these advanced or moderate to advanced Parkinson's patients. And you know so so Michael J. Fox came out and said, hey, this doesn't you know it's not effective. We're not going to continue. ah Georgetown was running a trial at the same time ah looking at melodinib in a similar patient population. And um and you know Georgetown saw similar results over six months. right It didn't have an impact necessarily on the movement component of Parkinson's during that period. But Georgetown ran that study for a longer period of time and actually did see some positive impact on on symptoms
00:24:06
Speaker
And that data was was published a few years back. Now, we also have a ah new study that was run by Georgetown looking at you know using melodinib in the Leibody dementia, where this phase two trial was designed specifically to test for cognitive benefit. And those test results will be reported actually soon. They'll be published at some point in the next few months. And so we think that that data is going to help ah the field understand that you know there are positive benefits from from this class of drugs. um So I think that's going to be helpful for us. And then I think more importantly, as as we think about what Key4X is focused on, is you know we have a pipeline of preclinical assets that are improvements on these first-generation kinase inhibitors.
00:24:57
Speaker
and So, for instance, Nalotinib gets into the brain at roughly 1% penetration, and um our our new compounds get into the brain at 30 to 50 times higher concentrations. And it's, you know, or as a result of the way they've been designed. But it does mean that you can have more impact on on toxic protein clearance while also ah coming in at ah at a lower dose, which we think is going to be helpful. um The last thing I guess I would say is we do know, because of the work that was done within the low nib and in the exude nib, that we have a clear view on the safety profile you know of those drugs. yeah And you know we know that at the doses that were used in the prior trials, that they were safe. And so in a world where we have drugs that are very similar, but
00:25:46
Speaker
sort of better in terms of of penetration, therefore requiring lower dosage. You know, we do sort of go into this a bit de-risked as it relates to the risk profile, or excuse me, the toxicity profile compared to, you know, sort of a brand new drug. Yeah, so I guess if I had to kind of summarize, it sounds like you weren't perturbed by the result of the ah the Michael J. Fox study just because of the time point that was looked at, and you know upon further investigation and with the the other study at a longer time point, those results did look promising. so
00:26:24
Speaker
I like the fact that you know with that information in hand and you know a thorough assessment of the situation at the time, you made that choice to take through for the optimized drugs, you know the ones that have the better brain penetration and potentially a better profile. I mean, to me, that sounds like it makes a lot of sense in terms of strategy to get to the clinic and help these patients as soon as possible. Yeah, I think we're on the the right path. I mean, I will point out that you know this is all what I described earlier is before my time. It was done at Georgetown ah University. and and But again, we do feel we feel good about sort of the results that we've seen in the work that we are doing on our preclinical programs. And yeah we believe the mechanism of action
00:27:08
Speaker
kind of is a good path to follow that has both benefit in terms of reducing toxic proteins, but also reducing inflammation, which is considered to be one of the sort of key ah paths that um you know that we see in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and ALS. So Chris, You've got so much experience in um raising funding across different very different areas.
Perseverance in Biotech Funding
00:27:36
Speaker
um and so I'd like to ask you the question that that we ask at the end of every podcast. and and I think you'll have some unique experience here because you know you you you have the convergence of these two fields and you've you've worked with a lot of different types of investors. so I'm curious, if you were to give advice,
00:27:56
Speaker
to a managing team who is raising funding right now, what would that one piece of advice be?
00:28:05
Speaker
Oh, that's ah that's a that's a good question. um Yeah, so one piece of advice. Well, look, I think it it obviously depends on sort of the the stage that your assets are at. um you know I think perseverance is probably the single biggest requirement. right I had a chance to um go meet with the CEO of BioHaven recently. And and as part of kind of getting ready for that meeting, I listened to a ah talk he gave at Wake Forest. And he basically mentioned the fact that you know when they were starting that company, you know they had a drug they had licensed out of out of Bristol-Myer. And you know he had to talk to 200 plus investors to get his first investment into the company.
00:28:51
Speaker
and you know and That's hard, right? I mean, you know, to have the patience, perseverance, passion, discipline, you know, to to go and take that many sort of meetings without getting a yes, you know, that's maybe it's a little bit extreme, you know, 200. But in my own experience, you know, at Kiefer, we've talked to, you know, I've talked to a couple hundred investors probably over the course of the last three and a half years. And, um you know, you just have to keep going because you
00:29:23
Speaker
You know, investors, they make decisions in theory on a purely rational basis, but in in reality, we all make decisions that are impacted by our emotions. And so, you know, you can go in and pitch a great story to an investor, but if they just are not aligned with that indication or the approach or, you know, they didn't have they didn't have a good breakfast that morning, I mean, you can get an answer that really frankly isn't fully dependent upon you know the value of of what you're doing. So you just have to keep you just have to keep going. um So I think that perseverance piece is a requirement for any entrepreneur. and um And as a result, then having a team around you that can be supportive and you know, to help keep you grounded as you're out talking to a lot of people is also important. So, you know, the part of that comes around back to like, don't take it personally. and You know, it's so easy to take this personally when you, you know, I've had some really disastrous investor meetings in my past, mostly in in the tech world, but I've had meetings where I've gone in and like, literally the person you're pitching to does not look up from their phone the entire time you're there.
00:30:38
Speaker
And, um you know, it's like, okay, well, probably not getting money from that guy. But you need to, you know, you just you need to be professional and you, you know, you give your pitch and then you move on. um You know, I think the other thing I would tell new, like a new founder going out to capital is In addition to being to to persevering is you actually have to start to learn what different sort of things mean when investors tell you certain things. It's very difficult to get an investor one to say no, right? So investors don't necessarily like to say no because that closes off the opportunity to invest in the future. So you get a lot of answers that are like,
00:31:22
Speaker
Well, keep me informed, or boy, we'd love to learn more, or come back in you know two months when you have this or that. and you know you new And new entrepreneurs tend to read more into that than it's it's like a polite way of saying no. yeah And so it's you know it's starting to de-conflict what things really mean when you're when you're hearing them. But um but i look, I think it's i For me, it's a lot of fun. i like I like having the opportunity to talk to a lot of different investors in and the biotech space you know as a non-scientist. I'm usually the one doing the first pitch and then bringing in my scientific co-founder for subsequent discussions. and you know There are definitely times where
00:32:12
Speaker
you know It is clear that the person I am pitching to really doesn't want to talk to me. right they want to They want to go straight to my sign and go founder. And so then we adjust. you know we have We have a relatively quick conversation, and then we shift to you know sort of the more in-depth science discussion as appropriate. So and again, you just have to just have to go with the flow. Right, right. well skin Yeah, definitely thick skin. I have i have thick skin until I get to the end of the day and then my wife has to hear me. yeah well So less less thick skin at the end of the day, but I've got to keep persevering. Well, Chris, thank you so much for sharing those
Reflections on Biotech vs. Tech Outcomes
00:32:54
Speaker
examples. I think your advice is spot on and it's been a real pleasure having you on Spark Time. So thanks so much for being here. Sure. Thank you.
00:33:02
Speaker
As I mentioned in the beginning, I love a good story about pitching poorly. But Chris is also a pro at pitching. He recognizes that what you need to have many, many conversations with potential investors in order to achieve an initial investment. Yes, there are so many conversations that go into getting the check. And we know from a lot of conversations with early stage founders that there's often a misconception here about how many conversations that should be. I also really enjoyed the discussion around outcomes in tech versus biotech. So Chris highlighted the binary nature of biotech outcomes and how it takes a lot of capital to get to that exit point.
00:33:43
Speaker
That made me think about our new age that we're living in in terms of AI and how companies might be able to turn to more generalist investors. We've seen that, especially in therapeutics companies pitching more services to generate revenue in addition to therapeutics. And I'm pretty interested to see where that trend goes. Well, that's because you're a massive geek. In all seriousness, it's been a tough time for the neuro space and the fact that Chris is feeling tailwinds keeps me optimistic. The patients suffering from things like Alzheimer's have some new treatment options coming soon. Join us next time as we continue to power scientific innovation with storytelling to drive transformative change and solve our most demanding challenges.