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Saul Marquez:
Hey, everybody, it’s Saul Marquez with the Outcomes Rocket. And want to welcome you back to another episode of our show. Today, I’ve got the privilege of hosting Adam Jenkins. If the name sounds familiar, that’s because we’ve had him on the podcast previously here for the second time. A little bit about Adam. He’s the regional site director for Bio Labs, a global incubator space with really, spaces in the US, Europe and Asia. He oversees the operations in Massachusetts and helps startups progress through their operational phases. And previously he worked at Corporate Strategy and the head of data science at Biogen. So if you’re a company looking to scale in the biotech space, this is an episode for you and Adam, so glad that you’re with us again. Thanks for joining.
Adam Jenkins:
No problem. Thanks for having me back.
Saul Marquez:
Absolutely. So, look, a lot has changed since we talked. And it’s just a very dynamic economy for the startups as well as the investors looking into them. So before we dive into that, because I know that’s your sweet spot, help the listeners learn a little bit more about you and why you’re in the healthcare space.
Adam Jenkins:
Yeah, so I’ve really been in the healthcare space for over a decade now. Started really big at Biogen working the corporate strategy team, data science, working on, I’ll say, drugs that are blockbuster drugs, which are much different than kind of the start up culture. But working in something that size, you really start to see what’s valuable, what really will drive value down the chain for whether it be the company, the patient, the health care system. So you get to see kind of what successes look like and you get to also see how you do due diligence and what those companies look for in the startups to de-risk those type of investments. So after a little bit of learning kind of what’s valuable, what’s needed, figured that I really like to kind of impart this type of information for the startups. Moved over to BioLabs about a year ago and I’ve loved the change and loved working with the founders, with, whether it be first-time founders, with the investors, with the ecosystem in general. So there’s a lot to learnm there’s a lot, like you said, there’s a lot changing. It’s a very, very dynamic place to be. So the nice thing is that they’ll always be inventors, they’ll always be founders. So hopefully we’ll be working on this for a long time.
Saul Marquez:
That’s awesome, Adam. Yeah, and so it’s no secret, right? The largest companies, whether it’s biotech, medtech, they depend on this ecosystem of startups to accelerate innovation. And given that you started at one of the big companies, you understand what strategics look for in companies, right, to fast-track projects. Tell us how BioLabs fits into that picture.
Adam Jenkins:
Yeah. So the big thing for the large companies is they’re trying to de-risk their investments. Doing it in-house is great, but once you get to a certain size, you don’t want success to be one and 20. You need it to be 1 in 4, or you’ll just start burning through capital and you’ll, you know, just not good for the investors, the stock price, everyone. It’s not what you’re looking for. So what BioLabs does is we help de-risk the founders so that they can use the capital for the science, for the people, rather than on the operations. So rather than building out your own lab, having to purchase all the equipment, everything that is, I don’t want to say, they’re usually capital intensive operationally. We want those founders to focus on just the science, just on their business, and let us handle all of the lab operations, everything that you don’t think about as a founder but is vital to making it work. So for all the science, whether it be GreenTech, Biotech, whoever’s in our space, we really want them to just focus on the science and then we’ll de-risk them from that point of view so that the investors can say, you know what, they’re going to use their capital in a strategic way that we can trust, and that they don’t have to worry about kind of those unknowns popping up.
Saul Marquez:
Hey, that’s really great. And as founders of businesses and you’re listening to this, you know how many things you have to worry about in your business. You know, there’s finance, there’s operations, there’s the science, there’s the sales, there’s the marketing. Why throw a bunch of cash away trying to figure things out when you can work with a partner like BioLab. So talk to us about how those relationships work and how people can engage with you guys, Adam, like, as a startup, number one, how could we engage with you? And then also from a strategic standpoint, like if you’re a large pharma company looking to engage, is that something you guys do as well?
Adam Jenkins:
So from a startup stage, we talked to hundreds of startups, hundreds of founders every single year to say, what do you need? Partially so we can know how to support them. And then as a company, we have to evolve as the ecosystem evolves as well. The science that we’re going to see two, three, four years down the line, we don’t know what it’s going to look like. So we have to kind of understand and see that coming, so we can make any changes that we need to as well. So startups always reach out to us, you know, anyone in the company, you know, is a great starting point. From a large biotech company, we sponsor golden tickets where they can have access to the sites across, so we have over 200 companies right now incubating in our spaces. They can sponsor a lab bench for a company that they think is promising, you know, whether it be a golden ticket or just be a sponsor of the sites to have access to all of them. So there are multiple different ways that both the startup community and the larger biotech pharma community can can interact with us.
Saul Marquez:
That’s great. You also have a marketplace. Tell me more about that. Is that kind of like a GPO or how does that work?
Adam Jenkins:
Yeah. So our marketplace, one thing that we start to sell is that procurement is a vastly difficult thing for a startup to do. Anyone who’s ever been in this space is drowned in the purchase order and the requisition forms. What our marketplace aims to do is to really simplify that task of ordering things that aren’t simple to order, such as chemicals, such as things that are controlled substances, things along those lines. So when companies come on, that’s just one of those benefits that they can have, to have that marketplace, have the ability to really hit the ground running day one. We see a lot of companies, especially in the biotech space, the first six months are almost dead times when they start their business and build out their own space. So when companies come in to BioLabs, we want, day one, pipettes in hand, really start to working so that they can, like I said, use that capital in a strategic fashion and not burn it. You know, if you only have two months of runway, there’s no use in running in burning six months just to get going above that.
Saul Marquez:
Yeah, for sure. Look, it sounds like you guys have some really great resources and a community that you’re putting together to help these biotech startups. Let’s talk about the investment community. You know, how’s funding looking for biotechs and healthcare? What’s changing and what do people need to be thinking about?
Adam Jenkins:
Yeah, I mean, there’s no way getting around it. The last 12-24 months has been a large inflection point, has been difficult for a lot of startups, especially those who are in the process of raising Series A seed funding. The amount of funding has drastically reduced from back to 2017-2018 levels in our ecosystem. What that means, it doesn’t mean that people aren’t getting funded, it’s just that you really have to be buttoned up in your pitch. I’ll say those first time founders who were getting funded prior with, I don’t want to say weak stories or, you know, kind of that weak storyline that they were going into to those VCs, where the founders used to have the upper hand, because VCs would have to make a very quick choice of whether to fund or not because they’re going against other VCs. Now, the VCs and the venture firms have the upper hand where they can take the time, they can really do their due diligence. So the process takes a little bit longer now. What that means is that companies, especially founders, I think that a lot of them get enamored by the fact that you have to be VC-backed to really be a founder and have a company. When I recommend to every single company, do those non-dilutive fundings like SBIR grants, things like that that are for government, nobody cares where you got your $2 million from if you’re doing the work. Especially later on, you’ll have more equity still in the company, whereas, you know, you wouldn’t be losing that via other instruments. So when I talk to founders, I say now is the time to really be smart with your capital, really kind of prolong it as much as possible. The good thing is, is that these funds, the venture capital firms, there were a lot of them that were formed over the last 2 or 3 years when money was free. That being said, a lot of that capital has to be dispersed within four years, they can only sit on it for so long. Let’s assume that we’ve been through 1 or 2 years in the low times. The next 3 or 4 years they have to use that capital or it’s going to be lost more or less, their LPs won’t disperse it. So for right now, you know, I’m saying over the next, I’ll say probably about 12 months, I see an opening up of capital again to the VC community, to the founders. So hopefully a little bit of an inflection point the other way.
Saul Marquez:
Hey, that’s good. If we got an opportunity for additional money to drive innovation, let’s grab it, folks. And look, there’s a lot of nuance here to starting this biotech business from decisions you need to make as a founder where you get your money to how you drive your operations. And honestly, I think there’s a great opportunity for anybody listening to this to engage with BioLabs, they’re certainly available. What’s the best way that people could get in touch with you guys, Adam, for for exploring?
Adam Jenkins:
Yeah. I mean, so we have sites in most of the major cities across the US, so whether it be New York, San Diego, Texas, North Carolina, most of the biotech hubs across the US as well as in Europe now, in Paris, Heidelberg, Berlin and in Japan, reaching out to any of those sites directly, there are multiple different vehicles, whether it be phone call, email, you know, whatever. The nice thing about BioLabs is we’re relatively lean company, so you can get to whoever you need to pretty much with a single email. As well, of course you can find us. Yeah, we’re very much a one phone call company, one email.
Saul Marquez:
That’s awesome, man.
Adam Jenkins:
So as soon as you get in touch with us, we can usually have that conversation within a couple of days. So again, getting everything done quickly. We don’t try to prolong things too long.
Saul Marquez:
Listen, that’s music to any founders ears, so thank you for letting us know the accessibility. And so if they want to get in touch, do they just go to BioLabs.io and find a place to connect there or what? What would you suggest is the best way?
Adam Jenkins:
Yeah. So BioLabs.oi, great place to start. Kind of get a feel for all the sites, all of our offerings, what we look for, who are our partners and vendors are. And then as well you can read or reach out to any of the site directors or anyone directly via LinkedIn or just a general inquiry through that main page will make its way to us.
Saul Marquez:
Beautiful. Well, look, Adam, this has been a pleasure. Thanks for jumping on to share more about the work that you and BioLabs is up to. Looking forward to staying in touch, my friend.
Adam Jenkins:
Of course. Thanks for having me back, Saul.
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