10 Questions w/ Chas Pulido — General Partner @ Alix Ventures
Alix Ventures: Driving Patient Impact — Supporting early stage Life Science startups engineering biology to drive radical advances in human health 🚀
Born from our collective experience as founders, we set out to build the fund we wanted to raise from…
Thesis: Life Sciences is experiencing rapid innovation with the rise of new generation of companies known as “TechBio” (Melding Technology & Biology), a change we believe is leading to some of the most impactful solutions in decades. Our passion is to help build transformative companies ahead of this revolution to significantly impact the quality & effectiveness of patient care. We aim to partner with passionate, accomplished founders who possess unique insights to solve some of the world’s most daring problems facing us in Life Sciences.
Team: Our entire team is built of Life Science Founders with experience in raising capital, scaling teams, running labs, partnering with Pharma, & the many fires that consist of operating an early stage company. Founders, we’d love to partner with you along the journey & help translate daunting ideas into world shaping innovations — here’s to a better brighter future for patients!
SAB: Composed of Bioengineering PhDs turned Founders, our Scientific Advisory Board provides deep technical expertise & fluency across a wide variety of Life Science sub-domains from platforms for “Novel Applications” (Therapeutics/Diagnostics) to “Bio-Economy Infrastructure” (Tools/Services/Manufacturing). Let’s talk science!
Support: Helping our founders is our utmost priority. To tackle the many challenges ahead, we’ve curated a full platform of resources to help with customer introductions, fundraising, & team building, amongst others. In addition, dedicated to supporting our portfolio is our extensive network of industry executives spanning Top 25 Pharma, major health systems, & large Payors.
Limited Partners: Anchored by leading strategic LPs making up some of the best venture capital firms in the world, veteran founders, & industry experts. Alix is here to fill the void for early stage Life Science capital.
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We sat down with Chas Pulido — General Partner @ Alix Ventures, to ask his viewpoints on everything from his investment perspective, what he looks for in founders, to his advice on building companies…
1
“What are the top traits you look for in founders?”
“Successful companies take many years to build, so we look for Founders we could see ourselves working with for 10+ years. We like Founders that embody…
Wizardry — Unrivaled domain knowledge and understanding of market opportunities
Scar Tissue — Wounds from prior mistakes that have healed into earned secrets — advantages for the next try
Wave Generator — Courage to lead the first charge and set in motion the groundswell needed to start a movement
Micro Macro — Balanced mindset with fluency in both long term vision and short term goals
Liaison — Gifted builder, communicator, navigator, and motivator of “the Village” — investors, employees, customers, press, etc.
Eye of the Storm — Ability to find stability and direction in an unstable/unpredictable environment
Always be Chasing — Rocket fuel that keeps on burning and the fire to weather on despite circumstance
These terms benchmark our viewpoint that the best Founders are determined, passionate, grounded, smart, creative, and — maybe most importantly — can get right back up after getting knocked down.”
2
“How has your worldview evolved since you first started your VC career?”
“One company, founded by one person, born from one idea can truly change the world. As irrational as it sounds, we live in the time where radical change is possible and happens often. Every day, history somewhere is being made. To those with a dream, I say, “grab your slingshots!””
3
“Outside of operating experience & higher education, what is one seemingly random thing you look for in a founder’s background?”
“Resiliency — life and in particular founderhood is a long, often perilous journey. It’s not how we get knocked down, but rather how we stand back up that defines us. An understanding that the road won’t be straight, but rather that it is full of inevitable twists/turns is the expectation. Our reaction to these course corrections is ultimately what proves decisive. In the end, the eternal truth proves itself — all things worth doing require patience.”
4
“Outside of investing, what is one seemingly random activity that helps make you a better VC?”
“Cooking — there is nothing more tangentially entrepreneurial in my opinion. Great chefs, like great entrepreneurs, don’t follow recipes. Instead, they optimize for end results as they know that the desired outcome might often take the form of a moving target, as the ingredients have a tendency to change. What defines a great outcome is the ability to take a seemingly misfit batch of inputs and craft them with the proper technique to achieve the requisite output.”
5
“What has been the most helpful piece of advice you received throughout your career as a venture capitalist?”
“At the end of the day, people run companies and relationships matter. The journey is usually never as hard or as easy as one might think, but it generally tends to be longer than expected. When choosing relationships, optimize for good people, as company prospects may come and go. It’s those who lead the organization that you’ll have to interact with despite the conditions.”
6
“As an early stage investor, we often pick companies whose directions change. Can you talk about pivoting vs. staying the course?”
“When looking at seed stage companies we acknowledge oftentimes in order of priority its team first, market second, & idea third. With this mind, the third part can often feel like Founders are wandering the woods while going through the creative process. It’s important to optimize company direction in the early days around a series of de-risking milestones & be aware of constraints such as team, capital, time, etc. At each project milestone, the team should follow the data & create benchmarks for GO or NO GO decisions.”
7
“As a founder building something new in the world, you are often in need of knowledge you don’t possess. How would you recommend founders go about seeking mentorship?”
“As a Founder, you are shepherding a new idea into the world, the responsibility of this should not be understated. Surrounding yourself with those who have come before you & teaching those who will come after you is how the ecosystem works. We often ask Founders, “how can we help?”. Most Founders always have a few items on their list, some have a laundry list, but it’s those that have nothing, are the ones we really worry about. Mentors first & foremost can help check blindspots, even when times are the best, threats might be existential versus immediate, but they still exist. We advise Founders to build a personal board of directors composed of those who they can have honest conversations with, free of conflict of interest, & seek to level up their knowledge, be it domain, leadership, or preparing for the next stage of company growth. The journey never stops until you do, so why should your growth?”
8
“How does your evaluation process change when it comes to backing first-time vs. repeat founders?”
“In terms of experience there are “Fifty Shades of Green”. For first time Founders we expect perhaps that while advantages of a hiring network, prior operating history, & access to industry insiders might not always be present that Founders are instead coachable, possess extreme hustle ability, & have insights into the problem, often as an inventor, that will enable them to be successful where others might fail. The collection of these super powers for a first time Founder is greater than the sum of the parts. With this they possess the ability to overcome any difference in starting position that a repeat Founder might otherwise begin from.”
9
“How do you advise founders in your portfolio to prepare ahead of time for future fundraises?”
“One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever been given is, “know people before you need to know them”. My personal belief is that 90% of fundraising can be done between rounds & then it comes down to logistics / dealmaking.
In terms of more tactical strategy:
We advise Founders to immediately after closing their prior round put together a list of top milestones for their next fundraise, identify the 10–15 high priority VCs they should get to know, & then ask these VCs to validate their milestones. When you can fix a target & know what you are supposed to do, it does a great deal in eliminating guesswork, & puts the focus where it should be — on execution. From here we often recommend Founders schedule routine touch points (3–6 months) with these high priority VCs where you share progress (but on your terms, this is not a formal pitch), ask for help (particularly intros), & continue most of all the relationship building process (leds often take Board seats & as a founder you should feel comfortable with this person well before a decision is made. As the saying goes, “a lot of great companies have been ruined by bad boards”). In parallel we recommend, Founders create a “Friends of Your Company” newsletter that you distribute routinely (so folks remember who you are, hear good news, & see your logo). With these tactics in mind then it becomes sounding the horn that you have hit your consensus milestones. At this point VCs should already feel comfortable in knowing you, your company, objectives, and then it comes down to can we make a partnership happen.
The sad eternal truth is “a startup is as good as the next round it can raise”. We believe trying to mitigate capital risk to be highly prudent.”
10
“What is one piece of advice you would share with future Startup Founders?”
“In terms of Chess — you first have to know what the pieces are, then how the pieces move, but it can take a lifetime to learn how to get good at moving the pieces.
Startups often can be boiled down to its simplest parts & its these levers that you can push/pull to maneuver outcomes.
Recognize problems for what they are, but acknowledge it takes a while to differentiate between what is a tiger that is actually going to eat your face off & one that is only masquerading as a life/death scenario.
Running an early stage startup often feels like you are constantly putting out fires, it takes time to learn how to put them out, but it takes even longer to know which ones to ignore.”
At Alix Ventures, we are all about supporting industry defining startups as they strive to drive patient impact. If these insights resonate with you we’d love to get in touch! Please reach out to: chas@alix.vc
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