…And now we scale!
One year ago, we launched Altitude Lab. “This feels different,” is the most common reflection entrepreneurs have after we introduce them to Altitude Lab’s mission. Unlike other incubators, Altitude Lab provides more than just space and basic equipment; Altitude Lab offers community for a diverse group of high-potential entrepreneurs.
Community was central to every choice we made for Altitude Lab’s program. At Altitude Lab, entrepreneurs have two years to further develop their technology, grow as a business executive, connect with investors, and graduate as a funded, rapid-growth company. It’s a timeframe that promotes a cohort-effect and stability, while also creating a healthy amount of time-pressure. Graduating from Altitude Lab is celebrated as a big win for each resident startup and our team consults with founders to help them launch their own HQs.
Emphasizing community has led to our founders sharing investor connections and helping one another on technical and scientific questions. This is particularly impactful for our underestimated founders who frequently don’t have the friends-and-family network to help advise or bootstrap their startup.
Last month, we hosted our first Demo Day at Altitude Lab. After announcing our investor coalition in June, it was rewarding to see our coalition members mentor and advise our resident companies. These relationships are seeded during Demo Day but will be nurtured throughout the year with ~40 more one-on-one engagements and advisory sessions.
In less than a year, our seven companies have raised >$25M in seed funding and hired 18 employees. Altitude startups are pursuing patient studies at leading medical centers like the Huntsman Cancer Institute and MD Anderson and securing partnerships with Genentech and other leading industry players. Our founders’ success showcased on Demo Day was a true capstone for Altitude Lab. We have many stories to share, but these are a few of our favorites.
3Helix
When 3Helix joined Altitude, they classically struggled with platform-technology-story-syndrome. Having platform technology is a gift but its value can be difficult to communicate effectively. Our team is proud to watch this team take feedback and work hard to craft a story that pinpoints a market need (fibrosis stratification) and differentiate the company so convincingly. Their hard work has earned them partnerships with Roche/Genentech and two other leading, multinational life science companies to co-develop and market their technology.
Known Medicine
Founder and CEO, Andrea Mazzocchi, reached out to me in March of 2020 when Altitude Lab was not much more than a partnership announcement with the University of Utah. “I’m thinking about applying to Y Combinator,” she told me, “but I still need lab space.” Fast forward 15 months and the two-female founder team completed Y Combinator, is seed-funded by Khosla Ventures, graduated from Altitude Lab and is now building their own HQ and CLIA laboratory. The company is rapidly growing with twelve new hires and a 200 patient study underway. Andrea and Katie-Rose are humbled every day with technological development and learning to scale and grow their team but their engagement with the community, grit, and desire to be role models for other entrepreneurs is worth noting.
Rebel Medicine
Where most early-stage startups grapple with technological challenges ahead of business models, Rebel is already thinking through how they can disrupt conventional market strategies to increase patient access to their therapeutics. Taking cues from the generics market, Brett Davis and his team are thinking how they can combine technological, regulatory and market strategy to drive increased market penetration. It’s rare to see early-stage biotech companies be this intentional which is what makes this team so impressive.
Teiko Bio
Ramji Srinivasan started his first company, Counsyl, in the Bay Area. But he is building his second startup in Salt Lake City. “Incredible people, a very business-friendly state, and an affordable cost of living,” is what convinced Ramji to make the transition to Utah. With several hundred-patient studies starting at Altitude Lab, he is rapidly growing his team with five planned hires allowing the team to accelerate platform development and recruit key biopharma partners. “This is going to be transformational [to trial strategy],” commented Ryan Watts, CEO of Denali Therapeutics, during Teiko’s Demo Day showcase.
Scaling with and for our founders
Our first year in operation set the foundation and tone for Utah’s healthcare innovation ecosystem. In our second year, we aim to grow as fast as our resident companies. An incubator is a fairly concrete concept, but an innovation ecosystem isn’t. I can’t express how exciting it is to work with partners that want to build the harder, more intangible thing. This year, we are dramatically expanding our infrastructure and community to support all of our growth. We have an incubator; 2022 will be about scaling it to become an innovation powerhouse.
Scale your big idea with us! Apply now.
