Female Founders: Gilly Regev of SaNOtize Research and Development Corp On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Doug Noll

Nothing is ever easy. Even when you know you have an amazing product that will save lives, getting it to market has so many hurdles. Especially when you talk about regulated products, like therapeutics. Our first regulatory approval was such an exhausting path. But you know where you want to go, and you fight for it. It goes back to nothing is ever easy — but it is definitely worth it.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Gilly Regev.

Gilly Regev, PhD, is cofounder and CEO of SaNOtize Research and Development Corp. a fast-growing Canadian company focused on addressing common topical infections through its proprietary technology that delivers the natural antimicrobial properties of nitric oxide. The company’s antiviral nasal spray is registered or authorized in more than 10 countries across the world; the team is currently working toward approval in the US and Canada.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I grew up in Israel, which I think shaped much of who I am and my career path today. My parents were both very driven — they were supportive but also pushed me to achieve. I was very involved in the Hebrew Scouts Movement in Israel both before and after my military service. Both the Army and the Scouts gave me the confidence to manage large groups of people in challenging or sensitive situations, and to be a problem solver, which are definitely skills I’ve carried with me.

Academically, I had always been curious and loved learning, but it took some time to figure out what I wanted to do. I did my PhD in biochemistry but knew I wanted to expand outside academia for my career — I wanted to help humanity in a more hands-on way. Life led me to meet Dr. Miller, with whom I would eventually cofound my company, SaNOtize, in 2017. Together we developed a new way to harness the well-documented antimicrobial properties of nitric oxide (NO) and created several therapeutic products. One of these, an antiviral nasal spray, is approved throughout the world (but not yet in the US), including as treatment for Covid-19. Doing this work has definitely allowed me to fulfill my goal of using science to help impact humanity in a larger way.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

There are quite a few, but I think one of the most memorable was when we were starting out and had a lot of clinical evidence for how effective our antiviral nasal spray is, but it hadn’t been approved by a regulatory agency yet. There was a period where thousands of people were reaching out to us, trying to get our product — but we couldn’t share it because we were still waiting on approval. It’s a strange situation where you have something that’s effective and you know it can save lives, but you can’t sell it. You must go through the regulatory process first. It was very energizing, but also painful at the same time. Happily, we’ve gotten several approvals throughout the world since then and we’re working toward more.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I’ve made a lot of mistakes that haven’t all been funny! You often learn the best lessons by making mistakes. A funny one, which ended well, was when I was doing a fundraising round for the company. A close advisor called me up one day — I was at a conference, giving a number of investor presentations — and told me I had to speak to a new potential investor. I was exhausted from pitching, and we already had investors lined up, but still needed one more. I had heard “I know someone who can invest” many times before. I didn’t ask too many questions about this potential investor, and I was so busy that I didn’t get the chance to research her. Normally I would do my background research, but this time I just didn’t. So, I did the pitch, and within 20 minutes, she cut me off and said, “I’m in. I believe in this. How much do you want and what is the valuation?” I thanked her wholeheartedly, finished call, and googled her. It turned out she’s one of the most visionary investors in the world! I had no idea who I was talking to.

I was shocked and a little embarrassed, but at the end of the day, it worked out: we got the investment and from a person whose humanitarian interests are completely aligned with ours. But you should always do the homework and know who you’re talking to!

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

There are so many. I wouldn’t be here without all the people who supported me along the way. I would say I’m especially grateful to the two men in my life. One is my business partner, cofounder, and chief scientific officer of the company, Chris Miller. He’s been so instrumental in the company and my career. The other is my husband who pushed me to be a CEO when I doubted whether I was cut out for it. He said, “I know you have what it takes to lead a company all the way.” I certainly wasn’t as sure as he was, but I chose to believe him. Some days I resent him for that (kidding), but I’m very thankful for him pushing me to achieve what I didn’t even believe I was capable of.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience, what is currently holding back women from founding companies?

Being raised in Israel and moving to Canada gave me a unique perspective on this. In North America, I think there’s still this idea that women raising children should stay at home. Women sometimes view themselves as bad mothers if they go to work. This is changing, but slowly. In Israel, it’s very different: almost every woman works, not only because they need the money, but because they want to build a career and be independent. Moreover, in my experience, women are less confident, particularly about being entrepreneurs. They may feel that if they don’t know everything right away, they can’t run a company (right or wrong, most men don’t seem to share this sentiment!).

Women should trust themselves more! I knew nothing about corporate finances when I started my company, but I learned along the way, and now I’m very comfortable with it. Women should trust that they are every bit as capable as men at learning along the way and they don’t need to know everything at the outset — and they surely don’t need “permission.”

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?

Absolutely. In terms of the individual, I think every successful woman needs to speak out about their success — and support one another. Women sometimes don’t do this, or they see each other as threats. But there are enough incredible women doing great work in the world, that should all support one another.

On a societal level, we need to encourage women to build careers for their own good. Not just to find a job, but to build a career so that you’re fulfilled. And in terms of government, there should be more incentives for equal maternity/paternity leave and daycare funding. Some women can’t go to work because daycare is more expensive than what their job pays. In biotech, it’s statistically more difficult to get funded for women-led companies, so there could be more incentives from government to fund female-led startups.

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

From my perspective as a parent, a big reason is that you’re a role model for your kids. Demonstrating a fulfilling, happy life that blends the roles of being a parent, a life partner and a career person is an important reference point for them. I’ve seen it with my two boys, whose appreciation for me as a whole person (and not just as their “mom”) has increased as they’ve seen me passionately pursuing a career.

Also, when you’re starting a company, you really have to be a jack of all trades. Women are very good at multitasking — much better than men, in my humble opinion (even though not all research supports this view)! Finally, you need to have very good instincts as a founder. Women often have excellent instincts, which can serve them well as entrepreneurs.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?

I think the life of an entrepreneur can seem glamorous from the outside. I’ve had people tell me that I look like I’m super successful, and they assume I have a great salary, flexible hours, financial benefits, and so on. But, as they say, a lot of people have had overnight success after 20 years of hard work. The reality is that starting a business can include 16-hour days — it’s constant fundraising, planning, stress, managing obstacles, and course correction. It’s not glamorous. It takes a lot of time to get a company in a stable place.

Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?

If there’s one word that’s important for being a founder, it’s grit. I can’t repeat it enough. If you don’t have grit, you are unlikely to succeed as a founder. It’s exhausting work, and you need to be a fighter. And perhaps equally important is that you need to be intellectually flexible. Rarely the course you set for the company at the beginning is the one you take in the end. You often need to pivot and change direction and think outside the box at exactly the right time. Not everyone can do this, and it doesn’t appeal to everyone. It definitely takes a certain type of person.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. Nothing is ever easy. Even when you know you have an amazing product that will save lives, getting it to market has so many hurdles. Especially when you talk about regulated products, like therapeutics. Our first regulatory approval was such an exhausting path. But you know where you want to go, and you fight for it. It goes back to nothing is ever easy — but it is definitely worth it.

2. Build it to grow it. You need to begin your journey with the mindset that you’re going to build your company to grow it, not just start it and sell it. I’ve learned this over and over. If you build to grow, someone may eventually buy it. But if you don’t put in the time to grow it, you will not succeed. Building a pharmaceutical company is especially hard — it requires a lot of money, clinical trials, and time. But you can’t just take it a little part of the way, you have to be ready to take it all the way.

3. Trust your gut. If you’re good founder, you have good gut instincts — and should use them. When we were finding our first big manufacturing partner, we had lots of options, and it really came down to my gut feeling. I also trust my instincts when bringing new executives to join company. As a founder, you make a lot of decisions where you simply don’t have all the information in hand. Trusting your gut is so important, especially for women. For me, it was a process — I had to learn how to do this. But trusting my own instincts as a founder has been central to many decisions I’ve made over the years.

4. You’re only as smart as the people around you. What makes a business a success is the people, not the product. In fact, a lot of investors will tell you they invest in the people, not the product. My investors certainly invested in me as the CEO. In the same way, I invest in my team and put the right people in place. If you surround yourself with smart and knowledgeable people, you’ll have a successful company.

5. This may be obvious, but “think big.” You have to plan for the journey to be twice as long as you think and cost four times as much. People told me this early on and it’s always hard to believe. When we first started, we set out to raise $750k and carry out small clinical trials. We ended up raising more and it all worked out, but looking back, I’m sorry we didn’t start by raising $50 million. And sometimes it’s easier to raise large sums of investor capital than smaller amounts. For many early-stage investors, it’s about the dream, not the data. So, think big when you start.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I’m lucky because my success is due to my work toward making the world a better place. We produce and sell a therapeutic product that improves personal health and supports access to healthcare. I wouldn’t wake up every morning and do what I do if it weren’t about improving human health. But on a more local level, I use my position to help women entrepreneurs in different ways. I also make sure we have strong women within the company and encourage them to grow — next month we’ll have 20 employees, 10 of whom are women — and our board of directors is women-led as well.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

For myself and my colleagues, the movement is about access to effective, safe healthcare products that gives equitable access to 100% of the world population. Our immediate goal is to make a simple, safe antimicrobial treatment that’s accessible to everyone, to support individual health. But on a larger scale, our aim is to help slow the march of antimicrobial resistance and improve the quality of life for people with difficult-to-cure diseases in the world. That’s our mission. There are other companies bringing NO-based therapeutics to market, and there needs to be more of a collaborated push among our industry to get these products approved and change old-fashioned views of how to treat infections. Part of what we do is to write papers on NO and make sure the world knows about this amazing molecule. We’ve come a long way, but we still have more work to do.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

There are so many! Two women who do extraordinary philanthropic work are Melinda Gates and MacKenzie Scott. I would love to have breakfast with each of them. There are also two men more on the pandemic and science side: Rick Bright at the Rockefeller foundation, who is leading pandemic prep in the US, and Scott Gottlieb, the former FDA commissioner. They’re both brilliant and I’d love to have conversations with them. But there are many others who are incredible people doing incredible humanitarian work in the world who I’d love to sit down and talk with.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.