Founder Spotlight #16: Dan Oliver @ Rejuvenate Bio
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Dan Oliver is Co-Founder & CEO @ Rejuvenate Bio, a biotech startup spun out of George Church’s Lab at Harvard Medical School. Prior to Rejuvenate Bio, Dan was awarded a Blavatnik Fellowship during which he Co-Founded Voxel8. Voxel8 was named one of the top 9 innovations at CES and one of the top 50 most innovative companies by the MIT Technology Review. Dan received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and has degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Business from the California Institute of Technology.
Rejuvenate Bio is creating a revolutionary approach to full age reversal. Aging is caused by the dysregulation of multiple systems in the body that manifest itself in age related disease. Current solutions focus on each problem individually, ignoring the interconnectedness of the challenge. Rejuvenate Bio utilizes gene therapy, proprietary targets, and the animal health market to bring anti-aging therapies to market in an incredibly capital-efficient manner. With drastically lower regulatory requirements and ever-increasing demand for treatments in animal health, Rejuvenate Bio can drive early revenue and enhance the value of its human programs, both through strong pre-clinical data and long term validation of its overall approach. Rejuvenate Bio’s lead therapy has demonstrated the ability to treat heart failure, kidney failure, diabetes, and obesity in mice and has also shown to be safe and efficacious in dogs. In 2021, Rejuvenate Bio will complete its final clinical trial in animal health before bringing its first product to market. This trial will also act as the final pre-clinical study needed for its first human therapy.
Personal Spark
What prompted you to pursue a career in Life Sciences? Was there a specific moment in time or influence you can remember? What drives you to work in this space?
I was always interested in science. I went to Caltech for undergrad, which took that interest to a whole new level. At Caltech, I realized that the practical aspects of science appealed to me more than the analytical components. I found I was most interested in how you could apply science to make a difference. While at Caltech, I helped launch a nonprofit creating better wheelchairs for developing countries. That was a transformational experience that showed me how little I knew about taking a scientific innovation to the “real world”. I worked as an aerospace engineer for a little while before going to business school at Harvard to explore my interest in getting scientific innovation to market. Coming out of the MBA program, I was lucky to be awarded a Blavatnik Fellowship that allowed me to commercialize a technology coming from one of the labs on campus. I ended up identifying and helping to spin out a novel 3D printing technology from the school of engineering. That experience was key in helping me understand what it takes to get a company off the ground. So, I was never exclusively focused on healthcare, but I had an interest in commercializing interesting science that led me to problems in healthcare and life sciences.
Why did you choose to pursue entrepreneurship?
I worked at a large company and found it demotivating. I was getting good performance reviews even when I was doing little work, so I was attracted to smaller companies where I could see the impact of my work. The other aspect of entrepreneurship that really appealed to me is the fact you never do the same thing. You are constantly having to learn how to do something better or do something completely new, which keeps things interesting.
Company Overview
What problem is your company solving?
Rejuvenate Bio is creating a revolutionary approach to full age reversal. Aging is caused by the dysregulation of multiple systems in the body that manifest itself in age related disease. Current solutions focus on each problem individually, ignoring the interconnectedness of the challenge. Rejuvenate Bio utilizes gene therapy, proprietary targets, and the animal health market to bring anti-aging therapies to market in an incredibly capital-efficient manner. Rejuvenate Bio’s lead therapy has demonstrated the ability to treat heart failure, kidney failure, diabetes, and obesity in mice and has also shown to be safe and efficacious in dogs.
Why does your solution matter for the world when you get it right?
Pharma as a whole has become very siloed. The sequencing revolution has helped bring light to personalized medicine treatments, but most of these chronic conditions that affect aging are not based on genetics; you get the same cascade of problems across the board. When we get this right, we will be able to take a single treatment and drastically increase the quality of life for each patient. We are focused on increasing healthspan, not just lifespan, so that you are living your best years longer. From a societal level, solving age-related disease leads to drastic cuts in healthcare costs as well as an overall increase in quality of life.
Genesis
What is your company’s founding story?
I met Noah when we were both undergrads at Caltech. Although we took separate paths after college, we kept in touch and met back up in Boston when he was working in the Church lab and I was at HBS. We were always talking about Noah’s crazy business ideas. To be honest, when he told me about the research he was doing in George Church’s Lab, I didn’t think it would work. Once he started showing me the data, I was blown away.
Timing is often everything — how did you know the timing was right?
It is hard to game macro trends. As a founder, if you react to macro trends you are going to be too late in entering the game. For me, it was more about finding a compelling piece of science that is the solution to a large challenge.
Accomplishments
What are some of the notable milestones your company has achieved thus far?
Rejuvenate Bio’s lead therapy has demonstrated the ability to treat heart failure, kidney failure, diabetes, and obesity in mice and has also shown to be safe and efficacious in dogs. We just closed our series A, led by Kendall Capital. With those funds, Rejuvenate Bio will complete its final clinical trial in animal health before bringing its first product to market. This trial will also act as the final pre-clinical study needed for its first human therapy.
Pay It Forward
Throughout the journey, what have been some of your biggest takeaways thus far? What advice/words of wisdom would you share from your story for other founders?
If you are interested in a certain area, try to get involved in any way you can. At Voxel8, I did all the tasks that no one else wanted to do. That was the best training for being a CEO. Don’t shy away from the grunt work and make sure to actively put yourself in situations where you are learning.
Just go out and try. I have tried multiple businesses, jobs, and competitions, many of which didn’t go well. No one remembers the failures.
What are some of the traits that make a great founder?
Be open to advice and feedback and listen in the moment, but interrogate the advice thoroughly after the meeting.
One of the most difficult things is to stay disciplined. Make the right choice and stick with it until faced with evidence. Don’t slip into taking the easier path.
Can you demystify the process of what it was like to raise VC funding? What were the highlights & low lights? Any advice or words of wisdom for future founders?
There are a lot of great online resources for seed funding. Practice your pitch in front of multiple people and start talking to VCs much earlier than you think you need to. For seed rounds, have a list of ~15 firms and pick a number that you can handle (around 7–8) to pitch within a 2-week period. As firms drop out, add more. This creates a controlled process that really helps streamline raising capital.
As an aside, VCs don’t know as much as you do about your company. Don’t be discouraged by a “no” because it almost never reflects on you as much as it does the fund and how you fit with their capital structure or LP requirements. Also feel free to reach out to me for help.
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❤️ Thanks Amee Kapadia for your help in putting this together :)
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