Season 2: 10/10 VC Series — First-time vs. Repeat Founders🔥
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Alix Ventures: Supporting Early Stage Life Science Startups Engineering Biology to Drive Radical Advances in Human Health
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Overview: 10 Questions to 10 Early Stage Venture Capitalists
This topic series brings together perspectives across a variety of early-stage VC funds to help readers gain insight into what investors believe to be key to their growth and success. In our belief that perspectives should be well-rounded and not monopolistic, we chose to feature 10 different investors rather than to dive deep with just 1 or 2 individuals. We have a lot to learn from each other and hope that by sharing 10 unique viewpoints, we may all come to our own insights faster. Our posts will be organized by question and cover topics including investment criteria, portfolio support, industry trends, and general advice.
We are honored to feature investors at:
Boehringer Ingelheim, Breakout Ventures, Arkitekt Ventures, Time BioVentures, B Capital Group, NEA, Bessemer Venture Partners, NFX, Not Boring, Mayfield Fund, & Alix Ventures
We asked our guests:
“How does your evaluation process change when it comes to backing first-time vs. repeat founders?”
“When we look at founders, we differentiate between academic founders and operators. In the case of academics, we look deeply at the science and their previous experiences. Some catch the bug and love the experience, others find some aspects to be inconvenient at best, annoying at worst. It’s important to think about what a repeat founder wants from the experience in order to maintain strong contact with the discovering scientist. With operators, experience is a plus and strongly valued.”
Kanad Das — Investment Director @ Boehringer Ingelheim
“You are looking for those same traits — optimism, grit and humility — that can exist in a founder whether it is your first company or your fifth. The more experience a founder has, the easier it will be to spot those traits as you simply have more data to go off of. In a first time founder, you need to read between the lines a bit more. To that end, we look for founders who are able to recruit great talent to their vision from day one and who never feel threatened that they will be hiring people much smarter or more experienced than them in one way or the other.”
Julia Moore — Co-Founder & Managing Partner @ Breakout Ventures
“The overall evaluation process stays pretty consistent. For first-time founders there’s a level of execution risk because they’re going from 0 to 1. For repeat founders there’s a level of execution risk introduced by biases formed from their prior experiences. In either scenario, founders knowing and acknowledging what they don’t know with a plan to address those gaps is a strong signal.”
Pavan Choksi — Partner @ Arkitekt Ventures
“With first time founders, we consider whether they can win the game they’re playing with the right team around them, or whether the game they’re playing truly requires having done it before. Some projects are amenable to first timers, while others are exceedingly difficult without experience.”
D.A. Wallach — Co-Founder & General Partner @ Time BioVentures
“There’s something innate about founders, whether first time or repeat. For first-time founders, we hone in on humility because they may lack industry networks and battle scars from past mistakes. Are they coachable? Do they have seasoned advisors and industry insiders in their orbit? On the flip side, we ask ourselves — as investors, how do we (and can we?) offer our resources and networks to fill any gaps?”
Widya Mulyasasmita — Sr. Principal @ B Capital Group
“A big part of diligence is getting to know the character of a founder. With first-time founders you spend a lot more time trying to learn this from a limited track record. It can be a little easier and quicker to do this for repeat founders since there is more data available.”
J.C. Lopez — Principal @ NEA
“Regardless of founder experience, I am still looking for the same characteristics of mission, drive, ambition, grit, and expertise. Anecdotes that can provide evidence of each trait may be different e.g., a first-time founder has not gone through the ups and downs of building a company but they can share experiences of times they’ve endured hardship in their lives and overcome obstacles from their upbringing or prior job experiences.”
Sofia Guerra — Investor @ Bessemer Venture Partners
“It doesn’t really — we look for the same 3 things — big market, defensible magic, and a great team. It obviously helps if you have a solid background but it could also be harmful if you’ve learned the ‘wrong’ lessons along the way. We are comfortable backing first time founders.”
Omri Amirav-Drory — General Partner @ NFX
“It doesn’t.”
Arvind Gupta — Partner @ Mayfield Fund
“We are equally receptive to both first-time and repeat founders. There are trade-offs associated with both founder phenotypes. First-time founders are typically closer to the science/engineering, and have a lot of energy and vision. By definition, they have less entrepreneurial experience. This can make the choice of investors and advisors more important.
We’re also excited by founders who led in technical roles at larger biotechs and biopharmas, and are leaving to solve pressing problems in the industry that they have direct experience with.”
Elliot Hershberg — Partner @ Not Boring
“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.”
Chas Pulido — General Partner @ Alix Ventures
To read more insights from our guest contributors, click here to continue on to part 10…
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Alix Ventures, by way of BIOS Community, is providing this content for general information purposes only. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by Alix Ventures, BIOS Community, or its affiliates. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Views and opinions expressed by Alix Ventures employees are those of the employees and do not necessarily reflect the view of Alix Ventures, BIOS Community, affiliates, and content sponsors.
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