Q&A with Shaq Vayda, LabGenius’ newest Board member
Earlier this year, we welcomed Shaquille (Shaq) Vayda to LabGenius’ Board as an Investor Director, representing Lux Capital.
Shaq started his professional career in the aerospace and defence sector, spending time at NASA and Northrop Grumman. Following this, he got exposure to the emerging life sciences sector at Illumina, where he saw firsthand the impact DNA sequencing has had on the way we diagnose and treat disease. Most recently, before joining Lux, Shaq worked at Parthenon in San Francisco where he advised premier private equity and growth equity firms on enterprise technology and healthcare investments.
Shaq’s combined experience to date has informed his passion for investing in the pioneers defining the century of biology.
Beyond your bio, tell us a bit about your experience, and how you developed an interest in companies that operate at the intersection of science and technology?
Since I was a child, I’ve had this insatiable curiosity on trying to understand how the world works around me. I remember insistently pestering my parents with my favourite word “why?” just seconds after they had finally finished answering my previous question. But there was one day in particular that I vividly remember their answer being insufficient. It was right after I observed my first ever space shuttle launch and asked “how is that possible?” It was then when I realised I wanted to go and seek those answers out myself, and spent the next several years studying math, science, and engineering.
I was fortunate enough to get some early experiences at companies like NASA, Northrop, and Illumina where I saw firsthand how to take the same fundamental concepts I learned in school and apply them in interesting ways to create everything from satellites and telescopes to machines that could read and interpret DNA. I liked to joke that I was interested in inner and outer space and lived somewhere in the middle!
Eventually, I realised that the world was full of brilliant and motivated people, and my new mission was to empower them and help bring their ideas to life. Which is exactly how I would describe my job at Lux. I get to work alongside and for the smartest people on Earth who are working tirelessly to make the world a better place via science and technology.
The team at Lux are described as ‘big dreamers’ and ‘deep thinkers’, how does this apply to you?
Well, there are a few jobs where you can say you’re excited about something as outlandish as building a “printer to engineer life,” and rather than your peers being concerned for your sanity, they immediately start ideating on ways it could happen as well as the limitations on what has stopped it to-date.
At Lux, our North Star is to find and fund companies that can “help end human suffering,” and in a discipline like biology that is becoming increasingly “programmable.” On a daily basis, my “big dream” is to have a bioprinter that you input the pathogen’s sequence and it prints out a therapy. Thankfully folks like James and the LabGenius team have more detailed ideas on how to turn this dream into a reality!
How do you see LabGenius’ role in helping to define the century of biology?
When we look back at the 20th century, the rapid scientific and technological discoveries and mass production of resources can mostly be attributed to our superior understanding of mathematics and its ability to translate physics. This next century will end up being defined by biology but attributed to machine learning, allowing us the ability to articulate the complexity of life.
James and the LabGenius team have been thinking about this exact intersection for many years now. The team is able to sift through the complexity that is drug discovery (protein therapeutics), and apply a real engineering framework to truly test and validate experiments in an industrial way. This is not just a feature, this is the future of drug discovery.
What do you see as the biggest challenges for drug discovery biotechs in the next 10 years, and how is LabGenius uniquely positioned to overcome them?
Drug discovery is a nearly impossible quest where over ~90% of development candidates fail to make it as an approved therapeutic. And a large number of companies are competing on everything including scarce capital, regulatory approval, lengthy timelines, limited talent pools etc.
Yet despite the hundreds of challenges every biotech faces, the biggest challenge remains that it’s both expensive and lengthy to pursue, and despite the countless number of machine learning for drug discovery companies that have appeared, almost all are converging and optimising on a common set of “logical designs.”
We here at LabGenius aren’t content doing what everyone else is doing and just looking at the same areas of “design space,” but instead are excited by quickly and cheaply testing un-intuitive designs. Clearly the status quo is broken, so by approaching the problem completely de novo, we’re really doing something unique and that positions us well.
As a Board member, how do you plan on using your skills and expertise to guide LabGenius’ strategic vision and growth?
At Lux, we’re particularly obsessed with making sure our companies have an “unfair competitive advantage” and that is the lens I try to bring in the boardroom. It’s important for board members to have a deep understanding of 1) the market 2) access to future talent for key hires 3) professional network of business development relationships.
Working with the other board members and the LabGenius management, we are constantly discussing our strategy to remain ten steps ahead of our competition and make sure that we have proprietary access to future capital, top talent, and strong enterprise partnerships.
Can you speak to how LabGenius’ aspirations for the future align with your own personal values and goals?
Flipping the drug discovery paradigm is incredibly ambitious but is exactly the type of “moon shot bets” venture-backed companies should be taking. And, the ability to succeed in both is rare, but happens to be just an ordinary day at LabGenius.
Finally, what do you enjoy the most about being a member of LabGenius’ Board and has it taught you anything new?
“If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.” That quote perfectly sums up the experience of working with the entire LabGenius family; the intellectual horsepower and empathy across the individuals is what makes the team so exciting to be a part of.
“We’re excited to welcome Shaq to LabGenius’ Board”, says LabGenius’ founder and CEO, James Field. “Shaq brings extensive experience in multiple key areas such as a deep understanding of the market and the commercialisation of innovative technology platforms. His passion and commitment to advancing the field of drug discovery will be a valuable asset at such a crucial point in LabGenius’ journey.”
