Start-up Society #88: Women’s History Month

Keeping the American Dream Alive

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Start-up Society

6 min readMar 28, 2022

Welcome to the 88th edition of Start-up Society! This blog highlights some of the most exciting start-ups in the country striving to keep the American Dream alive.

Make sure you check out the previous issue, if you have not already, here.

Covid-19 has changed the entire healthcare landscape, and now more than ever, technology and personalization in healthcare are what’s driving the innovations and betterment of this industry. Whether it is using AI and machine learning to aid in the drug discovery process or helping individuals manage their diabetes on an app, this is just the beginning of an upcoming healthcare renaissance.

This week, we are highlighting two women-founded companies that are revolutionizing the healthcare industry.

Verge Genomics

HQ: San Francisco, California

Founded: 2015

Employees: 39 (on LinkedIn)

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Verge Genomics specializes in life-saving treatments for neurodegenerative diseases by utilizing artificial intelligence and human genomics. Currently, its three main focuses are Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s Disease, and Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD).
The company applies its “all-in-human” approach to increase the probability of success in drug discovery and lower the cost curve of pharmaceutical development. This approach consists of building large proprietary databases of patient tissue and combining it with human genetics data to discover novel gene targets. Verge “de-risk(s) these human-derived targets in patient-derived neurons to generate first-in-class molecules.”

Verge Genomics works with world-leading researchers and institutions. Its Tissue Bank partners include Harvard University, Icahn SOM at Mt. Sinai, University College London, Sydney Brain Bank, and more. Its Academia and Institutional partners include Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Oxford University, Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience, New York Genome Center, Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden, and more.

MEET THE TEAM

Alice Zhang, Co-Founder & CEO

Alice is concurrently a Board of Directors Member at the California Life Sciences Association (CLSA).
Prior to co-founding Verge Genomics, she was an MD/PhD candidate at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Alice focused on the use of integrative genomics to identify targets and small molecules that accelerate peripheral nerve regeneration. She then exited the program to focus on her vision to create a scalable drug discovery engine — the likes of Google’s search engine — using machine learning.
Alice attended Princeton University and graduated with her Bachelor of Arts degree in Molecular Biology with high honors.

Jason Chen, Co-Founder

Jason is concurrently a Neurosurgery Resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, and a Medical Advisor at Shape Inc.
Jason was a Graduate Student Researcher at Coppola Lab at UCLA where he advanced the genetics and genomics of progressive supranuclear palsy, Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, ALS, and other neurodegenerative diseases.
He earned his MD from UCLA, his PhD in Bioinformatics from UCLA, and his Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering and Chemistry from Duke University.

Irene Choi, Senior Director of Drug Discovery

Prior to joining Verge Genomics, Irene was a Senior Scientist at Nektar Therapeutics, a Scientist at Catalent Pharma Solutions, and a Research Associate at Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
Irene earned her PhD in Neuroscience from The University of New Mexico School of Medicine and her Bachelor of Science in Physiology from UCLA.

THE START-UP SOCIETY ASSESSMENT

According to Business Wire, the AI in Drug Discovery Markets is expected to reach over $5.5 billion by 2029, a CAGR forecast of roughly 40%. Verge Genomics is operating in a high growth industry, which means competition will be fierce. On one side, more competition means more parties and individuals involved which is great for drug discovery and treatment as a whole. However, on the business side, more competition means that Verge Genomics must continue to deploy the best machine learning technologies and hire top talent to separate itself from the pack. Currently, the company has constructed one of the largest databases of brain tissue sequences in the world, with tissue from more than 1,000 human brains. Such advantages will allow Verge Genomics’ machine learning capabilities to remain top of the class.
Verge Genomics is finally getting put to the test. Below is a graph of its drug development pipeline. According to Co-Founder and CEO, Alice Zhang, its ALS (Target 1) drug will enter human clinical trials this coming year. It will be worth monitoring how the drug performs in the clinical trials vs. the lab.

GO DEEPER

Verge Genomics Secures $98 Million in New Financing

Lilly taps Verge Genomics AI-driven discovery platform in new multiyear deal

Verge Genomics Names Robert Scannevin, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer

Quin

HQ: London, England

Founded: 2014

Employees: 21 (on LinkedIn)

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Quin is a diabetes management app empowering people to manage their diabetes independently.
Quin creates personalized insights based on diabetes science, psychology, and what users record in the app.

Quin seamlessly fits into one’s diabetes routine by syncing with other apps like fitness, food and menstrual cycle trackers through Apple Health. It can also connect with devices that sync with Apple Health such as a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) like Dexcom. People living with diabetes can now get powerful data and insights to help manage their blood sugar with little added effort.

MEET THE TEAM

Cyndi Williams, Founder & CEO

Cyndi boasts 25+ years of experience in engineering and business leadership, including serving as a Managing Director at ThoughtWorks, a global $500M software and services company, working across the US, UK, Europe, China, India, and Australia.
Prior to that, she grew up on a farm in Nebraska. After studying chemical engineering, she realized it wasn’t for her and self-taught herself software engineering. She then joined the Java engineering group at Sun Microsystems.
Cyndi earned her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University.
When Cyndi’s co-founder left Quin in 2020, the company was “plunged into a crisis.” Despite the departure, Cyndi was able to band the team together in a fantastic display of leadership (read more).

Esme Shanley, Head of Operations

Esme joined the team in 2018, she has been living with Type 1 diabetes for over 15 years, so for her, the company’s mission is personal.
Esme earned her Bachelor of Science in Egonomics from Loughborough University.

Barry Rogers, VP of Product

Barry joined the team in 2019, serving as the Head of User Safety and Compliance before transitioning to the Product side.
Barry previously held Product Owner roles at ROLI and Gamesys and worked as a Business Analyst and Software Engineer at Punter Southall Group.
Barry earned his Bachelor of Engineering in Software Engineering from University of Greenwich.

THE START-UP SOCIETY ASSESSMENT

For people living with diabetes, it takes a long time to truly understand how it affects different aspects of life. Quin curates the data its users generate to surface the information necessary to accelerate this understanding and help people plan into the future and worry less about carb counting and tracking insulin.
96% of Quin users experience improvements in health outcomes and wellbeing according to the company’s April 2021 safety survey.