Picking Biotech Jockeys With SR One's Simeon George, M.D.

The same guy who co-founded successful biotechs like Arcelix and Encarta prior to launching his capital management practice and whose capital management practice played the lead role in the launch of CRISPR Therapeutics . And a guy who's simply a fantastic human being and a joy to talk with . You make an exception . I'm Matt Piller .

This is the Business of Biotech and , if you haven't placed them already , my guest on today's show is SR One Capital Management CEO and managing partner , dr Simeon George . Simeon , welcome to the show .

Yeah , I really appreciate you coming on and you know , as I mentioned from the outside of the conversation here in my in my opening sort of prologue , you're an MD , and typically the MDs that I have on this program , I'm going to say almost all of them , if not all of them have spent a considerable amount of time early in their career either practicing or

working in academia , or perhaps working in research at a large hospital or research university , prior to even thinking about or entertaining the idea of jumping into the business side of biotech , becoming a member of industry , working for a biopharmaceutical company or , you know , god forbid jumping right in and launching new biotech companies .

You look to be , at least on paper , quite different . It looks like you kind of made that decision very early on in your career . So I want to start there . I'm just curious around sort of what your intentions were at the time and what your frame of mind was when you came out of your MD studies and said all right , what do I do next ?

And so you know my from the youngest , from my earliest memories through to today , what I've been drawn to and most passionate about is sort of being at an intersection between life sciences and problem solving and doing things that seem impossible , whether it's in the case of taking care of patients and trying to get them through some of the most challenging moments

in their lives , or doing it frankly , at scale which I think the work that I do now in the industry that we're so grateful to be able to work in allows us to have access to is the ability to have an impact across hundreds , thousands of patients , their loved ones , the ecosystem and society beyond that .

And so when I was making the initial decision , that was sort of the true north that I was gravitating towards , and I would also say , having benefited from the dual degree at Penn and having spent time between my clinical rotations and the business world , you know where I spent time in investment banking , at Goldman consulting , at Bain , as well as SR1 , where I

actually did an internship . I at least have some level of informed sense of which direction you know really resonated with my heart and with my intuition and gut . And so those were the two principal drivers behind which I took the leap , not knowing , frankly , how things might play out over the medium to long-term , but just believing in the short term .

This would be a great place to continue to build a skillset experience network and continue to follow my intuition around where to go next .

Where do you think what influences Simeon George to follow his heart rather than his very well-trained and talented mind ? Not that you don't follow that as well . I don't mean to discredit that , but you know what I mean . I mean it know what .

I've always been in uncomfortable situations , I'd say , and I've relied on an initial like self-belief , self-confidence and an ability to make decisions in rapid fire to put me into situations that are more comfortable or that I can manage .

And so that is the way I approach the work that I do and , if I'm honest , I feel more at home in those situations where it is uncertain , like there is no black or white decision and you have to have a level of belief you know , trust but verify , like you have an initial instinct or sort of direction and you do some validating work and then you go back

to that belief and sort of decide then what to do . So that's that has been , I'd say , foundational to my life experience .

And then I actually moved into the American school system when I was in middle school . So I went to the American school London and so had that sort of formative period where I was transitioning into the US system and I probably subliminally or unconsciously tried to lean into fitting in when developing an American accent . So that might be part of it .

I wish I could get that , though , matt , I will tell you it probably helps me , would help me more with that accent now than is the case . But that's , that's where we are .

It was a corporate entity that invested in biotech and , to give you some sense , it started investing in biotech in the mid-1980s when the field was certainly emerging and there was , you know , smithkline at the time had capital on their balance sheets and there was this new field and they thought let's create a vehicle that can give us some exposure to that and ,

to their credit and to the credit of the organization as it evolved with mergers and leadership changes , the mission of that fund was really to be a financial vehicle , first and foremost , investing in this new field , emerging field of biotech that everyone appreciated would have an impact on the pharma ecosystem , and to provide a strategic lift to that organization ,

the R&D business development organization .

But it was always set up with the financial sort of mindset in terms of how we thought about investing and returning capital , and so it was really that approach when I joined in the late 2000s through to 2020 , when we spun out that we used to build a really meaningful network , invest in some really high quality companies , develop a track record , sort of do

all of the capabilities of an independent fund , but doing it with one investor , which was GSK .

And then we transitioned out , created a new fund , raised fresh pools of capital and we transitioned out , created a new fund , raised fresh pools of capital , have a broad set of investors , including GSK now , but are essentially on that same mission and journey of investing in biotech , identifying and nurturing the next crop of hopefully generational startups like

companies that have an ambition to really transform the life sciences ecosystem .

So meeting with companies , doing the diligence , supporting senior members of the team , and that period again for folks who are listening was formative because it was post-global financial crisis . So it was 08 , 09 , 10 know .

The public markets frankly didn't really exist , capital was constrained and it was challenging for any company to really take shape and develop and do all the things that you know , frankly , we take for granted a little bit today , I think , formative sort of challenges and experiences during that first phase . And then I shifted into a more senior role .

I moved to the Bay Area . So I'd been in Philadelphia for the first part of my career with SR1 .

I moved to the Bay Area and really to be the , you know , the front face of SR1 in this vibrant ecosystem that is , you know , west Coast biotech , bay Area biotech , and really spent that period of time really trying to build a strong network of founders , entrepreneurs , investors , and managed to invest in some really high quality companies and learned from those

entrepreneurs , those founders , those syndicates Again we're going to get into , like the business of biotech . What does it take to really create value in our ecosystem ?

And again , sort of coming out of that global financial crisis , there was starting to be some thawing around the ecosystem , around the capital markets , and so I got to experience that through some of those early companies that we invested in , and the third phase was really what I would describe as the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey .

I had gotten the itch to get closer to actually starting companies and that led to investments .

I should say starting companies and you mentioned in the beginning Arcelex and Encarta were really two companies that started from a blank sheet of paper Really a labor of love for myself and my co-founder , Ali Bebahani , who's at NEA and we pulled those together with some incredible scientific founders Dario Campagna in the case of Encarta and David Hilbert in the case

of Arcelix and launched those companies . But for that period , I got to live and breathe the experience of being a startup entrepreneur and convincing first myself , then my team at SR1 , then other investors and entrepreneurs and scientists to join these startups and so , again , just an amazing experience at that point in time .

And during that same period , invested in CRISPR , when it was also really just a fledgling startup with you know , I joke like two guys in a garage with some questionable IP and so got to sort of ride that amazing experience and wave through to today , which has been just an enormous privilege for me .

And then the last phase I guess the phase now that I'm in is continuing that entrepreneurial journey but , as you pointed out , working with GSK and external investors to figure out a way to create a new fund , spinning out from the large organization , setting up essentially a startup focusing on some core principles around which I've just described , but then really

thinking now with an ambition of how do we take it to the next level and how do we continue to create a firm that is truly going to be elite to , you know , create , you know , a firm that is truly going to be elite . And so you know I've been .

I've been running the firm now four years , as we've been an independent firm but had been running SR1 during the last couple of years prior to the spinout , so I've had sort of the full transition and experience in in this leadership role now .

How did that , I guess , that experience in OA , which was among your first experiences in the space , how did it sort of influence your style and your mindset when times are good , how did it influence how you steady the course , regardless of whether markets are going ballistic and funding everything and everyone , or being incredibly discerning and not funding much ?

.

So I'd say the first thing and I really think about this at sort of just a startup level , like ultimately , whether it's biotech or high tech or crypto or AI , whatever it is , the job of a startup is to run a business that can create value and have a clear value proposition and as efficiently as it can validate that value proposition and create a product that

fits with what the market needs are .

And in our space , we're so blessed to have an ability to work in an area where , ultimately , it's a medicine that touches a patient , that shows that the drug is working , has a true clinical impact , and that is ultimately the only principle in our business that goes across market cycles , where inflation is whether we're living through a global pandemic , whatever is

happening in the world , if you can actually work in a manner that is focused on where is the medicine ? How does this benefit patients ? There is value to be created and so I try and stay as focused on that anchoring philosophy . That's point number one .

And point number two it's really , you know , being on an entrepreneurial or founder journey , with the team there to try and help them as best we can put out every fire that's coming and being thrown their way , whether it's around capital raising , hiring every fire that's coming and being thrown their way , whether it's around capital raising , hiring pharma , partnering

again , whatever's happening on the macro that's impacting SVB , blowing up whatever it is like being a thought partner , being someone that's there to counsel , to advise , to support and sort of the blocking and tackling all the way through to the more strategic elements .

It's really staying consistent with this mindset of we are in service of the founders and entrepreneurs and the startups that we're backing , with the assumption being that they're on this journey of science to medicine .

So those are the things that I try and keep in my mind and I find when I do that everything else becomes noise or things that you can then calibrate how you want to deal with the particular issue .

Since you got into this business that question , the answer to that question has probably changed . You've seen trends , you know where is it today and , if you want , you know , maybe even share some of the , some of the trend line that you've seen since you , since you started founding and funding biotechs .

There's RNA , all the different ways you can modulate . So we have this amazing suite of capabilities and there's still challenges there , and some of them are , frankly , meaningful bottlenecks .

So manufacturing sort of the cost of supplying and manufacturing at scale a product significant bottleneck , and so we've got point solutions around off the shelf as one example of ways that people are going to solve it .

There's delivery challenges , which again can limit where a therapy can reach most effectively , and liver is where , again , a lot of these advanced therapies end up , and so how do you get the medicine to different parts of the body ? But if you take a step back , there's more tools than we know what to do with .

So it is actually , in some ways , a blessing and a curse , because what it means is the startups and investors , such as ourselves , have to be really , I'd say , vigilant and prudent to guard against falling in love with the technology , but rather focusing on again why is this particular ?

If it's a platform or technology , why is it the right approach to go after a disease , setting whether it's the target you're talking about , the patient population .

Again , going back to product-market fit , I think that needs to be as refined as you can make it , as early in the journey as you can make it , and that that is something that we have certainly been guilty of waiting too long in some instances and , as a result , you probably spend more time because you're in love with the technology and you're tinkering with it

and you're optimizing in a way that practically doesn't help with that first key principle that I talked about . And so you know , I think , where we are today .

We've got amazing suite of technologies , we still have significant unmet need , head to toe disease area , across disease area , and we really are at the tip of the spear in terms of what we're able to see and show now .

And so , again , using the CRISPR example , we have one approved medicine for sickle cell and beta thalassemia , casgv , which again incredibly proud of the CRISPR team and the Vertex partnership , and now , hopefully , we're going to treat and cure patients .

But , matt , there are hundreds , if not thousands of diseases where we hope to use gene medicines , now right , to be able to treat correct cure . And so the onus now is on CRISPR and all the startups that are using these techniques to go in and , you know , prosecute against the biology that is makes the most sense with the tools that they have .

terms of the modalities it's most interested in ?

We've got small molecules , we've got biologics , advanced therapy , so it's again , there is no one size fits all . We look at it on a case by case basis . We certainly have deep expertise in these advanced areas to be able to call on and leverage as we are reviewing and underwriting a particular opportunity .

But we will look at , you know , any approach that an entrepreneur or founder or startup is working on .

And when your , when your goal is to make a broad patient impact , uh , generally , like from the from the physician's perspective , broaden that patient impact . There's a huge continuum there . Like you can make a giant impact on uh people who suffer from a terrible and debilitating and perhaps a deadly rare disease .

Uh , but it's a limited number of patients , huge impact , limited number . Or you know , you can tackle any number of indications in oncology where you can have an impact on millions of patients . Do you have any preference there in terms of your own kind of yeah , your own kind of direction ?

And I do think this is one of , in my opinion , one of our differentiating features is we spend a ton of time on what we call organizational health and design and how we operate as a team , and it's a balancing act between sort of having this collaboration , teamwork , orientation with an individual approach that allows folks on my team , including myself , to express

ourselves and to follow the things that we're most excited about .

And so the way that we square that , if you will , is we use what's called a prepared mind approach , which is each person on the team basically has the ability to focus in on certain disease areas , modalities , whether it's rare , niche indication , orphan indication , all the way through cardiovascular , metabolic , and we have almost like majors and minors , and so

people , through their own choosing , lean into areas that they're most excited about .

They follow the science , they build the networks , they meet with companies , founders , they have a sense of where pharma is , and so , across the tapestry of S41 , you end up with , you know , without too much overengineering , essentially most of the key disease areas covered , modalities covered , and so we have , within our own rubric , a way to be able to efficiently

, I'd say , identify , prepare or react to what's coming at us and it is , I really do . You know , lean on the team to follow what gets them excited , what gets them out of bed , rather than being prescriptive and saying we're only doing this or we're doing that , and that it's not only for disease area but also for stage .

You know , because we are a firm that invests across multi-stages . It also is a way for us to say we are really looking for the best in class from startups all the way through late stage , and we want people on the team to be able to spend time in the various areas , share knowledge .

So that is also helpful for us to be able to take what we're seeing at the late stage and apply it to early stage and see again differentiation , competition , things that again can be really helpful how that that might adopt it . So I think hopefully that answers your question . You know we there is no one size fits all with an SR1 .

I really want the team to feel empowered to go after the stuff , areas that they're most excited about .

And so it's a multi-part question . I want to get a good illustration of what the team at SR1 looks like and what they're doing , and then I want you to reflect a little bit on how the gut and intuition leadership style that you expressed earlier in our conversation applies to building that team out .

And there is an investment team that's comprised of an investment committee and we'll get into the committee in a second Four members , including myself , a set of investment professionals .

There's five members on the investment professional side and these are again extremely talented , generally technically trained or years of experience in industry , that are working closely with the investment committee , so roughly 10 of the investing team .

And then we have another five or six , what we call venture partners that are there across different capacities , whether it's the sourcing piece . The second category after sourcing is selecting , and so there's this piece around . How do we ultimately hone in on which are the deals that we want to do ?

And this is where I think your question around again trust , but verify . How do you rely on your intuition , validate it or invalidate it based on the work that you do , and then come back to your gut ? That's where that selecting piece becomes critical .

And so we have , on a weekly basis , at least two meetings with the team where we are reviewing deals , getting updates from sub teams on the work that they're doing and having , frankly , fairly open conversations , which the mindset really there is best ideas win , like no one knows what the truth is .

And so if you're well , you know , you have prior knowledge , you're prepared , you've done the work on the particular deal , you have as much data , you're convinced , you come in and you have a dialogue with myself and other members of the team and we genuinely are there to support the best ideas that might come from these sorts of interactions .

So that's the selecting piece . It has a mix of art and science to it , which I think is important . And then the last piece is summiting . So there's sourcing , selecting and summiting , and summiting is the area where all the work that goes in post-investment . So it's like you're married to the startup .

Now how do you make sure that that marriage is as successful as it can be and it reaches whatever the goals and aspirations are for that enterprise ?

And so , again , between the investing team and these venture partners , who are incredibly talented operators , who've been in roles in startups where they've been successful at building and scaling businesses , we bring all of those capabilities to bear in a way that is hopefully again of service to the entrepreneur and the founder . It's not forced on them .

It really is genuine interaction that is collaborative , and we have found it to a T to a company to be something that has been incredibly well received by the entrepreneurs and the startups . So those are the three areas that we focus on and that's the way the team is organized , aligned on those principles .

You have to get lucky , like I think we have to acknowledge there's an incredible amount of luck involved . Certainly in my career I've seen that and been the benefit . You know I've benefited from that .

But it's like putting yourselves in these incredibly hard positions and then figuring out what are all the ways through blood , sweat and tears and resilience that you can work through it . And that , for me , has been the most inspiring part of my career , whether it's with the portfolio companies or , frankly , with the journey of SR1 and where we've reached .

I think we talked about the fact that I had Rami Elgandor on my show a few weeks ago . He was a guest on the business of biotech . He's the CEO at Arsalex business biotech .

He's the CEO at Arsalex and , uh , he's a good friend of yours and I imagine that when you had the opportunity to work with him on Arsalex , you were like you were leaning into that uh , gut and intuition thing that you talked about .

Uh , and I can totally see it , fantastic man , you're like I got , I got to get this guy , I got to get this guy , I got to , I got to work with this guy to great effect , by the way , the company's killing it .

How do you when , when you got the , the , you know the , the sourcing piece that you mentioned and the selection piece that you mentioned how do you transfer that sussing out you know that assessment of jockeys to the teams that are engaging your potential portfolio companies early on .

How do you , how do you transfer , like the , the , you know , the Simeon George intuition to the team ?

Like you know , you want to bring quality people , quality leaders of the companies you're investing in on and you can source and you can evaluate on science and data all day long .

And then you know , then you get a bad vibe from the guy or gal who's running the company and you're like , yeah , I don't know , I don't know if I want this one on the team , you know , but but you're not necessarily interfacing with every single one of those potentials early on .

So I'm just curious how you transfer , you know , some of that intuition and and soft skill to to the folks who are engaging early .

For me , for how SR1 is built , how we operate , it is core , like it is genuinely core to our ethos and I do think number one , there is a self-selection process . That has happened with the way my team has been constructed .

I think people have bought into this philosophy of the power of just the human element of our business to be able to elevate and sometimes levitate the startups that they're involved in . So I think that is a natural part of the that they're involved in , right ? So I think that is a natural part of the ethos here .

And because we talk about this so much , because we have numerous interactions on a regular basis with entrepreneurs as a team whether it's new teams that we're evaluating or just inviting our own entrepreneurs in to talk about what they're working on my strong belief is that there is enough of a pattern around which members of my team are applying what they're seeing

through those interactions to what they're seeing , as you say , as they're doing early evaluation and again , it's not like there's one phenotype or profile for an entrepreneur or founder , but I do believe fundamentally that my team , as they're assessing all the different elements of PTS and market size , there is a people element that they are assessing in their own way

and they're making an evaluation and it is an incredibly important part of the overall philosophy of how SR1 invests . And so that you know again , there's some trial and error there . We don't always get it right .

We sometimes have to , you know , make changes , we have to add capabilities , but it is a core element to the way that we underwrite our investments at SR1 . And so everyone is spending time thinking about this holistically , starting from the CEO and then thinking through the organization .

Maybe I'll give you one more point , a little bit of a preview for what's to come with SR1 . You know so we've added these incredible capabilities to help with summiting around , sort of the CFO type leader within SR1 that works with our entrepreneurs to help them raise capital , to help them build out their finance function .

That's Chris Chai , who's been a serial CFO just an incredible talent and just such a joy and privilege to have . On my team we have Iqbal Mufti who is his counterpart on the pharma business development side .

So think of him as the CBO within SR1 , who's really spending most of his time interacting between portfolio companies and the large and mid-sized pharma players , building relationships enabling connectivity , way before there's any sort of deal to be had or not . The next capability that we will add will be what we call a talent or people capability .

It'll be someone that sits as part of the SR1 team to help us when we are assessed exactly to your question , to help us assess . Teams have a uniform way to be able to evaluate , to think about where are the blind spots , to think about how we can help to augment , bring in talent . So that will be a core internal capability of SR1 . And so we are .

You know , action speaks louder than words , and so we really are committed to this part of how we build what we call an SR1 edge or spike in the way that we invest in biotech .

And you've spent time with Rami , you'll know he's he's Superman . Like he comes out and he's ready to take on the world . That entrepreneur needs to have some element of that capability within themselves to do incredibly impossible or near impossible things . That's the first piece of the puzzle . Beyond that , it really is hard to be prescriptive .

I've worked with some incredibly talented entrepreneurs that aren't don't have the profile . They haven't been in pharma or in biotech first time into a role like . Sam Kulkarni is a great example at CRISPR .

He was a McKinsey consultant before he jumped into CRISPR and , you know , within a few years was the CEO of the company and you know is is , in my opinion , one of the best biotech CEOs that's out there , if not , if not the best . And then we have others that have been dyed in the wool entrepreneurs . Gary Glick at Odyssey is a great example .

Who's done , done this through multiple iterations and is doing , you know , incredibly well . We have scientifically trained business , trained , so it it really does . There's no one size fits all , but that self-belief , that tenacity , resilience is the key thing .

Maybe the second piece I would say , though self-awareness is really important , both in terms of how you build capability around you , so understanding where you're strong , where you need to add depth and capability .

Self-awareness at the board level , how you engage with your investors , directors , in a way that allows for a really again you know an environment that is conducive to ultimately executing on the plan of the startup right . That's an important element too , I would say .

You talk about Rami , like yeah , I get that impression too and I've spent enough time with them too , and I've , I , I , I credit myself with a little bit of decent gut and intuition , like I believe that got to be genuine , I believe him to be the real deal after spending time with them , uh .

But I've seen a lot of , you know , self described super men who maybe weren't you know , maybe didn't have the the humility to apply some self-awareness and , uh , you know , maybe , maybe weren't those super people . So that I guess it just reinforces the point you've made about about gotten intuition Right , like , like , how do you vet ? How do you ?

How do you , aside from you know , credentials and training , how do you vet ? How do you vet genuine ? Yeah , you know what I mean .

So I'd seen him over many roles and years and careers . So I know , I know who Rami is , I know his authenticity , how genuine he is . You know I won't always have that opportunity with everyone that I'm working with , but in general I will try and spend time with entrepreneurs and founders over an extended period .

Right , get to know them before , frankly , their company's raising capital . Get to know the company before they're actually raising capital . So it's not so much of a forced interaction around a specific ask or point in time . I do think you have to be comfortable with your intuition and gut and then be mindful of that .

And I do want to hone in on one point you , you know I mentioned first .

Then you brought up like this idea of like Superman , like I genuinely do believe we need more high , high , you know , high in high positions , women that can represent the broader ecosystem and demographics of our business and if we do that , our companies will be in a better shape , in my opinion .

Right To have the diversity of experiences , life experiences , work experiences , just thoughts that a broader set of the demographic can represent .

And that's one of the things at SR1 we've certainly been leaning into and I want to acknowledge Jill from my team in particular , who really has been focused on this in terms of getting more women involved at the board level in management roles , and I think it's that is a massive opportunity for our entire industry , but for SR1 , something that we are going to

use to our advantage right To to be able to really differentiate , and I think doing this frankly adds to just the richness of these management teams , cause I think there's talent that's available that you know , frankly , has has been maybe not looked at in the same light that it deserves to be .

That's that's unique from my perspective . Uh , a lot of VC firms . Uh , I haven't had a ton on the show . A lot of times I'll have a , you know , a managing partner along with a biotech that they've funded . We've done that a few times . That's always a fun conversation , but I haven't had a ton .

But from my perspective , anecdotally , a lot of the VC firms that I see out there are a little bit more niche in terms of where their focus is . They'll focus on the biotech startup seed phase . They'll focus , maybe , on taking a company from you know , formation to phase one studies .

or they'll say , hey , we're the , you know , we're the , we're the , we're the capital partner that you need to work your way towards acquisition or merger , sr1 , on the other hand , you know , in conversation with you , you claim this kind of complete continuum right Approach , from startup to commercialization .

So tell me a little bit more about that , like , why is that ? Why not ? Why not just focus on one sort of you know phenotype , to use your word of company , or why , you know , why take on that breadth , I guess .

And to be elite , in my mind , you need to have a holistic understanding of this ecosystem and industry and it's hard , in my opinion , to have that mindset or visibility if you're just focusing in on one particular segment .

And again , the example of the way that we've learned about some of these seed investments that we've done in gene editing has come from the experience of being in leadership roles and having invested through the various stages of CRISPR , from start all the way through to where it is today . And seeing where CRISPR is today , what are the bottlenecks ?

Again , delivery , whole gene insertion , more a milder preconditioning regimen . That insight has led to early stage seed investments and so we're not claiming to be again . There's amazing firms that all they do is start companies .

We're not claiming to have the resources or capabilities just to do that , but when we start a company or when we seed an investment , it is driven in some part by an insight that we have from having that arc of investing , experience and understanding of where the landscape is or where it's going .

So that's the first point is we believe that there is an edge that we can glean from having an end-to-end capability . The second point hones in on the team aspect , which we've talked about , which is we genuinely think of ourselves as one team , one dream , and we can get into logistics because we are spread out .

But what that means is there needs to be , for that first point to hold , where you can take the learnings , there needs to be the right level of organizational design , cross-talk , collaboration that's happening , so that the organization can benefit from that right . So we lean into that part of the way that we work to facilitate the learnings and create the edge .

So those are the two strategic points .

The third is it's frankly tactical , which is , you know , we fundamentally believe that if you have that end-to-end approach and capabilities and edge , in any market cycle , whether it's risk on or risk off , you will be able to find attractive investments that can generate outsized returns and so you're not dependent on again , the markets being completely open to early

stage and money flowing into that segment . There might be later stage deals that are more attractive from a risk entry point . And so we think on balance , like the two strategic reasons plus the tactical reason , makes for a compelling way to build a fund and a franchise over time .

Like what do we need to invest in right now to make what we've already seen through to commercialization better , more effective , more efficient ? That's that's great , but but you mentioned the logistics , you mentioned geographies . You guys are London , split between London and and San Francisco , so tell me a little bit about that . What's advantageous about having ?

Are you in San Francisco now ?

So I'm I'm assuming , like you know answer the answer my own question . One of the advantages is the kind of holistic view of what's going on there and what's going on here .

It's also just again I go back to again the way that SR1 is organized . We have incredible talent on my team that is based in the UK or in Europe , and having those people , without those people here , I'm not sure we would be set up this way , right .

So not only is the investing team a meaningful portion , based here , but the operations team , including our CFO , who's one of the most talented people that I work with full stop , is based here in the UK office , and so it's really to be able to cultivate a way of working together that allows for people to sort of have their personal preferences for where they

want to live , coupled with , again , the mission of SR1 to invest in these geographies . I think those are really the two major reasons that we've done it , and it's also been the case , you know , while it's again logistically challenging setting up meetings , you know , across these time zones . You know we've found a way to make it work .

We have enough connectivity in the way that teams are organized when they're evaluating companies , working with portfolio companies . We probably have two or three times during a year where the core team is together between JP Morgan or other conferences or board meetings where we're all , for example , in Boston . So we have to invest in this .

There's a cost associated with it . We think , on balance , it makes sense for us , it's worth it , um , but it does add a complexity to what we do and you know I want to acknowledge that it's not . It's not without friction . That comes with the setup .

And two , what trends or observations can you share about the way that money is and has been flowing in Europe versus the States ?

Right in Europe , and you know , my experience has been that for the most part European biotechs have been more drip fed capital , incremental amount of capital infusions to get to the next milestone and you could argue , in the US maybe companies have been overfed at time and there's indigestion that comes from overfeeding , but I'd say over the last few years there's

just more activity here in Europe . We've always known there's high quality science here , great institutions , the pedigree is as good as we see in the US . But there's now more capital , certainly from us and from other large players , flowing into this ecosystem on the private side , and so I think that's a reason to be optimistic .

But the reality is at least based on July 31st , while we're recording this podcast . The public markets are largely US-based for all of these startups , wherever they're like . Crispr is a good example , swiss-based company that is now listed on NASDAQ has operations in the US .

So the flow of capital on the private side I wouldn't say it's even , but it's starting to rebalance in a way that's favorable to Europe , but as you skew towards later stage and the public markets , all of the major action happens in the US and I don't see that changing for the foreseeable future .

And if you can be really aligned with that mission and focus on that , everything else will you know , you will be able to work through it , you'll have that sort of mindset , you'll have the resilience and belief in what you're doing . And again , nothing is easy . That you know . Nothing great is easy .

And so you know , I'm inspired every time I meet entrepreneurs and founders that are on that journey , that have that belief system on what they're working on , and you know . So I wish , I wish everyone all the best and as much luck , uh , as as they can garner also .

It requires inspiration , perspiration , preparation , but increase your luck surface area over time and put yourself in position to get lucky . And that's what I say to myself and my team frankly whenever we're together like that's . That's one of the key um . You know ways that you put , you know you . You hopefully are successful .

I think it's been super insightful for our audience and , um you know , hopefully we can have you back on when , when we can share more on great things that companies within the SR1 portfolio are doing .

We're produced by Life Science Connect and we represent the entire community of learning , solving and sourcing resources for biotech builders that you'll find there , including Bioprocess , online , cell and Gene Advancing , rna Clinical Leader , life Science Leader , outsource Pharma and a whole lot more .

If you like listening to the business of biotech , you might like watching it even more , so go to the listen and watch tab at bioprocessonlinecom and check that out . We drop every Monday . We'll see you then and in the meantime , thanks for listening .