117. From Lab Coats to CEO Notes: BioLabs' Glennis Mehra on Biotech Business in NYC

[00:00:02] Erum: welcome to the grow everything podcast. We are so excited to have you on today. We've been waiting forever to get you on the podcast because you are a good friend of ours.

[00:00:12] Glennis: Oh, well, thanks for having me. I'm really excited. This is a great way to kick off February.

[00:00:17] Karl: Yeah. Kicking off February.

[00:00:18] Erum: That's right.

[00:00:19] Karl: Awesome.

[00:00:20] Erum: So Glennis, you are the director of BioLabs at NYU Langone. Could you share with our audience what your vision is for fostering innovation within the biotech startups you support? And then it'd be great to hear examples of the types of biotechs your, your community has.

[00:00:36] Glennis: Okay. so I would say the main thrust of what we do, or the value of what we do, is actually helping companies focus on execution. So we don't get on their cap tables. We don't provide acceleration programming. We focus on the actual work of de risking. Whatever they're trying to create in the world, getting to their milestones as quickly as possible, increasing their valuation so they can efficiently raise.

[00:01:01] Glennis: That's the nuts and bolts of what our operations actually focused on. and the way that looks and feels is we provide millions of dollars of equipment. We provide a community that's supportive, that's diverse, to help them, discover and accelerate their discovery and to make their teams feel comfortable our site is actually designed with recruitment of talent in mind. So we have lots of meeting spaces, convening spaces, spaces for people to take a break and press pause if they get too stressed and to keep going ultimately, because what's being endeavored in the site is really important for.

[00:01:39] Glennis: The future of humanity. I tell people not to brag, but we do curate our companies. And if everything here works, we'll all be living longer with better quality of lifestyle in a more sustainable environment. And, it's a great thing to get up every morning and try to make that a fruition.

[00:01:56] Karl: This is amazing. now you do have, some academic chops in your background. but you've also been an entrepreneur. How have those experiences shaped your approach to leading this biotech incubator in New York city?

[00:02:10] Glennis: I have to say this experience, to be at the helm of, bio labs at NYU Langone is amazing. tremendous gift. I'm really grateful for this because I get to use the entire tasting menu of my experience. and this has been where throughout my career. So coming out of academia, working in tech transfer, being a recovering founder of an early stage company myself and also.

[00:02:33] Glennis: being a strategy consultant, both in the M and a and innovation development space. I get to use all of it. and I still don't believe that I have a role in which this entire suite of experience that seems so random to me in the past, gets to create value for this community. I think particularly what I love utilizing is those analytical chops that I acquired through academia.

[00:02:57] Glennis: I went to Columbia at a time where we had three Nobel laureates in my program. I come out of the neurobiology behavior program and there was a lot of FOMO. I think most of the students and postdocs had not just FOMO, but also. Imposter syndrome. so we learned a lot. We were just grasping at knowledge from every avenue we could. then we actually started being really ambitious of what we could create in the world. And that ambition actually has led to so much in terms of the risk I'm willing to take in terms of career moves. and I try to impart that culture. Here with this community. So, learn as much as you can, even if it's not related to your core competency or your core field of study or the work for your company, try to engage in and absorb as much then also take lots of risk.

[00:03:48] Glennis: And make a big impact. It's all about big impact. We're not all going to be Nobel laureates, but at least we're going to, substantively move the needle one way or another in this world. it's wonderful being in New York because this is an environment. This is a city where it demands no less.

[00:04:05] Erum: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. just hearing about your background and knowing you over the years, it's clear that you are the perfect person to lead by labs at NYU Langone and just hearing about the specific, challenges you had to overcome, while being a student, while being an entrepreneur.

[00:04:22] Erum: I feel like the whole concept of imposter syndrome is felt by a lot of scientists as a, Take on this entrepreneurial journey because they don't have an MBA. usually that puts on people's minds, but that the fact that you have pinpointed that it would be great to learn more about how you bring that into programming.

[00:04:42] Erum: And as a resource, you also mentioned a little bit about the core facilities that you have there, the instrumentation. So how does this all work together to really help the resident startups at Biolabs?

[00:04:55] Glennis: Yeah, I think, jumping off the theme of imposter syndrome, I think with imposter syndrome, there's this tendency to not admit. Your own ignorance or the boundary of your knowledge. paired with an assumption that you need to know everything and you need to be able to do everything.

[00:05:11] Glennis: what I try to bring to this role is humility and grace in terms of being very transparent with the limits of my knowledge and my ability, but also understanding the limits of the abilities and knowledge of other people. by. leaning into that, you have to ask for help. You have to, ask for support and, you have to go out and seek knowledge.

[00:05:32] Glennis: And I think by encouraging that, displaying that in my way of being and doing every day, I'm hoping that it's a way to model for. All of the founders and other members of our community. so in realizing, okay, you have this big experiment to do rather than figure it out, go to the core facility and have an expert there help you navigate.

[00:05:55] Glennis: that actually requires, understanding that you likely will not succeed. Initially, it's more efficient to go to the expert and accord to do it. And also, it's more efficient in terms of capital. It starts with an understanding. Okay, I am not gonna be able to learn this though. I can give it enough time, but I think founders generally tend to realize within the process, like a few years that, okay, let me stick to my lane and, let someone else take care of other things.

[00:06:24] Glennis: And I've got to watch my capital. I think a lot of it is just dealing with your imposter syndrome and understanding the drivers of it and overcoming it.

[00:06:33] Karl: Yeah, I really like the way you put that because I think, all of us have some imposter syndrome to a certain level. But I think when you put yourself into that founder role, especially if you're like a PhD and you're coming out of academia, That type of fakery, which it's not, it can be very challenging.

[00:06:50] Karl: but let's talk about challenges a little bit because all biotech entrepreneurs face significant challenges. What's your opinion in terms of like,, what's the biggest challenge they face and how do you help overcome those?

[00:07:01] Glennis: Capital, capital and people. someone should write a song about it. Um,

[00:07:08] Glennis: um, Yeah.

[00:07:13] Glennis: so we've been in a rollercoaster, of funding and the availability of liquidity, or. exits in the market 2023, started things off. and it was painful. And I think, , one of the silver linings from that experience, 2023, 2024, when, funds were dried up, especially for this early stage in which we host when funds dried up.

[00:07:37] Glennis: I kept telling myself and my team, we are actually going to witness the emergence of better founders because when there isn't scarcity and you can do anything you think of, I think, there's a laziness in the system. there's a lack of discipline. It's a better word, lack of discipline in the system, in the founders, et cetera.

[00:07:58] Glennis: so with scarcity, what we're now seeing are people being more creative, more judicious and where they put their resources, more ambitious, actually, and how they're projecting their companies. I think it's a tremendous, tremendous thing. it's a big challenge, but I think we're seeing founders rise more and more to the occasion.

[00:08:21] Glennis: The other challenge what I'm seeing is again, because of scarcity of resources, companies have to decide very carefully if to make that hire and who to hire, because you now just can't. hire two FTEs and hope for the best. that decision has to matter and count and work first time around.

[00:08:41] Glennis: that's why, New York is a great place because we have these amazing institutions that are great at curating. I don't think anywhere else in the world has the density of such high wattage academic institutions that are tough. They're all tough to get into. even CUNY and City University.

[00:09:00] Glennis: are very rigorous in the education and the work that they put into their students. I think what you get in New York is a type of individual and a curation, for work ethic and for academic standards that's unlike anything else I've seen.

[00:09:22] Erum: Yeah, I mean, I love that. There's a density of talent in New York city, but also being creative when you have limited resources. That's something Carl and I were talking about in the previous episode. we were. just talking about, the whole deep seek thing and how, you they may have limited resources and were able to, create a more efficient algorithm.

[00:09:41] Erum: but then we also were talking about, I know that, you have lived in India for a number of years and, you're an entrepreneur in India and so you might be familiar with the concept. Of God, the concept of making something meaningful with very limited resources. So necessity is the mother of invention, right?

[00:10:01] Glennis: exactly.

[00:10:02] Erum: yeah, so here we are. and you have these entrepreneurs at bio labs and some of them are, resource constrained. So how do you encourage them to explore new ideas, some interdisciplinary To the work that they're doing.

[00:10:18] Glennis: so they don't have time for exploration. only have time for decisions. And usually there's an inflection point where if something isn't working, it's not working and you've got to decide what to do. and that decision usually as a founder, you don't have time for exploration.

[00:10:35] Glennis: What's wonderful about being in an environment like this is that you just acquired knowledge and information by a Moses by proximity by networking so that when it comes time to pivot, there's a background that you have. So if you're in a diagnostic, if you're a diagnostic company and your neighbors talking about ADCs or talking about siRNAs or talking about some other modalities.

[00:10:59] Glennis: You already have a foundational knowledge, not because you were exploring, but you just happened to be there. just soaking up that conversation so that when it's time for you to make a decision, there's somebody to go to to ask questions, number one. And number two, you have some basic knowledge, and we've seen this time and time again, and it's one of the great advantages of, I think, being at an incubator and being in a vibrant innovation community like

[00:11:25] Erum: I love the founder to founder, mentorship and collaboration and interactions. my previous life, I was also an entrepreneur and I found that to be just so much more meaningful because they were in it with me. excellent to see that camaraderie when you have a space like bio labs to be able to, like you're saying, just.

[00:11:43] Erum: Osmosis being The vibe, the hive mind that happens. it's really exciting.

[00:11:48] Glennis: And I'll give you an example where we have founder circles and we have companies, as I mentioned, a very diverse community. So we have companies in the therapeutic space. We have companies who are in consumer products, sustainability, et cetera. And they all get around. Not all of them, but a good majority chunk of them.

[00:12:07] Glennis: Usually every other month or so, and there's something on topic. Usually there's an ask and a give, and it's usually around capital raise and people opening up their networks. There's also conversations about approaches with the FDA, when to start that conversation. How many times should you be approaching the FDA?

[00:12:25] Glennis: Where should you have your clinical trials? And so you have people who are just starting in the room, listening to those conversations. They have nothing to say. they're just there but that's impacting how they're approaching the world. They're thinking, okay, how do I design this clinical trial?

[00:12:42] Glennis: How do I design my drug to make sure that a clinical trial will work to make sure that that patient population is very clean, that there's a biomarker, et cetera, already in place. that. I think is tremendous. and it's why I think we're very successful through all of the upheavals the past few years.

[00:13:02] Glennis: We have not lost a lot of companies. Only a handful.

[00:13:07] Karl: Yeah, I mean, I think what Iran is talking about, what you're talking about having, different types of people, different types of founders and teams around each other is something that I think many people understand is a benefit. I think big companies try to manufacture that kind of collaboration, but.

[00:13:22] Karl: It's generally very difficult to do because you're hiring people that are supposed to fill certain types of roles and no matter how vast your organization is, people do stay focused within their roles, but biology is so incredibly vast. There's so many problems that we can use biology to solve.

[00:13:39] Karl: And, were talking about these interdisciplinary approaches and you were lucky because you have these people who are around each other all the time. then on top of that, you add New York City into it, and you've discussed how New York City is so good about this kind of thing.

[00:13:53] Karl: So I'm curious if you could share some success stories that have come out of bio labs, what's the, magic that happens.

[00:14:01] Glennis: yeah, so there are lots of success stories. I think one of the great examples, of this magic working is we've got, a company in Muni, which was a unicorn. and they were going through their race sitting next to one of our other smaller companies, which is a consumer product company. I'm not going to give the names, but.

[00:14:19] Glennis: A company raising 200 million sitting next to a company who's raising 2 million is just imagine the exchange and the impression and the learnings, that happens in that context. And the other thing is we had immuni and cohabitating, in the incubator at the same time.

[00:14:38] Glennis: So immuno actually, focused on sequencing immune antibodies, from immune cells. and Helena actually focused on producing breast milk that had immuno equivalent, antibody representation. so it's biosynthetic. Breast milk and they wanted to make sure that the antibodies that the mother provided to the baby Was in the breast milk that they were making.

[00:15:03] Glennis: so can you imagine these two companies? One that's actually collecting the world's largest repository of immune information sitting next to one who's trying to create a synthetic form of Fresh milk that could potentially utilize that information. that's when I think magic happens.

[00:15:19] Glennis: And both of those companies have gone on and graduated successfully. And, I think rocking and rolling still to this day.

[00:15:27] Erum: love that story. just having companies, cause again, the core of biolabs these companies are leveraging technology to some degree. So there's a commonality between them. And of course, they have that shared language. I've seen it happen. I mean, we, have, participated in some of bio labs, seminars and networking.

[00:15:47] Erum: we came in there for, A strategic communications workshop, which is really cool. I mean, I think, the companies that were there, were, very interested because a lot of the founders either were, very just business oriented or very technical oriented.

[00:16:02] Erum: We brought this. Hey, look. Let's just talk about what the go to market is, can you tell us a little bit more about how your seminars and how you think about seminars and networking events to bridge the gaps

[00:16:13] Erum: and accelerate development of your

[00:16:15] Erum: resident companies?

[00:16:16] Glennis: Yeah, So we have two types of events, what we call ecosystem events and then internal events. The ecosystem events are a way for the wider New York community to become more aware of our community. Local community here in this building, but also to amplify New York, and to bring attention to New York and the needs and identify needs and resources and trends, et cetera.

[00:16:40] Glennis: The internal events, are something that we do with extreme care because as you know, New Yorkers. Our communities, no exception, are really busy. They do not pause. If it's boring, they're not going to want to attend. and getting people to press pause, focus up, there's got to be significant value. So, the events, that we do start with, okay, what's the value?

[00:17:04] Glennis: Why are we doing this? Who is going to appreciate? Is there going to be critical interest, or critical mass of interest? We have happy hours, et cetera, that facilitate people into acting. We do paint and sips. We do just fun things to get people talking and exchanging ideas and meeting each other.

[00:17:22] Glennis: So it starts with creating opportunities for one on one, interactions and introductions. Then there's the structured programming, which you guys have generously given your time to. So there's pitch practices. Every founder needs to practice. Raising never ends and you just have to keep at it.

[00:17:40] Glennis: And if you are humble enough to say, Hey, I can get better. You join one of these pitch practices for the, programming that we did with messaging lab. I think they all were very clear. There's room for improvement. and because we're casual, there's no judgment. Everyone, because we've modeled Being humble, being vulnerable, being transparent.

[00:18:00] Glennis: I think people feel comfortable. And when you're comfortable, you say, Hey, I need help. And so we provide content when residents say, Hey, they need help. so that could be trying to figure out how to find SBIRs, how to navigate, finding consultants for SBIRs who are top consultants, navigating NIH.

[00:18:20] Glennis: Like, I don't know what to do. And them admitting they don't know what to do. So it really starts there. and then figuring out, okay, what's the programming? What are the panels? Who are the individuals that will be right to impart the information and bridge this gap that knowledge gap that they have?

[00:18:38] Karl: Yeah, I think it's really cool every time I go to a bio labs event, I'm impressed by the people and, the programming, I'm super happy that we've been a part of it, but let's talk a little bit about this, concrete jungle where dreams are made of the city where if you can make it here, people love you everywhere.

[00:18:55] Karl: what are the challenges of, doing a biotech startup in New York City? you've talked a lot about like the positives, you've got these incredible academic institutions that I think a lot of people don't even realize. And we also have the biggest, when you combine this with New Jersey, we've got the biggest life sciences workforce in the

[00:19:12] Karl: country.

[00:19:13] Karl: you know, opportunities and

[00:19:14] Karl: challenges. what do you see Glenis

[00:19:16] Glennis: it's expensive. we can just call it for what it is. but at the same time, it's always been expensive

[00:19:23] Karl: always. Yeah,

[00:19:24] Karl: but people still make it here.

[00:19:25] Glennis: Yeah. And because of that,

[00:19:27] Glennis: it curates for people who take financial risk and who take risk.

[00:19:31] Glennis: and I think that's a wonderful thing. I think our founders are taking a lot more risk in New York than elsewhere. And what we need is to convince investors that risk is smarter risk because. It leads to bigger success, better success, et cetera, and more impact. I think that's the main challenge of New York.

[00:19:53] Glennis: I think every other thing we've got solutions. We've got solution. I can't think of any other problem. Traffic. We've got a solution. Subway sucks. Mass transit sucks. There's a solution. now I'm thinking about commuting, which I guess is the other thing of New Yorkers complain about.

[00:20:10] Glennis: but just cost, cost of real estate, actually cost of talent, I think we're still below the other major markets. So in that regard, there is, advantages here, but it's

[00:20:21] Glennis: primarily cost of space. Space is limited here.

[00:20:23] Erum: Yeah. I mean, what do you say to people when they think of New York City and biotech, that there's not enough room or lab space I mean, obviously we, are

[00:20:32] Erum: part of the

[00:20:32] Erum: same team. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, otherwise, but what do you say to that? Because, I feel like people come and go, Oh, you can't grow a biotech company in New York City.

[00:20:38] Erum: Are you? no,

[00:20:39] Glennis: oh yeah,

[00:20:39] Erum: is not a good place for that.

[00:20:41] Glennis: you can, we have tons of space. It's the cost of the space. I think If we come down to it, I wish I had a magic wand to just subsidize everybody, hint, hint.

[00:20:52] Erum: Yeah.

[00:20:52] Erum: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:20:54] Karl: We would like to do that too, by

[00:20:56] Karl: the way.

[00:20:56] Glennis: yeah.

[00:20:58] Erum: Yeah, but

[00:20:59] Erum: there are some

[00:21:00] Erum: incentives for

[00:21:01] Erum: biotech startups

[00:21:02] Glennis: Oh, they're quite a lot. So we're in, this, startup New York, accredited space. So our companies get, tax holiday from city and state payroll and sales tax. And that's almost 10%. and it's a great recruiting tool for most of our companies who utilize that program. so there are, significant incentives and I think there's a green light project from the city, the state has grants.

[00:21:30] Glennis: , it's just a matter of helping residents navigate and helping early stage companies who want to be in New York navigate those programs. And it's proximity to money. So there's need for money, but there's also closer proximity to money as well.

[00:21:44] Karl: Totally. Yeah. I would say generally being in New York, everybody comes here for one reason or another. you just can't avoid the big apple. and that proximity to money makes a big difference. We might not have the venture Ecosystem that maybe Boston or, San Francisco has for biotech, but we have everything

[00:22:01] Karl: else that follows that. And everybody is going

[00:22:04] Karl: to come here at some point for that.

[00:22:06] Glennis: so one of the things that's really

[00:22:08] Glennis: interesting about New York is that there's many things interesting, but one of the things I'm really excited about is 2023 when traditional. what they say, smart money or professional money, we're going to safe shores, and not really engaged with our community here.

[00:22:26] Glennis: We opened up, avenues into the angel network and that actually produced a lot of results. And most of our companies during the past two years have been sustained by angels. want to talk about proximity to money. We have. The density of high net worth individuals that's unrivaled, I think anywhere else in the U.

[00:22:48] Glennis: S. so, it's a great, great place if you want to lean on angel funding, lean on impact funding, philanthropic

[00:22:56] Glennis: dollars, etc. New York is a place to be.

[00:22:59] Erum: and also for branding and

[00:23:01] Erum: coolness. I mean,

[00:23:03] Erum: Manhattan's

[00:23:04] Glennis: Oh, yeah.

[00:23:04] Erum: Brooklyn's cooler. all know

[00:23:05] Erum: that.

[00:23:06] Glennis: Island city. Upcoming

[00:23:09] Glennis: the new Soho.

[00:23:11] Erum: my God. that's that's rich. That's

[00:23:14] Erum: stretching it.

[00:23:14] Glennis: moving to Long Island city.

[00:23:16] Erum: I know,

[00:23:17] Karl: I'll, I'll say, to that is, there is no better place to build a brand, which means there's

[00:23:22] Karl: no better place to build a company. So if you're

[00:23:25] Karl: going to start a biotech company, this is the place to do it.

[00:23:27] Glennis: Yeah. And I have to say, we should open up the umbrella. Cause I think a lot of my conversation focused on therapeutics, but under life science and the biotech umbrella, there's a huge scope and therapeutics and drug discovery is just a very small part of it. , and I think actually the rest of what's under that umbrella, I think would be better to be in New York, has more impetus, more motive and, value is in

[00:23:52] Glennis: New York for them.

[00:23:53] Karl: Absolutely.

[00:23:56] Erum: we definitely want to touch on that some more to, because we've been talking a lot about, business and startups how we can grow these companies, but let's talk a little bit more about the science side. So, you have a background in molecular biology.

[00:24:09] Erum: You've done research in molecular biology. How do you see some of the principles being applied in today's biotech Like, what type of biology are

[00:24:18] Erum: you starting to see that's really exciting

[00:24:21] Erum: to you?

[00:24:22] Glennis: Okay. So I love, love, love that people are leaning more into the enormity of the problem of biology before. no disrespect to people on small molecules. , but I feel like the small molecule approach was Like when you win the lotto, biology is so, so complex and is like a one hit wonder that.

[00:24:47] Glennis: People try so hard to replicate. what's nice with now, a lot of the new modalities, you've got the biologics, you've got cell therapies and you've got gene therapy, et cetera. In the mix, I think those modalities are more leaning into the complexity of nature. and Because the modalities are more complex, their targets are more complex, you can now have, antibodies that are chimeric such that they can anchor one thing, wait for an activator, and move things around if that activator is present, then you can remove the drug, have the patient stop taking it, and that antibody just stops working.

[00:25:27] Glennis: Just these amazingly elegant solutions to big, big problems, starting with the understanding that it's a big problem, that it's a multiplayer problem, that it's not just one target by its lonesome, floating around wreaking havoc that needs to be stopped. I think. The oversimplification of biology has come to an end, and as we're embracing the complexity, in comes A.

[00:25:53] Glennis: I. And so I'm just really, really excited, to see what the next few years brings. it's gonna be a lot more work for everybody. Everyone thinks, Oh, A. I. Is gonna kill jobs. don't think so. I think we're just gonna have more opportunities, more things to test, and more shots on goal.

[00:26:09] Glennis: That we have to take,

[00:26:10] Karl: Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that because my thesis has been, biology continues to be this black box. We know so little is going to help us uncover that. But then it's like a virtual circle in that what we learned from biology in turn will influence what. We are able to do and how we design future AI systems.

[00:26:31] Karl: so I think that, there's a lot to learn and a lot to do. this week, the big news that we touched on was this whole deep seek. news from China that these guys develop this AI model, based on, low computation infrastructure.

[00:26:44] Karl: that struck me as a huge opportunity for drug discovery and for just new approaches to biology. you don't necessarily need these humongous computational cores that are being developed. the clever, smart people are going to go in

[00:26:58] Karl: there with things that are, maybe more

[00:27:00] Karl: biological than AI.

[00:27:02] Glennis: yeah. So my weekend activity is going to be trying

[00:27:04] Glennis: to figure out what's the underlying, innovation that happened there. So how can they do it? Because one of the things that people don't appreciate, don't know if they appreciate, but I have to keep reminding people that AI is not just language models.

[00:27:17] Glennis: It's a whole host of other things. And what I think is the challenge is translating what you do in a language model to these other areas. And so with. Molecular biology, biology in general, you're dealing with small molecules, large molecules of all different types, temperature, pressure, magnetic fields.

[00:27:38] Glennis: And now we have the quantum realm also supposedly acting. Hold on,

[00:27:51] Glennis: let's

[00:27:51] Glennis: take a beat

[00:27:52] Glennis: and

[00:27:54] Erum: Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. My mind's been spinning lately. Our commentary from last week's episode a couple weeks ago, just need to take, yeah, take a beat. um, it's just too much. or maybe just more elegant example of all of it coming together. And I, do think that we'll be in our biology realm to see it all happen, come together because then I think it will, help us wraps our head around the convergence and then the

[00:28:19] Erum: application

[00:28:20] Erum: of all of these technologies.

[00:28:22] Glennis: yeah. I agree. there's a lot to do. There's a lot to do. And maybe we'll, see robust solutions in our lifetime. but, I just focused on the here and now there's still so, so much to do. and I

[00:28:34] Glennis: appreciate

[00:28:35] Glennis: all the efforts and the new advances, but,

[00:28:37] Erum: Yeah,

[00:28:38] Erum: but the here and now becomes irrelevant every

[00:28:40] Erum: minute.

[00:28:41] Glennis: Oh, yeah.

[00:28:44] Erum: about DeepSeek right now, it's probably completely over

[00:28:47] Erum: by the time this airs.

[00:28:50] Glennis: Yeah. when did open AI come out?

[00:28:52] Karl: I mean it's been around for a while But I think that open ai chat gpt moment really

[00:28:56] Karl: was two years ago.

[00:28:57] Glennis: yeah, I remember that. I remember when all the podcasts, everybody in their predictions for 2023 were just on it AI would be everywhere doing everything, et cetera.

[00:29:09] Erum: Yeah. And

[00:29:09] Erum: then when OpenAI was actually open, when it was open source. Then it became closed AI. So maybe DeepSeq will become closed. I don't know. I mean, this is a thing. It's all

[00:29:19] Erum: someone's

[00:29:20] Erum: decision,

[00:29:20] Glennis: Yeah. Champagne problems.

[00:29:23] Karl: Yeah champagne problems So let's talk about you deal with a lot of different. entrepreneurs People are aspiring to be biotech entrepreneurs. We talk to them all the time What? Advice. Do you give to these entrepreneurs that are interested in taking their scientific discoveries and trying to turn them

[00:29:38] Karl: into viable businesses?

[00:29:41] Glennis: make sure, you know, who your competition is. So we get a lot of inbound. We go to pitch events. I'm sure you've seen this as well. And you start to have deja vu all over again.

[00:29:56] Karl: Yeah,

[00:29:57] Glennis: and so I'm like, wait, don't they know

[00:29:59] Glennis: that there's somebody else they should talk, and someone should decide who should bow out Cause there isn't room for two hat makers, in town. the really interesting thing is that discovery happens where they're. With contemporaries, this has been happening in the history of humanity. If you've made some wonderful discovery, someone else likely has, you've got to identify what is it that you're going to add to your platform, to your special sauce that.

[00:30:30] Glennis: Will be next to impossible for anyone else to replicate easily. and sometimes it's just first mover advantage and just having the hubris and the grit to say, okay, I'm, likely first mover and I will power through, but you've got to pay attention to the competition. I've seen many companies, and just also realize that, the glory is proportional to the work.

[00:30:53] Glennis: It's hard work. It's lots of risk and you've got to be ready to that and keeping your eye on why a lot of people go into startup world saying that, well, I want to help people. I want to, help cure cancer, stop suffering, etc. I know that's not true in most cases. I suspect, and I think being honest that if you're in it for the money, say you're in it for the money, you don't have to tell anyone, but just be honest with yourself and just keep your eye on the prize.

[00:31:21] Glennis: Sorry. I told you that there seems to be a thing.

[00:31:24] Erum: yeah, money, money.

[00:31:28] Glennis: yeah. And just

[00:31:29] Glennis: keeping your eyes just being very, goalful, goal oriented and goal focused personally on your personal goals. because that will help you make decisions and navigate and pivot and turn. it's, The companies and the founders, at least in my experience, who don't have an anchoring and an honest anchoring, that tend to waver and not, make decisions quickly and efficiently.

[00:31:50] Glennis: and decisions have to be made quickly and efficiently because things will not turn out the way you want. experiments will fail, efforts will fail, people will fail. and you've got to be able to adapt and, iterate. And if you don't have a solid goal, you don't have clear milestones, that iteration will be more like flailing rather than

[00:32:09] Glennis: a

[00:32:09] Glennis: focused drive.

[00:32:11] Erum: well said, yeah. Make decisions quick, be as smart as possible, differentiate yourself. that's one of the things that, from, messaging lab side, we do biotech business communications, We're always like, how do you differentiate and position yourself? That's the number one thing.

[00:32:25] Erum: And you can't be everything for everyone. That's just not going to work. Because then where are we? What are we gonna do? the message? Who are we gonna go after So, it is such a powerful message and it's like one of those things where you might think you're differentiated because doing something different, but maybe not, maybe it's not as different as needs to be, if you a, again, take a look at the

[00:32:46] Erum: market and see what's going

[00:32:47] Erum: on.

[00:32:48] Glennis: Yeah,

[00:32:48] Erum: and so that's great advice.

[00:32:50] Glennis: Yeah, And especially in med tech and, in some synthetic biology, because. anyone can clone, everyone's got sequences at their fingertip. so putting two and two together or two and two and six together, other people can do that. so what's unique to you? if it's first mover advantage, great, but if it's

[00:33:12] Glennis: not,

[00:33:12] Glennis: as they say, God help you.

[00:33:14] Erum: Yeah. Yeah. That's a great advice. so with that, I also wanted to ask, we were talking about the acceleration of technology, how, biotech companies are biolabs, but how do you envision the future of biotech entrepreneurship evolving, considering all of that and what role will biolabs at NYU Langone play in that journey or biolabs in general,

[00:33:36] Glennis: I'll break it down a bit. So I'll talk about bio labs in general. So, with bio labs, it's fundamentally about providing the resources for execution and building a robust community that can then leverage itself. So that we're the sheer scale of the network brings benefits.

[00:33:55] Glennis: So right now we see that in our marketplace platform. So there's significant discounts. residents or anyone in any bio labs gets one invoice rather than multiple invoices every month. because of the scale of it, we actually get it. Really good pricing from many vendors, and there are thousands of vendors in this platform.

[00:34:13] Glennis: so I think I envision in the future biolabs just scaling more and bringing more entrepreneurs in the community and us refining and trying to add value not just with our execution platform, lots of the equipment, technical support, training, and all of that, but also what I hope is in the future adding these other things that make, being startup founder, being an entrepreneur, sometimes burdensome.

[00:34:36] Glennis: So hopefully, regulatory financing, talent acquisition, et cetera. just bolting on modules and, resources for that right now it's provided, but in a informal manner. hopefully in the near future, we can formalize some of those networks that we create for our residents.

[00:34:55] Glennis: two things I think can happen. I think we're going to have more of a world of have and have nots. and it's going to be more stark. So you will have companies that fall within an algorithm. I foresee the VC world capital actually focusing more on using digital and algorithmic tools to predict success and utilizing their well established networks.

[00:35:20] Glennis: there'll be more VC spin outs, there'll be more founders and companies that are selected using that process. everyone else will essentially have to survive on what's left over in terms of capital. it's going to be, tighter, for those companies. but what I see is again, with the theme of scarcity, big changes and dramatic decisions, I think.

[00:35:45] Glennis: It will create amazing founders and amazing companies that leapfrog and create new, in ways that we haven't seen before. so I think the entrepreneurial experience would be either you are lucky enough to be tracked. Actually, I wouldn't say created, disparity of luck, but I would say either you're tracked within that professional money world or you'd be hustling.

[00:36:06] Glennis: Frankly, to focus on raising capital and also trying to execute at the same time. That's not going to be easy. in terms of resources available, I think A. I. Is going to help everybody accelerate really quickly. you can have an idea. Map it out, test it in silico. And a lot of this is already happening.

[00:36:24] Glennis: you can build tools, for yourself now rather than relying on other people if you have the coding background. I assume there'll be more entrepreneurs. And I assume that, things will be accelerating faster for the entrepreneur in terms of, Execution to the finish line or commercialization.

[00:36:42] Karl: completely agree with you. And I think what's exciting about what you just said, , of course we could look at entrepreneurs ideas that are tracked or spun out of VCs, versus the people who have to bootstrap and fight for scraps. I think that is going to drive a creativity, just like we're seeing with this deep seat thing.

[00:36:58] Karl: what can you do on Pentium chips versus NVIDIA chips? what are you going to be able to do when it comes to drug discovery on a gaming laptop versus needing to have the, NYU?

[00:37:09] Karl: computing cluster and sure, the VCs are going to be the ones who are, calling the shots, but then there's going to be a lot of room for these innovators who actually do things differently and, are

[00:37:19] Karl: going to be much more disruptive if that's the direction we

[00:37:21] Karl: go.

[00:37:21] Karl: So I'm super excited about that.

[00:37:24] Glennis: Yeah, I am too. And I'm

[00:37:25] Glennis: seeing it in real time now.

[00:37:26] Glennis: so really, really excited.

[00:37:29] Erum: Awesome. Well, thanks so much, Glenis I'm so happy that you came on to the. Everything podcast, we've been waiting to get you on because even seeing do your thing at bio labs and all the other events, fighting the good fight, helping all the biotech startups win here in New York city.

[00:37:43] Erum: So thank you so

[00:37:44] Erum: much.

[00:37:45] Glennis: Well, thanks for having me. This was a lot of fun I'm really optimistic and excited because I truly do believe if our community gets this right, it's going to be. An amazing impact on the world. And thank you for doing what you guys do, because I know everyone thinks, Oh, communication is just open your mouth and words come out

[00:38:03] Glennis: and no.

[00:38:05] Glennis: no. Yeah.

[00:38:09] Karl: it takes.

[00:38:10] Erum: of words. You got a mind for the right ones.

[00:38:13] Karl: Yeah.

[00:38:14] Glennis: Oh, that should be your tagline.

[00:38:15] Erum: All right. Let me write that down. See, you guys are hearing it live. This is all happening live ideation.

[00:38:22] Karl: Yeah.

[00:38:23] Erum: All right, Glennis, we will probably see you next week

[00:38:26] Erum: somewhere.

[00:38:26] Glennis: I'll probably see you tonight.

[00:38:28] Erum: Oh yeah, absolutely. Thanks

[00:38:30] Erum: again.

[00:38:31] Karl: Thank you.

[00:38:32] Glennis: Thanks.