Starting with a heavy question! I think there are several key traits for entrepreneurs. First and foremost, you have to think big and have dreams and ideas. You don’t necessarily have to have all the ideas yourself, but you have to have this drive to make a change, hopefully for the better in the world around you.
You must also be resilient. You’re going to have a lot of failure, and get a lot of nos. If you’re risk averse and afraid of failure, if you think you’re not good enough, if you don’t have enough self-confidence to endure, it’s not going to go well. So you have to be resilient.
I also think you have to be self-aware. The reason I say that is that I’ve seen plenty of entrepreneurs out there who forge ahead without taking in any positive constructive feedback from their network, the environment, and the market. They’re so dogmatic and focused on their idea being absolutely right, that it’s more about them being in charge than it is being aware of their own gaps and limitations – as well as taking on board that feedback and understanding.
So I think there’s this idea of humility and self-awareness, resilience, creativity and not taking no for an answer.
You don’t necessarily have to have all the ideas yourself, but you have to have this drive to make a change, hopefully for the better in the world around you.
Culture shock is an understatement! It was a massive culture shock! I’d barely left Louisiana. My parents were from the Caribbean, but immigrated to the States and met in Ohio – which was too cold for them so they moved to Louisiana which is where my brother and I were born and raised. When I was awarded the Marshall Scholarship I hadn’t even fathomed leaving the country, let alone the opportunity to come here to Cambridge. I arrived here during a very chilly October which was my first blast of a real winter, and the rest is history. I’ve been here since 2004.
I’m from a world in Louisiana where you say hi to strangers on the street. That’s not something which is very common in Cambridge let’s say! I’d smile and say hello and people would give me these funny looks. I’d never experienced proper winters either – I was so cold I was sleeping in a wool coat because I’d never heard of a duvet! I had to learn a lot of things. But it’s an incredible experience going somewhere new, meeting new people and being exposed to new ideas.
If I’m really honest I like to tell people I’m a mixture of my parents. My Dad was a professor of animal genetics for over 40 years at a small, historically black university in Louisiana. He was really passionate about giving back so was a teacher as well as a researcher. My mother trained as a social worker but was very entrepreneurial – when I was young she stopped her formal job and started on a series of different jobs including setting up a travel agency, selling cosmetics door to door, and opening a pharmacy for diabetics. Everything under the sun you can imagine – my mother did it. And she took me along with her. So I was spending time with my Dad in his lab and alongside that, helping Mum sell things door to door.
I always knew deep down that I liked to do a variety of things and there was naturally this mixture of science and entrepreneurism already in me. It was quite early on that I realised academia wasn’t the right fit. I’m too scatter-brained, I even worked on three completely different topics while completing my PhD. It was my supervisor who said, “Jason, this life may not be for you!”. So I took that advice and jumped head first into entrepreneurism.
You know it’s funny, I was doing a Postdoc at King’s College after I’d graduated from Cambridge and during that time my advisor, who rightly said I needed to explore different avenues and I’m supportive of you to do so, (and I have her to thank for so much of my life) – suggested I did an internship at a tech transfer office at King’s College. That experience helped me land my job at Cambridge Enterprise. They said not only are you applying as a junior associate, but you understand what we do. I was like – yes! During the internship I learnt about spinning out companies, licensing IP and everything in between and that helped me in the interview process. Everything you do is connected.
It really was a trial by fire – I was like, ok, I’m in an environment where everybody here has a scientific background, they typically have PhDs and now they’re moving into more of an industry setting. It was a nice halfway house between moving out of the lab and going fully into industry. I learned so much at CE and I have lifelong friends which I made when I was there.
I think mentors are particularly important for CEOs – but frankly, they’re important for everybody.
Definitely, and this is another example of how connections matter. Ian Thomas, who was my boss and head of the life sciences team at Cambridge Enterprise (I had left earlier to get some real world bio tech experience), came to me and said there was a new exciting company that’s spinning out and I think you’d be perfect for them. I spoke to the co-founders and the initial investors and thought – this is amazing and I want to be part of it.
I was employee number three and I was basically responsible for everything that wasn’t bench work, which was a lot! I learn by doing and over the six years that I was there I kept forging ahead. I was always in touch with the investors and attended board meetings, I helped grow the company and the team, and kept getting promoted until eventually it was my turn to be CEO. I then had the opportunity to lead the pitches for the Series B and Series C funding rounds. Since moving on it’s been really great to see the legacy continue and the company flourish. It was a really pivotal time in my life.
I think mentors are particularly important for CEOs – but frankly, they’re important for everybody. Throughout my entire life and career I’ve been supported by amazing mentors and people who have given me advice and guidance – all for free. And all they’ve told me to do is to pay it forward. So that’s why I am really keen on giving back. To contributing to events like this and meeting with people, because people who gave and helped me never asked for anything in return except for that - so it’s very much a part of my ethos.
I was very fortunate to have some amazing chairs of our boards who supported me. It was an awkward transition going from a colleague to being their boss overnight – it was a very challenging time. If you can imagine that one of your peer group gets promoted and the rest of you have to start reporting in to that person as you’ve come up through the ranks together – that’s a lot to handle.
You think as CEO you have gained control and all the power, but in reality you haven’t - you’ve just gained seven bosses instead of one (your board) and they’re all different. And you have a whole team of people beneath you that you are actually there to support so that they can be at their best. That’s your main job. It’s not about control and power – it’s about supporting your team and making your investors and shareholders happy.
If I had to choose just one thing then I would say communication. Communication is everything. Not many people do it well. Even if they appreciate communication is important, not many people have the tools to communicate. I think too often we focus on hard technical skills – such as, can you negotiate a licence, can you develop this experiment. But soft skills – or as I like to call them, power skills, such as emotional intelligence and the ability to communicate - are so important and under emphasised. So many problems come from miscommunication.
Communication is everything!
Communication is everything!
It takes a lot longer than you expect. Always. Many leave it too late. It’s known in the community that as soon as you finish your fundraise, you should be planning the next one – and ideally even before then. When we closed our Series B, we were thinking about Series C. You need to start building those relationships early. There’s a very big personal side and business development side to investment. Investors and VCs like to work with people who they enjoy spending time with – there’s a human component. Yes, they do this calculation with their spreadsheets, but in reality, if you can have a conversation with an investor and if they feel that they have a rapport with you and they believe in you – then they will invest in you. They are investing in the team above all. The best and most successful investors are investing in the team – and the team they choose are the ones they feel that they can build that relationship with.
So, if you are thinking about a fundraise you should be doing it now, not when you only have three months left on your runway and not when you feel comfortable. You need to always be thinking about it and sneak ahead. Let’s say you have a seed stage but you have a series A investor you really want to land for your next round. Engage with them now. Tell them these are the milestones you’re going to achieve over the next 18 months. Ask if you can give them regular updates per quarter. Find excuses to keep in touch with them.
For the companies that we ultimately invest in at Start Codon, we’ve been engaging with and having discussions with them for 9-12 months – they don’t just apply and we give them money overnight. In the real world it takes time. So invest in those relationships and find an excuse to constantly update – but not obnoxiously so – but do keep in touch with them.
It takes a lot longer than you expect. Always. Many leave it too late. It’s known in the community that as soon as you finish your fundraise, you should be planning the next one – and ideally even before then. When we closed our Series B, we were thinking about Series C. You need to start building those relationships early. There’s a very big personal side and business development side to investment. Investors and VCs like to work with people who they enjoy spending time with – there’s a human component. Yes, they do this calculation with their spreadsheets, but in reality, if you can have a conversation with an investor and if they feel that they have a rapport with you and they believe in you – then they will invest in you. They are investing in the team above all. The best and most successful investors are investing in the team – and the team they choose are the ones they feel that they can build that relationship with.
So, if you are thinking about a fundraise you should be doing it now, not when you only have three months left on your runway and not when you feel comfortable. You need to always be thinking about it and sneak ahead. Let’s say you have a seed stage but you have a series A investor you really want to land for your next round. Engage with them now. Tell them these are the milestones you’re going to achieve over the next 18 months. Ask if you can give them regular updates per quarter. Find excuses to keep in touch with them.
For the companies that we ultimately invest in at Start Codon, we’ve been engaging with and having discussions with them for 9-12 months – they don’t just apply and we give them money overnight. In the real world it takes time. So invest in those relationships and find an excuse to constantly update – but not obnoxiously so – but do keep in touch with them.
Teams are important because investors back teams. Technologies come and go. You can invent a bit of new tech or licence new tech and things change quickly, but if you have the right team they will weather that storm and navigate through. Now if you’re an early stage company then you’ve got limited resources so you’re going to have to sell. Sell, sell, sell your idea to your team mates because ultimately, if you can’t convince someone to join you at this crazy, wacky stage now, you’re going to have a hell of a time convincing an investor to back you. So think of this as your first and greatest pitch. Talk to your peers, attend networking events, reach out to people on Linkedin – you’ll be surprised how many people are looking out for an opportunity even though they haven’t come across it in the traditional way. Find people to bring onside.
I think importantly – you have a lot to play for. You can offer equity. At Start Codon we recruit experienced board chairs to support our companies. We take them from a wide range of the ecosystem. Our companies can’t afford to pay them yet but offer share options now, and a salary from the fundraising they’ve helped with. So there’s lots of ways to bring in people to your team. We are in an ecosystem and you have an opportunity to find people who will help you and who will want very little for themselves. I am so enthused by the number of mentors who support our companies at Start Codon – and they don’t want anything for their time. These are people who are fortune 500 or people who have had multiple exits, wildly successful in business and their personal life – and they just want to help.
One of the biggest hurdles of just getting started is personal. We often ask, “Who am I to do this? Who am I to ask this person who’s famous or successful for help, who am I to start this company and have a go?”. Once you get past that hurdle so many doors open for you.
Part two coming soon!
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