How many classes in grad school taught you how to set up a cap table? Or how to talk about the difference between a convertible note and a SAFE? Or even what’s required in a pre-submission document?
Probably none. Because that’s not what grad school does.
There’s a hidden curriculum in biotech entrepreneurship. It’s not the technical skills needed to advance a project. It’s knowing the nuances of how to take a scientific breakthrough from lab bench to clinic to commercialization.
It’s the knowledge that makes the difference between being a scientist who is able to commercialize your own work, and a scientist whose work ends up being commercialized by others.
90% of biotech startups fail.
According to Stephanie Marrus, Managing Director of Entrepreneurship at UCSF, the failure rate for biotech startups is higher than almost any other type of startup.
One reason why: CB Insights reports that 42% of all startups fail because they don’t meet real customer needs. They fail not because of technical hurdles or regulatory challenges.
“The #1 cause of startup failure is building something nobody needs,” said Marrus. “You can have the most amazing science, but if you don’t have a good business case, it’ll just stay in academia.”
A study by NYU’s Biomedical Entrepreneurship Skills Development Program found that there is little to no commercialization training in typical biomedical programs.
Scientists are trained to do discovery, not to do commercialization. And that’s the gap where innovation dies.
Here are 5 things you need to know that you won’t learn in school.
1. Product-market fit is not a guessing game
When you’re a scientist, you want to find answers to the most interesting questions. But when you’re a biotech entrepreneur, you want to answer the most commercially important questions.
Those aren’t always the same thing.
You need to figure out the unmet market needs before you start doing experiments. Who’s the customer? Clinicians? Patients? Payers? Other biotechs? How will they pay for it? What does the competitive landscape look like?
All of these things should guide what data you collect.
2. You need to start thinking about regulations on day 1
New founders often consider regulatory strategy to be a downstream issue. That’s a huge mistake.
A big part of the FDA’s pre-submission process is figuring out what kind of studies the agency wants to see in order to approve a device or drug. If you design studies based only on your scientific interests, you might end up with great data that’s useless for getting an IND filed.
You’ve wasted months and hundreds of thousands of dollars.
3. IP strategy is more than filling out a form
Filing a patent is not a strategy. You need to know when to file, what claims to include, how to protect your key technology, and what to avoid publishing that will kill your patent. A premature publication can mean the loss of your ability to patent the invention globally. A claim that is too narrow means that another company will easily work around your patents to copy your technology.
4. Talking To Investors Is A Different Language
In science, we make qualified claims, we present data. In the world of investment, we need to provide a value proposition, milestones, capital efficiency, an exit strategy. If I talk to a founder for 20 minutes and he or she talks to me about a mechanism of action but says nothing about the size of the market, I’m not going to meet with them again.
Again, this isn’t about making the science dumber, it’s about putting the science into a commercial context.
5. Creating The Right Team Is Something That Is Not Taught In School
You need a scientific team, a regulatory team, a clinical development team, a business development team, an operations team. No one can do all those things.
There are a lot of things you have to do when you build your team that have long-term implications. Who do you hire? How much equity do you give each of them? Who are the advisors you want to have on your board? All these decisions have an impact over the long term. If you make the wrong choice early on, it becomes very hard to fix it later.
How BADASS Labs Transfers The Hidden Curriculum
The vast majority of incubators offer you lab space, and that’s where they say, “Now go take a course” or “Come to our monthly fireside chat.” The hidden curriculum doesn’t transfer like that. It transfers through proximity, repetition, and community.
This is why Dr. David Kiewlich—who has been a serial biotech entrepreneur six times and spent more than 28 years in the industry—built BADASS Labs. After finding and purchasing his first lab space, he spent 18 months looking for lab space for his next company. He spent years doing everything wrong, learning lessons the hard way, paying the tuition for not knowing what you didn’t know.
We are providing the same thing. We want the next generation of scientific rebels to not have to learn those same things the hard way.
Community As A Vehicle For Learning
When you join BADASS Labs, you’re working right next to people in a coworking laboratory environment who are also at different stages of the commercialization process. The founder who just raised a Series A might be two benches away from you. The team that just had an FDA pre-submission meeting might be across the hall.
That proximity creates a level of learning that can’t happen when you’re taking a class or watching a webinar. People will talk to you about how they negotiated their term sheet. They’ll talk to you over lunch about how they worked with the FDA. And if you bring them your pitch, they’ll tell you honestly why it won’t work with investors, because they’ve heard thousands of pitches. This is real time, real life teaching of the hidden curriculum.
Support Built Into The Community
At BADASS Labs, you get all of the infrastructure and the community, and that’s where we differentiate ourselves from other spaces. Most incubators and accelerators take equity for giving you access to a community and mentorship. At BADASS Labs, it’s all included in a simple flat fee. Infrastructure without support isn’t helpful; it’s just a really expensive room with expensive equipment.
We provide the community so you know what to do, how to do it, and who to talk to when you’re stuck. Our community has raised more than $900 million collectively, and the success rate of our member companies is 89–95%, versus a standard industry-wide success rate of 10%.
Why do we have such high success rates? Because our founders have access to infrastructure, community, and accumulated wisdom from people who’ve gone from research to commercialization.
Zero Equity Means You Can Own What You’ve Learned
At BADASS Labs, we’re a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, and we take zero equity and make no IP claims. Most incubators and accelerators will take equity for the privilege of having them teach you the hidden curriculum.
We don’t think that knowledge transfer should require ownership. The knowledge is yours. The equity is yours. The IP is yours.
The Reframe: Succeed Or Learn, There Is No Fail
Dr. Kiewlich likes to say, “Succeed or learn, there is no fail.” * The hidden curriculum is not that we avoid errors. It’s that we commit them more quickly, more inexpensively, and in the company of others who will assist us in extracting their teaching before we die. The reason that some founders get away and others do not is that some make mistakes in the company of people who will teach them and others make mistakes alone.
This is the hidden curriculum being taught. Not as a curriculum, but as a culture.
Who Should Use This (Hint: You)
If you are a postdoctoral researcher who has made a remarkable discovery, and have no idea what a patent application looks like—this is for you. If you are an assistant professor who has been told to commercialize your research, but not shown how—this is for you. If you are a scientist who has become CEO and find yourself at 3 AM Googling “cap table” —this is for you. If you are a climate tech founder who has developed a revolutionary material, but know nothing about environmental regulations —this is for you.
You have the science, you have the motivation. What you do not have is the curriculum that nobody ever taught you. But you don’t have to learn on your own.
Common Questions
What does “the hidden curriculum” mean when it comes to biotech entrepreneurship?
The hidden curriculum is the business knowledge that PhD scientists require in order to commercialize their research, which is not typically part of their academic curricula. It includes topics such as regulatory strategy, intellectual property strategy, pitching to investors, finding product market fit, and building teams.
Why do 90% of biotech startups fail?
Anecdotal industry analysis suggests that biotech startup failure is related to lack of market demand, lack of regulatory planning, lack of adequate funding, and lack of sufficient team members. These are all issues related to the disconnect between academic training and commercial reality.
How does BADASS Labs help founders acquire the skills needed to commercialize their research?
BADASS Labs offers access to experienced entrepreneurs through proximity to them, access to resources and a community that has raised over $900 million collectively from its founders without giving up equity or IP.
Do I need an MBA to start a biotech company?
Not necessarily. Many successful biotech founders come from scientific backgrounds. What is important is recognizing the need for additional knowledge and intentionally acquiring it through experienced advisors, programs, and/or communities like BADASS Labs.
Are there training programs available for first-time founders?
BADASS Labs supports first-time founders with its low-cost, flat-fee model and access to experienced founders who offer mentorship, guidance, and timely feedback.
Don’t Learn the Hard Way
The hidden curriculum does not need to remain hidden. BADASS Labs was started by a founder who learned through years of experience so that the next generation wouldn’t have to. We have the infrastructure, we have the community, and we have the knowledge to share.
Want to join BADASS Labs? Book a tour of our Alameda campus, speak with our community of fearless founders, or apply for a lab now. Your science is amazing, let’s make sure it reaches the world.
Succeed or learn, there is no fail.