23.5: SPECIAL PANEL - Venture Finance

Don’t miss today’s special class session which begins at 8:30am in the auditorium of Amy Gutmann Hall located at 34th and Chestnut Streets. Attendance will be recorded. Given that this special session is outside of our regularly scheduled class time, if you are unable to attend because of a time conflict with another course be sure to notify your instructor and request an excused absence.

Today’s class features a panel discussion, moderated by Professor Brian Halak, with two of the top venture finance leaders in the country: Jennifer Friel Goldstein who specializes in venture debt investments, and Ted Schlein who specializes in venture equity investments. Dr. Halak will interview our two distinguished panelists for the first part of the session, followed by questions from you, the audience, for the final half hour. Today’s assignment, to be completed by all students including those with excused absences, is to submit questions for the panel following the instructions below.

THE MODERATOR: Dr. Brian Halak

Brian Halak, Ph.D. has been creating, investing in, and leading early-stage life science companies for over 20 years. He is a Managing Partner of Medical Excellence Capital LLC (MEC) and a Professor of Practice in Penn’s Engineering Entrepreneurship Program which he joined in 2021. MEC is an early-stage life sciences venture fund that combines a proprietary global network of leading physician scientists with experienced investment professionals, company builders, and operators. The firm invests in precision health, including areas such as cell therapy, gene therapy, AI/ML applied to drug discovery, synthetic biology, and regenerative medicine. Today, MEC’s active portfolio includes nine life science startups.

Prior to MEC, Brian had been a Partner of Domain Associates LLC where, since 2001, he invested in over a dozen companies, several of which he helped create and run. With Domain, he licensed assets from a Japanese pharmaceutical company to create Tobira Therapeutics, which was eventually acquired by Allergan in 2016 for $1.7 billion. Brian also established and directed Domain’s initiatives in China including its collaboration with Beijing Elite to create new medical device companies in China based on technology licensed from US and European markets. One such company, Elite Neurovascular, was successfully sold to Terumo Corporation in 2017. Additionally, Brian joined with two scientific founders at Johns Hopkins University to create WindMIL Therapeutics, which is developing a novel cell therapy to treat a variety of cancers. Brian served as President and CEO of WindMIL from 2015 to early 2019, during which time he raised $43.5MM in two rounds of financing. Most recently, Brian formed Nobias Therapeutics alongside co-founders from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to develop drugs to treat rare pediatric disease. He remains CEO of Nobias Therapeutics today. Brian has served on the Board of Directors of Esprit Pharma (acquired by Allergan), Dicerna Therapeutics (Nasdaq: DRNA), Alimera Sciences (Nasdaq: ALIM), and Vanda Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: VNDA).

Prior to Domain, Brian was an associate with Advanced Technology Ventures where he participated in the firm’s investments in Plexxikon, Percardia and Emphasys. Before that, he was a consultant at the Wilkerson Group, where he developed strategy for pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Brian received his B.S.E. in bioengineering from University of Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. in immunology from Thomas Jefferson University. He is currently an advisor to Elm Street Ventures, an early-stage venture fund with close ties to Yale University.

THE PANEL:

Jennifer Friel Goldstein

Jennifer Friel Goldstein is head of Relationship Management, Technology and Healthcare at Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank. In this role, she leverages her 20+ years of experience financing innovation to develop creative capital solutions for SVB's clients, connect VC and industry stakeholders to key business opportunities, and operate a dynamic and complex banking system. Since joining SVB in 2012, Jennifer has held a variety of leadership positions across the bank. She played key roles in developing SVB's biotech practice, the expansion into investment banking, launching SVB Capital’s first dedicated Life Sciences investment fund as managing partner of Arterial Fund I, and leading the strategic repositioning of several business units following SVB’s acquisition by First Citizens Bank.

Previously, Jennifer served as a director on Pfizer's venture capital team where for 6+ years she led investments into life sciences companies. Prior to Pfizer she served as a management consultant at Bain & Co., focused on private equity projects across Europe and, prior to Bain, she held operational and research roles at Chiron, Genelabs and Genencor. Jennifer graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in bioengineering and a master's degree in biotechnology from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was among the earliest students enrolled in the Engineering Entrepreneurship Program. She also holds an MBA from the Wharton School, where she was named a Joseph Wharton Fellow. Her experience also includes director roles with VentureForward, Digitalis Commons, the Women’s Health Innovation Coalition, and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Northern California. She previously served as an independent director and audit committee member for Alexandria Real Estate Equities.

Ted Schlein

Ted Schlein has spent the last 35 years helping create transformative companies. He is the executive chairman and founding partner of Ballistic Ventures, a venture capital firm he created in 2021 which is solely focused on funding and incubating innovations in cybersecurity. Ballistic has so far invested in 59 cybersecurity startups and is raising $100M for its third fund, just over a year after closing its second fund sized at $360M. Ted is also a Partner and Advisor at Kleiner Perkins, one of the world’s top venture capital firms, where, over the last 3 decades, he has funded, supported, and guided more than 30 founders to successful company exits including ArcSight, Chegg, Fortify Software, IronNet Cybersecurity, Jive, LifeLock and Segment. He currently serves on the boards of Apiiro, Bedrock, Chegg (CHGG), FullStory, Interos, Incorta, IronNet, Rebellion Defense, Reputation, Synack, Trusona and UJet. Ted has a wealth of experience in both the private and public sectors, especially when it comes to cybersecurity and technology infrastructure. As a founding CEO of Fortify Software, which was later acquired by HP, he helped lead the development of key cybersecurity solutions.

Before joining Kleiner Perkins, Ted served as vice president of Enterprise Solutions at Symantec, where he spearheaded their antivirus efforts. This role established him as a leader in software security, particularly with the launch of its commercial anti-virus solution, a product that quickly emerged as the industry gold standard. Ted is the former chairman of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), the former president of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists, and the founder of the DoD sponsored DeVenCI program. He frequently participates as an opinion leader in public, private and government forums, providing perspectives on security technology, related investments, and market adoption trends. Ted is passionate about, and heavily involved in, America’s cyber defense and sits on the advisory boards of InQTel, CISA Cybersecurity Advisory Committee, the NSA National Security Institute Advisory Board, and also the Council on Foreign Relations, Independent Task Force on Cybersecurity. He serves on the University of Pennsylvania’s Board of Trustees, as well as the Dean’s Board of Advisors of the Engineering School at the University of Pennsylvania. Ted holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

ASSIGNMENT:

Read the Feb 18th Pitchbook article, Venture Debt Hits All-Time High as Startups Diverge from VC Expectations. Then, based on the above panelists’ information and related online sources, knowledge you have gained in class this semester, and additional related research you may conduct, type up a list of 5 questions to ask the panel, time permitting, during the Q&A session following the moderated session. Submit your list of questions, as a PDF file, on Canvas before the beginning of class. Questions will be graded based on their substance and the evident level of effort in your research about the panelists. Vague, generic questions of little substance will be penalized. Remember to bring a copy of your questions to the class for your own reference during the Q&A session.

Out of courtesy to our panelists, both of whom have traveled from California to be with us, plan to arrive at Amy Gutmann Hall a few minutes before 8:30am so the class can begin on time without interruption.