SVFI Aug 3 2015 Team and Advisors - Thomas Farb.ppt

8/20/2019 SVFI Aug 3 2015 Team and Advisors - Thomas Farb.ppt

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/svfi-aug-3-2015-team-and-advisors-thomas-farbppt 1/16

11

Founder Institute

Topic: Team & Advisors

San Francisco

August 3, 2015

Thomas Forest Farb

© 2015 THOMAS FOREST FARB



2

Thomas Forest Farb has three decades of experience as an entrepreneur, investor, senior executiveand mentor in early-stage information technology and life science companies in Massachusetts,California, Florida, Puerto Rico and China.

• As an entrepreneur, Mr. Farb has been directly involved in founding and in raising more than $135million of angel and venture capital for over ten companies.

•

As an investor, he has been a partner in two venture capital/private equity firms in Boston and China.

• As a senior executive, he has served as President, COO or CFO of numerous companies, including Atherio Information Systems, Indevus Pharmaceuticals, MedicaMetrix and Cytyc & Trust for Science& Technology .

• As a mentor, he has been a Mentor for the Founder Institute and a Senior Advisor at the MicrosoftInnovation Center, both in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Mr. Farb is currently President of an early stage company in the Boston area, Thrive Bioscience, Inc.,which is building instruments to automate laboratory and therapeutic cell culture and has just raised $4million in seed financing.

Mr. Farb has been a member of the Board of Directors of numerous companies including several publiccompanies -- Fair Isaac (NYSE: FIC), Redwood Trust (NYSE: RT), HNC Software (NASD: HNCS),Retek Systems (NASD: RETK), and Symon Communications (NASD: MGN).



3

The Ten Most Important Take-Aways

Who you need depends on what you are doing & who you are

Team needs to be diverse & cross-disciplinary & sufficient size

③

Team needs to be a fluid group with low switching costs

④ Roles do not need to be formalized quickly

⑤

Many ways to be a part of a team: co-founder/advisor/consultant/

mentor/contractor (not just employee)

⑥ The world is your team – think broadly / think virtually

⑦ Your success will be related to your efforts in recruiting

⑧

Goodwill & equity, rather than cash, are a good currency⑨

Great value in having all the disciplines represented in the team

and among co-founders

⑩ No substitute for face-time in selecting & building a Team



4

BEFORE Assembling the Team:What => Who

A. Answer “What am I doing?” THEN ! “Who do I need?”

•

With the smallest, changeable team (including advisors), figure out“What?”

•

Understand the need, the pain, the customers

• Define the service/product

• Confirm need and refine

•

Develop the business model

•

Strategies & tactics drive the team needed• Developing & licensing-out your technology?

•

Providing a service or product?



5

BEFORE Assembling the Team:Who am I? => Who Else?

B. Answer “Who am I?” THEN ! “Who do I need?

•

Honestly assess your experience/skills as well as your personality &style

practical visionaryanalytical intuitive

indecisive decisive

team-oriented sole contributor

•

“Who else you need?” is easier if you know yourself



6

Assembling the Team – It Takes Effort

A. Your success or lack of success in building a teamwill be directly related to your effort and your ability

to sell your vision

•

So this is actually a thing! – that is why we have a whole eveningon this subject

• It takes time & effort – assign mentally a % of your time to this

• You need to anticipate your future needs and always be “hiring”

•

You have to be able to sell your vision. This is sales.

“I need to get my slide deck ready for

investors recruiting my advisory board!”



7

Assembling the Team:Network, Network, Network

C. Network, network, network

• Be bold: Take a salesman or lawyer to lunch! Cold-call anyone.

•

Be clever: Not enough funds to attend a conference?Hang out in the lobby!

• Using sensible techniques can build your network



8

Assembling the Team:Not Everyone Should be an Employee

D. Use different roles in building the Team

•

“Team” is a fluid, evolving, flexible group!

•

Do not rush into formalizing roles!• Needs change

• “Try before you buy”

• When formalize, there are more roles than “employee” – you canhave a full team that is virtual & part-time

• Consultant

• Advisory Board

•

Board of Directors• Outsourcing

• Vendor

• Part-time employee

• Attorneys/accountants



9

Assembling the Team:Diverse, Complementary & Compatible

E. Build a Team with diverse skills

• Picking someone like you and both just make the same mistakes

• Building a team of complementary people is difficult• Not easy to evaluate someone from different field

•

Different fields have their own jargon

• No substitute for “face-time” – can’t rush figuring out if

you are compatible



10

Assembling the Team – Special Case of Co-Founders

F.

Co-Founders – everything we have talked about applies

but more so

• Don’t formalize until you really know each other

•

You want diversity of skill sets & approaches so there is balance

•

No one will work harder or care more so have several

•

Not all will last – so start with no less than three and preferably four

• Don’t create a two class system of Founders and Non-Founders



11

Assembling the Team – Special Case of Advisory Board

G.

The Special Case of the Advisory Board

•

Q: How can an Advisory Board best assist you?

A: experience-based answers when your are stumped

•

Build a real Advisory Board not a Hollywood Advisory Board.

•

You do not have to formalize an individual’s involvement for 6months + after you have started

•

Ask for a small amount of time without group meetings

•

Keep the terms short so that you can replace easily

• Use non-cash compensation

An example!



Thrive Bioscience Advisory Board

Stephen Fantone, PhD (Optics)

• Founder & CEO, Optikos

• Director, American Optical Society

• MIT, U of Rochester (PhD)

Mariano Garcia-Blanco, MD, PhD (Biology)

• Prof & Chair, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology,

U of Texas Medical Branch

• Prof, Duke-NUS Med School, Singapore

• Yale (MD & PhD)

Guy Fish, MD, MBA (Strategy & Market Research)

• VP, Health Practices Group, Fletcher Spaght

• VP, Business Development & Intl, Collagenesis

• Yale (MD, MBA)

Anna Kushnir, PhD (Government Grants / Policy)

• VP, Life Sciences, Strategic Marketing Innovations

• Harvard Med (PhD)

James Kurnick, MD (Cancer, Drug Development)

• President, Cytocure, Tribiotica

•

Harvard Med (MD)

Stan Lapidus (Diagnostics)

• Founder & CEO of SynapDx, Helicos,

Exact Labs, Cytyc

•

Cooper Union

Gaël McGill, PhD (Cell Biology, Software )

• Founder & CEO, Digizyme

•

Director of Molecular Visualization, Harvard Med• Swarthmore, Harvard Med (PhD)

Brock Reeve (Regenerative Medicine/Stem Cells)

• Exec. Director, Harvard Stem Cell Institute

• President, Regenerative Medicine Fund

James Sherley, MD, PhD (Stem Cells)

•

Founder, Assymetrex (Adult Stem Cell Tech. Ctr.)

• Harvard, Johns Hopkins Med (MD, PhD)

Jesus Soriano, MD, PhD, MBA (Business Develop.)

• Program Director, National Science Foundation

• Head of Business Development: Osiris, ATCC &EntreMed

•

U of Geneva Med (MD, PhD), Johns Hopkins (MBA)



13

Assembling the Team:Bootstrap

H. Use non-cash compensation in building the Team

•

Goodwill is one of the best currencies

•

Use non-cash compensation, such as equity or royalties

•

Examples:

•

Invoices added to a convertible note that converts at 20% discount

•

Invoices repaid in royalties

•

Restricted stock or options that vest based on amount of time

provided

Bootstrap!



A Final Topic on Assembling Teams:Equity Splits

• Don’t overestimate the value of just an idea

• Use vesting and milestones based on joining, amount of time

actually provided & achievements

• If its not working – up and out and recirculate the unvestedequity

14



Resources

–

Hot Seat: The Startup CEO Guidebook by Dan Shapiro

– The Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank

–

The Innovator’s DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of DisruptiveInnovators by Clayton M. Christensen

–

The Business Model Navigator: 55 Models That Will RevolutionizeYour Business by Oliver Gassman

– Founders at Work: Stories of Startups by Jessica Livingston

–

The Founder’s Dilemma – Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls

That Can Sink a Startup by Noam Wasserman

–

The Partnership Charter: How To Start Out Right with Your NewBusiness Partnership by David Gage

– Slicing Pie: Funding Your Company Without Funds by Mike Moyer15



16

Thomas Forest Farb, PresidentThrive Bioscience, Inc.

[email protected]: 978-201-9081

CONTACT INFORMATION

SVFI Aug 3 2015 Team and Advisors - Thomas Farb.ppt

Documents

Transcript of SVFI Aug 3 2015 Team and Advisors - Thomas Farb.ppt