Lessons learned from a scientist entrepreneur turned investor

Caleb Bell III, Ph.D., is a venture partner at Corundum Systems Biology and also the President of Corundum convergence institute.

We talk about the founding story of Bell biosystems; how they were able to work at various labs around the country with very little money; building teams, culture; raising money, interacting with investors, leadership transitions; and also how the company filed for bankruptcy, although after he left the startup;. Caleb agreed to dip into his experiences both as a founder and investor, and share some of the lessons learned around all these topics, which I believe will be very helpful for aspiring or current founders out there.

Shownotes:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/caleb3/
• Early life as an entrepreneur and grad school training
• Thoughts on working with law firms: corporate vs IP attorneys
• Inspiration for launching Bell Biosystems (hint: Listening to NPR science Friday)
• Labs around the country helped perform the initial proof of concept experiments
• Market hypothesis
• Convincing the right kind of people to work with you: challenges and lessons learned
• Advice on recruiting and growing teams
• Culture: Two types of sins
• Becoming a manager from a founder
• Communicating with investors: Being a good steward of money
• Magnetic cells
• Thoughts on charging early customers;price discovery
• Sophisticated vs unsophisticated investors: Do your research!
• Leadership transitions
• Transitioning to investing: PE, VC
• Lessons learned from time at the PE firm
• Corundum systems biology
• https://www.csb.co.jp/