The Biotech Entrepreneurship Coalition welcomed 2018 with our third BEC seminar on January 23rd at UCLA.
Speaker Anna Skaya, CEO and co-founder of Basepaws, a pet genetics company, gave an insightful presentation on how to choose a science/tech co-founder.
Skaya shared how she and her co-founder, Shan Zhao, met at Singularity University, a Silicon Valley think tank, and developed Basepaws from one of Zhao’s ideas.
The five important characteristics that Skaya was looking for in a biotech co-founder were: 1) The ability to get things done faster then anybody else; 2) Commitment to the company; 3) A personality that complements the other co-founder; 4) An understanding of how business works and 5) The flexibility to handle change.
Throughout the seminar, Skaya emphasized that the best co-founder is not the person you always agree with, but the one whose views you respect and whose skills your company needs. But most importantly, it’s the person you can have a beer with after a long, stressful day in the startup world.
A special thanks to Glancy Prongay and Murray, LLP and Jonathan Rotter for sponsoring the event.