[VIDEO] Venture Capital: Life Beyond Academia, with Dr. Janis Naeve

The Managing Director of Amgen Ventures explains both sides of the biotech VC coin.

Image: By Abby Tabor | Science Writer at NASA's Ames Research Center

“You don’t pick winners in this business,” Dr. Janis Naeve says about her work in venture capital for the biotech industry. “You find something truly promising and people who work really hard to make it possible.” This and other insight she has gleaned from a career in industry (post-academic postdoc), including 10 years at Amgen Ventures. In this talk, Dr. Naeve explains the four things she looks for when investing in a young biotech company, some desirable qualities for the venture capitalist job, and offers advice for current academics looking to make a move.

“You don’t pick winners in this business,” Dr. Janis Naeve says about her work in venture capital for the biotech industry. “You find something truly promising and people who work really hard to make it possible.”

This and other insight she has gleaned from a career in industry (post-academic postdoc), including 10 years at Amgen Ventures. Dr. Naeve came to Stanford to share with AIMS her knowledge of both sides of the VC relationship: the investors and the start-ups. In this talk, she explains the four things she looks for when investing in a young biotech company, some desirable qualities for the venture capitalist job, and advice for current academics looking to make a move: “Stay open, gather up some different skills. Oh, and network!”

 

Image Credit: Aaron Patterson / Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

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