Latest / The BioHub - by Avetix / Episode 206 - Valerie Vanhooren - CEO & Co-Founder Ona Therapeutics
Transcript
- 0:06Welcome to another episode of the Biohub and Avetics podcast.
- 0:10Today I'm joined by Valerie van Horen, Co founder and CEO of
- 0:14Owner Therapeutics. Valerie has spent her career
- 0:17developing novel biologic therapies in oncology, holding
- 0:20leadership roles at companies included Ablinks and Splice Bio
- 0:24before Co founding Owner Therapeutics in 2019.
- 0:27Since then she has led the company's growth, advancing a
- 0:30pipeline of first in class antibody therapies and Adcs
- 0:34while recently securing an $86.6 million Series B.
- 0:39Ona Therapeutics is a biotech company developing innovative
- 0:42antibody based therapies for advanced cancers with a focus on
- 0:46translating novel biologic discoveries into treatments for
- 0:50patients with limited options. So in this conversation, we
- 0:53discussed the inspiration behind Ona, the realities of building a
- 0:57biotech company from scratch, fundraising in today's market
- 1:01leadership and culture, and the future of biotech innovation in
- 1:04Europe. It's a pleasure to have you,
- 1:05Valerie. How are you?
- 1:07I'm good. Thank you so much for having me
- 1:09here. I'm excited.
- 1:10It's my first podcast ever, so I'm happy to we're.
- 1:13Just saying that it's honestly privilege to have you and an
- 1:16absolute privilege to have you on your first one as well, which
- 1:19is nice. I want to start with your
- 1:22background actually, Valerie. So before founding owner, you
- 1:26held a number of scientific and leadership roles across biotech.
- 1:30What ultimately inspired you to take the leap and and start your
- 1:34own company? That's a very good question.
- 1:37Probably I was a bit naive thinking it was going to be very
- 1:40easy, which it wasn't. But it's one of the nicest
- 1:44adventures and the most exciting things I have ever done.
- 1:47So why did it inspire me? I think it's first of all the
- 1:51project. I think you cannot dedicate your
- 1:54all your energy if you don't find a project that has really
- 1:57good science. So Onna was based on the idea of
- 2:01tackling really advanced cancer because many of the the
- 2:04medicines or drugs that are being developed are always
- 2:06focusing on early stage tumors. And we have learned that an
- 2:09advanced tumor, which is spreads is, is very different.
- 2:12And I thought it was really interesting to study the biology
- 2:15of advanced tumors. And I also saw it was a huge
- 2:18unmet need. So first of all, I just got
- 2:20involved in this project and it inspired me and I learnt a lot
- 2:25at Uplinks and and Splice by on, on how to manage teams and how
- 2:30to develop science. And I just wanted to do it my
- 2:32own way, learning from different companies, but putting a bit of
- 2:36my own vision into that. So I think that's why I started
- 2:40on, I had the opportunity. There was a great program and I
- 2:45just jumped into it. So that's how how it went, I
- 2:47guess. Yeah, I love that.
- 2:49And you know, building a company from scratch is never
- 2:53straightforward. You know, looking back over
- 2:56those last few years, what what have been some of the biggest
- 2:59challenges? Well, so I'm originally from
- 3:02Belgium and I moved here to Spain for personal reasons and I
- 3:07finally started this company here in Spain.
- 3:10So I think setting up a company is always difficult, but I had
- 3:14never done it before. So I would have helped if I
- 3:16would have done it before. And second of all, like there's
- 3:19a lot of really practical things that you don't know about,
- 3:22especially also in Spanish, like accountancy in Spanish, dealing
- 3:26with all the legal things in Spanish.
- 3:28That was that was a challenge. But at the end of the day, I
- 3:33guess it's a mindset. And I think as scientists we are
- 3:36learn to like this is the problem and we want to approach
- 3:40the problem. So I think you methodologically
- 3:42try to do the same thing as you do in a science experiment.
- 3:46And the key is, and I know this is cliche and everybody says
- 3:48that, but surround yourself with really good people.
- 3:51Because I, I knew very well, I had no idea to set up a company.
- 3:54I know very well how to develop drugs and to study oncology, but
- 3:58I had no idea to set up a company.
- 3:59So surrounding yourself with a great people helps a lot.
- 4:04Listening to them, learning, taking feedback was kind of the
- 4:07key, I think. I think just based on what you
- 4:11just said as well, like knowing your own weaknesses is, is a
- 4:14strength in its own right. You know, plugging that gap with
- 4:17the right person that that it's their strength is is super
- 4:20important. Yes, I find that something very
- 4:26important and very indulging when somebody says I don't know,
- 4:29but I will find it out. And I think this has been the
- 4:31future of leadership and the future of of a company culture
- 4:35that you let people be themselves.
- 4:38You see the strength, your weaknesses, that you also like
- 4:41put people in different positions and give people
- 4:43different responsibilities based on what they are good at and
- 4:45what they want to learn. So I found it very useful and a
- 4:50good way to move forward saying I don't know, but I will figure
- 4:52it out because selling bullshit is something that people smell
- 4:57very fast. So I think it's very important
- 4:59to be solid and to be acknowledging what you can and
- 5:02what you cannot do. I agree, I think it's a bad
- 5:04habit for for people to try and blag their way through those I
- 5:07don't know moments. You know, it's way better to say
- 5:11you don't. You just don't know.
- 5:13When you fundraise, that's really important because an
- 5:15investor is trained to smell if something is off.
- 5:19So always tell the truth. Always.
- 5:22It's really important. Always tell the truth and be
- 5:24humble and say, I don't know, we don't have this picture, but we
- 5:28will figure it out. And I think it's also always
- 5:31important to say, for example, if an investor asked you, do you
- 5:35have this data that you say, no, I don't have this data if that's
- 5:38the case, but that you also can argue why you think it's not
- 5:40important, or you can argue why it would be important.
- 5:43And to move forward. I also don't advocate to always
- 5:46say, yes, we'll figure it out. Sometimes you don't think it
- 5:49needs to be figured out, but the core is, is the same.
- 5:52Just be humble and be honest. I think it's very important.
- 5:55Nice. Yeah.
- 5:56And Speaking of that fundraise, you know you you recently
- 5:59announced the $86.6 million Series B, which congratulations
- 6:05on. Thank you.
- 6:07What what does that milestone mean for the company and what do
- 6:10you think ultimately gave investors the confidence to to
- 6:14back your mission? Yes.
- 6:17Well, I think it's the, the main transition we have spent a lot
- 6:20of time developing, designing the proper molecules for the
- 6:24proper indication. I think that's what's different
- 6:27at ONA, we spend a lot of time understanding the biology of
- 6:30this advanced cancers, really matching the right modality and
- 6:34the right, the right approach, the right mode of action based
- 6:37on the target, based on the indication.
- 6:39So we, we spent quite some time to find the proper molecule for
- 6:43the proper indication, have solid data, repeat many times
- 6:47very short before you move forward.
- 6:50And with this fundraise, now we can go to the clinic.
- 6:53So we are transforming to be a clinical company, which is super
- 6:56exciting. So elite come elite compound is
- 7:00soon to be in the clinic. I can give more information in a
- 7:03few months about it. But also a second asset is is
- 7:06now going to go and I in the enabling.
- 7:08So it's going to be a massive transformation for onna to
- 7:11become a clinical stage company while preserving the key
- 7:15expertise of the preclinical scientists.
- 7:17So we're still building a pipeline.
- 7:19We're still doing experiments using the same approach of
- 7:22studying advanced cancer and making the correct modality.
- 7:25So yeah, we're, we're transforming, but keeping the,
- 7:29the, the core preclinical team still very active doing the same
- 7:32thing. Yeah.
- 7:33Let's, let's talk about owner specifically in terms of like
- 7:36what you guys are doing, why you're different.
- 7:38You need like just what what makes the company and its
- 7:43approach to developing antibody therapies and AB CS different
- 7:45from the rest of the field. Yeah, and that's also a bit
- 7:49linked to the to the fundraise. So there are many ADC companies.
- 7:53You can say there's been a quite a hype of ADC's wealth goods.
- 7:58That is because ADC's, I think they are really transforming and
- 8:01they're doing great results. But there are a lot of companies
- 8:03working on ADC's. So it's not easy to, you know,
- 8:06be different to get attention of investors and their confidence.
- 8:10So what I think is very clear that we are different is that we
- 8:13are not experts in linker payloads.
- 8:15As you know, an ADC has a modality that targets an an
- 8:19tumor antigen and then it has a a cytotoxic payload with a
- 8:22linker. So a lot of people have been
- 8:24working on optimizing this linker and this payload, which
- 8:27is amazing. And I think that has shown very
- 8:31beneficial advances. For example, in her tool was
- 8:35another linker payload which makes a huge difference and
- 8:38people are still in doing that. So I really think it's
- 8:40interesting that people are doing that and it contributes a
- 8:43lot to the field. But this is not our expertise.
- 8:45We we license top notch linker payloads from companies who know
- 8:49really how to do it. We focus on the other part.
- 8:52So what we do, we try to find novel tumor antigens.
- 8:55So many of the ADC's are targeting the same targets like
- 8:58her two Throb 2 and so on. But these are very well known
- 9:03and a lot of companies are going against the same.
- 9:05And there's also a big population of patients who are
- 9:07not expressing these targets or who expressed it at a certain
- 9:10point, but not anymore. So what we did, we looked at
- 9:14biopsies of patients who had advanced cancer.
- 9:17So Spain is quite a unique ecosystem here because we have
- 9:21top notch hospitals like Valdebron and Hospital Clinic.
- 9:25And when they run clinical trials, they obtain sequential
- 9:28biopsies of patients. So a patient comes in, they take
- 9:32a biopsy to identify which tumor this patient has.
- 9:35Then this patient goes on treatment.
- 9:37But when this patient relapses to this treatment, they get
- 9:40another biopsy. And then a patient get another
- 9:42treatment and they get another biopsy.
- 9:44So we are very fortunate and it's quite unique in the world
- 9:46to have this sequential biopsies of a certain patient.
- 9:50So we can study how the tumor adapts to different types of
- 9:53treatments. And what we do, we try to find
- 9:56antigens targets in these biopsies that are up regulated
- 9:59as a tumor becomes more resistance with a belief if we
- 10:03then kill those cells over expressing these tumor antigens,
- 10:06we would get a deeper response and really make a difference in
- 10:09these advanced patients. We start in advanced patients.
- 10:12Of course, when we have good results, we can move up a few
- 10:14lines, but this is original, original vision.
- 10:18And like this, we identify novel targets that are linked to
- 10:21resistance. And to our knowledge nobody else
- 10:23has identified this targets and is making ADC's against this
- 10:27target. So with this, it's really novel
- 10:29targets. Yeah, I love that.
- 10:33And when you look at the future of owner, like ultimately where,
- 10:38where are you guys heading? Like what's the the end big
- 10:41goal? Well, it's, it sounds like
- 10:45cliche, but it's just to have the best possible treatment to
- 10:48help cancer patients. So that's the ultimate goal
- 10:51independent how we get there. The goal of our team is to help
- 10:55cancer patients to, to live longer, to cure them hopefully
- 11:00eventually, but that's the ultimate goal.
- 11:02How do we get there? Well, the future of Onna is
- 11:06whatever to get to that goal. So we want to grow.
- 11:10We want to have of course other programs which would be very
- 11:13interesting. But of course eventually we
- 11:16would be aiming to get some of the this assets license to
- 11:19bigger pharma because we cannot bring an, an, a drug, an ADC and
- 11:24a large indication like breast cancer of colon cancer to the
- 11:28market ourself. I think this will be very tough.
- 11:30So it would be or a licensing, an MNA, of course, it could be
- 11:35an IPO. This is maybe not our first
- 11:37option at the moment, but you never know how the climate
- 11:40change, how things changes. So whatever needs to be done to
- 11:43get this drug to the patients, that's the vision of honour.
- 11:47Amazing. And we talked about this a
- 11:49little bit before we started recording, but the origin of the
- 11:53name Owner Therapeutics, where did that come from?
- 11:56I always find this part fascinating.
- 11:59Exactly. Well, at the beginning we wanted
- 12:01to do something concerning the name of the target or so on.
- 12:04But then some, some investors actually were saying, yeah, the
- 12:08chance that you change targets along the way happens a lot.
- 12:11So you know, you have some some of these companies who are who
- 12:13are called something and then they change complete division,
- 12:16but the name is still reflecting that.
- 12:18And so we were thinking about a general name.
- 12:22So we told the lots and then we ended up with Ona.
- 12:26So Ona. So we are based, we are an
- 12:28international company. We have people working all over
- 12:30the world and we have many different nationalities.
- 12:33But our headquarters are in Barcelona.
- 12:35So there you already hear it, Barcelona.
- 12:37So the Ona Ona, that's already one link with it.
- 12:41The second link is so in Catalunya, one of the languages
- 12:44here is Catalan. And in Catalan Ona means wave
- 12:49like wave of innovation, but also close to the beach.
- 12:51So wave of innovation. I think that's really nice.
- 12:55So I just told you the official version.
- 12:57The non official version is when I was pregnant I had two names I
- 13:03for a boy who was going to be Oscar for a girl who was going
- 13:05to be Onna. And since I had a boy Oscar is
- 13:08my son. And then I decided to call my
- 13:11company Onna since I never had a daughter.
- 13:13So Onna is a bit my daughter I I would say.
- 13:15I really like it. I think it's one of the the best
- 13:18origin stories for a name that I've heard.
- 13:22I was actually amazed that the name was still free because I
- 13:26thought like Ona is such a nice name.
- 13:27It's a short name, a powerful name.
- 13:29I, I really liked it, but apparently it was free.
- 13:32No Ona Therapeutics before us in the world.
- 13:34So there's Ona labs. There are different types of
- 13:36Onas, but Ona Therapeutics not. So we're very happy with the
- 13:39name. Yeah, I really like it.
- 13:41I really like it. And we, we, in our first
- 13:45conversation, we talked a lot about culture, building culture
- 13:49as a, as a start up. And so, so as a founder and CEO,
- 13:54like, how do you think about leadership and creating the
- 13:57right environment for for people to succeed?
- 14:01Yeah, I think this is very important because we are asking
- 14:05A-Team to do very challenging work.
- 14:09Biotech life is a roller coaster.
- 14:12One day you're up, the other day you're down.
- 14:14And this happens like constantly, sometimes multiple
- 14:16times in a day. So it's very challenging.
- 14:18And you ask these people to work very hard with very tight
- 14:22deadlines. So culture is everything and
- 14:24everybody needs to be aligned with a goal and it needs to be a
- 14:28place you don't need to become each other best friends.
- 14:30But if you come to work and you're in a good environment and
- 14:33you feel that you can reach your own potential and do useful
- 14:36things and be acknowledged, the work will go so much better.
- 14:39And people are so much more motivate, motivated.
- 14:42So this is actually my second goal.
- 14:44So my first goal is trying to make a difference in cancer
- 14:46patients. But the second goal is somehow
- 14:50creating an amazing team. And also that these
- 14:52professionals can become the better self that one day when
- 14:57they leave ONA and they say I worked at ONA, that people say,
- 14:59OK, that means that you have been challenged and you had a
- 15:02good training. So, so you're really excellent
- 15:05in that. And how do you do that?
- 15:06I think it's challenging. I think we're all trying to do
- 15:09trial and error. I I'm a scientist by training.
- 15:12So I never got a lot of management trainings or MBAs.
- 15:15I think maybe one day I should do some to help me a bit more.
- 15:19It comes more about how I like to be, how I like managers to
- 15:22treat me. So I have been very fortunate to
- 15:24have a few managers in my life who have have treated me very
- 15:28well, who have coached me very well.
- 15:30So I want to do something similar for my team.
- 15:33And I think it's a matter of, you know, being empathic, saying
- 15:37that you don't know, asking for them help, letting them speak.
- 15:41And I think it's also showing vulnerability.
- 15:44I think the old school CE OS say you can never show vulnerability
- 15:49and you always have to say, you know the answer.
- 15:51I think it's OK to sometimes say that you're feeling vulnerable
- 15:54and you don't know what to do, not for a long time.
- 15:57But I think this makes people feel empathic because people
- 16:00feel the same way. So leading with empathy, I think
- 16:03it's very important and that's the culture I try to set.
- 16:07Yeah. How?
- 16:08How soon were you talking about distilling the culture in the
- 16:11company from from 2019 to now? Was it straight away or is it?
- 16:16Yeah. Sorry, it was actually, it's
- 16:19funny. So my I have a great COO,
- 16:22Marseille, who was one of the first employees and she is very
- 16:25analytical and very which which I love.
- 16:28We complement each other very well.
- 16:30But she's also empathic. And when I started here in in
- 16:33Spain, I said Merced. I want to have a company where
- 16:36nobody has any working hours. They can work whenever they want
- 16:40the the amount they want. They can have whatever holidays
- 16:42they want. I want something lean and mean.
- 16:45And she's like, Valerie, this is not going to work.
- 16:47There needs to be some boundaries, you know, get
- 16:49yourself back to earth. So but I said I also don't want
- 16:53to have like the traditional tyranny that sometimes happens.
- 16:56So she and me, we spoke a lot about this to make like a
- 17:00balance between how much you can give and company culture is very
- 17:03important. We spoke from the beginning, how
- 17:05do we communicate with each other and which tone.
- 17:08So we are really in direct communication, efficient but
- 17:12kind. So we are working on that and we
- 17:16we try to practice that every day.
- 17:18But again, there's days that it doesn't work and there's days
- 17:21that are harder than others. So this is the theory, but we
- 17:23try to adapt and also take feedback and work on it.
- 17:28Yeah, it's interesting. But there are definitely
- 17:30cultures like that out there in terms of this flexible working,
- 17:34No, not mapping hours like Netflix Prime example.
- 17:40I mean, Netflix talk about how you can achieve a culture like
- 17:44that. I don't know if you read into
- 17:46it, but they're they're famous culture deck and all of that,
- 17:49But they, they talk about radical candor, being able to
- 17:52bring the best people from the industry into their business.
- 17:55And you know, if you do those two parts right then and and set
- 18:00a standard where people don't take liberties, then, then that
- 18:04kind of culture does work very well.
- 18:08Yeah, I think it it depends on limits.
- 18:10So for example, we do have the culture here at ONA, like you
- 18:14can work whenever you want. So of course you have meetings,
- 18:17you need to be present on meetings.
- 18:18But if you work, especially for certain people's personal life,
- 18:22they prefer to work in the evening or in the morning.
- 18:24So this is a culture that we have at ONA.
- 18:25You can work whatever time you want as long as you have your
- 18:28key meetings. I wish also timing wise so
- 18:32people need to work a certain amount of hours per month but we
- 18:36are very flexible. If one day you only work a few
- 18:38hours, you balance it with the next hours and you don't even
- 18:40need to tell me. So these type of things I think
- 18:43do work the thing of the holidays that you have like
- 18:46limited holidays and you can take them whenever you want.
- 18:49I have read into that and it actually in many cultures.
- 18:52So I know Netflix says it's not the case, but in many companies
- 18:56the opposite happens. People almost don't take any
- 18:59holidays. And I, I think this is
- 19:01counterproductive. I really ask a lot to my team,
- 19:04but I also tell them please go on holidays, I will check my
- 19:07emails, please don't. I need you to rest because you
- 19:11will be so much fresher for that.
- 19:12So the holiday thing, I think it's a tricky 1 and I think it
- 19:17also depends which type of organization, which country
- 19:20you're based. So I think you need to I pick
- 19:22and choose a bit the things that I think work and the other ones
- 19:25that though. Yeah, Netflix talk about that a
- 19:28lot and they said they claim that because the CEO takes seven
- 19:33weeks of holiday a year and then the leaders below them take 6-7
- 19:36weeks of holiday, they lead by example and therefore people do
- 19:39take that holiday. But it doesn't work unless the
- 19:43leaders in the business are leading by example and really
- 19:46take it, which especially in the startup is quite often not the
- 19:49case. It's not possible in the
- 19:52startup. I wish I would have I.
- 19:53Don't want to ask how many holidays you use.
- 19:56Yeah. So one thing that that readers
- 20:01stand out about owner is you guys achieve a lot with a
- 20:06relatively lean team. How do you approach building the
- 20:09organization and deciding where to invest resources?
- 20:14That's a very good thing. I find it very important to not
- 20:18hire just to hire. I think it's very important that
- 20:20you find the correct person for the right position and the right
- 20:23structure. So we have decided to hire slow
- 20:27and fire fast, not that we fired a lot of people, but really
- 20:30think about the organization. So our vision is everything that
- 20:35can be done outsourced by somebody who knows it better at
- 20:38a decent price. We do outsourced everything that
- 20:41is specialized and only we can do, we do internal with the best
- 20:44possible people. So we are not being cheap on on
- 20:48on the resources of getting things outsourced.
- 20:50We use proper CR OS the same as many other companies.
- 20:54So the models, the manufacturing is the same, but we just have a
- 20:58smaller team to do things internally that are specialized
- 21:01people. So we managed to do that.
- 21:03And it's also a matter of prioritization what you do.
- 21:07So my team is very innovative and very creative.
- 21:10So they would like to run 10 programs at the same time.
- 21:13And my scientific heart says the same thing.
- 21:15But I games need to say, guys, we cannot do this all.
- 21:18We need to put this on hold and focus on that because I want to
- 21:21make sure that we have control over what we do.
- 21:24We are specialized. We're like a boutique of
- 21:26designing these molecules. So I believe you cannot do that
- 21:29with hundreds of people. I think needs to be a core team
- 21:32doing that and the rest be outsourced.
- 21:34Yeah, yeah, 100 percent, 100%. And we're going to completely
- 21:39change the topic now because I think it's important when you
- 21:43look at the the broader landscape, how, how do you view
- 21:46the future of biotech in Europe and also what, what excites you
- 21:51most about the opportunities ahead for owner?
- 21:54Yes, it's a very good question. I'm very proud to be based in
- 21:57Europe. I think I'm sometimes the
- 22:00exception. A lot of companies wish they
- 22:02would be in the US because indeed in the US there's a lot
- 22:05more access to capital. People are more entrepreneurial
- 22:08by by just by nature. I think people are also in the
- 22:13US less afraid to fail. There's a lot more culture there
- 22:16for startups. And on one hand, that's why I
- 22:20would like to be in the US to do that.
- 22:22But on the other hand, I believe that Europe has other great
- 22:26things that are less. For example, in the US we, we
- 22:30can, we have great clinical trials centers who run clinical
- 22:35trials. We have great scientists who,
- 22:38who actually cost a lot less. For example, scientists in, in
- 22:42Barcelona costs a lot less than scientists in Boston.
- 22:44And we and they're both equally happy with with the pay we we
- 22:47give them. So I think we can learn a lot
- 22:51from the US about their mentality.
- 22:52I think bit by bit this is changing.
- 22:55So there are examples now of bigger biotechs.
- 22:57We are being more proud about the European routes or trying to
- 23:00do more in Europe. I do still think it's
- 23:02challenging. I think some rules, for example,
- 23:05for clinical trials, there's the Biotech Act who's trying to
- 23:07accelerate approval of clinical trials, but this can still be an
- 23:12improved. I think sometimes the public
- 23:14money in Europe can be a little bit more entrepreneurial.
- 23:18They have a lot of rules to get this money that are almost not
- 23:21possible if you're an international company.
- 23:23So there's some things that can be approved, but I'm positive
- 23:26because I see more and more biotechs and, and Europe growing
- 23:30and, and doing well. So I'm, I'm very excited and
- 23:33same thing for OMA. So we are running our clinical
- 23:35trials in Europe and this is a conscious choice because we
- 23:39believe we can get a lot of traction here.
- 23:42The the sides are really eager to make a contribution.
- 23:46So I think this is great. Of course, doesn't mean that we
- 23:49will sometimes go to the US or have some team members in the
- 23:53US, but I think there is a future for biotech in Europe for
- 23:56sure. I agree.
- 23:58I think it's really exciting. I think there's definitely been
- 24:00an uprise as well, way more than there has been a bounce back in
- 24:04the US from from the last few years of downturn.
- 24:06So I think it's it's super exciting.
- 24:10Yeah. And you know, that brings me to
- 24:12to my final question, which is a question I ask every one of the
- 24:16guests on on the bio hub. If you could have dinner with
- 24:19any scientist or innovator, past or present, who would it be and
- 24:23why? That's a good question.
- 24:25I was thinking about it, but I'm actually very fortunate that I
- 24:28already had dinner with some of the best innovators that I
- 24:31admired. So for example, Tim von Howard
- 24:34Marin, who's this? He used to be the CEO of
- 24:36Argenix. He's just stepped down a while
- 24:38ago. I had dinner with him, lunch
- 24:41actually, and he was so, yeah, it was so interesting.
- 24:44And there are other was like Michelle Duter, who who was the
- 24:47CEO of Argenix, Argenix of Itos. I know him very well and I had
- 24:52multiple lunches with him. So I've actually been very
- 24:55fortunate to already meet many of these people in real life
- 24:59because I think this is also the mentality like you can just mail
- 25:03great e-mail, great CEOs or great innovators.
- 25:07And most of the time they actually e-mail you back, which
- 25:10I found surprisingly. Now you could say, OK, I race
- 25:12the Series B, maybe now they will to contact me.
- 25:15But when I was really starting up on and when I contacted this
- 25:18expert CE OS, they really reply you and they give you advice and
- 25:21they want to help you because they understand the spirits.
- 25:25So I would say I already had good dinners with, with great
- 25:29innovators. Maybe if I can put something on
- 25:31my wish list and it's not really a scientist, but I do believe
- 25:34it's an innovator, maybe it would be Barack Obama.
- 25:37I, I really admire his work. So not a scientist, but I do
- 25:40believe he's an innovator as well.
- 25:42Everything. That's a good answer.
- 25:44Yeah, really good. And look, thank you so much for
- 25:46coming on, Valerie. It's been a pleasure.
- 25:49Very nice. Thank you for having me.
- 25:50And it was a great first podcast, many to come,
- 25:54hopefully. Yes, for sure.
- 25:56We'll do a follow up definitely. And look, everyone please like
- 26:01and subscribe to the Bio Hub and and thank you so much again,
- 26:04Valerie. Thank you.
- 26:06Take care. Bye.
- 26:07Bye.