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Erika Smith: CEO of ReNetX Bio · BioBoss

• 0:05
  Erika Smith: You know, I think in some ways I feel very much like a conductor.
• 0:10
  John Simboli: That's Erika Smith describing her role as chief executive officer at ReNetX Bio.
• 0:16
  John Simboli: Listen in now and hear Erika's vision for ReNetX.
• 0:20
  John Simboli: I'm John Simboli.
• 0:22
  John Simboli: You're listening to BioBoss.
• 0:25
  John Simboli: Today I'm speaking with Erika Smith, CEO at ReNetX.
• 0:29
  John Simboli: Erika, can you start with telling me, how did you find yourself here at ReNetX?
• 0:34
  Erika Smith: Well, I'll give you a little bit of my background.
• 0:37
  Erika Smith: I actually, previously, had been at Yale and had launched and run a number of life science investment funds for the university.
• 0:45
  Erika Smith: And prior to that I had really been mostly on the investor side of things.
• 0:48
  Erika Smith: So I've seen dozens and dozens of companies in my career and helped them and managed them and supported them.
• 0:55
  Erika Smith: And this company came across my desk from Yale, from a faculty member at the university and never in my career had I found something that was so exciting.
• 1:07
  Erika Smith: And I literally quit my day job having read about and learned about the science.
• 1:13
  Erika Smith: And so that's kind of how it came to be.
• 1:15
  Erika Smith: So it's, I've been in the company about a year and a half now.
• 1:18
  Erika Smith: You know, it's, it's funny how you have your career built over many, many years and it really does feel like the culmination of a lot of all the experiences kind of coming together to make this successful.
• 1:29
  John Simboli: So going way back in time, one of the questions I'm interested in is sort of the formative image somebody had of himself or herself early and whether that transfers.
• 1:39
  John Simboli: For a lot of people, they didn't become a fireman or a, a nurse or a princess.
• 1:44
  John Simboli: But do you remember way back to when you were maybe eight or nine or 10, what it was you thought you wanted to do?
• 1:53
  Erika Smith: You know, it's funny.
• 1:54
  Erika Smith: I don't know about eight or nine or 10, but I know kind of in my early teen years I really want to travel the world.
• 2:02
  Erika Smith: I wanted to be a translator.
• 2:03
  Erika Smith: I wanted to speak French and communicate.
• 2:06
  Erika Smith: And the sad part about that is I have no talent in that area.
• 2:11
  Erika Smith: So, philosophically, it's a very cool idea but if you talk to anyone, don't even try to tell it to me on that.
• 2:20
  Erika Smith: I think in some ways I've, I still am a translator.
• 2:23
  Erika Smith: I'm still a translator in regards to science and business.
• 2:29
  Erika Smith: I love science.
• 2:30
  Erika Smith: I've always loved science.
• 2:31
  Erika Smith: As I went to college, I studied biomedical and electrical engineering and I really felt that on my my epitaph, there's going to be Erika changed something in medicine.
• 2:44
  Erika Smith: I didn't know what it was.
• 2:47
  Erika Smith: I do feel like I've kind of continued down that path and that translation piece of being able to understand the science, but yet put the business needs behind it is, you know, really it is kind the piece that I accomplished, even though it's not French, so to speak.
• 3:04
  John Simboli: When I think of a translator, I think of someone, on one level, who takes something and moves it directly to something else.
• 3:11
  John Simboli: But I also think of the word interpreter, which is rather similar, and I'll bet part of what you do is interpreting.
• 3:17
  Erika Smith: Absolutely.
• 3:19
  Erika Smith: I mean you have the deep science, you've got all the, the molecular interactions, all of this sort of, the deep pieces.
• 3:28
  Erika Smith: And you do need to take that up to a level that lay people can understand.
• 3:32
  Erika Smith: And actually, one of the really interesting things about this company, and we didn't really talk about the, the nuance of it right yet, but we are working in the central nervous system.
• 3:42
  Erika Smith: We're actually, if we're successful, we'll be able to reverse spinal cord injury and we'll be able to provide function to people that haven't had that before.
• 3:52
  Erika Smith: So at the end of the day, the science is deep, there's so much there, but it's a very simple kind of concept that people can get.
• 4:00
  Erika Smith: And so that interpretation between the deep science but the outcome to individuals is really kind of the thing that resonated with me and resonates with many, many people that we speak to about our company and what we're working on.
• 4:15
  Erika Smith: You know, my default is as a scientist that kind of brought business on.
• 4:19
  Erika Smith: So I always kind of feel like there's always, you need to.
• 4:24
  Erika Smith: .
• 4:24
  Erika Smith: .
• 4:25
  Erika Smith: people that have deep science backgrounds have an ease, in my opinion, you know, those are the people that can best translate to the business.
• 4:33
  Erika Smith: Not to say there aren't unique individuals that just have business and are able to go backwards.
• 4:38
  Erika Smith: But I, I kind of take it from that perspective, is science, and moving it forward.
• 4:44
  John Simboli: How'd you decide you want it to lead a Biopharma company?
• 4:48
  Erika Smith: I have been spending the majority of my career in investments and I had a fund where Johnson and Johnson had put money in and we were putting capital into everything from biotherapeutics to healthcare I.T., Then at Yale, I launched and ran two investment funds for the university.
• 5:09
  Erika Smith: So, when you see a lot of different technologies and ideas, all very exciting where there's money that's been put behind it, you support it.
• 5:22
  Erika Smith: You're, you know, you're there.
• 5:24
  Erika Smith: But I think it's kind of like the concept of am I the the hammer or the egg?
• 5:32
  Erika Smith: When you're talking about are you really committed to doing this?
• 5:36
  Erika Smith: I never had really found a company and an opportunity that had the the potential that this one had and that my background and experience would be core and critical to making it happen.
• 5:48
  Erika Smith: And so, it was, in some ways, sort of the swan song of my career where it's all been additive.
• 5:56
  Erika Smith: And I, yeah, I feel very privileged, very lucky to be able to have sat at the university, have had the experience and the connections and then to be able to jump out and lead this organization.
• 6:10
  Erika Smith: Sort of as an aside, maybe I'll mention is an important part in my role previously and really throughout my career has also been to encourage women to be leaders in science, which is still sorely underrepresented in investment, sorely underrepresented in certainly has at a C-level, sorely underrepresented.
• 6:35
  Erika Smith: So, in some ways I, I certainly hope my role and my activity and actually going forward can potentially continue to change the world with different models.
• 6:48
  John Simboli: What were you hoping to achieve that you might not have been able to achieve if you'd chosen a different company?
• 6:53
  Erika Smith: It's actually sort of funny.
• 6:56
  Erika Smith: When I first connected with ReNetX and the science, again, I'll go back.
• 7:01
  Erika Smith: I'm a biomedical and electrical engineer and there's nothing more biomedical and electrical engineering then working in connections in the central nervous system.
• 7:13
  Erika Smith: It's the body's electrical system.
• 7:15
  Erika Smith: So way back, you know, 25 plus years ago that I studied the science, so to speak, it's very different.
• 7:23
  Erika Smith: I mean, it's not the same, but it's quite extraordinary to be working in a company that is, that's the core and critical piece of what we're trying to achieve
• 7:35
  John Simboli: For someone who's outside of the field who says,, Erika, what do you do.
• 7:38
  John Simboli: .
• 7:38
  John Simboli: .?
• 7:43
  Erika Smith: I kind of simplify it.
• 7:44
  Erika Smith: You know, I'm working with the technology that can make people walk again or, or have functionality where they've been paralyzed.
• 7:51
  Erika Smith: So people get that right away.
• 7:53
  Erika Smith: You know, we don't go into, you know, it's a biotechnology company doing all of these things.
• 8:00
  Erika Smith: I can certainly talk that talk, but I think at a very high level, people get that and people are excited about it.
• 8:08
  Erika Smith: They want to hear more.
• 8:09
  Erika Smith: And I think that's what we're doing as an organization is working in an area where there's people that are.
• 8:17
  Erika Smith: .
• 8:17
  Erika Smith: .
• 8:17
  Erika Smith: and very often when I say what I do, frequently, people will say, I know someone or my brother or my, you know, my neighbor.
• 8:28
  Erika Smith: .
• 8:28
  Erika Smith: .
• 8:28
  Erika Smith: I want to find out more about what you guys are doing.
• 8:31
  Erika Smith: And so it brings it really, really quickly to a personal connection many, many times for individuals.
• 8:39
  Erika Smith: And so that's rewarding because I know that we've connected both on the science and then the opportunity that we're developing as well.
• 8:47
  John Simboli: What can you say about being a leader and what you've found that works for you?
• 8:56
  John Simboli: What management style?
• 8:59
  John Simboli: Did you have one that you sort of anticipated you would have?
• 9:02
  John Simboli: And then one that you have had based on experience?
• 9:06
  Erika Smith: It's a really good question.
• 9:08
  Erika Smith: We're a relatively small team.
• 9:11
  Erika Smith: We're the five of us and we manage a lot of people.
• 9:15
  Erika Smith: It's like an orchestra that we are people that we manage externally because you don't have to necessarily have everybody within the organization to accomplish what you need to.
• 9:24
  Erika Smith: So for example, on the manufacturing side of things, we probably have dozens of people that work at a different facility for us.
• 9:31
  Erika Smith: On our bioanalytics, dozens.
• 9:33
  Erika Smith: So I think in some ways I feel very much like a conductor and being able to sort of like pull people forward that need a little bit more but I've got great individuals at the company.
• 9:49
  Erika Smith: I couldn't feel happier about the team that we have right now.
• 9:55
  Erika Smith: Everybody has such depth, such commitment to what we're working on.
• 10:02
  Erika Smith: They're more driven than I am.
• 10:03
  Erika Smith: They worry more than I am.
• 10:05
  Erika Smith: And so really, at the end of the day, I'm just as a supporting mechanism to make sure that they have what they need.
• 10:12
  Erika Smith: Sometimes I dig into the details because I, that's who I am, just to kind of pull pieces out, but at the end of the day, it's just making sure that you kind of keep all the plates in the air.
• 10:24
  Erika Smith: You keep people pulled in and are additive to the work that the individuals are doing in my organization to support the many, many, many, many people that are extended from the company.
• 10:39
  John Simboli: What's new at ReNetX?
• 10:40
  Erika Smith: So we are in the process, we're still a preclinical organization, but we're right on the cusp of working with the food and Drug Administration, the FDA, to be able to get approval for our program and our product to be able to test it in clinical trials.
• 10:57
  Erika Smith: So that's a huge inflection point from a company.
• 11:01
  Erika Smith: It takes the culmination of a career from Stephen Strittmatter, who's our technical founder.
• 11:07
  Erika Smith: And it actually makes it real.
• 11:09
  Erika Smith: It makes it something that has been tested many, many times in animals.
• 11:13
  Erika Smith: And now this is the big translation, is can we take what was done early and actually impact human life with our benefit?
• 11:26
  John Simboli: Do you feel the mixture of giddiness and excitement?
• 11:34
  Erika Smith: I hope I do.
• 11:35
  Erika Smith: I think right now it's just, there's so much you're so into the details of making sure that everything goes well, that everything that we need to have in place is there.
• 11:46
  Erika Smith: So maybe you can ask me once we get to that point, but right now it's literally just making sure that we're checking every box.
• 11:56
  Erika Smith: It's so important to have the right.
• 12:00
  Erika Smith: .
• 12:00
  Erika Smith: .
• 12:00
  Erika Smith: to have a safe product protocol.
• 12:04
  Erika Smith: It's critical that what we're doing for patients.
• 12:08
  Erika Smith: And so we're kind of really, really focused on making sure that we're doing everything correctly right now.
• 12:14
  Erika Smith: And then, hopefully, we get to the other side, we can talk about the giddiness of accomplishment.
• 12:22
  John Simboli: Right now it's focused on flawless.
• 12:24
  John Simboli: .
• 12:24
  John Simboli: .
• 12:24
  Erika Smith: Execution.
• 12:25
  Erika Smith: Absolutely.
• 12:26
  Erika Smith: Absolutely.
• 12:30
  John Simboli: Who is ReNetX?
• 12:30
  Erika Smith: So we say we're a privately held organization that's located in new haven, Connecticut, spun out from Yale University's research.
• 12:38
  Erika Smith: So yeah, that's kind of what we do.
• 12:40
  Erika Smith: And as I said at the higher level, the lower level, but the point is where we are reversing injury in the central nervous system.
• 12:49
  Erika Smith: So brain, spinal cord, where, really, there is no treatment today.
• 12:56
  Erika Smith: The science has shown, and this is kind of been well established for many years, is if you have a brain injury or you're in a car accident and damage your spinal cord, there's no, there's no coming back from that.
• 13:10
  Erika Smith: The damage is permanent.
• 13:12
  Erika Smith: That's been well understood for many, many years.
• 13:14
  Erika Smith: If you cut yourself, you cut your hand, you cut your leg, there can be regeneration, but there is no regeneration in the central nervous system.
• 13:22
  Erika Smith: The technology that we're working with has the ability to create regeneration, recreate connections that haven't been established to date.
• 13:30
  Erika Smith: And so it is a, a very, very big picture of what we're doing.
• 13:36
  Erika Smith: And if we are successful, will be the first time that there's ever been sort of a reconnection after disease or damage in those systems.
• 13:44
  Erika Smith: So, huge unmet need and that's the sort of the big picture of what we're working on, what the opportunity is.
• 13:55
  John Simboli: Near the beginning.
• 13:56
  John Simboli: I think you said something like you hope that some day people would say of that eight or nine year old, oh yeah, Erika is someone who changed things and changed life.
• 14:05
  John Simboli: That, would change things.
• 14:06
  Erika Smith: Absolutely.
• 14:07
  Erika Smith: This is this, this is not the.
• 14:09
  Erika Smith: .
• 14:09
  Erika Smith: .
• 14:09
  Erika Smith: so I was on a panel at one point and they said we're doing some disease-supporting therapy, so not changing.
• 14:19
  Erika Smith: And I'm like, that's great.
• 14:20
  Erika Smith: I mean people need to work on, all parts of the spectrum for therapeutics, but I'm like, this is disease modifying therapy for central nervous system disease and damage.
• 14:33
  Erika Smith: That's a swing for the fences.
• 14:35
  Erika Smith: This is not a small incremental step.
• 14:37
  Erika Smith: If we are successful, this will be absolutely.
• 14:40
  Erika Smith: .
• 14:40
  Erika Smith: .
• 14:40
  Erika Smith: it's something that's never been accomplished.
• 14:42
  Erika Smith: So the bar is very, very, very high.
• 14:43
  Erika Smith: But if we're able to be successful, it will be something that has never been done before, without question.
• 14:50
  Erika Smith: So, you know, you can't ask for anything more than that.
• 14:58
  John Simboli: If I can picture someone who's so severely debilitated, they hardly exist and then potentially, someday, they could be.
• 15:13
  John Simboli: .
• 15:13
  John Simboli: .
• 15:15
  Erika Smith: What our hope and our goal is, and in our trials, we are trying to create functionality where people who have specifically, in the first trial that we're working on, is in spinal cord injury.
• 15:30
  Erika Smith: So people that have been paralyzed that, after about a year of having injury, there's basically a flat line.
• 15:37
  Erika Smith: There's no improvement that patients will see because there's no regeneration.
• 15:42
  Erika Smith: There's no regrowth.
• 15:43
  Erika Smith: It is what it is.
• 15:44
  Erika Smith: And so what we foresee if we're successful in what we've seen on animal studies is that functionality, for the very first time, will be able to be accomplished.
• 15:55
  Erika Smith: And if you can extrapolate what we've been able to see and in rat studies, early on, and we've had some nonhuman primate studies as well, is that nearly a third of rats that were treated with our technology, regained weight bearing.
• 16:13
  Erika Smith: So in other words, they were not able to walk on their hind limbs, and a third of them, after therapy, were able to— even after what is defined as a chronic time point, so where they've been damaged and there's no continued improvement—even after that.
• 16:31
  Erika Smith: So, it's a high bar that we want to accomplish, but we have models to show that we can accomplish that.
• 16:41
  Erika Smith: And that's what we're aiming towards.
• 16:47
  John Simboli: When you tell a story that you've just been telling to me about what ReNetX is and what you're trying to accomplish, I imagine sometimes you hear the playback from them and you say, they got it.
• 16:59
  John Simboli: And I'm sure that feels good.
• 17:00
  John Simboli: And then sometimes you hear them saying something to you and you probably think, they didn't get it.
• 17:04
  John Simboli: So when you tell the story and people don't understand, what kinds of things do they not understand?
• 17:12
  Erika Smith: There's people that are working in this area, or in general in this area.
• 17:17
  Erika Smith: So probably the most common question I get is the stem cells.
• 17:20
  Erika Smith: It is not.
• 17:22
  Erika Smith: It's a biologic.
• 17:23
  Erika Smith: But that's typically what people think about.
• 17:26
  Erika Smith: And the interesting thing that our molecule is, is actually.
• 17:32
  Erika Smith: .
• 17:32
  Erika Smith: .
• 17:32
  Erika Smith: there's inhibitors that exist in the central nervous system that, that basically are there, that when you have damage, there's no regeneration.,They're there, sort of as an adult protective mechanism.
• 17:45
  Erika Smith: What our technology is actually doing is removing these inhibitors and letting the body regenerate naturally.
• 17:52
  Erika Smith: So it's a small but very, very important differentiator from other kinds of technologies that are out there.
• 18:01
  Erika Smith: For people that understand cancer and oncology, what has happened in a lot of therapies is you use the body's own immune system to fight the cancer.
• 18:12
  Erika Smith: That's kind of been the therapies.
• 18:15
  Erika Smith: There's a lot of interest.
• 18:16
  Erika Smith: It's a lot of success that's been happening and very much along those lines is using the body's own abilities.
• 18:23
  Erika Smith: That's what we intend to do in the central nervous system for the very first time.
• 18:27
  Erika Smith: Let the body actually regenerate by removing these stopping mechanisms and let the protection happen internally.
• 18:39
  John Simboli: This is a little bit about partnerships that you're talking about before about being a conductor.
• 18:43
  John Simboli: The conductor has lots of partners to work with the horn section, and all.
• 18:48
  John Simboli: So let's look at it a couple of different ways.
• 18:50
  John Simboli: What kinds of partners do you find, make a good fit to the company?
• 18:58
  Erika Smith: Although we're a small company, we don't think small.
• 19:02
  Erika Smith: We have the very top talent that we've engaged in outsourcing the pieces that we need to put into place.
• 19:12
  Erika Smith: That an important part, is being able to have that extension of ourselves be in a very, very top tier of individuals.
• 19:22
  Erika Smith: And so that's what we look at.
• 19:23
  Erika Smith: And I think, actually, a lot of my role coming into the company is, has been about filtering and interviewing and making sure that we have the right people around us.
• 19:35
  Erika Smith: You sometimes can start down a direction and as you learn more about those individuals or those groups, not that there's anything wrong with them, but they're not the right fit for us.
• 19:43
  Erika Smith: And so, I think probably over the last year and a half, we have the absolute superstars in our back pocket, be it individuals or be it large organizations.
• 19:55
  Erika Smith: And I absolutely feel 100% confident about that.
• 20:00
  Erika Smith: And that's, that's what our job is, is to bring those individuals our team and extend from there.
• 20:08
  John Simboli: A couple of years from now you're hiring 200 people and they're saying, Gee, I wonder if I'd be a good fit?
• 20:15
  John Simboli: Trying to look down the road, what kind of people would thrive working here with you?
• 20:25
  Erika Smith: There's so much ups and downs in a small company.
• 20:28
  Erika Smith: Maybe when I have 200, I'll be at a different place.
• 20:32
  Erika Smith: But you've got to be willing to ride the rollercoaster in biotechnology, as a whole.
• 20:37
  Erika Smith: You have to be comfortable with ambiguity and the ability to, to run it a million different ways and have things that you lined up not necessarily always work as expected.
• 20:48
  Erika Smith: But I also think you have to be committed to the bigger picture.
• 21:00
  Erika Smith: There's a lot of other easier jobs to do.
• 21:02
  Erika Smith: Tons and tons and tons that are more predictable and all of that.
• 21:07
  Erika Smith: So there has to be a bigger vision of why people are connecting and working on this.
• 21:12
  Erika Smith: And you know, those are the people that ideally you would recruit, that you would be part of that really are inspired with the work that we're doing, that you're not punching a clock, you know, that you're just driving and you're making everything happen.
• 21:30
  Erika Smith: And then I guess sort of top of that, people that are in the details, thinking a couple steps ahead, where could we go off the tracks?
• 21:42
  Erika Smith: That's the way companies are going to be successful.
• 21:44
  Erika Smith: Any company.
• 21:45
  Erika Smith: And I feel that very, very specifically here and maybe that's the engineer in me coming out because you know, getting into those details is how we're going to be successful, is not taking anything for granted and making sure that we're thinking about all the specifics as well.
• 22:02
  John Simboli: When you allow yourself to picture success, and I know you're not eager to do that until the company is successful, but not in terms of money and in terms of fame that in terms of any of those things, but in terms of the good you might do, what do you allow yourself to think of?
• 22:18
  John Simboli: Like, this could really change things.
• 22:21
  Erika Smith: For me, and this is the reason I'm in the company, this technology and this opportunity could be the very first time that you can actually address and reverse damage in the brain and then the spinal cord.
• 22:35
  Erika Smith: So this is a very, very big picture of what we can achieve.
• 22:41
  Erika Smith: These are, think about stroke, think about people in car accidents, think about any kind of damage in those systems.
• 22:49
  Erika Smith: And this will be the very first technology that has the potential to reverse those sorts of conditions.
• 22:55
  Erika Smith: So it's big, big vision.
• 22:58
  Erika Smith: And that's what I would hope we achieve through our trials going forward.
• 23:06
  John Simboli: Why did ReNetX choose to be in New Haven?
• 23:11
  Erika Smith: Our faculty founder is still a university professor at Yale, so it makes it easy.
• 23:20
  Erika Smith: I'm relatively new to Connecticut.
• 23:23
  Erika Smith: I've lived here six years now.
• 23:26
  Erika Smith: I had, since moving here, had been commuting up from Westport to Yale for four or five years in my previous role.
• 23:35
  Erika Smith: I love New Haven.
• 23:37
  Erika Smith: And so from my perspective is I, number one, this is the place to be.
• 23:42
  Erika Smith: This is where biotechnology is.
• 23:44
  Erika Smith: I have colleagues, I have connections.
• 23:46
  Erika Smith: There was just really no question about us being in New Haven.
• 23:49
  John Simboli: Do you think about your work in terms of New Haven, Connecticut, the corridor from Boston to New York, the whole nation, the world?
• 24:14
  Erika Smith: We'll start with Connecticut.
• 24:15
  Erika Smith: I mean, Connecticut is not a very, it sort of goes without saying, but it's not a very big state.
• 24:20
  Erika Smith: So when I first moved here, I felt like I kind of within six months felt like I had a pretty good handle on most of the movers and the shakers that were in the biotech community.
• 24:30
  Erika Smith: And, and I still feel that way.
• 24:31
  Erika Smith: I feel like we're a small community.
• 24:33
  Erika Smith: We can get to know each other on a very personal level.
• 24:35
  Erika Smith: Hugely important when we're, when you're recruiting or you're looking for funding, I feel like there's just this foundation of support that exists.
• 24:44
  Erika Smith: So I think Connecticut plays a very, very important role in those connections.
• 24:49
  Erika Smith: But I don't also, I, I've lived so many places in my life.
• 24:52
  Erika Smith: I don't see myself just as a Connecticut person because I do recognize the importance of connections up to Boston and down to New York.
• 25:01
  Erika Smith: And I spent a lot of time in both, as well as on the west coast.
• 25:05
  Erika Smith: It's funny, I grew up in the midwest and so I've been out there talk to sort of technologies and they really have a more of a challenge of getting connected to capital.
• 25:20
  Erika Smith: And it's changing, but when we look at ourselves, we're really, we really are a corridor.
• 25:26
  Erika Smith: I mean it's, we couldn't be in a better part of the country.
• 25:31
  Erika Smith: And so I feel very lucky that we have that extended community up and down from where we are.
• 25:39
  Erika Smith: And it makes it easy to recruit, fundraise, and to do all the things that you need to do as a startup company.
• 25:51
  John Simboli: I know you touched on this, but I'll just ask it directly.
• 25:54
  John Simboli: Is it possible to have access to capital when you're not in New York, are not in Toronto or not in Hong Kong?
• 26:01
  Erika Smith: Yeah.
• 26:02
  Erika Smith: I mean, absolutely.
• 26:03
  Erika Smith: You've just got to have good science, at the end of the day.
• 26:05
  Erika Smith: It can be wherever.
• 26:07
  Erika Smith: But I think that the access sitting here to go to Boston and down in New York and within the state itself is, there's no excuse that you can't raise money here.
• 26:21
  Erika Smith: I mean, I think you just have to have the right pieces in the right story.
• 26:26
  John Simboli: How do we communicate that there are multiple centers of research and science in our state?
• 26:33
  Erika Smith: I think Farmington and the work that's going on up at UCONN is amazing.
• 26:39
  Erika Smith: The way I think about Yale is, certainly you've got to leverage it, to the extent that it has been.
• 26:45
  Erika Smith: It's a centralizing point.
• 26:47
  Erika Smith: It can bring people from all over the world to Connecticut to sort of see research and, without question, there's other amazing things that are going on as well.
• 26:58
  Erika Smith: So it is really just trying to make sure that we can pull together and speak with a common voice for the community as a whole.
• 27:05
  Erika Smith: I think we'll certainly be stronger for that.
• 27:08
  Erika Smith: I definitely think having connections and having a point of ways to bring things together is very important.
• 27:17
  Erika Smith: BioCT, for example, at Bio, the large organization, had a really, really wonderful pavilion last year.
• 27:25
  Erika Smith: I've seen it grow up from basically very little early, early days, just over the last few years to a very substantial exhibit.
• 27:37
  Erika Smith: I think we're getting there.
• 27:38
  Erika Smith: It takes time.
• 27:39
  Erika Smith: It takes leadership to make all that happen.
• 27:43
  Erika Smith: You know, Connecticut innovations is a supporter.
• 27:46
  Erika Smith: They closed.
• 27:47
  Erika Smith: .
• 27:47
  Erika Smith: .
• 27:47
  Erika Smith: and, they sit on our board, have been a supporter of the company from its early days, way before me.
• 27:54
  Erika Smith: And you know, without that foundation, this company and the technology that we're working on would not exist.
• 28:00
  Erika Smith: So they have been unbelievably valuable as a supporter, as an asset to bringing what we have forward on, not just on the funding side, but also on the leadership and everything else.
• 28:15
  Erika Smith: Dave Wurzer sits on our board and I could not speak more highly of an individual that is committed and really goes beyond the day job, so to speak, to make things happen.
• 28:29
  Erika Smith: We're very lucky to have that organization within Connecticut and supporting our community as a whole,
• 28:38
  John Simboli: What role does Women in Bio play in making things happen here?
• 28:42
  Erika Smith: Having avenues to encourage diversity in science and in leadership is, is really important.
• 28:50
  Erika Smith: Women in Bio is one key area, but kind of holistically, I'm whatever.
• 28:58
  Erika Smith: .
• 28:58
  Erika Smith: .
• 28:58
  Erika Smith: be it biotechnology, be it investment, be at anything, you know, anything that we can kind of get the word out and additional support.
• 29:08
  Erika Smith: I was actually selected to write a book for JP Morgan about encouraging women and diversity for accelerators that entrepreneurship centers.
• 29:18
  Erika Smith: And so, you know, it doesn't live just in one area.
• 29:21
  Erika Smith: Anything that we can do to expand that is incredibly important.
• 29:28
  Erika Smith: That's a side job.
• 29:30
  Erika Smith: It's not my day job, but it's absolutely critical.
• 29:34
  Erika Smith: It's something that I live and breathe is to making sure that we have more diversity kind of across the board.
• 29:43
  Erika Smith: So organizations that do that, I'm very supportive of and definitely want to continue to do what I can to make it happen.
• 29:54
  John Simboli: One of the good things about being in Connecticut is not only can we attract top talent but we can retain retain that talent.
• 30:00
  Erika Smith: Absolutely.
• 30:01
  Erika Smith: I mean our team is together because there is interest in staying in Connecticut and it is an important part.
• 30:10
  Erika Smith: At the end of the day, listen, we're not going to be able to compete with Boston.
• 30:14
  Erika Smith: If people want to go, they're going to go.
• 30:15
  Erika Smith: But if people want to have the quality of life and they have kids in school, they've set down roots here.
• 30:24
  Erika Smith: They don't want to go other places.
• 30:26
  Erika Smith: It puts us in a huge advantage, in some ways, to be able to attract them.
• 30:32
  Erika Smith: And, in fact, I feel that's part of the reason that we've been able to hire the quality of individuals that we have, that have 30-plus years of experiences.
• 30:41
  Erika Smith: Because they want to stay here and they don't want to commute and they don't want to drive two hours.
• 30:48
  Erika Smith: Not that there's anything wrong with other parts of the country, but it is a huge advantage.
• 30:56
  Erika Smith: I think the piece that people say quite frequently is we just need to have enough of a group of companies that if one doesn't work out there's some other place that they could default to.
• 31:09
  Erika Smith: In Boston, you can walk down the street and you've got another job offer.
• 31:15
  Erika Smith: So I think that having additional successful organizations that come out of this community will help us, in the long run, to continue to recruit and certainly retain the talent.
• 31:31
  John Simboli: Thank you for talking to me today, Erika.