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Biotech Possibilities Draw Top Talent from Coasts
Rachel Melcer
Of The Post-Dispatch
St. Louis hopes to build on the growing pool of transplanted
executives -- serial entrepreneurs who get businesses off the ground
and then move on -- drawn to the area by the culture, the lower cost
of living and the budding urban renewal.
One by one, successful biotech entrepreneurs from the
coasts are moving to St. Louis, lured by a honey of a deal here or a
sweet bit of technology there. And the buzz is beginning to build.
They carry the business sense and experience that could
pollinate St. Louis startups and help them to grow, say investors and
biotech boosters. They have been there, done that in New York and San
Diego, San Francisco and Boston. And they hope to do it again -- here.
"It's a very supportive environment," said Laurent Fischer,
president and chief executive of Auxeris Therapeutics Inc., which last
week moved into the Center for Emerging Technologies incubator. "But
(St. Louis) needs to be better known. It's starting to happen."
Fischer, who is house-hunting in the Central West End
and other areas, recently helped to launch San Diego-based Medvantx
Inc. Before that, he was president of RXCentric.com Inc. in New York.
He is what most startups and investors want: a serial
entrepreneur who knows how to get a business off the ground and then
move on.
The St. Louis Regional Chamber & Growth Association
hopes to find more like him on a recruiting trip to California in the
spring. It will take entrepreneurs on tour to tout this area and its
biotech potential, said Ri chard Fleming, RCGA president and chief executive.
"Increasingly, economic development is not just about
recruiting companies, but about recruiting talent," he said. "There's
an analogy to the sports world: When you're building a team, you do
that through a combination of talent coming up through your farm system,
as well as recruiting free agents from other teams who have already
established their careers."
The RCGA hopes to build on the growing, but still small,
pool of transplanted executives who said they were drawn to St. Louis
by the culture, lower cost of living and budding urban renewal that
remind them of their former Boston and Bay Area homes, 20 or 30 years
ago.
"There's a lot of money; there's a lot of technology.
But it's very conservative," said Ben Brink, chief executive of APMaterials,
a startup in the CET. A St. Louis native, he had been living the high-tech
life in San Francisco but returned about a year ago for the quality
of life and burgeoning entrepreneurial opportunities.
"There are a lot of me in the Bay Area, (but) there aren't
a lot of people in St. Louis yet who have the kind of experience that
I do," he said.
That's a problem for venture-capital investors, who are
enticed by local opportunities but want to make sure their millions
are in good hands. So they, too, are taking action.
"Most of the pieces are here for staffing out an organization
from the science side. . . . But what has been missing is senior entrepreneurial
leadership," said Mark Mendel, managing director of Clayton-based RiverVest
Venture Partners.
RiverVest, along with Domain Associates LLC of Princeton,
N.J., invested $2.5 million in Auxeris last fall. Then the Clayton firm
recruited Fischer from among candidates from all over the country, Mendel
said.
Leaders at CET and the area's other biotech incubator,
the Nidus Center for Scientific Enterprise, say they are encouraged
by the incoming talent at companies such as Kereos and Nudisco, MicroSense
and Stereotaxis. They can fill gaps while home-grown entrepreneurs get
going and provide advice along the way.
Marcia Mellitz, president of the CET, said: "These (early-stage)
companies have often been created by a scientist or an engineer who's
a great creative person but may not be the best business person."
And while St. Louis is rich in people with corporate
experience from careers with Monsanto, Boeing and the like, many lack
entrepreneurial skills.
To run a startup, "You need a technology background and
a business background," Brink said. "You need to be a generalist, comfortable
running all aspects of a little company, because you don't have a lot
of help. . . . You need a good understanding of your strengths and weaknesses
and must be willing to hire somebody who's smarter than you. (And) you
need to have a strong tolerance for stomach acid."
Entrepreneurs know that not every startup will succeed,
but that alone doesn't dissuade them, said Bob Calcaterra, Nidus Center
president. They will come if their failures will be regarded as learning
experiences along with their successes - and if there are other opportunities
available.
"That's the concern. It's, 'Gee, what if I come here
and this thing tanks? If I uproot my family and come here, what are
the chances that I'll find something else quickly?'" Calcaterra said.
"And that's a legitimate concern, because we don't (yet) have that critical
mass where they can just walk down the street and find another job."
Brink, who plans to participate in the RCGA recruiting
tour, shares these concerns but is hopeful.
"To move people from an entrepreneurial area to a non-entrepreneurial
area, they need to know that they've got a real opportunity to get a
company to run," he said. "People who run companies aren't very good
at waiting around and wearing holes in the carpet."
Published in the Business section of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on
February 11, 2003.
Copyright (C)2003, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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