From Idea to Startup: Building a Successful Life Sciences Startup
How do scientists go from an interesting idea to actually building a biotech company?
Join the Rockefeller Biotech Club and Startup Venture Group for a fireside panel with Dylan Itzikowitz, Lou Paone, and Pete Galie on the earliest stages of biotech company building — from figuring out what to build, to turning scientific insight into a company, to assembling the team that can make it happen.
Dylan Itzikowitz is a Partner at South Park Commons, an early-stage founder community and investment platform focused on the “-1 to 0” stage — helping founders develop ideas, find conviction, and build companies before the traditional seed-stage process begins.
Lou Paone and Pete Galie are co-founders of Instant Bio, a Cornell Tech spinout backed by South Park Commons. Instant Bio is building predictive intelligence from vascularized organoid systems, using native perfusion to generate human biological data that can help reveal how drugs behave and which medicines are most likely to succeed in patients.
We’ll discuss:
• How scientists decide whether an idea is worth turning into a company
• What the “-1 to 0” stage actually looks like
• Moving from academic science to startup building
• How early-stage founders find product direction, funding, and the right team
• What investors and founder communities look for before a company is fully formed
• What it is really like to build an early-stage biotech in NYC
Instant Bio is also actively hiring PhD stem cell biologists and bioengineers in NYC. Lou and Pete are looking for scientists who want significant ownership, enjoy solving ambiguous problems, and are excited to grow into leadership roles while building a new biotech company.
This is a great opportunity for graduate students, postdocs, scientists, and aspiring founders interested in biotech, entrepreneurship, venture creation, drug discovery, organoids, and early-stage company building.
📍 Great Hall, Welch Hall — The Rockefeller University
🍴 Food and drinks will be provided.