The Biotech Startups Podcast 🧬 Stephanie Sirota - RTW Investments - Part 2 | Understanding Investment Banking’s Role in the Biosciences | Finding the Benefits of Your Uniqueness | Unexpected Pivots & Finding Passion in Your Work | Advice on Dealing with Bear Markets
Jan 17, 2024
32:42
Part 2 of 3.
My guest for this week’s episode is Stephanie Sirota, Partner, and Chief Business Officer at RTW Investments, a full lifecycle life sciences investment firm dedicated to solving the most challenging unmet patient needs. Stephanie is a seasoned expert and leader in business development, strategic partnerships, communications, and investor relations. Prior to joining RTW, she was a director at Valhalla Capital Advisors. She worked in the New York and London offices of Lehman Brothers, where she advised on various mergers and acquisitions, IPOs, and capital market financing transactions for the firm's global corporate clients. Her deep insights into investment banking, strategic partnerships, and business development, offer founders many lessons.
Join us as we sit down with Stephanie as she discusses her career journey from investment banking to the buy side, leveraging her journalism background to highlight her unique skills. She also discusses her time at Lehman Brothers and her transition to Valhalla Capital. Steph also talks about her unexpected passion for biotech and her belief in the sector's fundamental importance to the future. She shares the importance of staying proactive, avoiding complacency, and embracing new opportunities while highlighting how to view your uniqueness as an asset and how your distinct point of view is a benefit to your team. Please enjoy my conversation with Stephanie Sirota.
Find Our Guest, Stephanie Sirota, at these links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephsirota/
http://www.rtwfunds.com
Find Our Host, Jon Chee, at these links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonchee
https://www.excedr.com
Timestamps:
00:28 Intro
01:27 Episode starts, how the opportunity at London Lehman Brothers came about
04:39 What is investment banking, and how it differs from the buy side
07:06 Experiences at Lehman Brothers, hard truths, and dealing with constructive criticism
09:46 How a rude awakening as a junior banker led to a senior banker position, pivoting back to New York, starting all over again
11:56 Moving to the buy side at a new company, “institutionalizing” processes and building a team dynamic amongst individual contributors
15:44 Using your uniqueness to your advantage, the benefits of being an unconventional thinker in your specific field
19:27 Moving on from Valhalla, dealing with a global financial crisis, and shifting to science with RTW
23:16 Evaluating the science sector from a business perspective, why it is the most important sector going into the future
26:20 Takeaways from volatile markets and the cycles of bioscience, post-global finance crisis
28:37 Advice on how to survive a bear market, being confident in what you are investing in
31:36 Outro
Social & Website
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@excedr
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/excedr_inc
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExcedrInc
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/excedr
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@excedr
Podcast Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/
As a podcast listener, you can redeem exclusive discounts with a growing list of biotech vendors and get $500 off your first equipment lease by using promo code “TBSP” on excedr.com/rewards.
Enriched Notes:
Topics Mentioned:
Top VC Firms for Biotechs https://www.excedr.com/blog/top-vc-firms-for-biotech
VC Term Sheets https://www.excedr.com/resources/venture-capital-term-sheets
VC Term Sheet Clauses: A Glossary of Key Terms https://www.excedr.com/resources/vc-term-sheet-clauses-and-terms
What are Your Funding Options https://www.excedr.com/resources/biotech-startup-funding-options
Getting Funding for Lab Research https://www.excedr.com/blog/how-to-get-funding-for-lab-research
Top Biotech Seed and Angel Investors 2024 https://www.excedr.com/blog/biotech-seed-and-angel-investors
What Type of Equipment You Need for Molecular Biology Lab https://www.excedr.com/blog/what-type-of-equipment-is-used-in-molecular-biology-research
What is Molecular Biology https://www.excedr.com/blog/what-is-molecular-biology
Legacy (All Blacks) (Book) - https://a.co/d/gwBezDW
Operating Expenses 101 - https://www.excedr.com/blog/what-is-opex
People Mentioned:
Rod Wong https://www.linkedin.com/in/roderick-wong-543aa64/
Bryan Fiedler https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-fiedler-525485164/
My guest for this week’s episode is Stephanie Sirota, Partner, and Chief Business Officer at RTW Investments, a full lifecycle life sciences investment firm dedicated to solving the most challenging unmet patient needs. Stephanie is a seasoned expert and leader in business development, strategic partnerships, communications, and investor relations. Prior to joining RTW, she was a director at Valhalla Capital Advisors. She worked in the New York and London offices of Lehman Brothers, where she advised on various mergers and acquisitions, IPOs, and capital market financing transactions for the firm's global corporate clients. Her deep insights into investment banking, strategic partnerships, and business development, offer founders many lessons.
Join us as we sit down with Stephanie as she discusses her career journey from investment banking to the buy side, leveraging her journalism background to highlight her unique skills. She also discusses her time at Lehman Brothers and her transition to Valhalla Capital. Steph also talks about her unexpected passion for biotech and her belief in the sector's fundamental importance to the future. She shares the importance of staying proactive, avoiding complacency, and embracing new opportunities while highlighting how to view your uniqueness as an asset and how your distinct point of view is a benefit to your team. Please enjoy my conversation with Stephanie Sirota.
Find Our Guest, Stephanie Sirota, at these links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephsirota/
http://www.rtwfunds.com
Find Our Host, Jon Chee, at these links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonchee
https://www.excedr.com
Timestamps:
00:28 Intro
01:27 Episode starts, how the opportunity at London Lehman Brothers came about
04:39 What is investment banking, and how it differs from the buy side
07:06 Experiences at Lehman Brothers, hard truths, and dealing with constructive criticism
09:46 How a rude awakening as a junior banker led to a senior banker position, pivoting back to New York, starting all over again
11:56 Moving to the buy side at a new company, “institutionalizing” processes and building a team dynamic amongst individual contributors
15:44 Using your uniqueness to your advantage, the benefits of being an unconventional thinker in your specific field
19:27 Moving on from Valhalla, dealing with a global financial crisis, and shifting to science with RTW
23:16 Evaluating the science sector from a business perspective, why it is the most important sector going into the future
26:20 Takeaways from volatile markets and the cycles of bioscience, post-global finance crisis
28:37 Advice on how to survive a bear market, being confident in what you are investing in
31:36 Outro
Social & Website
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@excedr
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/excedr_inc
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExcedrInc
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/excedr
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@excedr
Podcast Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/
As a podcast listener, you can redeem exclusive discounts with a growing list of biotech vendors and get $500 off your first equipment lease by using promo code “TBSP” on excedr.com/rewards.
Enriched Notes:
Topics Mentioned:
Top VC Firms for Biotechs https://www.excedr.com/blog/top-vc-firms-for-biotech
VC Term Sheets https://www.excedr.com/resources/venture-capital-term-sheets
VC Term Sheet Clauses: A Glossary of Key Terms https://www.excedr.com/resources/vc-term-sheet-clauses-and-terms
What are Your Funding Options https://www.excedr.com/resources/biotech-startup-funding-options
Getting Funding for Lab Research https://www.excedr.com/blog/how-to-get-funding-for-lab-research
Top Biotech Seed and Angel Investors 2024 https://www.excedr.com/blog/biotech-seed-and-angel-investors
What Type of Equipment You Need for Molecular Biology Lab https://www.excedr.com/blog/what-type-of-equipment-is-used-in-molecular-biology-research
What is Molecular Biology https://www.excedr.com/blog/what-is-molecular-biology
Legacy (All Blacks) (Book) - https://a.co/d/gwBezDW
Operating Expenses 101 - https://www.excedr.com/blog/what-is-opex
People Mentioned:
Rod Wong https://www.linkedin.com/in/roderick-wong-543aa64/
Bryan Fiedler https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-fiedler-525485164/
The Biotech Startups Podcast gives you a front-row seat to the business and science of building a biotech. Hosted by Jon Chee, CEO of Excedr, the show features honest conversations with founders, execs, and investors about their work, their companies, and how they got there. From scientific breakthroughs to startup lessons, each episode explores what it really takes to grow a life science company—from pre-seed to IPO.