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Part 4 of 4.

My guest for this week’s episode is David Li, CEO and co-founder of Meliora Therapeutics. Meliora's goal is to develop life-saving cancer therapies using cutting-edge science and machine learning. The company derives a comprehensive picture of how drugs interact with cancer biology by combining biofunctional readouts from numerous modalities using advanced machine learning and other computational techniques.

Before Meliora, David was Chief Business Officer at Everest Detection, an early detection liquid biopsy startup, and led commercial operations at Benchling, a life sciences software platform valued at $6 billion with over $500 million in funding.

David started his career in Goldman Sachs Healthcare Investment Banking Group and KKR's Private Equity Group, advising and investing in transactions exceeding $10 billion. His diverse financial and life sciences background offers valuable insights for founders.

Join us this week and hear about:

David’s transition from private equity to co-founding Meliora and using AI/ML in drug development
His fundraising experiences for Meliora and current outlook on the fundraising landscape in 2024
His advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and reflections on “thinking big” in biotech
Identifying mischaracterized mechanisms of action and establishing Meliora as a drug development company and computational platform

Please enjoy my conversation with David Li.

Timestamps:

00:28 Intro

02:00 Jason Scheltzer identifies mechanisms of action, the beginnings of Meliora

05:08 David meets Jason Scheltzer, forming Meliora with a thesis, as David becomes founding CEO and initial fundraising begins

07:20 David’s serendipitous meeting with Jason, getting on board as more than an investor

09:16 Building the early founding team at Meliora, establishing Meliora as a drug company

12:05 How Meliora is disrupting the status quo in drug discovery and development

17:24 David’s approach to building an internal pipeline and BD partnerships

19:49 David’s experience fundraising and his outlook on fundraising in 2024

22:21 Meloria’s 2-year vision, transitioning from Seed to Series A

24:03 Shoutouts and advice to 21-year old self

26:23 Outro

Find Our Guest, David Li, at these links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-li-9aa210b

https://www.melioratx.com/

Find Our Host, Jon Chee, at these links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonchee

https://www.excedr.com

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/

Enriched Notes:

Topics Mentioned:

KKR https://www.kkr.com/

Benchling https://www.benchling.com/

Meliora Therapeutics https://www.melioratherapeutics.com/

Everest Detection https://everestdetection.com/

AstraZeneca https://www.astrazeneca.com/

Tagrisso https://www.tagrisso.com/

Drug candidates that were mischaracterized https://ergobio.substack.com/p/meliora-therapeutics-is-building

Seed Rounds https://www.excedr.com/resources/seed-round-funding-explained

Series A, B, & C Rounds https://www.excedr.com/resources/series-funding-explained

Biotech Fundraising https://www.excedr.com/resources/biotech-startup-funding-options

Computational Platforms in Biotech https://www.nfx.com/post/bioplatforms-computational-biology

People Mentioned:

Jason Sheltzer https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-sheltzer-ba0086234/

Joan Smith https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanclarasmith/

Claudio Chuaqui https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudio-chuaqui-5612381/

Andrew Coopersmith https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-s-coopersmith/

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.

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