Translating Aging Catalyzing moonshots in longevity biotech (Alex Colville, Age1)
Dr. Alex Colville is the co-founder and General Partner of Age1 Ventures, a recently launched VC firm focused on funding contrarian, founder-led biotech companies aiming to extend healthy human lifespan. In this episode, Alex outlines Age1's thesis of identifying and empowering talented founders with ambitious visions for the longevity field. He shares his own journey to VC, including early interests in aging science and entrepreneurship. Alex provides an inside look at Age1's approach to community building, sourcing high-potential founders, investing at the pre-seed/seed stage, and supporting companies technologically and strategically. He also discusses Age1's very first investment in Aperture Therapeutics. Listeners will gain insights into how Age1 aims to catalyze change in the longevity biotech ecosystem.
Key topics covered:
- Origins of Age1 in the pioneering Longevity Fund and Laura Deming's vision
- Alex's path from aging researcher to VC investor and community builder
- How VCs raise funds from different types of investors (LPs)
- Age1's focus on early-stage companies and contrarian, ambitious founders
- Sourcing and identifying high-potential founders through networks and events
- The importance of founder motivation and pragmatism in Age1's investments
- Age1's first investment in Aperture Therapeutics targeting neuroinflammation
- Unique value-add Age1 provides with specialized aging expertise
- Empowering founders by showing people "like them" can build startups
- Age1's moonshot goal of enabling agency over healthspan and lifespan
Notable Quotes:
(quotes have been lightly edited for clarity)
"A fund is a vehicle of money devoted to making investments to return capital with more money than you started with."
"Once you have the money, your focus becomes finding the best founders and supporting them to increase the odds of success."
"The best founders don't necessarily realize they could be a founder. We can help show people they can just dive in."
"What matters most to us is not the idea, but the founder and their potential."
"We want somebody with a very strong mission motivation towards aging. This core focus ends up being a huge strength of the company."
"We look for a combination of pragmatism and moonshot mentality."
"Our goal is to give people agency over how long they live in good health.”
“Age1 needs to exist in order to convince some of the raw, ambitious talent that they can do things they don't yet know that they can do—in order to pull off moonshots.”
Links:
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