Barbara Alcaraz Silva - J.P. Morgan - Part 4

Intro - 00:00:01: Welcome to The Biotech Startups Podcast by Excedr. Join us as we speak with first-time founders, serial entrepreneurs, and experienced investors about the challenges and triumphs of running a biotech startup from pre-seed to IPO with your host, Jon Chee. In our last episode, we spoke with Barbara Alcaraz Silva about transitioning from academia to entrepreneurship, co-founding a biotech company, and later mentoring and advising entrepreneurs, guiding them through the challenges of early stage company building. If you missed it, be sure to go back and listen to part three. In part four, we talk with Barbara about her unexpected pivot into banking, joining SVB to support startups despite having no previous banking experience, and how her background in life sciences and entrepreneurship helped her excel, eventually leading to a role at J.P. Morgan. We also discuss the importance of mentorship, resilience, and seizing unexpected opportunities. Barbara offers insights into supporting startups and navigating the challenges of building a career in both science and finance throughout the episode.

Jon - 00:01:21: How did your next opportunity, like you mentioned that you're like, you started to make a pivot eventually. How did that pivot come for you? 

Barbara - 00:01:27: Yeah, so very interesting because through Life Sciences Angels, I was like, for sure, I want to become an investor. I want to join a fund. So I started interviewing and exploring and I did that for a while. I wasn't finding the right fit per se, but through that process and different partners reach out. That was also law firms, financial institutions, specifically one financial institution at the time reached out to me and they were like, hey, we have an opportunity for you. And I was a little bit confused because I never considered banking, to be honest, as a career path. And I was like thinking, what am I going to do? I mean, am I going to be working in sending wires? I mean, please explain to me why I'm not going to do any of that.

Jon - 00:02:13: Exactly, exactly. Yeah, yeah.

Barbara - 00:02:15: With my PhD in scientific career. And it was great because then it was supporting startups. So all this time, all the work that I have done in even connecting founders, prior to being part of Life Sciences Angels, because that's what I did when I was creating my company. That's literally what I needed to build this financial institution. So somebody reached out to me on LinkedIn. I guess they heard of me and then I will run into different partners in different networking events. So I decided to give it a try. So that's when I started my interview process with SVB. And it was interesting because. The lab that I joined at UCSF, they also pitched to me. And I was so confused because I was like, okay, I'm not trying so hard. I always try so hard trying to get into Stanford.

Jon - 00:03:11: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Barbara - 00:03:11: But. But it was just interesting. And yeah, I went through my interview process and incredible people. But it was like they were pitching to me and they didn't ask too many questions about my background, because of course, everything is in your resume, right? And I guess they heard of me, they knew that I have the connectivity, the ambassador network, the founder network. And I remember, I was so confused out of my interviews, because one day I had two or three interviews on the same day, I walk in into this specific club that I'm a member of in San Francisco, and I was just sitting in a table. Then next to me was another person, and we started chit-chatting. And I told him that I was coming from an interview. And then, he asked me what was my background, what I was doing. And I literally went through the download. And he's wow, you sound like me like 15 years ago. And then I asked him, so what do you do? Well, I'm an ambassador of this fund. And I'm like, oh, interesting. Tell me more. And we started chit-chatting. And I said, look, this is the opportunity that I have. I don't know whether if I should take it. And he's like, I love this bank, you should take it. And I was like, okay, interesting. And because of him, then I ended up joining the bank. And it's interesting because- 

Jon - 00:04:39: That's small world.

Barbara - 00:04:40: Yeah, now I see him and he's like, thanks to me, you have a career.

Jon - 00:04:43: You can thank me for that. You can thank me for that.

Barbara - 00:04:46: But it was assuring that having somebody in the industry that literally guided me because then he really told me like, okay, well, you have to decide your path. I think this opportunity is going to give you, are you going to learn a lot? You're going to have the connectivity with more startups, with different funds, and maybe you can decide what you want to do after, but definitely give it a try. And I was like, okay, well, I'll give it a try. And then I said, and I put myself a deadline, like a timeline, not deadline, not deadline. And I said, well, if within six months, if I don't like it, then I'm going to find something else. Well, I ended up staying there for quite some time, five years, and it was great. Then I had the opportunity to build an entire team. I had a lot of direct reports and having that connectivity of bringing founders, working with investors, learning the finance. Because again, I joined with no banking experience whatsoever. So it was super critical for my career there. 

Jon - 00:05:49: I love that because. Excedr is an equipment leasing company, but I had no. Traditional finance or lease training experience. I was just a bench scientist. But the thing is, I think that's like beautiful about that is that when you come in with fresh eyes, there's no back, like banking is an ancient business. And if you've been trained within, there's nothing wrong being trained within the traditional banking kind of curriculum, but come in as a kind of like an outsider, a scientist and like myself, I felt the same way. Can bring fresh eyes and you can start thinking from first principles, how would, I want, for you probably a banking experience for me, a leasing experience. What the, what would I want, or what would my colleagues want? And how can I cater to them, so that's that's really interesting, um.

Barbara - 00:06:38: And I think, it's another point is that, as PhDs or scientists, we don't think about other paths. Right? Like, you can mull your career, because you do have the expertise, and it's like, where can I apply my expertise? And it's across different industries to be honest, and that's something that I learned. And it was incredible because, as I, I had this bubble of expertise, that I was able to, support an institution with that and. In return, I gained banking experience, right? Not as deep, such a deep banking experience, but then I understood most of it. And at the end of the day, it was building teams, building a team, putting people together. And as founders and entrepreneurs, you always end up doing that. So you can do it across different industries.

Jon - 00:07:27: And I think, you know, a lot of the time as you, you know, as folks are like wrapping up their grad studies, you can feel a lot of existential dread. What's next? Like there's only, there's only a finite amount of professorships. Available, particularly tenured spots.

Barbara - 00:07:43: And Jon, you know what? That was back in our time because right now there's so many programs.

Jon - 00:07:48: Yeah, exactly. Maybe I'm dating. Maybe we're dating ourselves right now. 

Barbara - 00:07:53: I'm surprised of the amount of support because now grad students. They go and do so many things. They either spin up their own research, they join another program, like you have heard of Nucleate, which is a graduate-led program, like either to find an industry job or to create your own company. That didn't exist in our time. Like, it took me all the way until my postdoc from me. To build a company.

Jon - 00:08:24: Yeah.

Barbara - 00:08:24: It's not because I got into this specific program.

Jon - 00:08:28: Yep. I feel the exact same way. And we're big fans of Nucleate over here and big supporters of them. Because it's like, it's frankly what I wish I had back then. Or at least I didn't know there was like a asymmetric information situation where I literally thought I was like, I'm either I have to be a professor. Or I gotta go work at Big Pharma.

Barbara - 00:08:49:

Exactly. That was it.

Jon - 00:08:51: That was it. That was it. And those are still paths. Those are still paths. But now there's like, like- 

Barbara - 00:08:56: So many.

Jon - 00:08:57: So many more paths.

Barbara - 00:08:58: I mean, you can go into patent law. I mean, there's so many, so many. And it's so funny because that you mentioning one specific program. I mean, there's so many like Women in Bio as part of Women in Bio as well. And there is another organization here in the Bay Area that is also women-led that are scientists, PhDs, similar to Nucleate, but for women. And so it's so many programs that I like. I wish I had access to that. 

Jon - 00:09:24: Super jealous.

Barbara - 00:09:26: Yeah.

Jon - 00:09:26: So you're at SVB. And can you talk a little about the early days about establishing the life science practice? Like, how was that? Obviously, it was like there was a lot to learn.

Barbara - 00:09:36: Yeah, and that practice was established, right?

Jon - 00:09:39: Okay, got it. 

Barbara - 00:09:40: The bank was, around for a while and that group was established. What it wasn't established was the early stage arm. We were a very small team and I was the only one in San Francisco. And again, I found myself with a great opportunity and here you go. Same with my PhD, same when you were building a company. And I wouldn't say that it was difficult. I mean, like the resources were incredible. The culture was great. And it's different from academia, right? Like in academia, you can run into a situation that you have an amazing lab or it's super supportive or not, right? And corporate out there, you have to be nice.

Jon - 00:10:22: Yeah. 

Barbara - 00:10:22: Because people track you, right? That's part of your performance. And I think because I knew a few colleagues before joining that they were also guiding me through the process. They were the ones who guided me and taught me most of the tools and the resources. So it was super helpful. And I think that's why I kind of like speed it up a little bit. And I learned the basics, like literally from opening accounts and who is the team and like the basics that, I mean, you have to learn that. Because if you're in a financial institutions, you need to, you need to learn every single aspect of it.

Jon - 00:11:00: Absolutely.

Barbara - 00:11:01: So it was fun, I have to say. Lots of learning. And definitely, I had to use my skills a lot. And the funny thing is, I still was so focused on being a scientist that every time that I will bring a company, I will literally do a super detail, diligence, a why, tell me about your technology.

Jon - 00:11:22: You can't turn it off. You can't turn it off.

Barbara - 00:11:23: And, then I realized, wait a minute. This is not my position anymore. It took me some time to transition that.

Jon - 00:11:30: Yeah.

Barbara - 00:11:30: But. A lot of the founders and partners, I mean, they do appreciate that, because at the end of the day, it's providing feedback or just showing interest that you care about what they're building, right? So the experience was great. Of course, I had the opportunity to build a team there, manage people. Not like I managed before because before it was a very small team. And now I had a pretty large team. I had great mentors, internal and external. And it got into a point that I was like, you know what? I love what I'm learning. But I became very like plateau. And through my career, I was always like looking for the next thing and learning something from organic chemistry, neuroscience to biology. And I was like, okay, I need to figure out what I want to do next. And I remember at some point I had an interest for private equity.

Jon - 00:12:28: Okay. My co-founder is in private equity, so, yeah.

Barbara - 00:12:31: So different. And I was like debating whether if I should really go into private equity or join a hedge fund. Very different.

Jon - 00:12:40: Very different.

Barbara - 00:12:41:

Very different. And I remember doing, again, my informational interviews with the partners, friends, going back to Eric. Now that you're an investor.

Jon - 00:12:53: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tell me. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Barbara - 00:12:56: Yeah, with great people. And they will literally say to me, like, Barbara, you can just go and do whatever you want. Because then it wasn't only private equity. I was like thinking, like, what if I want to go back and run a company? What if I actually go back? And join a real fund and become an investor. So I was exploring that for a while and had no banking in my mind, to be honest, because I was like, okay, I learned this. I just want to explore something else. And I gave myself a year. To do all the studying and research for private equity. Because I was talking to my mentor, Sly Barber. You technically are going to start as an analyst.

Jon - 00:13:38: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Barbara - 00:13:40: And I'm like, okay, I'm giving myself a year to build a network and all the research and studying. And of course, the transition, I took some time to really figure it out. And then I kind of like stop and I said, okay, I'm just going to continue to what I'm doing. And then if eventually the opportunity comes, then that will be great. But at the end of the day, what I learned is I wasn't passionate about all those opportunities because there was a fund that they wanted me to be the CEO of one of their startups. And I was excited. I was super excited about the project, but then eventually it died on me. And I was like, when you know... What you want to do really well. You have a passion and you're going to pursue that. And the fact that, I mean, I had so many opportunities, like different funds, different startups, more on the operating side of things. Different financial institutions. And I was like, I don't know. And then eventually I transitioned. And the reason that I transitioned, because it was like, incredible, the people, the talent, the opportunity. So I never thought that I was going to go back to into banking, because at that point, I was like, I'm giving it up.

Jon - 00:14:56: Yeah. And I think it's important though, again, this is like going back to the importance of like learning what you like and what you don't like and then listening to yourself and not, you know, so, you know, everyone second guesses themselves, but like when you feel that passion and like, this feels right.

Barbara - 00:15:13: Yeah.

Jon - 00:15:14: It tends to be, it tends to be the right call to listen to that.

Barbara - 00:15:18: Completely. And it's also a lot to do with your mentor network. I had a lot of external mentors, not necessarily mentors from work, because I think we do have a tendency of having, oh, my, our mentors at work. And I had a lot of external mentors in different disciplines. And one of my mentors, when I was like really figuring out, because I had great opportunities. At the time, I was like one CEO position of this startup. Then it was a small FinTech, and the other one was a fund, and then a few other financial institutions. And my mentor, he's literally an LP. He has a, manages a funds to funds, right? And he's bored there and very knowledgeable. And once in a while we chit chat and he said to me, Barbara, like you have done great in this industry. If you want to become a leader into the industry, you need to figure it out. Where is the best place where you can grow, right? And that's stuck in the back of my mind. I was like, okay, that's interesting. But then again, I was like so stubborn because I really want to do PE.

Jon - 00:16:25: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.  

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Barbara - 00:16:27: He's like, well, you're going to start as an analyst. 

Jon - 00:16:29: Yeah, you're like, I don't know. Yeah.

Barbara - 00:16:32: I know. But the thing when I had all these opportunities that I made the decision, but it was super easy. I was like, you know what? I'll go with the greatest opportunity, the talent, the support. And that's how I ended up now, J.P. Morgan. And it's interesting because I saw myself, I'm not going to go back into finance. I learned what I had to learn. But it's been, it's an incredible journey because for me, the role that I had for many years, as I see my career has been, as I said, I'm like literally Switzerland.

Jon - 00:17:12: Yeah.

Barbara - 00:17:13: Because I don't take any sides. I'm always supporting the investors. I'm always supporting the founders and supporting the industry. And I love that because when you're an investor, you said no to a lot of people and it's hard and you don't have time to give feedback. And the other way around, because investors are also pitching their own funds, right? So finding a position that you can use your expertise and support the ecosystem. It's incredible. And I'm being- And rare. It's very rare. Yeah.

Jon - 00:17:46: I can see how your journey, it's a culmination of, you mentioned kind of like the kind of disparate skillsets you've been acquiring, but the culmination of this into your role at J.P. Morgan, I can see how it can benefit all the stakeholders. And it even goes back to your project management experience at UCSF. It's like, it's one thing to work with Kaiser. It's another thing to work with Harvard. Very different institutions.

Barbara - 00:18:11: Completely different.

Jon - 00:18:12: How do you manage that?

Barbara - 00:18:13: For non-profits or smaller institutions, yeah. Exactly.

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Jon - 00:18:18:

So you're inspired by the team at J.P. Morgan, the support, the resource. Obviously, J.P. Morgan is a household name, but can you talk a little bit about what makes J.P. Morgan, in your opinion, a standout bank? And maybe we can then double click on your specific group.

Barbara - 00:18:36: I mean, the fact that as a bank, we're aiming to be the leader of innovation economy, right? The bank has been around for so long. The longevity, the people, it's incredible. I feel like for me personally, like if you want to go into finance, you need to pick the best of the best. And at the end of the day, I feel like. We always have to have our risk flag so high because it's a large institution. So you have people that are so acquainted with specific skill sets. And you're learning a lot from them, right?

Jon - 00:19:18: Yep.

Barbara - 00:19:19: So at the end of the day, it's... That was the main decision for me. And just to tell you a little bit more about my role, so it's a little bit clearer what I do. And then we can go on more about explaining about the bank. So I lead the national team for startup banking, life sciences, and healthcare. And our goal is to bring startups into our banking platform. The most simplistic way that I can put it in is think of my team as the funnel for the commercial bank. Because my team, we do have expertise and we're out there looking for the most interesting opportunities, the most interesting startups that we can be supportive and we can be helpful. There's different types of founders, like the serial entrepreneur who knows what they need to do. And they only need a solid bank. So we have all the products and we have all the support. And then there is a first-time founder who doesn't even know what to do. He doesn't even know who are the investors out there. And what else? I mean, besides applying for grants, what else do I need to do? Okay, have you managed your cap table? And that's where we also come in and support because we serve more as advisors. And part of our value proof is to add in those skill sets into the teams that we're working with, into the founders team, right? So, and we have within my team, we have different expertise. I have bankers that have a very extraordinary banking experience. And then I have people that have done business development and they have work in a fund or they were founders before. And one of the highlights of my team is I always love sharing the background of one of my bankers. She manages our New England market. And she has an MD, was born and raised in China. She got her MD, then moved to the U.S., got a master's, then did a postdoc at MD Anderson. And eventually, like me, she decided, okay, now I'm going to do something else. She went into banking. And I spent 18 years in the banking industry, in different sectors, in different business units. She worked in minority entrepreneurship in the bank. And when I was building the team at J.P. Morgan, I got a hold of her because somebody else told me. I literally did a big search to find people with the most amazing skills that I also wanted to learn from. And I found Claire and I told her about the opportunity. And it was like chemistry. 

Jon - 00:21:59: Yep.

Barbara - 00:22:00: Like, we both got so excited. Because for her, it was like, oh, my God, I finally got to merge. My two worlds into one. So like everybody else in the team, they do have. Amazing expertise and skill sets. And for me, I'm just honored to manage the team, but also to work with them and to deliver the value to the industry, right? So, and that's the talent that we have at J.P. Morgan. And it's incredible every day you're learning.

Jon - 00:22:31: And there's a bunch of directions I want to go with this, but. I'll say this. It is unique to have individuals like yourself who have a PhD postdoc, folks who have an MD. Can vouch for this, like kind of be, understand the signs, understand what you're doing and actually kind of like, not just at a surface level, but you're, you're mentioning like you still have some time, early days still have your diligence cap on. You're like, oh, like. And that's rare because I think. With any partner, again, it's like a co-founder, there needs to be this understanding, real understanding, so you can effectively communicate with each other. And when you can effectively communicate, you can better serve. And I've always thought about it from that perspective as Excedr, too. We're former scientists as well. Like, teammates worked at Janssen, Eppendorf. Public Library of Science. Yeah. Yeah. So we're all like ex-scientists. And so that's why I feel like a kindred spirit with you when I hear this is because if I was starting a biotech startup or lifestyle and start more broadly speaking, I would want to bank with someone who actually understands and not to name any names out there, but like, as I was like figuring out, you know, who to bank with. And when someone was like, you guys lease Bunsen burners? And I'm like, no. Not Bunsen burners, like flow cytometers. But exactly, you're talking about the Beckman Institute and lasers, like that stuff, right? Like cell sorting type stuff. And so I think it's incredibly important because when you have someone who can empathize and understand your needs, again, you can better serve. And something that really stood out to me about talking about your decision to choose JPM. Is the network and the history. And I'm going to imagine that... If someone who's banking with JPM wants to be connected with. XYZ Investor, fund, potential customer, potential partner. They're probably somewhere in your team or maybe at the broader bank. Where you can make a connection, which I think is incredibly valuable because you talked about how important it is to one, find the right mentors and have the right network. So that like really stands out to me because. It's not just transactional. It's like, how can we leverage our scale network to the advantage of investor or startup?

Barbara - 00:24:55: And also what we have developed, what the bank has developed is incredible tools that they can make that connectivity. Right? So because think about all the people that they reach out to me and I'm like, I don't have the time to be honest, because I'm more internal.

Jon - 00:25:09: Yeah.

Barbara - 00:25:10: A lot of people work on the strategy, of course, being out there supporting the ecosystem, talking about trends. So the bank has developed incredible tools of depending on where you are in your journey. Right, because it's not only early stage, it's a growth. And we have taken all the companies, some of the companies all the way to IPO. So it's depending on the stage, who is your banker, then there's always a way of finding a solution and adding additional products. And the bank has become so good at it.

Jon - 00:25:42: Absolutely. And I think too, is that I'm thinking about experiences at Excedr where I'll tell you about a bad customer experience. And this is for software, not banking. But I hate it when I keep getting handed off to a nuke. And I'm like, you forgot everything about us. And now I have to re-acclimate you to what Excedr does. And if we outgrow a certain group, then, and, you know, I'm out in the wilderness, but. I can't imagine most companies are going to outgrow J.P. Morgan. Right? So it's like, you can be there supportive every step of the way. And the reason why, for me, I think that's important is because. As an early stage company, there's a bunch of things that you really, really need to focus on. And the best allocation of your time might not be trying to create this Rolodex from scratch. So how can we tap into J.P. Morgan's Rolodex and services? And whether it's like early stage funding, growth stage funding, eventual IPO and or M&A. JPM, you're there.

Barbara - 00:26:57: Definitely. I mean, I think that was the idea of also having our team and our value probe is like, will we be there for you? And we're so interconnected, right? Because everybody thinks about J.P. Morgan. J.P. Morgan is massive. Yes, for sure. But we're so interconnected that we know where you belong or should belong. Because what if a growth stage company comes to me? Okay, where are you in a specific region? How much are you raising? How much have you raised? What are your needs? And we'll find you at home. So that interconnectivity is super helpful. And that's part of my role, to also understand who are the other partners and business units, so then I can support the companies that come into our platform. Because maybe we have a great client that is about to close a series A and they need another investor. Guess what? We have a fund. Let's make an introduction and see if it's a fit. Or it's a software company that already has revenue and they're looking for additional investors. Let's put you into a fundraising platform. So, I mean, there's multiple avenues that as long as you have one point of contact, and it's not perfect though, I have to be honest, because if you end up getting an introduction with somebody who's new and joined the firm and they're getting acclimated. But there's always the support there. And that's one of the things I love the most because for me coming in, it wasn't overwhelming. It's been a great experience, to be honest, because it's like everybody getting to know the research partners, all the tools, all the support that we can give to the industry, not only to the founders, to the ambassadors, to nonprofits. I mean, we're banking everybody out there. We do personal banking. So it's an entire life cycle, not only for the founder, but also on their personal banking. So, yeah.

Jon - 00:28:49: Yeah. And that's for me, it's like, it's the take. I'm just like, just that personal element of whoever's on the other side just truly knowing and caring. I was thinking about when I like, we found a great home in a software. We use HubSpot for our CRM, but like-

Barbara - 00:29:06: Oh, nice.

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Jon - 00:29:07: So we use HubSpot and I just remember how painful it was to outgrow the first kind of CRM instance that we had. And we're like, we need to find a place where we can find that home. And in this instance, it was HubSpot was our home and they've been fantastic partners with us. But like exactly what you said, like having the kind of single point of contact that cares and can help plug in the right people and get you the services and support you need is critically important.

Barbara - 00:29:31: And with the appropriate expertise too, right? Because we have founders that is like, oh my God, I don't care how much you know about the scientific world. I just need an expert in banking. Perfect. There you go. You're the best client.

Jon - 00:29:46: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And-

Barbara - 00:29:47: Yeah.

Jon - 00:29:47: Exactly. And just catering it. So that's, I really, really like that approach. And it's refreshing, honestly, because it's not every day that you kind of get that white glove service. So, you know, as you are thinking about your team. And the next one to two years. What's in store for you and your team?

Barbara - 00:30:06: Yeah, definitely. So my team is growing. I'm also hiring, by the way. So-

Jon - 00:30:10: Shout out if you want.

Barbara - 00:30:12: Yes, please. I love talent. So we'd like to speak with you. If you happen to have a banking background, not necessarily, but if you want to learn about banking and have a life sciences background. So we continue to grow. We cover the entire country. There are specific team members that are managing large regions in the US., so, we are excited because there's a lot of interest. We have great companies. So we're pretty busy. For the next couple of years, definitely will be steady growth. I mean, we have grown so fast, so quickly. So it will be mostly bringing the support for that, right? And for me, it's developing the talent because, again, it's incredible people that join the team. So making sure that they have the opportunity to grow, that they become acclimated with the regions because then you become an expert, right? Like, Boston is so different from San Francisco.

Jon - 00:31:09: So different.

Barbara - 00:31:10: And the bankers, they are so plugged in and they understand the sectors and their company. That's pretty much our goal to continue to deliver value and work with specific partners as well. So, yeah, I will say growth. And for me, it's continue to grow and develop and continue to learn from all the incredible people at the firm. I think that I've been now at J.P. Morgan for a year. And it's incredible how much I have done, we have done as a firm, and how much I have learned personally. It's like going into this mini MBA, where it's actually they push you to, okay, just build out your team, get to know every single business unit and support all these companies. And technically, that's what I did when I joined. I was like, oh, okay, great.

Jon - 00:31:58: I was going to say, you're very good at that. Like getting put into the deep end and then just sticking the landing.

Barbara - 00:32:04: And building from there. But again, it's because of the support of the incredible people. My manager is great. His manager is incredible. I mean, she's a woman. And another thing that I have not mentioned is I was so impressed when I joined J.P. Morgan, how many women leaders are in the firm. I was like, oh, my God, this is yes. And, I was like-

Jon - 00:32:26: Yeah. Super important. Super critically important. You know, finding representation is.

Barbara - 00:32:33: Exactly.

Jon - 00:32:34: It's hard to find. It's rare. So that's amazing to hear. And. You know, I just want to say thank you for all your time. This is like, so like, one, I'm super pumped up to hear about your journey. And also just like for anyone who might be listening, who kind of may feel like a bit aimless and figuring out what did they want to do and knowing that, look, there are no rules. Like you can, you can really do it if you really wanted to. And sometimes it just takes that, that email to like, hey, I want to join your fellowship in London, and it can work.

Barbara - 00:33:06: And finding mentors that, and you know, and by the way, I did not say about the people that I got a lot of notes too. I remember reaching out to a lot of people that I wanted them to be mentors. Never reply, so, and it's okay, nothing is perfect. So eventually, you will find somebody who will support you, and will guide you, or you will find your way. Right? So, but anyways, happy to support, any anyway that can.

Jon - 00:33:36: So in traditional closing fashion for the podcast, there are two questions. We like to round things out. So first, would you like to give any shout outs to anyone who supported you along the way? And I know you've mentioned a few already, but are there any others?

Barbara - 00:33:50: Of course, my mother. 

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Jon - 00:33:53: Yes.

Barbara - 00:33:53: She was the one who brought me into this country and throw me into a system that I didn't know.

Jon - 00:34:00: Yeah.

Barbara - 00:34:01: And because of her and her sacrifice. Am where I am right now. And the same as my sister, so, I think my mom has been, my biggest applicator mentor-driver, and of course all the mentors that I had along the way like Mike Mulligan, Michael Burns who passed. John Murnane and my current manager and that amazing person that I'm going to email at some point and send him a text who literally told me, Barbara, you have built something great. Just make it better somewhere else.

Jon - 00:34:39: Sometimes that's all you need-

Barbara - 00:34:40: Because of him, I went into, continue my journey in banking. Otherwise, I'd probably be an analyst in a PE fund or in a hedge fund.

Jon - 00:34:48: Sometimes you just need a little nudge. That's all you need. That's sometimes all it takes.

Barbara - 00:34:53: Great people.

Jon - 00:34:55: And if you're looking back. If you can give any advice to your 21-year-old self, what would it be?

Barbara - 00:35:01: That's interesting. I still rest on my American dream. And I wish... I had continued that. I mean, maybe I have done. I haven't gone through my American dream. I don't know. But, be resilient, persistent, because I think, I went into different ways. And sometimes I did that because I was afraid or I wasn't sure and I didn't want to say no. And sometimes saying no is super important. But resilience, just continue or building that resilience and everything is going to be fine. Everything is going to be fine.

Jon - 00:35:36: And honestly, that's sometimes all you need to hear is that it will work itself out. I think, you know, I can't think of another way to round this out. You've been so generous with your time, Barbara.

Barbara - 00:35:49: Thank you. Such a pleasure. I mean, I enjoy this. And another thing is this is the first time that I'm sharing my personal journey. I have shared it with close friends and colleagues, but I had never shared, it so lively and outside the doors.

Jon - 00:36:07: You're so generous. And-

Barbara - 00:36:09: I appreciate it.

Jon - 00:36:10: Yeah. And no, thank you for being open to having this conversation with me. And I could go for hours and hours with you. And so maybe we'll do another one and talk about what, you know, what are the cool developments? Yeah. For another time. 

Barbara - 00:36:21: Exactly.

Jon - 00:36:21: Yeah. And we can have coffee.

Barbara - 00:36:22: We can talk about the industry, the market, what we have seen. So much cool stuff. Yeah.

Jon - 00:36:28: Absolutely. Well, Barbara, thank you. And I'll talk to you again soon.

Barbara - 00:36:31: Thank you so much. Bye. 

Jon - 00:36:32: Bye.

Intro - 00:36:35: That's all for this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast. We hope you enjoyed our four-part series with Barbara Alcaraz Silva. Be sure to tune into our next series with eMalick Njie, CEO and founder at Ecotone AI, a company with a vision of AI-designed medicines to cure rare inherited diseases. eMalick is also co-founder of Genetic Leap, formerly known as Genetic Intelligence, a company that is innovating at the cutting edge of AI and RNA genetic medicine to redefine drug development and more quickly address the health needs of millions of people. Before his transition into entrepreneurship and industry, he was a senior scientist at Columbia University, where he discovered multiple C. Elegans genes related to neural encheathment and sensation of touch in the laboratory of Nobel Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari. eMalick's diverse experience, and deep expertise in neuroscience, AI and biotech entrepreneurship makes his conversation one that founders won't want to miss. The Biotech Startups Podcast is produced by Excedr. Don't want to miss an episode? Search for The Biotech Startups Podcast wherever you get your podcasts and click subscribe. Excedr provides research labs with equipment leases on founder-friendly terms to support paths to exceptional outcomes. To learn more, visit our website, www.excedr.com. On behalf of the team here at Excedr, thanks for listening. The Biotech Startups Podcast provides general insights into the life science sector through the experiences of its guests. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked from the podcast is at the user's own risk. The views expressed by the participants are their own and are not the views of Excedr or sponsors. No reference to any product, service or company in the podcast is an endorsement by Excedr or its guests.