EP 128: Squire Servance - Beyond Profit: Venture Capital’s Key Role in Solving Health Disparities

🚀 Investing with Impact: Squire Servance on Health Equity & Venture Capital

Unlock the power of venture capital to address health disparities and drive positive social change.  In this insightful episode, we speak with Squire Servance, founder of health equity fund Syridex Bio.  Discover his unique approach to investing in companies tackling underserved health needs, proving that profitability and purpose can coexist.

🎙️ What's in the Episode:
1️⃣ Investing in Overlooked Markets: Learn how health disparities create massive untapped opportunities for innovation and investment.
2️⃣ The Power of Diversity:  Squire Servance explains why investing in diverse founders and solutions yields better outcomes for both society and investors.
3️⃣ Data-Driven Impact:  Discover how Servance evaluates companies to ensure they drive both health equity progress and financial returns.

👨‍💼 About Squire Servance:
Squire Servance is a visionary VC on a mission to accelerate health equity while generating transformative returns. His commitment to investing in solutions for underserved populations offers a powerful blueprint for venture capital that creates a healthier, more equitable world.

🎥  Watch this episode to gain valuable insights into how venture capital can be a force for good. Squire Servance's perspective is essential for impact-driven investors and anyone interested in the intersection of health and innovation.

💡 LINKS TO MORE CONTENT
Host: Christian Soschner

📌 Quotes:
(00:08:10) "The love just kind of grew, grew from there."
(00:39:02) "Accelerating health equity, while generating returns, transforms lives and society."
(00:57:45) "You can do good and do well by directing capitalism towards health equity."
(01:17:35) "We're leaving money on the table by not investing in diverse founders."
(01:25:46) "Everyone has blind spots; that's why diverse teams perform better."
(01:45:29) "There's no shortcut for success."

⏰ Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Introduction
(00:02:42) The Genesis of a Life Sciences Revolution
(00:08:48) Blueprint to Venture Capital: Squire's Journey
(00:15:11) Igniting Change: The Genesis of a Health Equity Fund Amidst COVID
(00:27:09) Venture Capital's Role in Bridging Health Disparities: A New Focus
(00:28:58) Market Volatility: A Contrarian VC's Perspective
(00:33:52) Health Equity as a Massive Global Market
(00:48:00) The Evolution of Biotech Funding: From Genentech to Today
(00:54:45) Tackling Health Equity: The Need for Collective Action
(00:56:48) Harnessing Capitalism for Health Equity
(01:03:30) The Role of Social Media and AI in Advancing Biotech Ventures
(01:10:18) The Digital Footprint: How Online Presence Shapes VC Decisions
(01:16:26) The Underrepresentation Crisis in VC Funding
(01:24:54) Investing with a Broader Vision:
(01:29:32) Investing in Health Equity
(01:42:18) Expanding the Scope of Health Equity Investment
(01:44:54) Success is Not a Shortcut: The Power of Consistency

Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:26:24

Christian Soschner

Did you know that overlooked health problems are not only humanitarian crisis, but also missed investment opportunities? Imagine a world where treatments for diseases disproportionately affecting underserved populations become blockbuster, improving lives and generating massive returns. This is the vision of today's guest.

00:00:26:24 - 00:00:41:00

Squire Servance

or we're leaving money on the table, but not looking at and not seriously investing in, you know, women led companies diverse, you know, black and brown CEOs and led companies. We're leaving money on the table.

00:00:41:00 - 00:00:43:10

Squire Servance

Our mission is to accelerate health equity

00:00:43:10 - 00:00:49:09

Squire Servance

and obviously while generating returns for investors. And we do that essentially by deploying capital

00:00:49:09 - 00:00:55:01

Squire Servance

into therapies that treat diseases that disproportionately impact an underserved population.

00:00:55:01 - 00:00:59:16

Squire Servance

Exactly. There's there's no there's no shortcut for success.

00:00:59:16 - 00:01:06:08

Christian Soschner

Squire Cervantes is the founder of Spirit Inspire, a venture capital firm making a difference.

00:01:06:08 - 00:01:15:18

Christian Soschner

They are not just investing in potentially profitable health care solutions, but in companies specifically tackling health disparities.

00:01:15:18 - 00:01:33:02

Christian Soschner

Discover in this episode a new approach to investing where doing good and doing well go hand in hand. In this episode, we explore the untapped potential. Learn how health equity opens up massive, overlooked markets.

00:01:33:04 - 00:01:51:18

Christian Soschner

We are addressing disparities to understand the systemic causes behind inequity with healthcare access and how investment can change that. Now, also looking into the power of diversity, why investing in founders from diverse backgrounds can lead to better outcomes for everyone.

00:01:51:18 - 00:02:03:13

Christian Soschner

Data driven decisions is the next point. See how Squire Sevens evaluates companies to ensure both impact and potential for success and accident.

00:02:03:14 - 00:02:13:10

Christian Soschner

We dive deep into the founders mindsets, get actionable advice for entrepreneurs seeking investment, and building sustainable healthcare businesses.

00:02:13:10 - 00:02:25:20

Christian Soschner

If you are a founder, CEO or investor who believes in the power of innovation to address society's biggest challenges. This episode is for you.

00:02:25:22 - 00:02:32:13

Christian Soschner

Subscribe, comment and share. To be part of a community dedicated to transformative investing.

00:02:32:13 - 00:02:43:03

Christian Soschner

This conversation with Squire Cervantes is filled with value. Every insights on the intersection of health equity and smart venture capital can try to show.

00:02:43:03 - 00:03:06:00

Christian Soschner

The flying start for it. And in 2020, when the pandemic started, some added the very nice option. And I thought, how cool is that? Because before I used in almost some rooms and when I had 20 or 30 guests at the beginning of the pandemic in a Zoom call, which was intended to be a podcast recording, it was basically a mess.

00:03:06:00 - 00:03:24:17

Christian Soschner

It was simply impossible to organize it. Someone left a microphone open, the other one turns the camera on and off and stuff like that. And when they discovered the soon webinar room, it was for me a revelation that was a blessing because suddenly a quote separates the crowd.

00:03:24:18 - 00:03:33:02

Squire Servance

You can separate the crowd. You can figure out who the a panelist, you can turn mikes on and off and apparently videos too. So, no.

00:03:33:04 - 00:04:00:11

Christian Soschner

But the defining thing is soon is changing. The administrator cites, I think, every one or two months they add new features to take old features away. And every time it feels like every time when they prepare for a new webinar, there is something different on this page. And this is just a tiny little thing to make you miss this checkbox and suddenly a completely unexpected result.

00:04:00:13 - 00:04:04:07

Squire Servance

The completely understand that.

00:04:04:09 - 00:04:08:06

Christian Soschner

So how is how is like you are in your city states?

00:04:08:08 - 00:04:13:18

Squire Servance

Yes, I'm in New Jersey, in Philadelphia right now, but I'm in New Jersey generally from offices.

00:04:13:20 - 00:04:25:10

Christian Soschner

Philadelphia is beautiful. Beautiful. I loved it. I was with Bio bio international, I think it was in 2019. The last time I spend some days in Philadelphia, it was

00:04:25:10 - 00:04:25:22

Christian Soschner

yeah.

00:04:25:23 - 00:04:47:06

Squire Servance

Matter of fact, Life Sciences PR, which I think it used to be bio or bio. They actually had their conference the last couple of days. I was out well, they were outside of Philly on King of Prussia, if you're familiar with that area. But yeah, it's I love the city. Worked here for a number of years. It's really great, great place.

00:04:47:06 - 00:04:50:06

Christian Soschner

And your headquarter is in New Jersey?

00:04:50:08 - 00:04:53:01

Squire Servance

Yeah, Princeton. Philosophically.

00:04:53:03 - 00:04:54:16

Christian Soschner

How is New Jersey?

00:04:55:06 - 00:05:14:21

Squire Servance

I love it. So unbiased though. So I was born raised. So my my is it's like for the most part from like North Jersey. I was for the most part born and raised in South Jersey. I live in Princeton, which is central Jersey. So it's a beautiful state. It's the Garden State. I welcome anyone to come to come by.

00:05:14:21 - 00:05:18:12

Squire Servance

It's it's a great place to live, work and play.

00:05:18:12 - 00:05:27:03

Christian Soschner

What would you rank even in case I was in New Jersey, hopefully in a couple of months. What would you recommend for a tourist visit? What's left to.

00:05:27:03 - 00:05:32:04

Squire Servance

Your kids if children are coming? No, no. All right. Well, then

00:05:32:04 - 00:05:53:23

Squire Servance

you're going to want to go to I think Newark has an amazing there's like a New Jersey symphony up of there. Princeton obviously has a lot of stuff going on. Great restaurant scene in Jersey City, Hoboken. Those are all up north, north Jersey. Areas right across from New York have a lot of great restaurants, a lot of things to do.

00:05:54:00 - 00:06:09:02

Squire Servance

And so you can't go wrong, like if it was more family friendly. Central Jersey has a lot of farms and hey, rides and all that stuff is picking up and pumpkin patch is and all that good stuff. You have to have two little ones. So that's my life and my weekend most weekends.

00:06:09:19 - 00:06:16:23

Christian Soschner

That's great. And what's brought you into the life science area? What inspired you to move in that direction?

00:06:16:23 - 00:06:47:09

Squire Servance

Yeah, So interestingly, I think it's a great question. So I did a and I can pinpoint when I did a report or project in sixth grade, Winslow Township Elementary School, school number five with my teacher, Ms.. McCarthy. And we did a presentation on she asked everyone to go outside and research an occupation. And I researched orthopedic surgeons. So I landed on I'm like, Man, you get to work with athletes, it's in the sciences.

00:06:47:12 - 00:07:10:17

Squire Servance

And from that point on, I think that's it. So I can tell you I can pinpoint it. So from that point on, I was hooked on the sciences and what you could do, how you can help people, the intricacies of neuroscience and biology. And so I so I, I wanted to be in this space since I was a little kid.

00:07:10:17 - 00:07:15:20

Christian Soschner

A sixth grade, age, 16, 17 years, or I'm still there.

00:07:15:20 - 00:07:22:19

Squire Servance

Sixth grade. No. What does that I don't know. 12, 11, somewhere around there? Yeah.

00:07:22:21 - 00:07:28:23

Christian Soschner

How why did you decide to interview orthopedic surgeons?

00:07:29:00 - 00:07:32:20

Squire Servance

You know, it was. You're young. Well, I'm young. At the

00:07:32:20 - 00:07:51:08

Squire Servance

time, I thought it was really cool that they get to work with athletes. I'd like that intersection, you know. You know, being trying to be athletic at the time. And I thought that was pretty cool. I saw that how much they were making. I was like, you can make that much

00:07:51:08 - 00:07:51:11

Squire Servance

now.

00:07:51:11 - 00:07:55:18

Squire Servance

I didn't know anything about investment banking and venture funds and entrepreneurship.

00:07:55:18 - 00:08:11:04

Squire Servance

I know anything about that. But when I saw the intersection of what they were doing and how much they were making and really the sports angle was probably one of the bigger, the bigger pieces, that's what led me to it. And so that was like the starting point.

00:08:11:04 - 00:08:19:05

Squire Servance

But then I got to learn more. I started taking more courses and the love just kind of grew, grew from there.

00:08:19:07 - 00:08:49:05

Christian Soschner

This is amazing. When I was 11, I was inspired mostly by computers and learned about people like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and found it very interesting. And you basically live in the motherland of capitalism meant investment, entrepreneurship. How did you then transition? I mean, from the start you interviewed orthopedics surgeons, then you went to university, to college, you graduated, and then you decided to go into venture capital.

00:08:49:05 - 00:08:52:06

Christian Soschner

What sparked this interest to go into the investment side?

00:08:52:10 - 00:09:16:14

Squire Servance

Yeah, no. So I'll give like the full rundown how it ultimately played out. So focused on the life sciences from an early age ends up going to college. I double majored in college biomedical engineering. A second woman's major. Major was cell biology and neuroscience ultimately pivoted because the plan was actually go to medical school, ultimately pivoted from that.

00:09:16:14 - 00:09:44:17

Squire Servance

Just felt like that wasn't for me as I kind of grew but still love the sciences and ended up going into law school and business school. And when I graduated, I ultimately became a patent attorney. So I was a patent attorney doing work in the life sciences space. And so I was able to marry my love of the science with the legal, the practice of law, and which I thought was it was a great a great combination.

00:09:44:19 - 00:10:16:02

Squire Servance

And so when you're working at a pretty large firm here in Philadelphia, and once you get to build the expertise of building patent portfolios, helping companies, life sciences companies create value, it was a great transition in doing license work, collaboration, partnerships, M&A, and that's where I got exposure to the investment and working with, you know, doing transactions with VC companies, entrepreneurs.

00:10:16:04 - 00:10:38:02

Squire Servance

And that's where you know, I felt that it was around that time when I was at the law firm, I knew I really wanted to go into into the venture world at some point, you know, we were, you know, we're doing transactions. You know, I'm getting the hourly rate. I'm seeing what the checks are getting cut to the entrepreneurs, to the VC fund, seeing their multiples.

00:10:38:02 - 00:10:39:08

Squire Servance

multiples.

00:10:39:10 - 00:10:43:13

Squire Servance

And I was like, Man, I'm on the wrong side of this transaction here.

00:10:43:13 - 00:10:59:19

Squire Servance

And and so I was fortunate. I knew a gentleman who's in the VC space, and I remember sitting down with him for lunch one day and I was like, Look, I want to ultimately I want to do what you did. And he is kind of laid out the groundwork.

00:10:59:19 - 00:11:23:06

Squire Servance

He said, Okay, if you want to do this, you have to go in-house. You have to go work for some companies, do business development. He recommended that I ultimately transitioned over to kind of do the business, but my path took me up on the legal side of things a little bit, and so I ultimately became in C-suite as a general counsel, corporate secretary of a of a life sciences company.

00:11:23:08 - 00:11:52:05

Squire Servance

But he recommended and gave me here the things that you're trying to do. What I'm doing here are the things you should be doing, and here are the jobs you need to take over the next 7 to 8 years. And for the most part, I followed that roadmap. And so it's interesting, you know, people say, you know, this something that just came out of the blue because, you know, you switched from law to 2 to 2 investments, but it actually was, you know, almost a decade in the making.

00:11:52:07 - 00:11:59:01

Squire Servance

And so I knew it was coming. It was just a matter of the right time. The right thesis in the right approach with you.

00:11:59:02 - 00:12:23:08

Christian Soschner

mean, I have a lot of young scientists in the audience, and I know from some that they are not so intrigued by the idea to pursue academic career and are looking for other directions in life. Could you break down the advice you got and your experience into the seven steps to venture capitalists for young people?

00:12:23:14 - 00:12:25:04

Christian Soschner

How would it look if you tried it?

00:12:25:07 - 00:12:26:11

Squire Servance

No. So I'll give

00:12:26:11 - 00:12:49:16

Squire Servance

my experience and then kind of I could provide some other context for others that are junior. So what I was told was and it was ultimately kind of go do your own thing, you have to build up a track record of doing deals, right? And so if you're not and this was I was already in my professional career, I already had my MBA.

00:12:49:18 - 00:13:23:11

Squire Servance

And so for me to pivot from a legal background to venture fund, I'd have to be able to say, Here are the deals that I did. Here were the returns on investment where they accretive to, you know, adjusted earnings per share and have to have that experience so that when I did go to market, I could talk about it and say this is the type of work that I've done and here's my track record of success and so I think if anyone is pivoting from, you know, from like a legal field or something like that over out, that would be my recommendation.

00:13:23:11 - 00:13:45:09

Squire Servance

So, you know, if you look at what I did is I went to business development, I did deals right then. I was social general counsel at Baxter Healthcare. I was like head of legal for their pharma business. There's a $2 billion business. And I did a number of deals helping to grow, grow their portfolio in or inorganically through acquisitions and whatnot.

00:13:45:11 - 00:13:56:09

Squire Servance

And then even when I was a general counsel, we were, as that company was very acquisitive. We did three company acquisitions. We were averaging like three company acquisitions a year. And so that's what.

00:13:56:14 - 00:13:57:04

Christian Soschner

A lot of work.

00:13:57:10 - 00:14:00:02

Squire Servance

It was a lot of work. It was real busy, busy time.

00:14:00:02 - 00:14:21:02

Squire Servance

Now for those like scientists, it's interesting because like in the life sciences space, specifically life sciences investments, you know, that Ph.D. is, you know, highly valued. Having someone that can speak the science, you know, we could figure out, collect with you the business side of things. But there is there is a path.

00:14:21:02 - 00:14:41:09

Squire Servance

And a lot of people I think I'm a bit big advocate. If you don't want to go into academia or if you're not focused on R&D and you want to kind of go invest, it's a great it's a great pivot and the work is needed. You can start off whether it's in analysts helping to analyze deals and then kind of work your way up in the VC.

00:14:41:12 - 00:14:42:23

Christian Soschner

VC

00:14:42:23 - 00:14:43:19

Squire Servance

00:14:43:21 - 00:15:08:17

Christian Soschner

What inspired you then to start your own fund? I mean, you can imagine you had a great career, you had big corporations with all the advantages to work with Baxter and probably also some just imagining some offers from other big companies. If you're given your expertise, then you pivoted to venture capital. What inspired you then to to start your own fund and not just lean back and say, okay, where is the next big fund that I can join?

00:15:08:17 - 00:15:12:17

Christian Soschner

And everything is laid out already but inspired you to become an entrepreneur again?

00:15:12:21 - 00:15:15:02

Squire Servance

No. And so because I had the

00:15:15:02 - 00:15:42:15

Squire Servance

idea for the fund, the question was the timing. So I knew I was going to do it at some point. And what really happened was, you know, you go through COVID, you start to see health disparities front and center on the television every night. Now, look, I grew up in definitely in my community, in the black community, that app that I was associated with growing up, my family, we always talked about health disparities.

00:15:42:15 - 00:16:05:20

Squire Servance

It was it was it was it was understood that these disparities existed. But it was quite interesting during COVID to see it front and center on the TV. No one could hide from it any more. You had more black and Hispanic people dying, going to the hospital, getting sick, staying out of work longer. I mean, that's what the data.

00:16:05:22 - 00:16:34:17

Squire Servance

And at that point in time, I was I was trying to figure out like, okay, what can we do? What can I do personally to help try to address this issue in some way? And so ultimately try to figure out a way to combine addressing health equity with this fund idea. And that's kind of where we landed. The timing of it was, you know, there's I don't think there's any particularly great time to kind of go out and do something this large was fortunate.

00:16:34:17 - 00:16:55:15

Squire Servance

You know, I have a supportive family and we kind of talked it over with my wife and we were like, well, this is a good time to do it. And, you know, look, I had pretty, you know, a successful legal career to date. And I felt comfortable taking a at least a career risk at the time to to get the company off the ground.

00:16:55:18 - 00:17:13:04

Christian Soschner

You mentioned the term health equity. When you look back at your pharma career, how did your perception of health inequalities, health equity change over the years? Where are we today and how did it evolve over the past years?

00:17:13:06 - 00:17:14:07

Squire Servance

Well, I think

00:17:14:07 - 00:17:39:18

Squire Servance

it's evolved in the sense that there's becoming there's there there are more there's more structure around what that means, right? So people could talk about health equity, health disparities, but a lot of times it was undefined. And matter of fact, there's there still isn't really one common definition of what, what, what that means. And I you know, look, I describe it as, you know, health equity.

00:17:39:20 - 00:18:08:15

Squire Servance

It's a it's a state where everyone has the fair and just opportunity to to attain the highest level of health. Right. A and, you know, like describe a social justice in health care. And I think it now you kind of go out and you see what's going on out there and they have, you know, what goes into health equity, the social determinants of health and what that means.

00:18:08:15 - 00:18:31:02

Squire Servance

So there's a lot more structure and a lot more research, a lot more focus on this. And I think like for example, COVID accelerated the development and you know, like many technology, for example, it accelerates, you know, the the understanding of why health equity is an issue and why it needs to be at the forefront of many companies of government, government, state and federal governments minds.

00:18:31:15 - 00:18:37:05

Christian Soschner

What are the most pressing health disparities you observe in the United States?

00:18:37:07 - 00:18:37:15

Squire Servance

So

00:18:37:15 - 00:19:02:10

Squire Servance

in the United States, I would you know, obviously the big ones, like racial ethnic disparities, that's like a big one where you can just look at the life expectancy of black and Native Americans compared to white Americans. It's just there's a big gap. You can look at, you know, black women, women or maternal mortality. Right? Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy related complications.

00:19:02:10 - 00:19:23:02

Squire Servance

So like just from racial ethnic disparities, you see that. You also see issues around access to health care. Right? Well, you know, the U.S., we don't have universal health care here. I won't go into the politics around that. But you know, that makes an issue with respect to access to quality care for for for a number of folks.

00:19:23:04 - 00:20:00:11

Squire Servance

And that's just not like people, you know, health care and access to it is not necessarily limited to like urban centers and things like that, but it's rural communities that now may make it difficult to get to, you know, hospital centers and things like that. So those are just it is a very large and complex issue. I can go into chronic diseases, I can go into mental health, but there are a number of big issues that that we're facing here in the United States that from just a help equity standpoint are big issues that hopefully, you know, folks will be able to focus on and try to address in the future.

00:20:00:21 - 00:20:14:14

Christian Soschner

If we would narrow down the list and say what are the three biggest disparities that we should change to improve the situation, which free would step to have to have impact?

00:20:14:16 - 00:20:16:03

Squire Servance

Well, and that's a yes, that's

00:20:16:03 - 00:20:48:00

Squire Servance

a loaded question, because like, that's a it's a loaded question because you have to understand why there's health inequities first. Right. If you understand that. So you have health inequity. What saying like that, that state where everyone fair and just opportunity to attain their health, to live right then you have what goes into that social determinants of health what is actually you know you have economic stability, environment, education, access to quality healthcare and like community engagement, right?

00:20:48:05 - 00:21:11:03

Squire Servance

Those are like pillars. Now, again, there's no one set definition of all those are, but those go into it and then you have the structural reasons why there are issues in transportation issues and housing. Right? And so you have to dig a lot deeper. And there's no there's just why there's no one solution here to address such a weighty issue.

00:21:11:03 - 00:21:33:07

Squire Servance

So I can't give you those those top three things because it's going to take a concerted effort from our elected officials and concerted effort from, you know, private companies, public companies, nonprofits, churches, community organizers. It's a it's a breadth of folks that really need to be engaged to if you want to start moving the needle in that space.

00:21:33:09 - 00:21:34:01

Christian Soschner

Yeah, Yeah, that's

00:21:34:01 - 00:22:00:10

Christian Soschner

chartist protest. I mean, the people are sick. There are a lot of problems also here in Europe. I think the system is changing. It's especially I mean, it's becoming particularly expensive in the last years with an aging population. And we also see these disparities popping up. And sometimes I think I did a lot of research myself in longevity, but coming from the martial arts that so I started in data scientists and so but I decided not to study medicine.

00:22:00:10 - 00:22:33:03

Christian Soschner

The reason was that nobody tackled the question, how can we stay healthy, basically? So at the university level, it was mostly about healing diseases and curing diseases and nothing about how to stay healthy. And when you look at our society, I think nutrition, sedentary, sedentary lifestyle, no exercise at a lot. And the difference between educated people, people who have access to education and people who don't have it is just how we look at people, what's they eat and what's to drink.

00:22:33:05 - 00:22:35:17

Christian Soschner

It's clear that they develop.

00:22:35:19 - 00:22:36:16

Squire Servance

Yeah, exactly. That's

00:22:36:16 - 00:23:05:01

Squire Servance

why I like the question. I'll get asked this, you know, what are the what? Like what's the underlying root? Right. And you could look at socioeconomic factors like just just purely like simple, like a simple example. Lower income individuals often face issues and barriers to accessing quality health care. Right? A healthy food. Those are educational opportunities, right?

00:23:05:01 - 00:23:37:13

Squire Servance

Those are all things that just lower income people face on barriers accent that plays into why ultimately you can't have access to healthy food. How are you expected to attain a healthy life? Right? And then you have just broader structural racism and discrimination in the United States, right? Just historically, there are disparities have been perpetuated, right, in access to education, employment, housing, things like that specifically tied to one's race.

00:23:37:15 - 00:23:54:22

Squire Servance

And so once you have that long standing issue in the United States, it feeds into the social determinants of health, which feeds into why there's health disparities, why there isn't health equity that currently isn't it health equity at this point, Right.

00:23:55:21 - 00:24:28:01

Christian Soschner

Yeah, It's interesting. Yesterday in Austria, there was a speech from a politician. It was in a private surgery and somebody filmed it and they were talking about that. In Austria, every child has access to food, so nobody must suffer hunger or doesn't have anybody to eat anything to eat. And his example was that's the cheapest meal for kids in Austria is a burger at a chain, you know, and French fries.

00:24:28:07 - 00:24:45:14

Christian Soschner

And as and you feed that to kids six, seven, eight years old and you say, yeah, you have your bone meal here. You don't need to suffer from hunger and you have enough to eat. And then you look 20 years in the future. I mean, it's clear that this is not going very well.

00:24:45:16 - 00:24:47:05

Squire Servance

No, exactly.

00:24:47:05 - 00:24:52:11

Squire Servance

Exactly. And, you know, there's probably parallels in the United States specifically around that example.

00:24:52:13 - 00:24:54:13

Christian Soschner

You have similar similar developments that.

00:24:54:15 - 00:25:25:23

Squire Servance

Yeah, like, you know, people it's not that everyone like eating their kids in the United States that go to school hungry because they don't have food right now. Some schools provide it, some schools don't. You know, sometimes, you know, the food that is provided isn't necessarily the healthiest. And I'm not knocking this system because it's there's a lot of challenges, a lot of funding issues around trying to do that provide, you know, healthy foods for folks.

00:25:26:00 - 00:25:33:08

Squire Servance

But it's an issue that ultimately impacts community health, you know, certain communities.

00:25:33:09 - 00:25:47:07

Christian Soschner

So so poverty for children is also an issue. So you said kids go hungry to school in the morning. Did you see an increase in poverty during the pandemic? Is there when you look at the statistics.

00:25:47:09 - 00:25:51:13

Squire Servance

I don't know the numbers around that. I

00:25:51:13 - 00:26:16:09

Squire Servance

know there are significant impact in lower income neighborhoods on a variety of different metrics. You know, folks may not have access to Internet, right? How can you do, you know, remote classes if your your Internet is choppy? Right. You can't go out. A lot of communities. I lived in Chicago when this first happened.

00:26:16:11 - 00:26:35:21

Squire Servance

And, you know, the local neighborhood, the store shut down. You know, I was fortunate. I had a car and go drive to to get food. But if you couldn't you know, if you didn't have a car, it was now difficult for you to get food. And so there were a lot of issues like that. Now, I can't speak to everything.

00:26:35:21 - 00:26:46:22

Squire Servance

Some of my experiences that I've seen, I'm here. But yeah, I'm sure there were some some really large challenges, the United States broadly around that.

00:26:46:24 - 00:27:10:07

Christian Soschner

that's a pity to hear, folks, that we have closed these problems over the years. And it's also in recent years, as in Europe, I think these problems are becoming more pressing, more pressing When we look at venture capital intervention, landscaping had fed pretty. How has the perception intervention world been shaped in the last year around this topic.

00:27:10:09 - 00:27:10:15

Squire Servance

Around

00:27:10:15 - 00:27:40:17

Squire Servance

Around health equity, just the venture? So, you know, it depends on how you characterize it, right? So I've seen there are certain funds and investment firms that they're focused on health equity, but it's less around what we're doing on, which is investing in financing therapies that treat diseases in the most underserved communities. Right. That disproportionately affecting underserved communities.

00:27:40:17 - 00:28:14:07

Squire Servance

Right. So you have that aspect, but then you have others that are focused on diverse teams, you know, health care companies led by diverse teams, both instances, look, the investors care about returns. And if you can make a compelling, compelling case, a business case, this investment thesis that investing in this specific way will generate, you know, three, five, ten bucks return on your capital in a specific set period of time, you'll be fine, I think.

00:28:14:07 - 00:28:44:21

Squire Servance

What's the broader trend? Less in venture funds? It's less around health equity, in life sciences and what have you, but it's more just it's more around, you know, this cycle of cycle of capital scarcity, which is happening now because there's less iPods and the implications of that downstream. And so it's it's it's I think people will invest in in a fund that will make money, period.

00:28:45:11 - 00:28:59:02

Christian Soschner

How do you see the venture landscape these days when it comes to Alps? Is capital flowing to the market or are we still some very noble end where nobody knows what will happen?

00:28:59:03 - 00:29:01:15

Squire Servance

We're we're it's the latter, right? So it

00:29:01:15 - 00:29:33:07

Squire Servance

is so, you know, as I was saying, the cycle of, you know, capital scarcity, so you have this is kind of what happened here. You have the IPO market kind of dried up. And so, you know, private companies didn't have access to capital. The VCs looked at that and they say, okay, well, we need to keep our money in house and make sure that we can deploy to our existing portfolio companies, which means that, you know, the companies that haven't been invested by VCs into VCs are now having trouble raising capital.

00:29:33:09 - 00:30:03:21

Squire Servance

Right. You couple the fact in another kind of outcome of the the drier you know, the broader biotech public equities dip is that from a LP standpoint, the asset allocations now are off right. So a lot of that I mean the big thing in investing from LP pension funds that that standpoint is you know, getting that asset allocation correct And so if you it's it's called the denominator problem, right?

00:30:03:21 - 00:30:32:01

Squire Servance

So if you have, you know, 10% allocated to venture funds in your portfolio and you, for example, keep it simple, 90% public equities and now the you know that public we took a dip so that value has gone down that 10% VC market, your allocation is now like 15, 20% unrelated to anything that the pieces have done. It's all tied to just what's happening on the public markets.

00:30:32:03 - 00:30:58:21

Squire Servance

And, and so you have LP saying, all right, well we have to balance our portfolio. We're not taking on more VC new managers because we need to wait this thing out until we get our balance back. And so that's really what's been happening in the market here. So you're getting so funds broadly are having trouble raising capital, companies are now having trouble raising capital.

00:30:58:23 - 00:31:16:24

Squire Servance

I think at some point it'll pivot back. I think you'll start to see more IPOs coming back into the market Q1 of next year and hopefully things will start, you know, cycling back. But that's that's where we're at from a landscape perspective.

00:31:17:01 - 00:31:17:03

Christian Soschner

I

00:31:17:03 - 00:31:54:04

Christian Soschner

mean, you had a similar topic this morning with Owen Reynolds from Texas Ventures. He's from the US, migrated to Europe some some people do that and we touched on that and he also mentioned that we had two apples recently. AAM and Instacart and when I look at that dynamics I mean I hope I remember it right the latest post I have read on LinkedIn about the Instacart IPO was that the latest investors on the private market in the last round before the IPO got this 75% cut in the valuation.

00:31:54:06 - 00:32:12:20

Christian Soschner

So I mean when this hits the balance sheets of the ABC since they reported back to the LP since they haven't yet recovered 25%. What's your opinion hoping that be taken by LP could that motivates them to put more money into the market.

00:32:12:22 - 00:32:14:14

Squire Servance

So forget that last question.

00:32:14:17 - 00:32:32:01

Christian Soschner

So but what I mean with Instacart, I remember that the valuation cut from the last private round to the IPO valuation was about 75%. So the investors lost money and it was just changing. I mean, well, what's the message toward peace when we have such IPOs?

00:32:32:03 - 00:32:33:08

Squire Servance

Well, I mean, you

00:32:33:08 - 00:33:00:07

Squire Servance

look, there's there's no crystal ball on how companies are going to play out. The markets are you know, they're so, for the most part, try to be efficient. You know what I saw when I talked to LPs, it's generally that, you know, you have to describe how you view IPO's. I kind of generally view it as just it's another fund raising mechanism, right?

00:33:00:09 - 00:33:23:07

Squire Servance

But you know, the way I focus definitely in the life sciences space because I get questions around your focus on health equity. How big is that market? What do you what does that mean? And, you know, we kind of define these health equity diseases where there's a great health disparity on a variety of different dimensions. But when we look at it, it's it's a global market.

00:33:23:09 - 00:33:53:07

Squire Servance

The diseases that we're looking at just financially from global market share perspective are over half a trillion. So it is a big market where we're playing in right now. And we couple that with the fact that our strategy is specifically around venture creation. So acquiring assets, acquiring products and building companies. And we're in a place now where I think around 66, 57% of CEOs at biotech and pharma companies are looking to divest products.

00:33:53:07 - 00:34:20:15

Squire Servance

So we're able there's a great market to acquire products for us. We think it's going to be a great opportunity to for exits in the future, given how the landscape of biotech and pharma is playing out. The big the big drivers are this about $200 billion of revenue at risk tied to patent expirations for the next 7 to 10 years, and there's gaps in pharma company pipelines.

00:34:20:17 - 00:34:43:03

Squire Servance

And so you have access to products now 3 to 7 years, we think is the opportune time where, you know, pharma companies, biotech to deploy, they're you know, they're sitting on a lot of cash now, deploy that cash to fill the gaps in their pipeline. And so when I talked to LP, that's the the conversation that I'm having around the landscape, specifically in the life sciences space.

00:34:43:05 - 00:34:44:03

Christian Soschner

I totally agree. I

00:34:44:03 - 00:35:06:22

Christian Soschner

the market is stagnant. This is always the best time to invest in deregulation. So nope, two years ago the valuations were just mesmerizing. I think also on public markets are the public life science companies that are pre-market. I think the increase for intellia 60% down from the peak.

00:35:07:02 - 00:35:09:17

Squire Servance

Yeah. So that

00:35:09:17 - 00:35:37:15

Squire Servance

you know, for me it creates opportunities, right? So market dislocation habit and so like there you had a lot of pharma companies that saw 2020 and 2021 I want to say majority of the biotech companies that went public were pre-commercial, a number of them were preclinical. So and when you're looking at that, what should be moving the value of the stock price should be data, right?

00:35:37:17 - 00:36:00:08

Squire Servance

It should be good data. But what would happen was there was a lot of things that were bumping up those those stocks that were unrelated to kind of the data that was actually getting presented. And so we had a correction. And those individuals, momentum investors, those weren't that weren't looking specifically at the data, they kind of got out.

00:36:00:08 - 00:36:26:00

Squire Servance

And so you had these depressed prices now and, you know, it's a interesting scenario. So like for a fund like me, this is probably why companies are looking to to partner with us and it was just taking on assets and taking them forward is, you know, look, now they thought they were able to they were going to go raise capital in the markets and that has dried up.

00:36:26:02 - 00:36:47:24

Squire Servance

And so they may have had five products in their portfolio. They really know they really can fund three now based off of what they have, two of them which are really good. But, you know, they just have to prioritize the portfolio rather than shelving them. They're looking for partners to acquire, take them forward. And that's where our fund comes in.

00:36:47:24 - 00:37:09:20

Squire Servance

And we've had a number of conversations with different companies in different therapeutic areas, wigs. That was exactly the case. And so, you know, it's it's it you know, I know it hurts for for some of the biotech companies that have to do that. But, you know, I'm not the only one from a venture creation standpoint looking at the market like this.

00:37:09:20 - 00:37:22:18

Squire Servance

So but for us, there's a lot of opportunities. And you mentioned before, but it's like, yeah, buy low, sell high, right? There's a lot of opportunities to acquire. So you have some flexibility and some negotiation leverage now to kind of get some assets at a at

00:37:22:18 - 00:37:23:15

Squire Servance

a discount.

00:37:23:17 - 00:37:26:21

Christian Soschner

And people need money. So it's basically doubled opportunity.

00:37:27:02 - 00:37:27:18

Squire Servance

Exactly.

00:37:27:18 - 00:37:49:14

Christian Soschner

Slashed valuations to desperate people. So it is a good combination for investors, I'm sorry to say so, but it's it's the market did it. Let's dive a little bit deeper into in your fund, in your model, in your investment model, you mentioned that you go in early, you partner with companies and your goal is to change the problem around health equity and health disparities.

00:37:49:16 - 00:38:00:20

Christian Soschner

Can you explain to the listeners how model works, How you from the point where you pick up opportunities to the point where you exit opportunities? Yeah.

00:38:00:22 - 00:38:01:03

Squire Servance

So

00:38:01:03 - 00:38:09:14

Squire Servance

we're so launched a firm called Series X Bio last year. We're impact minded life sciences venture firm.

00:38:09:14 - 00:38:26:05

Squire Servance

Our mission is to accelerate health equity and obviously while generating returns for investors. And we do that essentially by deploying capital into therapies that treat diseases that disproportionately impact an underserved population.

00:38:26:05 - 00:38:33:07

Squire Servance

So we're like any traditional firm. But our starting point is where is there a big health disparity?

00:38:33:07 - 00:39:03:04

Squire Servance

By indication, we're looking at lupus, sickle cell sarcoidosis, triple negative breast cancer. Where where are those big health disparities by indication. And then we do more of a pool model. We scour the world to see if there are technologies, drugs, therapies that we can invest in to get them to market. We typically focus on assets that are going into clinical stage or I'm about to be in clinical development already.

00:39:03:05 - 00:39:39:22

Squire Servance

And so that's our focus in, you know, we're focused on that because we believe if we can finance those drugs in the areas of the greatest need, you can do well by investors and could do well for society. Our focus is generally venture creation know was mentioned earlier, so we will identify an asset that we like, have the discussion, try to acquire it outright, either exclusive license or a pure equity straight acquisition of it.

00:39:39:24 - 00:39:51:19

Squire Servance

We a team around it, seed it with capital, provided the necessary networks and resources to take it forward and then let the company let the company grow.

00:39:51:21 - 00:39:52:13

Christian Soschner

So if

00:39:52:13 - 00:40:20:20

Christian Soschner

I understand you right, you are the perfect match for a scientific founder who thinks he has excellent data but doesn't want to leave his academic career path and needs someone with the capability of picking up the opportunity and build a team around it and move the asset forward. How early do you go in in an opportunity?

00:40:21:01 - 00:40:24:05

Christian Soschner

What data packages would you want to see?

00:40:24:07 - 00:40:25:05

Squire Servance

Yeah, so

00:40:25:05 - 00:40:59:08

Squire Servance

we tend to we tend to be looking at drugs are the earliest finding enabling stocks right now. I do get a lot of opportunities that are fairly on coming out of universities and things like that. And we for the most part, because we do have some deals in the pipeline that we're looking at, we primarily focused on that earliest stage with some some R&D enabling studies, though, you know, for the right opportunity at the right price point.

00:40:59:08 - 00:41:20:05

Squire Servance

And we feel like there's a strong data to support something earlier. We may we may look at that. But that currently falls outside of our scope of investment. And so like any any any for us and any any investment outside that scope, we'd have to kind of get our LPs to kind of weigh on it. Let's go that route.

00:41:20:05 - 00:41:26:03

Squire Servance

So there's avenues to do that, but that's kind of our general focus currently.

00:41:26:05 - 00:41:27:16

Christian Soschner

Maybe I missed the point,

00:41:27:16 - 00:41:36:03

Christian Soschner

you said, and enabling studies to wants to have the asset at the beginning of the enabling studies or completed data packages.

00:41:36:03 - 00:41:37:10

Squire Servance

So beginnings find.

00:41:37:12 - 00:41:54:20

Christian Soschner

Opportunities. Financial. Yeah, okay, that's good. I mean, Europe must be a data haven for you then. I mean, basically this is the big problem we have here. We have world class grant funding up to the point to the anti enabling studies and then we have a huge gap. So.

00:41:54:22 - 00:41:56:07

Squire Servance

Yeah, I mean, I

00:41:56:07 - 00:42:29:23

Squire Servance

mean, when we because we looked at specifically lupus, for example, we looked across the globe number of European companies, we spoke to a number in the U.S., some in Austria. So like we spoke with companies from around the world. And so our our goal is to find, you know, the best technology that we feel we can accelerate to get to market, to get new treatments for, you know, for those with the greatest need.

00:42:30:00 - 00:42:31:18

Christian Soschner

We have a best practice example

00:42:31:18 - 00:42:38:08

Christian Soschner

in your fund already that you could explain to so interested people.

00:42:38:10 - 00:42:39:02

Squire Servance

So

00:42:39:02 - 00:42:52:07

Squire Servance

we don't have so we just launched so we're close to knock on we're close to doing our first deal and I don't want to go into that one because it will be easy to figure out. So but it's.

00:42:52:07 - 00:42:53:04

Christian Soschner

Just just a picture.

00:42:53:07 - 00:43:21:09

Squire Servance

But yeah, so like, I'll give you I'll just start with like the lupus example, right? So we looked at lupus, we ended up we identified lupus through a variety of different metrics. We scoured the world, we ended up reviewing 250, close to 250 different products, right. And therapies in a variety of capacities. We ended up speaking to maybe 20 different companies with diligence, maybe five.

00:43:21:09 - 00:43:52:07

Squire Servance

I think two of them, we were like, okay, this this particular asset in this particular data package potentially makes sense for us to come in and acquire. And so at that instance we'll have those conversations when we kind of do our analysis. And our goal is we probably do a more rigorous diligence process on the writing process than traditional fund venture fund, because we will then go in and say, All right, we have this data, what do we need to do to get it from point A to point B?

00:43:52:13 - 00:44:20:17

Squire Servance

We'll put together, we may say, all right, look, we need to tweak their, you know, their regulatory strategy. What they're doing may not work or may not be the most efficient. So we'll have to put together our own regulatory plan. We have our own IP strategy. We're looking at where they have IP other, you know, they may cover the specific product, but we may say, all right, we we think we can expand this to to bolster their portfolio grow.

00:44:20:19 - 00:44:48:12

Squire Servance

And so there are things that we're doing upfront to mitigate that risk before we acquire it. And we've been fortunate in our process is that we did we do typically bring in specific experts to help us diligence because we can land on oncology, DERM, autoimmune. So we do bring in specific experts in those areas. And at least for the first deal, we're looking at, you know, those individuals that helped us diligence the asset.

00:44:48:12 - 00:45:15:08

Squire Servance

They're coming on. They would come on as chief medical officer, VP of CMC, to lead that company forward. So we have a we have we have a strong team diligence in the asset coming up with the right plan, the people that diligence particular specifically the experts though, they'll come on afterwards and take that that plan forward. And so that's our approach.

00:45:15:10 - 00:45:15:23

Christian Soschner

What's

00:45:15:23 - 00:45:44:16

Christian Soschner

the goal with the companies? You mentioned you license the compound into a corporate shell in the United States and then bring on a team. Is your vision for the company is to keep them as a single asset company so you develop one molecule, one step forward and partner with the farming industry, or are you more envisioning larger entities around big problems like disease areas?

00:45:44:18 - 00:45:45:15

Squire Servance

To some extent it depends

00:45:45:15 - 00:46:05:21

Squire Servance

on the product because like some products, a pipeline product by pipeline, the pipeline by product. So like you can go after multiple indications. So I was speaking with the company earlier this week. They were like, this is a broad OTO autoimmune drug and there were ten different indications that they can go after. They're going after one.

00:46:05:23 - 00:46:28:12

Squire Servance

They're open to licensing others out. And so in that instance you have a pipeline, you have a pipeline of products. There are indications that you go after for that one single asset. Others it might make sense to to kind of say, hey, we're a rare disease company, rare disease cell therapy company. And we say, all right, let's bring in multiple assets into that.

00:46:28:12 - 00:46:46:13

Squire Servance

And I think the goal would be looking at the timeline for exit, which product would exit and how do we we get returns for the investors in an efficient and an efficient way. So it is to some extent deal by deal to figure out that specific to answer that specific question mean.

00:46:46:15 - 00:46:48:03

Christian Soschner

I think I have a business

00:46:48:03 - 00:47:13:18

Christian Soschner

background. So I think it's fantastic today that we can talk about so many different models for companies. When I think back, I read this book recently from Sebastian MALLABY to promote the power law. It's basically the history of venture capital. And he's a Sebastian MALLABY, the author is the analyst entity. Amazing Chop in researching the development from the forties fifties of venture capital up to now.

00:47:13:20 - 00:47:25:03

Christian Soschner

And a big part of this book is the Genentech story. And I remember it's that basically I think it's. 40 years ago, 50 years ago almost I think 78. Yeah.

00:47:25:06 - 00:47:27:20

Squire Servance

I think they're getting licenses created in 70.

00:47:27:20 - 00:47:57:06

Christian Soschner

So and the story in the book is that they basically planned to bring the product to the market and create a larger entity, right. From the start. And today we mentioned that you have the possibility to, to create the larger company depending on the asset or to make it think as a company and partnered off. I I'm interested in curious to hear your perception of the development of the life science industry in venture capital from the Genentech moments up to now.

00:47:57:06 - 00:48:01:10

Christian Soschner

How did you perceive that development from your from your expertise, from experience?

00:48:01:12 - 00:48:02:10

Squire Servance

I mean, I think

00:48:02:10 - 00:48:26:22

Squire Servance

biotech life sciences generally generate what street long read, great returns for investors. I think more and more people are seeing that. I think, you know, often times those higher checks in longer holding periods, just the nature of how you develop a drug. But the returns in the space have been great. I think people understand it.

00:48:26:22 - 00:48:49:07

Squire Servance

I think now I think a lot of things oftentimes are cyclical. You know, you're seeing. And so I think what's what's happening now, big pharma, which were, you know, the great exit Avenue for a lot of, you know, smaller biotechs, they're waiting. They have a lot of cash. They're waiting. They're they're saying, hey, we're going to wait till this particular asset is de-risked.

00:48:49:09 - 00:49:13:11

Squire Servance

And that may be after phase two, right when you're going in phase three is de-risked enough and they're willing to pay the higher multiple to get that asset a de-risked asset. And so you're having that. And so I think what's going to happen is you're going to create this gap. You know, how do you the companies that aren't public, like how are you funding them from idea to face to now?

00:49:13:11 - 00:49:45:07

Squire Servance

And I do think you'll start to see more VCs because I think it's going to be more opportunities to invest, start investing in those early stage, early stage companies like pre phase two and because they can't go public, at least not right now, and they need access to capital to kind of continue the innovation. And I think the great thing about what's happening with the great thing, what's going on in life sciences, innovation remains strong.

00:49:45:09 - 00:50:10:15

Squire Servance

The level of innovation that is coming out of a lot of the companies, a lot of the universities institutes is amazing. We just need to, as a as an investment world, figure out how we can continue to, you know, finance them to kind of get them to the point where you have an inflection where they can raise more capital, take it forward.

00:50:10:17 - 00:50:11:24

Christian Soschner

I mean, this story you mentioned,

00:50:11:24 - 00:50:36:16

Christian Soschner

the the liquid assets in let's call it this way in pharma companies are mesmerizing ahead. The last time I looked at the biotech statement, the quarterly reports that liquid assets and short term assets, about 20 billion in their balance sheet and activity valuation of biotech. I mean it fluctuates, of course on the market, but it's fluctuates around 20 billion.

00:50:36:18 - 00:50:52:04

Christian Soschner

So basically the market capitalization equals the short term assets and domestic via something at one point. I mean, they are still doing most of the money. And I think in acquisition, I mean, but what would you do if the capital.

00:50:52:06 - 00:50:54:15

Squire Servance

Like and you look it's

00:50:54:15 - 00:51:23:12

Squire Servance

important Biontech is obviously doing well with the partnership on the COVID drug. But yeah and that's not I don't think that's isolated incident. I think a lot of big pharma, they're just sitting on cash and I think they're just waiting, waiting for a specific assets to get the rest because they can and they're going to swoop in and, you know, buy things at a higher multiple.

00:51:23:12 - 00:51:42:11

Squire Servance

Now, clearly, what will happen when multiple big pharma, you know, when when those multiples are getting to too high? I think, again, things may they're like, okay, maybe we need to go a little earlier and sell, but we're not there yet. So I think, you know, we'll see how this plays out over the next couple of years.

00:51:42:13 - 00:51:50:17

Christian Soschner

I mean, you have the gold moment and from a final piece, in my opinion, you have on the one hand, at the end of the value chain, you have capital waiting for

00:51:50:17 - 00:52:03:20

Christian Soschner

The IPO window probably will open up again in 24, 25, 26, somewhere around. And now the valuations are very low. So if MALKIN and it sounds like a great opportunity for APIs.

00:52:03:22 - 00:52:08:19

Squire Servance

Absolutely. I should bring you on my pitches. Absolutely.

00:52:08:21 - 00:52:16:07

Christian Soschner

I mean, you talked with many and piece in your opinion, is the opportunity understood or does it take some more groundwork?

00:52:16:09 - 00:52:16:17

Squire Servance

Yeah,

00:52:16:17 - 00:52:36:20

Squire Servance

you know, I think the opportunity is understood. I think, again, the bigger issue is the asset allocation problem, where they're taking on new, new new managers at this time, given where they're at. So but yeah, I don't, I don't think I mean the numbers are the numbers, right. Like I could look at how large the opportunities were looking to invest in.

00:52:36:22 - 00:53:07:04

Squire Servance

This is what's happened in the IPO market. These are the number of CEOs that are actively saying they're going to divest up to the we know there's opportunity to acquire products at a discount. We know that 3 to 5 years that IPO in that at the market from M&A perspective it's going to bounce back because and we know that big pharma they have again 200 billion of revenue at risk tied at patent expiration with with without having the complete pipeline.

00:53:07:04 - 00:53:17:16

Squire Servance

So they've got gaps in their pipeline. And so that story, it doesn't take much to people to understand. The question is you right? Are you writing to do it? Are you team to take

00:53:17:16 - 00:53:21:14

Squire Servance

it forward? How is that asset allocation issue for these.

00:53:21:16 - 00:53:25:15

Christian Soschner

200 billion? Is the risk of patent expiration?

00:53:25:17 - 00:53:26:01

Squire Servance

Yeah,

00:53:26:01 - 00:53:30:13

Squire Servance

at risk? Yep, it's probably higher. I mean, that's I mean

00:53:30:13 - 00:53:47:09

Squire Servance

the number specifically I think was 170 billion in the next seven years. But yeah, it's a lot and that's just do generics coming on the market and you know depleting the value of the revenue for us.

00:53:47:09 - 00:53:54:10

Christian Soschner

Okay so there's not there's not only capital sitting on the bank accounts. This also little bit of a patent cliff.

00:53:54:12 - 00:53:55:05

Squire Servance

a patent.

00:53:55:05 - 00:54:00:10

Christian Soschner

Desperate for for CEOs of public companies, desperate moments to look.

00:54:00:12 - 00:54:05:24

Squire Servance

At. Absolutely. I've been part of companies where it wasn't necessarily the patent cliff, where it was like, hey,

00:54:05:24 - 00:54:29:09

Squire Servance

we knew it was less the patent cliff, but we knew like competitors were coming in on this date and you have to fill the pipeline behind it. And years ahead of schedule to figure that out so that when that that does happen or if it does happen, you don't have a significant blip in your in your revenues.

00:54:29:11 - 00:54:46:24

Christian Soschner

We mentioned in our discussion, in our conversation, we mentioned a lot of partnerships with big pharma, with venture capitalists, with universities. When we bring the conversation back to health equity and health disparities, what partners do you need to change that in the value chain?

00:54:47:01 - 00:54:47:11

Squire Servance

So

00:54:47:11 - 00:55:02:06

Squire Servance

I don't know. This is quote, this is if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. It's health equity is such a big issue. It requires

00:55:02:06 - 00:55:16:00

Squire Servance

unified action like you need partners in because, you know, look, you know, just looking at the four or five social determinants of health, access to access to quality care.

00:55:16:00 - 00:55:39:23

Squire Servance

So access to care, quality care, you have education, economic stability, environment where people live, you know, pollution around in the community engagement. You know, I'm a fund, right? We're focused on the quality of care and making sure we have products in area where is the most needed. But If you're trying to move the needle on health equity, you need government policies to come in.

00:55:40:00 - 00:56:26:02

Squire Servance

You need, you know, that's federal and state, you need churches and communities to share opportunities for clinical trials addressed that, you know, definitely the black community, the mistrust of health, you know, the warranted mistrust of health care in non states, you need nonprofits, hospitals, systems, right. Like I seen in I just I just went and got my get an annual physical and they excellent there's a whole questionnaire on social determinants of health ask the questions and so you need to have these concerted efforts across a variety of different organizations and institutions to try to bend that.

00:56:26:04 - 00:56:44:11

Squire Servance

And so to move the needle and I say like I call health equity, social justice in health care. And it always takes me back to like a Dr. King, you know, the arc of the moral universe is long, but you're trying to bend it to some extent toward justice. Right? And so it's going to take concerted effort to bend that arc.

00:56:44:16 - 00:56:49:09

Squire Servance

Social justice towards social justice. In health care.

00:56:49:09 - 00:57:12:15

Christian Soschner

Where do you see your role would be if Spirit expire? Are you more focusing on staying focused on the mission of moving assets forward to the market, or are you also expand your perspective to the more charitable charity work that's necessary to get community support and to help also with the groundwork?

00:57:12:17 - 00:57:19:07

Squire Servance

So right now we're singularly focused on on the fund and

00:57:19:07 - 00:57:46:06

Squire Servance

focused on investing in specific diseases. And I think we need to be kind of the broad thing. What we're doing is really harnessing capitalism, right. People want to make money and directing it to health equity, and I think they work well. You can make you can do good and do well by harnessing like by investing in a way that ultimately can have an impact on some of those social determinants of health.

00:57:46:08 - 00:58:32:00

Squire Servance

We do get asked the question around because we specifically focus on therapies. Are we going to branch out to diagnostics, different other companies that will address those other pillars and, you know, social determinants and maybe in a next fund, because we do think it still fits under our purview of accelerating, achieving health equity. But and, you know, and I think me again, that's a second fund, but I do think there are still there's a path to broaden our scope at some point in the future to to need to address those address the needs in a from a capitalistic way to kind of push the needle for now.

00:58:32:00 - 00:58:52:04

Squire Servance

What you were specifically asking was like on the community development, things like that. I do think like, look, if there's opportunities to that, you know, in the future we can we can maybe cross that bridge later. But right now the reality is we're an investment firm and we have to invest in a way that that gets returns for strong returns for our investors.

00:58:52:06 - 00:59:04:15

Squire Servance

But, you know, yeah, I think the other things and partnering with other organizations in nonprofit, it's are not out of the wheelhouse from from my perspective quite yet though.

00:59:04:17 - 00:59:05:20

Christian Soschner

I'm hoping for

00:59:05:20 - 00:59:27:11

Christian Soschner

politics, for the support of politicians. I mean, when I look at the big health problems that we have today and most that they are diseases and I understand your mission as a venture funds, you need products that basically you need products to invest in to bring to market. Everything in our economy is centered around the product solution, which is quite trendy and which is good.

00:59:27:13 - 00:59:57:12

Christian Soschner

When you look at the health problems that the root causes, especially with the messages coming these days from the longevity field, there is an interesting documentary on Netflix about the Blue Zones, and the author of the book was basically doing some research. What influences longevity and which lifestyle changes help to stay healthier longer, and crossing the line to needing the health care system later in life.

00:59:57:12 - 01:00:25:12

Christian Soschner

So the health spend basically increases, which in Europe is much needed because I mean, it's we cannot finance a fair system for everybody from early age on, from diabetic diseases due to poor lifestyle habits with our society in the twenties already and 50 years in the health care system. The question that I'm pondering is, I mean, when we look at sleep, for example, people in my environment are very often overworked.

01:00:25:13 - 01:00:46:08

Christian Soschner

They like sleep. When we call to change that and we could raise the awareness probably, I'd say a positive impact alcohol, drugs, illicit drugs, for example. What's your take on that? How should we address these problems that could benefit people? How do we get these messages out of the markets that people learn to understand how important that is?

01:00:46:10 - 01:00:48:24

Squire Servance

No, like, you know, I think it goes back

01:00:48:24 - 01:01:02:22

Squire Servance

to education. We just need to in a different forms, whether it's in schools, whether in community, whether it's in churches, synagogues, mosques, what have you, have that conversation with your with your your your your constituents. And

01:01:02:22 - 01:01:08:01

Squire Servance

we have to educate. Now, look, you can bring people to the water, but you can't make them drink it.

01:01:08:01 - 01:01:09:24

Squire Servance

Right? Unfortunately. And

01:01:09:24 - 01:01:30:21

Squire Servance

so that's that's the thing, right? I can you know, I could tell someone, hey, you know, you have diabetes. You need to cut back on your sugar. You're going to have to get dialysis. You can you going to go. But if they don't make that change for themselves, I can't I can't do it for them.

01:01:31:02 - 01:01:54:19

Squire Servance

Right. And so you kind of run into that issue. So you want to be able to educate them. You want to be able to address some of the structural barriers that, make it difficult for them to to a lot of times, you know, do make healthy lifestyle choices. Right. And and just it's a continual effort. But I think you're you're right.

01:01:54:20 - 01:02:06:07

Squire Servance

There are some things that us as individuals need to do to be healthy. And we have to make the conscious decision to to do those things.

01:02:06:09 - 01:02:13:06

Christian Soschner

Now with all 50 industries would be solved a lot of problems. When I think back to my grandparents. So grew up in Europe after World War Two, everything was

01:02:13:06 - 01:02:25:05

Christian Soschner

destroyed. They were happy when they got something to eat. We fixed that and it's opened another can of worms basically in our society and hopefully we can also change that for the better.

01:02:25:10 - 01:02:49:08

Christian Soschner

My question to you around this topic is, in the last few years I saw a lot of adoption of AIDS, social media, search engines in the venture world and also in the big pharma world, for example. Some calls and conversations like we have when I addressed this idea in 2019 to colleagues from the farming industry or venture capitalists, they looked at me and said, Why should we do that?

01:02:49:08 - 01:03:05:04

Christian Soschner

Nobody needs that. And now when I ask people if they are willing, join my podcast. I think 90% said yes immediately and I happy to share the story. How do you see the impact of social media artificial intelligence in your work?

01:03:05:10 - 01:03:27:07

Squire Servance

so I think I would say this. It is I think I'd add to it. I don't think from the life sciences perspective, drug development is going to replace significantly replace individuals and the development that's happening, though I do think individuals that know how to use A.I.

01:03:27:07 - 01:03:30:00

Squire Servance

will replace those that don't know how to use A.I. or.

01:03:30:01 - 01:03:30:10

Christian Soschner

Really make.

01:03:30:10 - 01:03:31:17

Squire Servance

Sense. Yeah,

01:03:31:17 - 01:04:01:09

Squire Servance

because, like, it's a tool if you're not good at using this tool to to analyze massive amounts of data, then it'll be it can be it can be an issue, right? If you imagine before no one wanted to use a computer, it's computers tool email. And if you're not if you're not trained on how to use these new tools, I think it'll be a detriment to to folks in the future.

01:04:01:09 - 01:04:24:03

Squire Servance

So I think you need people need to understand them, learn how to use them. But I do think that they are just they are just a tool. I do think they will have the ability to advance drug development, finding, you know, unique areas where from a drug to just creating new drugs, identifying markers, things like that, I think it'll be used there.

01:04:24:05 - 01:04:41:13

Squire Servance

But again, people just need to learn how to use it and use it efficiently and effectively. And I think it's going to hit multiple different industries. So I think it's going to have finance at some point and that plays out. We'll see it definitely in the life sciences space. Will people be using AI and life sciences for years now?

01:04:41:13 - 01:04:53:01

Squire Servance

So this isn't particularly new, but I think it's more front and center now because of GPT and other in other AI engines like that.

01:04:53:03 - 01:04:53:12

Christian Soschner

Do you

01:04:53:12 - 01:04:59:11

Christian Soschner

feel an impact in your work already? Do you use Chargeability for for your venture capital work?

01:04:59:21 - 01:05:10:11

Squire Servance

Yeah, sometimes I do. It's like, you know, drafting, you know, emails, researching specific topic. Now look, the thing things you have to get trust it right to

01:05:10:11 - 01:05:15:11

Squire Servance

trust, trust, but verify what they're saying. That's true. I saw it

01:05:15:11 - 01:05:28:19

Squire Servance

I saw a lawyer used chat chat GPT to write a brief and I think all the citations for the legals were wrong and it sounds like yeah you get rely on.

01:05:28:20 - 01:05:57:06

Squire Servance

That's why I say it's a tool in and so but has it helped me identify specific assets and molecules to go after no not in that perspective. So administrative stuff it helps with but not nothing critical and identifying the asset understanding where their risks, how do you mitigate them? What's the best way to put together a plan? Because it's sometimes going to be tied to that specific asset.

01:05:57:08 - 01:06:17:14

Squire Servance

Understanding the nuance of how these things play throughout. Having someone that worked at the FDA that can advise you. So like there's so many things that go into kind of our underwriting process that, you know, you know, that we would never rely on a least not now, to kind of to help us with.

01:06:17:20 - 01:06:35:12

Christian Soschner

Yeah, I totally agree. I think these tools structure pretty I mean, the funny thing is they are more human that I imagine them to be making things up hallucinating and that has become a focus that hallucinating to sometimes hallucinate and just make things up. I mean all those well.

01:06:35:14 - 01:06:36:14

Squire Servance

That's

01:06:36:14 - 01:06:50:24

Squire Servance

right So I'm curious to see how this all evolves because, you know, the more people use it, the more data that's out there is going to get better and it's going to continue to get better. So we'll see how it how this plays out in the next couple of years.

01:06:50:24 - 01:07:14:20

Christian Soschner

How do you see the necessity these days to to use tools like podcast, for example, to be present? I mean, the the process is, as I understood them before 2020, were pretty simple go to conferences, MIT PCs built relationship with PCs. If you want to partner in that meets the industry in person. And now we have a lot of novel tools besides artificial intelligence out there, a lot of podcasts.

01:07:14:20 - 01:07:23:05

Christian Soschner

For example, I would start to market and people create more and more content. Is this really relevant in our industry or do you think it's just a fun thing?

01:07:23:05 - 01:07:24:23

Squire Servance

So the content is king, Right? That's

01:07:24:23 - 01:08:13:17

Squire Servance

where that's the value of a lot of a lot of tech companies and what have you. And it's valuable because people can learn what's going on in real time from experts by having these these types of conversations and, you know, for me, like people now can hear more about me, more about my phone, how I think about things, what I'm doing to try to address these larger and addressed larger issues in society and I think all of that plays into, you know, like from like even from a marketing standpoint, just pure marketing, you know, being able to if I can't visit you in person, but people can

01:08:13:17 - 01:08:36:01

Squire Servance

get to see me in a conversation like this, that's another data point that they have that can help me help them make a decision. Right? And so I think these are absolutely valuable, absolutely important for definitely for funds, for folks that are trying to grow their footprint online or in whatever area they're trying to grow that footprint.

01:08:36:03 - 01:08:37:22

Christian Soschner

It's really interesting because

01:08:37:22 - 01:09:03:14

Christian Soschner

before the pandemic had a lot of attempts to use tools like podcasts, but everybody in my environment ignored it and even asked people around conferences, for example, Bio International or by a European in Europe. How do you use these conferences to usually process? Was I register for a conference, then used to partner in tool app that my profile and then a local there.

01:09:03:16 - 01:09:29:23

Christian Soschner

And depending on the search area I think companies and then you read how they present themselves and then they carry on meetings. And there was a subtle nuance that happened between 2020, 2023. Then nowadays, when I ask people about their search process to say pretty much the same up to the partnering tool, and then they have a new step to say, and when I find the company interesting, then I look into search engines and then this happens.

01:09:29:23 - 01:09:35:15

Christian Soschner

What you mentioned, they look for data points outside of the partnering system, and this is completely new.

01:09:35:17 - 01:09:39:01

Squire Servance

Do you? absolutely. I mean, and like, look, people do that

01:09:39:01 - 01:09:53:14

Squire Servance

all the time. You interview people, the first thing you do is like, all right, Like you have their resume, you have the data that you're going to have a conversation with them with you go with them, see what shows up. Right? And so you use those different search engines to see and check LinkedIn, see what they're talking about.

01:09:53:16 - 01:10:19:16

Squire Servance

And I think, you know, because, you know, those those you have limited data, whether it's an interview or whether you're looking at information, it's up there. And usually those are in the best light, right? You're on your A-game in an interview, Right. We interviewed for a job. But let's see what else is out there that can help me make a a better informed decision on who you are as a person.

01:10:19:18 - 01:10:39:16

Squire Servance

Yeah. So I think yeah, so I think you're absolutely right. A lot of people I just went to a conference and even the tools they have like links to, you know, you get the email, you search, you see the profile, what's the link to their website, go to the website. So outside of the tool, you check out the website or you can just Google up.

01:10:39:18 - 01:10:47:20

Squire Servance

And so it just helps me make the decision, okay, don't speak with them, do it, not with time and just prioritize things a little bit better.

01:10:47:22 - 01:10:51:13

Christian Soschner

How do you how do you see that these days?

01:10:51:13 - 01:11:11:24

Christian Soschner

I mean, just as a story from from from my past, I mean, whatever I posted on Facebook, nobody was interested in it professionally. If I mean the before 2020 and now people pull out posts from ten, 15 years ago, When you look at your professional work, do you really look that far back?

01:11:11:24 - 01:11:22:22

Christian Soschner

I mean, what what happens in your venue search for a person and you find nothing? There is nothing on social media. There is a website with a picture and that's it.

01:11:22:24 - 01:11:24:06

Squire Servance

Yeah, it's

01:11:24:06 - 01:11:45:24

Squire Servance

I don't know, you see. Yeah, it is instinctive. There's nothing out there. Usually find something. But then the reality is you just have less data to go off of to make a decision, Right. It's not like what is it they say if you want to hide something, hide it on the second page of of a search engine.

01:11:45:24 - 01:12:09:24

Squire Servance

Right. Like you're not a lot of time digging that significantly that deep to figure out where is everything that's out there on that particular individual. But if it's out there, it's out there is also and people can find it. And sometimes it's like, okay, it's indication. Like it's something that's way out there. It's out. There's indication of like judgment.

01:12:09:24 - 01:12:32:08

Squire Servance

But if it was when you were a teenager, maybe you discount it, right, because you may have been 13. Right? Something happened that but you're making it. So what is a data point that you now have? You kind of have to factor that in, but some things just get discounted. I'm not necessarily digging deep to get their whole life story.

01:12:32:09 - 01:12:35:02

Squire Servance

Most times they stop me. Yeah.

01:12:35:02 - 01:12:57:16

Christian Soschner

Yeah. I think it's a tool in So just ten years ago this was only possible for people like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, to present themselves on media and the average person had no chance. And I think the downside of that was when you send a CV or, a pitch tech to someone, you can't believe it or you can't.

01:12:57:16 - 01:13:20:08

Christian Soschner

I mean, there is a lot of stuff in the CV and there's a lot of stuff in pitch decks, but how can you prove the truth of the history of the person now when they start documenting their life on social media, the only thing they need to do five years or ten years down the road and say, Look at my social media profiles and you there and you can see the timestamps, you can see the interviews.

01:13:20:08 - 01:13:28:14

Christian Soschner

I did it this time. And this, I think will help tremendously in future to overcome this trust hurdle in the beginning of a relationship.

01:13:28:16 - 01:13:29:18

Squire Servance

Absolutely.

01:13:29:18 - 01:14:07:19

Squire Servance

I was talking to someone recently, you know, saying like raising capital. It's it's about relationships and trust. And, you know, that's tied to credibility and credibility, some somewhat correlated to visibility. Right. And so, like, if you are more visible and out there speaking on an expert on specific topics, there's more credibility now is tied to you. They may trust you a little bit more because, okay, I can see that you are an expert in whatever area that it is and you have a track record of X, Y, and Z.

01:14:07:21 - 01:14:31:06

Squire Servance

And so it it's it's granted sometimes, you know, the individual has control over what they're putting out there and things like that. But it's it's it's it's different from I'm in an interview sending you a pitch deck here the things that I did and they now they independently verify it from five or six other sources. So there's a level there's a difference in those two scenarios.

01:14:31:08 - 01:14:58:20

Christian Soschner

That's true. That's true. But I mean, you can't fake interviews. I mean, when you do one interview or when you record yourself 2 minutes on on camera, of course. I mean, you can put your marketing messages. your your A-game. You mentioned the eight came out still. But when you sit with ten, 15 podcasters, similar to Joe Rogan and you discuss challenging topics over two or 3 hours, it's really challenging to keep it under control.

01:14:58:21 - 01:15:01:03

Squire Servance

You'll get the you'll get the real

01:15:01:03 - 01:15:09:10

Squire Servance

you. You'll get that real person at some point and sublevel and that and that in that conversation is.

01:15:09:12 - 01:15:34:02

Christian Soschner

This is is feeling that I got with the development of the internet if I always where is this thing heading to. And one conclusion that I have drawn is that people want to see the reality, don't want to see the name of the person because when you live if a person or when you basically work day and night with a person on a company for five years, you reallocate their A-game.

01:15:34:02 - 01:15:50:20

Christian Soschner

So you also experienced A, B and C, and that the game and just that the interesting taste and how they behave, how do they behave when they are under pressure. And I this is the reason why I said let's put it on this livestream, every every podcast that we do and just show people how we are.

01:15:51:00 - 01:15:51:08

Squire Servance

How it.

01:15:51:08 - 01:15:56:24

Christian Soschner

Is unmasked, how the reality looks like. And I think this has power.

01:15:57:01 - 01:15:57:19

Squire Servance

No,

01:15:57:19 - 01:16:01:20

Squire Servance

absolutely. 1,000% agree.

01:16:01:22 - 01:16:27:03

Christian Soschner

When when we look when we go back to the equality questions, there is one point that we would love to discuss with you and to what I love to hear your opinion on that. In Europe, you talk a lot about equality in founding teams and on the b C landscape in terms of ethnicity and gender equality. How do you see the situation around these topics in the United States?

01:16:27:03 - 01:16:27:16

Christian Soschner

01:16:27:18 - 01:17:02:13

Squire Servance

In our tied to like VC funding and it's it's frustrating to say the least. Right? So and I'm going to probably butcher some of these numbers but they're generally accurate I think black founder founder companies in the United States, 1% of them make it VC funding or 1% of the VC market funds, Black founders, 1% women. If it's black women, is less than 1%.

01:17:02:13 - 01:17:36:22

Squire Servance

If it's if it's women, probably somewhere between two and 3%. And so in I can't think of branding, you know, I can't think of a large organization that grew to where they needed to be without venture funding. Right. And so if you have less than 2%, less than 1% of a specific community getting VC, funny, it's limiting their ceiling on what they can achieve for their company.

01:17:36:24 - 01:18:02:05

Squire Servance

Right? And so it's I think as a group we, you know, just investors, we need to do better and because look and this this is not, you know the morality of it this is the dollars and cents data has shown that more diversity teams perform better. Right. You got to also think that there's no monopoly on good ideas.

01:18:02:05 - 01:18:06:21

Squire Servance

So like, you can investors can make money

01:18:06:21 - 01:18:21:23

Squire Servance

or we're leaving money on the table, but not looking at and not seriously investing in, you know, women led companies diverse, you know, black and brown CEOs and led companies. We're leaving money on the table.

01:18:21:23 - 01:18:31:11

Squire Servance

And I think a lot more work needs to be done in that space. And I know and in Europe, but U.S., we had a gentleman just sued.

01:18:31:11 - 01:18:53:01

Squire Servance

This is this fearless fund. I know you've been tracking this. You know, they had this litigation with affirmative action and they kind of struck that down. And that same gentleman and I was suing the Fearless Fund because. They focus on giving out, you know, investment to black women led companies. Now we need to fight it. We need to stand strong.

01:18:53:01 - 01:19:33:19

Squire Servance

And I think there's, you know, there I think there they have strong arguments to win that case. But any if there's any silver lining that can be had, there is my hope will be that it will bring to the forefront those numbers like the sea people this to show people what we're what what they're fighting over right that if one less than 1% of the VC market or VC investments are going into black women and they're trying to people are trying to strike that down, let's have that conversation.

01:19:33:21 - 01:19:54:14

Squire Servance

All right. Because then maybe we can go into the root causes of why less than 1% of black women found it. Their companies are actually getting these types of investments. Obviously, in investment. So I think there's a lot more work to be done. I think people were leaving money on the table by not specifically addressing that, addressing that issue, then, yeah, I'll get off my soapbox.

01:19:54:14 - 01:19:58:12

Squire Servance

It is a little frustrating for me to see that.

01:19:58:14 - 01:20:01:05

Christian Soschner

And we dive deep in the topic of would you like to move on?

01:20:01:07 - 01:20:02:11

Squire Servance

No, no, we keep talking.

01:20:02:11 - 01:20:09:18

Christian Soschner

Yeah, yeah. You you mentioned Phyllis Fund. What's the story behind that? You said that that's been going on.

01:20:09:20 - 01:20:10:03

Squire Servance

Yeah.

01:20:10:03 - 01:20:53:01

Squire Servance

Fearless Fund is it's a it's a black led a black women led fund and they invest in black women founded companies and that is their focus now to me, like if you're making investors the requested return and needed returns, like go go do that. But the reality is I mean, they got sued because they're the argument is that they're discriminating like you can't distribute certain types of cash grants specifically in federal dollars and things like that in a way that uses race as the primary driver.

01:20:53:03 - 01:21:30:05

Squire Servance

And that is so they're arguing that, hey, look, they shouldn't be able to invest directly or solely or primarily through to black women founded companies. So that's the that's the overarching thing. And so I think we'll see how this ultimately plays out. I track it here and there. I know they just and then the court judge just ruled that they could still for you know, for now to grants, give out grants to black women founded companies that black women founders and do things like that.

01:21:30:07 - 01:21:36:04

Squire Servance

But I'm curious to see how this ultimately plays out in the long run.

01:21:36:08 - 01:21:45:05

Christian Soschner

it is. Phyllis Fund, if I understood you right, distributes tax capital tax money in form of grants to fix the.

01:21:45:07 - 01:21:51:01

Squire Servance

Our tax money. And I don't want to get into that because I don't necessarily know what existing in federal but they they have a fund

01:21:51:01 - 01:21:57:16

Squire Servance

where they invest in black women led companies that I can't tell. I don't know who their LPs are.

01:21:57:18 - 01:22:17:19

Christian Soschner

But they collect basically capital and try to fix the problem that companies led by black women usually don't get funding. So 99% of the capital is allocated in the typical white male founder. If I if I've got the numbers right, that's and they wanted to fix this problem and got sued for that.

01:22:17:21 - 01:22:19:13

Squire Servance

Yeah exactly.

01:22:19:15 - 01:22:21:12

Christian Soschner

What's the point.

01:22:22:04 - 01:22:48:24

Squire Servance

Yeah. You telling me? I don't know. I wish I wish of you know, I don't know the gentleman who's who's doing the suit. I think he's I mean, look, I won't speak, I don't give his name, but he's generally on a crusade to, to broadly in a variety of different institutions. Challenge race based decisions. Yeah. Challenge race based decision.

01:22:48:24 - 01:23:15:13

Squire Servance

See, he just does not like the fact that decisions should be can be made on race and he's using the quotes to the kind of challenge of different areas. And it's not just in finance here. He did it in you know colleges universities. I think he's doing lot going after other industries, law firms. I think some law firms got sued for some of their diversity programs.

01:23:15:15 - 01:23:21:13

Squire Servance

And so he's just challenging multiple areas. That's his that's just his his mission in life.

01:23:21:19 - 01:23:42:05

Christian Soschner

But for the investment rationale, you mentioned that. I mean, money on the table. Can you give a little bit more background to these efforts? Why two funds and companies leave money the table when they usually invest in the white male teams and don't create diverse teams?

01:23:42:07 - 01:23:43:18

Squire Servance

My position is that there's

01:23:43:18 - 01:24:17:18

Squire Servance

there's no monopoly on good ideas, but I don't know if the number is 12%, 15% African-American or black Americans in the United States or 50% women. Right. If this used the gender conversation, if 50% women and 50 like 50% men, and we're all generating good ideas, but only 2% of those women and 98% of the men get funded right, like the connection is you're leaving something on that.

01:24:17:18 - 01:24:42:04

Squire Servance

You're leaving good ideas that you can invest in on the table. Now, like our fund, we we focus on obviously we're venture creating, so we build teams and our aim is to build diverse teams. And the diverse teams is centered around the fact that research has shown diverse teams perform better. I'm trying to make money for my investors, right?

01:24:42:06 - 01:24:55:03

Squire Servance

And so that's our focus. And, you know, I think that going back to your point, why there are things being left on the table, that's why I believe they're there, because there's a good idea has been left on the table now.

01:24:55:04 - 01:25:00:08

Christian Soschner

I totally agree. I mean they had the experienced, but it has been almost 20

01:25:00:08 - 01:25:17:21

Christian Soschner

years ago. And I mean, when you want to understand a market, you need to have people on the team because otherwise you would never understand the market that was working a mobile company back then for a special project and that the responsibility of handset sales.

01:25:17:21 - 01:25:41:16

Christian Soschner

So it's basically mobile phone sales and as Amanda said, okay, it's technically on black phones and that's okay. And then the marketing people said, But we also need to address women and we need different types of handsets. And why? Why do we need that title? We need Pink and Kittery handsets. And they said because we were invited. So we asked women, I mean, do you buy it at I would never bet it.

01:25:41:20 - 01:25:47:03

Christian Soschner

And they simply said yes. And I learned I mean, I'm blind in this area, so I don't understand.

01:25:47:03 - 01:25:50:03

Squire Servance

Everyone has blind spots. Everyone. Right. That's why you need that

01:25:50:03 - 01:26:13:01

Squire Servance

team, because there are things that I know I don't see. There are things that, you know, other folks on my team may not see, but they everyone has blind spots. And that's the that's the value. That's why diverse teams tend to perform better, because everyone's coming with their different perspective, their different view on things, their different lens in which they're analyzing and synthesizing data.

01:26:13:03 - 01:26:13:17

Christian Soschner

It's

01:26:13:17 - 01:26:36:02

Christian Soschner

the I listen to a podcast lately. It was the founder of Spotify and he was on the Steve Bartlett show, The Diary of a CEO, and he mentioned that basically there is not there's nothing innovative in this world, and usually it's coming. If a few people are coming together, taking two or three ideas and packaging it in a new way.

01:26:36:04 - 01:26:43:01

Christian Soschner

And I think also it's a strong case for the best teams. I mean, you need to get these ideas together to have to create something new.

01:26:43:03 - 01:26:45:10

Squire Servance

Yeah, absolutely.

01:26:45:12 - 01:27:06:10

Christian Soschner

But how how can we fix that? How could you say we just when we invest, we just look at 90 look, 98% of the capital in probably 10% of market ideas. It's not a correct number, probably, but it's just so to emphasize the problem. So the majority of the capital goes to 10% of the ideas.

01:27:06:16 - 01:27:09:21

Squire Servance

It funds. And

01:27:09:21 - 01:27:37:06

Squire Servance

in general, they just need to take a broader view on on on what's in their scope of of investment and who have these good ideas. They just need to do the hard work and identify getting the best deals possible regardless of who's in the top. And I venture to say it would be better than, you know, 2% women led companies or 3%, whatever the number is.

01:27:37:08 - 01:27:58:14

Squire Servance

But you have to do the hard work. You have to build the relationships in the areas, in the communities, in the companies in which you're looking to invest. And, you know, and I think if you do that, you'll get the best companies. It's my job to go out and find the best opportunities to invest, right? It's my job to build the best teams.

01:27:58:16 - 01:28:26:13

Squire Servance

So I'm not I have, you know, black, Asian, Indian. My network is relatively broad and we have to have that broad purview as we're building teams or as we're investing in companies and having those relationships where, you know, they know they have access to, you know, the fund that they're looking to seek funds from or they have relationships with.

01:28:26:13 - 01:28:50:07

Squire Servance

And same for funds funding. Getting investments is a lot of times it's about relationships and credibility and trust. And, you know, if you don't know the VC funds, then the VC funds aren't going out and talking to those groups in, you know, being present in the communities where they need to kind of grow. They're going to I think they're just going to miss out on opportunities.

01:28:50:09 - 01:28:59:08

Squire Servance

The goal is to make money. And so like, I think it's incumbent upon us to go out and do the hard work to bring stronger returns for investors.

01:28:59:10 - 01:29:00:15

Christian Soschner

I think this is a rule

01:29:00:15 - 01:29:25:03

Christian Soschner

number one for companies and investors, whether we like or not. But the purpose of companies and investors is to make money. So one of the important purpose when we stay a little bit longer to say what is your question? Is it a selection question? I mean, when you look at jockey flow, do you see diversity in the teams coming to you or do you see women, black women, Asian women, Asian men?

01:29:25:05 - 01:29:32:18

Christian Soschner

So is it more as selection problems that we see as need to learn or investors and employees need to learn to leave their own biases?

01:29:32:18 - 01:29:35:24

Squire Servance

And consultants so it's probably a little different are just health equity.

01:29:35:24 - 01:29:56:01

Squire Servance

And so we and so and when you look at some of the funds that doing health equity, a lot of it centered around, you know diverse founders ours isn't necessarily centered around diverse founders is around specific disease areas, but we probably get overindexed because we have health equity as tagline, right?

01:29:56:07 - 01:30:22:12

Squire Servance

So we tend to get more black, probably just more black. And Brown founders now saying that we we make decisions off the science, right? So like, you know, there's three criteria we're looking at for our investment is, you know, obviously that has to have a health equity case. So like we're investing in disease where there's a big disparity, scientific like pretty credible scientific and clinical data, then it has to have a strong business case.

01:30:22:12 - 01:30:54:23

Squire Servance

Those are the three things we're looking at. And I think when you're making that call and again, I appreciate our model is different because we're buying specific products and that's why I heart one, that we're burning diverse teams now, diverse teams. You know, you have to have that strong network of CEOs and what have you. And if I'm part of a group, I am part of a group that's, you know, it's black male executive in biotech, Right.

01:30:54:23 - 01:31:13:18

Squire Servance

Is like a complement to there's a similar similar group for black women in biotech. I have access to them. I know them. I have personal relationships with them. I go to dinner, I go to coffee. So, you know, my first reaction, if I'm like, I'm looking for I'm I'm talking to that. Not to say that stem for them saying, hey, who do you know would be a good fit?

01:31:13:20 - 01:31:31:23

Squire Servance

And they may give me folks that they're going to give me folks in their network and. I have other similar groups. And you know, I attend a lot of events in Princeton, in New Jersey and in Pennsylvania as well. And I'm looking the people that I'm looking at, they're going to be centered in that in those regions. Right.

01:31:31:23 - 01:31:51:07

Squire Servance

And so, you know, we're centered on obviously, Brill building diverse teams. But on the where we selecting assets, it is is is a strong science is it a strong business case? Is we have good clinical data. Does it fit within our investment thesis.

01:31:51:09 - 01:31:51:18

Christian Soschner

Yeah

01:31:51:18 - 01:32:17:20

Christian Soschner

Yes, that's true. Right. That's the right approach. When we look at your investment style, I have two questions. One that popped up while you're speaking. So we look at the science and you're based in the United States, but you look globally for opportunities. So not just focused on the United States, basically, it also includes then Europe, Africa South America, Asia, Australia, etc. and Antarctica is maybe missing.

01:32:17:20 - 01:32:31:15

Christian Soschner

But I don't think that there is a university there. Maybe you're not yet. What's your approach? Do you invest then also outside the United States, or do you pull the assets to the United States?

01:32:31:17 - 01:32:31:23

Squire Servance

We

01:32:31:23 - 01:33:03:23

Squire Servance

would pull the asset to the United States, though. So the assets we talk about assets is usually IP, so its patents know how data. Right. That's what we're really we're typically acquiring and we're not necessarily wedded to being solely set up in the US. That's our that's our strong suit. Right. The team is generally currently built with US centric individuals on the team.

01:33:04:00 - 01:33:31:04

Squire Servance

And so it's easier for us to set up at Delaware. A couple in New Jersey Company, Pennsylvania company would have you and just get things set up easily and to raise more the race funds in the United States. That's where our network is the strongest for the portfolio companies to help them grow. So out to is a question it's probably we will acquire products anywhere in the world, but the companies that we create will likely be set up in the States.

01:33:31:06 - 01:33:39:20

Christian Soschner

The islands recently, from a business angle from the Los Angeles area, he was on my podcast in February that there are some tax advantages for investors when they invest in the United States.

01:33:39:23 - 01:33:41:19

Squire Servance

Everything's tax rate, right like that.

01:33:41:21 - 01:33:42:10

Christian Soschner

Yeah, a lot.

01:33:42:10 - 01:33:46:17

Squire Servance

Of think, a lot of things are tax driven. And in this latter work.

01:33:46:19 - 01:34:07:22

Christian Soschner

This is when when you acquire assets I think that you have two models that basically that can use in license or acquisition of the IP. And your preferred model is to have basically just the asset and no team attached. What what what happens when you see an interesting asset and you have free people say, okay, but we want to be part of the founding team and we are willing to move to the.

01:34:07:24 - 01:34:09:19

Squire Servance

Yeah, I mean,

01:34:09:19 - 01:34:31:00

Squire Servance

There's flexibility there right? So, you know, I've done that outside of the fund. I've done done a number of deals similar to product acquisitions. And usually whether it's a transition services agreement where you keep those people on that have the know how that can help, help, you know, alleviate a slowdown in clinical development. So they still have knowledge.

01:34:31:00 - 01:34:51:06

Squire Servance

And so we do have to work closely with those those partners in those people. And whether it's bringing them on to the the new company or whether it's we have a consulting relationship with them, we still need their their input. So it's not like we're just a webinar hand. You guys can go yourself where we go ours. If that's not the case, we do need to work with their partners, right?

01:34:51:06 - 01:34:55:14

Squire Servance

And and we treat them as such.

01:34:55:16 - 01:34:58:07

Christian Soschner

So basically you're also looking for team swap,

01:34:58:07 - 01:35:19:13

Christian Soschner

are willing to contribute it's their projects usually are complex. It's not like buying a car is a simple transaction and then you can use that. So there's a lot of expertise that's not documented in the patents and you need to understand how things work. So you would like to see that people still have the will to stay engaged?

01:35:19:15 - 01:35:21:21

Squire Servance

Absolutely. Absolutely. I think yeah.

01:35:21:21 - 01:35:47:15

Squire Servance

And so like in some instances, you know, it's it's a little bit easier because they may be using the S.R.O. cdmo that will take over that relationship. And so where they were using a consultant in some capacity, we can just contract with that consultant. But yeah, there's, there's going to be overlap and there's has to be some knowledge sharing for a period of time for us to, to get things off the ground efficiently.

01:35:50:11 - 01:35:52:24

Christian Soschner

I think this is the one question that a lot of asking

01:35:52:24 - 01:36:11:24

Christian Soschner

picks usually have pitch to busy. So I cannot turn the table and say bye bye, Why should people come to you? Why should they choose to pitch their opportunity to your fund, to you, to your team, given that they are in your sweet spot and not pitch to further at all, which is what what makes you unique.

01:36:12:10 - 01:36:19:14

Squire Servance

So unique from a a company looking to divest their asset to us. Yes.

01:36:19:16 - 01:36:21:05

Christian Soschner

Why are you the best fit.

01:36:21:07 - 01:36:26:09

Squire Servance

From a sourcing perspective? Yeah. I mean, I think our track record will kind of speak to that,

01:36:26:09 - 01:36:59:13

Squire Servance

right? We have a relatively strong track record of company creation. We look at advisors, the a team, you know, from just from just a company creation, five or six companies create it the the multiples on returns on capital range up to probably averaging forward is somewhere you know average around 4x5x return on investment not including milestones and and some royalty payments that are continued to be paid.

01:36:59:13 - 01:37:17:20

Squire Servance

So we have a strong track record. I think people you're doing this you're buying into teams. Right. And do we have the capabilities to take that asset and get it from point A to point B efficiently and effectively so you can get a return on your I mean, because this is your baby, this is your asset that you want to get forward.

01:37:17:22 - 01:37:39:02

Squire Servance

You know, you want to see it get commercialized. And so we built a team and a network of folks that can do that. And so that's my, my, my, my pitch. And obviously you get to do well, do good while you're you're doing it right. And we're focused on, again, at the end of the day, accelerating health equity.

01:37:39:04 - 01:38:09:24

Squire Servance

And that's our mission. That's what we're focused on. And, you know, we track where we're figuring out from the impact standpoint as disease adjusted life years, is it how much money are we attracting to this interesting technology or this interesting space? And so those are the things that when companies are looking to kind of outlicensing their assets, they're going to they're going to hopefully they'll they'll see that we have those expertise and experience to do so.

01:38:09:24 - 01:38:12:10

Christian Soschner

When I understood

01:38:12:10 - 01:38:35:06

Christian Soschner

you well and right and listen closely, then the team you are looking for, teams that have a preclinical asset and basically need someone who knows how to turn a preclinical asset into a clinical value. And the teams usually coming from the scientific side have limited expertise in clinics. And you close that gap with funding and with access to the right people.

01:38:35:08 - 01:38:38:02

Squire Servance

Exactly. Exactly.

01:38:38:04 - 01:39:03:23

Christian Soschner

We are at the beginning of the conference here in Europe and we have some conferences coming up, and I usually use the podcasts whenever I see someone looking for investors, syndicate partners, I give them the podcast link and say, Look at this podcast. You might find something of value in there. My to you is specifically centered around the fourth quarter of 2023.

01:39:04:00 - 01:39:14:12

Christian Soschner

Which areas currently in the next quarter are you most passionate about? So when we look at indications, what is your focus area right now for the next quarter?

01:39:14:15 - 01:39:39:13

Squire Servance

Our focus is it's lupus, sickle cell. Those are the two biggest ones. We're looking at some assets in sarcoidosis as well. Those are the top ones. And we're looking at a couple of lupus assets now. Sarcoidosis about sickle cells. And another one that we think there's some interesting technology out there as well. Those are probably the top ones.

01:39:39:15 - 01:39:45:11

Christian Soschner

We have for second field. So you have lupus. Interesting. Certainly. Is there a second to launch a catheter? Is it probes then?

01:39:45:11 - 01:39:46:08

Squire Servance

No, it's so

01:39:46:08 - 01:40:13:08

Squire Servance

will it could be cell therapy, it could be biologics it could be small molecules will be kind of it doesn't from from that perspective, it doesn't necessarily matter. We narrowed down broadly on like autoimmune disorders, like as our first therapeutic area that we were we're focused on. But yeah, those are well, we'll take a look at what's what's effective, what we think will actually work.

01:40:13:08 - 01:40:38:06

Squire Servance

And so again, that's going to come down to the data. What does the data say? And we'll get into the weeds of what what that looks like. And then we'll make we'll make especially like on disease areas where we know what the market is, we'll make it at that point. We are decisions really dictated by that. You can get access to them, to that, to the asset and then to they have strong scientific or clinical data.

01:40:38:08 - 01:40:49:03

Christian Soschner

That's great. So basically you are also open. You invest currently, so you're looking for assets actively and you're happy to receive pitch sticks. What's the best way to approach you?

01:40:49:23 - 01:41:16:04

Squire Servance

I mean, they can connect with me, go to my website, the Sierra Dex Biochar. That's that's one way I know if we can wrap it in the chat or we could put it in, I will after this gets posted, connect connect them with me. I'm pretty active on LinkedIn as well. I'm pretty responsive through emails. That easy transition from LinkedIn to my my, my work email.

01:41:16:06 - 01:41:27:18

Squire Servance

And then also they can just email me at my work and we could also put that hopefully at the end here some capacity on your site so we can share that.

01:41:27:19 - 01:41:28:11

Christian Soschner

Yeah, yeah,

01:41:28:11 - 01:41:40:22

Christian Soschner

definitely. I usually use two LinkedIn profiles because to give you a bit more information about the person compared to the email address and but when you active on LinkedIn so yeah, I'm talking.

01:41:40:22 - 01:41:42:16

Squire Servance

Yeah that's probably the easiest way.

01:41:42:18 - 01:41:50:01

Christian Soschner

Yeah. When we look at the future Syria text PIO How do you envision the future of your fund?

01:41:50:01 - 01:42:19:09

Squire Servance

I mean, I want to be a leader in there in health equity and I think what I think that obviously performing well, having strong exits, but investing in a way that where we feel like is areas of greatest need, I think I would love to in the future expand our purview, not just therapy. It's, you know, diagnostics, it's med device medtech, you know, digital health.

01:42:19:09 - 01:42:43:12

Squire Servance

Right. So I would love to expand because I do think there are I mean, even some services, there are a lot of opportunities in areas where from a business case, I think it would investing in those companies makes sense. But also what they're doing can address one of those social determinants. So I love to kind of continue to grow and just be a leader in this space.

01:42:43:14 - 01:42:44:02

Christian Soschner

Yeah, to some

01:42:44:02 - 01:42:55:11

Christian Soschner

extent. I mean, what is therapeutics be for diagnostics? You need absolutely two problems. What's the most rewarding aspect of your broker to it expire?

01:42:56:14 - 01:43:26:18

Squire Servance

I wake up every day, focus on the issue that I'm passionate about, right? That that's the answer. So, you know, I'm excited every day when I wake up that, you know, my hope is that what I'm doing is meaningful to society and that can bring returns for our investors because if we do if we execute on the strategy effectively, you know, society will benefit.

01:43:26:20 - 01:43:28:24

Squire Servance

And so that's that's I'm excited about.

01:43:29:08 - 01:43:54:08

Christian Soschner

There's one particular problem that I often hear from from from young founders that's they start something are very passionate about the area and 6 to 9 months down the road they hit the bar for the first time. And some find it particularly hard to learn that entrepreneurship and investing is nothing different than entrepreneurship. It's a special kind of being an entrepreneur.

01:43:54:10 - 01:44:11:03

Christian Soschner

The idea that entrepreneurship basically is hard, and it's sometimes really challenging to move forward. My question to you is what's your recipe for success to overcome such, such days? I mean, how cheap will come on the entrepreneurial journey? What's your recipe?

01:44:11:05 - 01:44:12:07

Squire Servance

I mean, I think

01:44:12:07 - 01:44:32:18

Squire Servance

one thing is the good thing is like this wasn't a I'm just going to glass of wine. This was ten years, a decade in the making. Right. And so that's one thing. So it's like I come in somewhat eyes wide open. What it takes to kind of get it off the ground. And then it probably the bigger the better answer is just consistency, right?

01:44:32:20 - 01:44:55:12

Squire Servance

We have a plan consistently every day get a win right. And that's my focus. You know we have the plan and then we've got two tactics that we're executing. And every day my goal is to get a small win. I don't care how big it is. If we get a win every day for 365, you'll start to build that momentum up.

01:44:55:14 - 01:45:16:02

Squire Servance

And so you will hit roadblocks. And though it's difficult, it's just a tough environment to raise capital, but consistency, consistency, consistency every day continue to push that boulder up the hill. And so that's my focus. You know, control what I can control and just be consistent every day.

01:45:16:02 - 01:45:21:03

Christian Soschner

So basically, it's a strong testament for the House. The culture is basically to get this work.

01:45:21:05 - 01:45:23:10

Squire Servance

Let's get to work. Exactly.

01:45:23:12 - 01:45:30:09

Christian Soschner

So there's no way around it. It's hard work and you need to put the work in it no matter how hard it is. Just keep pressing.

01:45:30:11 - 01:45:30:13

Squire Servance

It.

01:45:30:13 - 01:45:35:03

Squire Servance

Exactly. There's there's no there's no shortcut for success.

01:45:35:03 - 01:45:51:03

Squire Servance

There's No shortcut. And so, you know, people that, you know, think that it's going to be easy or there's going to be some easy way around. I think you're right. They'll get to that, too, that that rock. And, you know, then it is difficult to have to make a decision.

01:45:51:04 - 01:46:06:06

Squire Servance

Then I got to stop them. I'm going to keep going. And so, you know, it's you know, for me, you got that passion behind that mission that I'm focused on. And then just every day I continue to continue to be consistent and get those small wins.

01:46:06:06 - 01:46:08:13

Christian Soschner

Every day

01:46:08:13 - 01:46:25:04

Christian Soschner

I'm looking at my questions and coming to the final part of our recording and this final set of questions. Before I ask them, I would like to ask you, is there especially topic that you would like to address in the final part of our conversation that we can talk?

01:46:25:06 - 01:46:30:06

Squire Servance

But no, I think this was a pretty fulsome conversation.

01:46:30:08 - 01:46:43:05

Christian Soschner

When we look at the future and most of my final questions are centered around the future and advice. Health, equity. What's the future of health equity, in your opinion? How do you envision the future in that area?

01:46:43:06 - 01:46:45:02

Squire Servance

It's it's going to continue

01:46:45:02 - 01:47:28:05

Squire Servance

to be a main topic for for some time. I think COVID significantly brought it to the forefront. I think definitely you have health equity officers, health equity offices, I mean, federal, state. And so like they're now institutionalizing these talking about and having that conversation about health equity. And I think it's going to continue to be a growing issue in the United States and globally, that my hope is that people bring up in every different area of their their institutions.

01:47:28:05 - 01:47:46:23

Squire Servance

And how do you address it from our perspective? How do you address it from a legal perspective? How do you address it from a business model perspective? My hope is that more companies, more funds are thinking about it the way I'm thinking about it as far as how they like to invest in issues and invest in interesting technology.

01:47:46:23 - 01:47:57:17

Squire Servance

So I don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon. And my hope is, is it continues to stay at the forefront of people's minds as they tackle various issues in their lives.

01:47:57:17 - 01:48:19:01

Christian Soschner

Now, I couldn't agree more. I hope we continue building a global family and tear down borders and walls and not continue building both. So I think since 20 22% with the world shifted a little bit more towards nationalism and away from globalism. And they hope we find our way back.

01:48:19:03 - 01:48:20:24

Squire Servance

Yeah, absolutely.

01:48:21:01 - 01:48:39:18

Christian Soschner

When we look at the young generation that's currently thinking about the most important life choices, we are coming into fall and people start something new. And school college. What's your advice to someone who wants to make an impact in life? Science?

01:48:39:18 - 01:49:13:12

Squire Servance

may focus on the fundamentals right? You and this is for folks that are like doing R&D and research. It's you know and I can't take claim for this is a gentleman by name Ted love you say focus on the three piece especially of your company's penny So managing the budget being capital efficient product, having good scientific and clinical data and people hiring good people.

01:49:13:14 - 01:49:44:07

Squire Servance

If you focus on those fundamentals, I think you'll be consistent at it. I think you'll be you'll be well-served in your careers. There's you know, you know, a lot of things are happening in society, but the reality is fundamentals don't change. Like like investing like, obviously I do in life sciences. That's why I say, like, the innovation is still strong.

01:49:44:09 - 01:50:06:21

Squire Servance

Fundamentals didn't change. Like data is good, data is good data, and you have good product, good technology. If you find those those those times in rough or not. So I'm not so in the rough. Right. You'll you'll be able to create good value and do something meaningful for the society.

01:50:06:23 - 01:50:10:00

Christian Soschner

Yeah. Yeah that's true. When

01:50:10:00 - 01:50:37:19

Christian Soschner

we look at the broader mission of series X bio health equity listeners contribute on one hand by pitching opportunities to you. But what's your advice to them when they want to help your mission or from a broader perspective and help change the communities to become more aware of gender equality? Equality, generally speaking, and also health equity?

01:50:37:24 - 01:50:39:17

Christian Soschner

How can you to that.

01:50:39:23 - 01:51:04:00

Squire Servance

Share that this is an issue that health equity is something that's not going sure that there's ways to invest in a way that, you know, you can address this issue while getting, you know, targeted potentially great returns. And this is and then there's a way to kind of do good and do well by addressing that and then director my way and then I'll chat with them.

01:51:04:02 - 01:51:06:06

Christian Soschner

That's great. That's great.

01:51:06:06 - 01:51:23:21

Christian Soschner

I'm at the end of my questions. It was a pleasure talking to you. And I loved learning a lot more about. The situation of health equity in the United States and in the world. And let's keep building a better world for our children. I would say.

01:51:23:23 - 01:51:26:02

Squire Servance

So. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

01:51:26:07 - 01:51:31:08

Christian Soschner

Thank you for joining my podcast. I wish you a great weekend and have a great time.

01:51:31:10 - 01:51:32:23

Squire Servance

Thank you. You too.

01:51:33:00 - 01:51:34:02

Christian Soschner

Bye bye.

01:51:34:02 - 01:51:38:09

Christian Soschner

That concludes the profound discussion with Squire savants.

01:51:38:11 - 01:51:53:21

Christian Soschner

Today, we explored the vital role of venture capital in advancing health equity, the importance of diversity in fostering innovation, and strategic approaches to addressing health disparities through impactful investments.

01:51:53:21 - 01:52:26:22

Christian Soschner

Thank you for joining in and contributing to this meaningful dialog. If this episode's inspired you, please help spread these crucial messages. I appreciate your likes and comments on platforms like Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Your positive feedback not only motivates the team behind the show, but also elevates visibility, helping others gain access to these inviting conversations.

01:52:26:24 - 01:52:41:10

Christian Soschner

And remember, sharing is powerful. Pass this episode along to peers, colleagues, or anyone in your network who might benefit from hearing about transformative venture capital strategies.

01:52:41:10 - 01:53:05:20

Christian Soschner

Your support is key to continuing to bring in visionary speakers like Sapphire Severance, enhancing our collective understanding and impact in this world. Stay tuned for more insightful episodes. Until next time, keep pushing the boundaries of what's possible and strive for a healthier, happier, and more equitable world.