Doctor to IPO: How Shalabh Gupta Became a Biotech Entrepreneur - fnGlobal Keynote and Roundtables (December 15, 2022)
Virtual · ZoomDr. Shalabh Gupta’s journey to becoming a founder started at New York University Medical Center. He quickly learned that to maximize his impact on the medical field, he would have to ditch the white coat.
“Physicians can have one patient at a time,” Gupta says. “Perhaps in a given year, they can visit a couple thousand patients. And I felt that technology allows us and me to be able to be part of something that can affect hundreds of thousands of people and perhaps millions of people.”
Gupta used his medical background to found Globavir – which develops diagnostics for dengue and small molecule drugs for treating cancer – in 2011 and Unicycive – which creates treatments for rare kidney conditions – in 2016. Globavir announced a licensing agreement with Bio-Rad in 2016, and Unicycive went public in 2021.
On Dec. 15, Gupta will host a webinar for Founders Network members where he will share insights into his transition from the hospital to creating impactful biomedical technology.
During his webinar, he will also discuss:
- The importance of a medical perspective in biotech
- Measuring success for biotech products
- Lessons from the growth of Genentech
- How to create mission-based company culture
- Building a biotech startup team
Opening Remarks & Chapter Launch @ 9:30am PT
Join us for opening remarks with Dina Fattom, Member Success Manager at Founders Network, to get the latest updates from the network and opportunities for getting involved.
Keynote Speaker @ 9:40am PT
Shalabh Gupta, MD, is the founder of Unicycive and has served as Chief Executive Officer, President, and director since August 2016. Previously, Dr. Gupta served in various other roles, including founder and Chief Executive Officer of Biocycive Inc.; a commercial strategy role at Genentech, Inc.; equity research covering US pharmaceutical companies at UBS Investment Bank; and as an equity research role covering biotechnology companies at Rodman & Renshaw (currently HC Wainwright). Dr. Gupta previously served as a medical advisor to Synageva BioPharma Corporation and as an advisor to New York University (NYU) Langone Medical Center’s Office of Technology Transfer. Dr. Gupta is also the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Globavir, a company with a diagnostic platform technology licensed from Stanford University, which was partnered with Bio-Rad (NASDAQ: BIO) in 2016 and later with Cepheid (now part of Danaher Corporation, NYSE: DHR). Bio-Rad currently sells this technology as part of their RUO (Research Use Only) kits and Danaher is advancing diagnostic technology through the regulatory approval process throughout the world.
Dr. Gupta is an advisor to the UCSF Innovation Center, a role he has held since 2020. Since 2012, Dr. Gupta has also been an advisor to SPARK, Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Gupta previously served on the board of directors of the Beall Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of California Irvine, Paul Merage School of Business. Before his roles in business and finance, Dr. Gupta was an attending physician at New York University (“NYU”) Medical Center and a clinical faculty member at the NYU School of Medicine. Dr. Gupta was a board-certified physician, and he currently holds a license from the California State Medical Board.
Dr. Gupta completed his internship in Internal Medicine, medical residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and research fellowship in Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation at NYU School of Medicine. Dr. Gupta received his MPA in Health Care Finance and Management from NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and his MD from Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research, India.
Dr. Gupta has been in several leadership roles throughout his academic and professional career. He was elected president of the Resident Physicians Council, representing approximately 1,500 resident physicians in physical medicine and rehabilitation across the US during his residency training. He was also elected to the Board of Directors at the Wagner Alumni Association.
About Unicycive:
Unicycle Therapeutics is a biotechnology company dedicated to developing treatments for certain medical conditions. The company’s development programs are focused on two kidney diseases with large unmet medical needs. Unicycive is developing Renazorb as an advanced phosphate binding agent using proprietary nanoparticle technology for the treatment of patients with hyperphosphatemia. Unicycive is also developing UNI-494, a patented pro-drug of a repurposed marketed agent with a target of improved safety and pharmacokinetics, for the treatment of patients with acute kidney injury.
Stage-Based Roundtables @ 10:30 am PT
Community Partners:
Dec’13 Cohort Blake Caldwell is the CEO & Founder of FoundersBoost. He has 350 alumni, 100 new startups a year, 8k newsletter readers. He's driven by his passions to create and build community. He's also the founder of 2332 Collective (music production & festivals with the goal of bringing music to West LA) & The MoGuard (consumer product cup attachment protecting glorious mustaches).
FoundersBoost is a free pre-seed & seed stage mentorship driven pre-accelerator helping promising tech-startups with accelerators, investment, and revenue.
Max Shapiro founded PeopleConnect in 2000 to help early-stage high-tech companies find the talent they need to succeed. PeopleConnect’s clients are in technology, biotech, cleantech, apps, services, medical devices, and consumer products.
Their team of outstanding recruiters finds C-level executives, talented managers and experienced leaders who will bring their client companies to the next level. They provide traditional contingency searches as well as their one-of-a-kind 'Employees Without Paychecks' program, which he created after the dotcom bust to help promising companies find top-level talent willing to work for equity only until the company gets their funding.
As you can tell by the name of his company, Max likes to connect people and would love to know if there is any way that he and his team can help you add some fantastic, startup experienced people to your team, like PeopleConnect has been doing for 20 years.
Jeff leads the Partnerships Team at Forecastr — a leading FP&A software company that helps startups create kick-butt financial models to impress investors, confidently raise capital, and effectively run their businesses better.
Jeff serves on the advisory boards of several startup companies and is an active angel investor. He's passionate about startups and enjoys working with founders and mentoring entrepreneurs.
Jeff is an experienced entrepreneur and was the founder and CEO of a successful consumer goods company that he rapidly grew from $1M in sales its first year to over $40M in annual revenue in its fourth year of operations and was ranked #138 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies.
Prior to founding his own company, Jeff was a partner at Beanstalk Partners where he led the sales and business development activities. He also served as the National Sales Director for a venture-backed tech startup where he generated over $45M in client contracts and developed the company’s channel partner program.
Jeff has a degree in accounting and graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Utah. After receiving his MBA in Finance from the University of Utah he served as the Vice President of Investments for Sentry Financial Corporation.
Cathy is the Managing Partner at FullScope Growth, a global consortium of elite Fractional Executives and Business Acceleration Partners that provide the exact combination of experts that organizations require.
She has cross-functional experience in sales, management, marketing and business planning, client services, network development and operations. Delivers strong results within highly competitive markets.
Guests Are Welcome!
Please bring a guest! Every member can bring one (1) guest to each event. Each guest must be a full-time tech startup founder so they can bring new perspectives, skillsets, and experience to your chapter.
All guests must be full-time tech startup founders and you can register them directly on this function page. See How to Register a Guest here.
Confidentiality Reminder
All information shared within Founders Network is strictly confidential. We are built on a foundation of trust, and the community takes confidentiality seriously. Investors, members, and staff all share experiences and opinions off the record. In this roundtable forum, we continue to model our fnValues of Reciprocity, Humility, Authenticity and Inclusivity.
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