Brookstreet at HBS Alumni Event with Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel
Partners at Brookstreet who are alumni of Harvard Business School joined the HBS-Alumni "Moderna" Case Discussion with CEO Stéphane Bancel (HBS MBA 2000, AMP 170) and HBS Professor Karim Lakhani.
If one asks what does a fund dealing with ESG, TECH and SAAS can learn from a biotech firm, please read below.
Moderna started out as project LS18 in 2010 at Cambridge-based Flagship, at the time called Flagship Ventures.
To understand the genesis of Moderna, one must understand Flagship…
Flagship followed a structured four-stage process for pioneering innovations through scientific discovery.
First, they generated hypotheses believed to yield break-through innovations, asking thequestion “What if?” (e.g., “What if mRNA could be a drug?”). They called these “explorations”.
Second, if these explorations proved promising, they became prototype companies (ProtoCos). Flagship formed to test the feasibility of the concept.
Third, if the explorations validated the science underlying the venture, ProtoCos turned into new companies (NewCos) and Flagship committed significant capital.
Fourth, the NewCo was spun out to become a growth company (GrowthCo).
Moderna is a digital biotech firm where they paid attention to i) the Cloud, ii) integration iii) automation and robotics iv) AI-interconnectivity and big data.
Just to understand what it means to digitise and SPEED process.
On January 11, the Covid 19 gene sequencing data was posted on Virological.org.
Two days later, January 13, Moderna team finalized the design of a corona vaccine candidate.
