With just a lit­tle en­cour­age­ment, biotech in­vestors are ready to fall in love again

While you may have dealt with VCs dur­ing your pre-IPO life, pub­lic in­vestors are a whole new lev­el of scruti­ny. Of course your de­vel­op­ment pro­grams need to be well po­si­tioned, and of course your CMO needs to be cred­i­ble and yes your CFO needs to be ex­pe­ri­enced – but in ad­di­tion to all that YOU as CEO need to be rock sol­id. Pub­lic in­vestors will push you, test you, dili­gence the heck out of you and will on­ly in­vest if they can look you in the eye and see con­vic­tion. Tell them why you be­lieve in the com­pa­ny and show them how you will ex­e­cute. Bot­tom line: IPOs are a very pub­lic ref­er­en­dum about the CEO of a biotech com­pa­ny. Wel­come to the big leagues. — Hamza Suria, CEO of Anap­tys­Bio, writ­ing for End­points News ear­li­er this year.

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