Episode 22: The Bullpen - Gathering Biotech Investors with Key Opinion Leader Christiaan Engstrom

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I'm James Zanewicz, the Chief Business Officer for the Tulane School of Medicine.

And I'm Dr. Elaine Hamm, the Executive in Residence for the Tulane School And this is Bio from the Bayou.

Hello and welcome to this episode of Bio from the Bayou. I'm your host, Dr. Elaine Hamm, the executive in residence at Tulane School of Medicine. And today's guest is Christian Engstrom. He is the CEO of Evia Bio and the founder and curator of The Bullpen, which is a club that gathers investors and executives in the field of life science with the goal of partnerships as well as collaboration. Welcome to the show, Christian.

Hi, Elaine. Thanks for having me. I'm a big Bio on the Bayou fan, and I'm just excited to be back in the community.

Yeah, we're excited to have you. Well, I know you from Bullpen, but before we jump into Bullpen and what it is, let's talk a little bit about the startup companies you've been a part of. And actually, you and I share a love of a very boring but very important topic, which is operations. And so, love to hear a little bit more of your, your experiences with startups in the past, as well as your most recent endeavor.

Sure. Thanks for asking, Elaine. So, I'll make it quick. I do have an operational background coming out of my undergrad. I went through leadership development programs at Ford Motor Company and then Toro Company, and I became a Lean Six Sigma leader I did a lot of value stream mapping, operational improvement stuff, worked within their distribution channels and dealership channels to improve profitability. So when I look at, let's even say, life science businesses, that's inherently the way I look at it. Ideas are nice, but how do we commercialize and make it profitable? Because that's what sustainability needs, and we need high satisfaction, those sorts of things as well. Our stakeholders have to do well, but it doesn't work without making it work commercially. So the view I take, I moved into a leadership position with the, at the time, the country's largest group of pain clinics.

Wow.

And we saw 100,000 patient visits a year. It's Twin Cities based, and we weren't doing well when I joined. Kind of thinking about how we were going to make it through the next year. It's a really tough space, tough patients. We were referred primarily opioid addicts, and we were given the responsibility of weaning them off. So we had physical therapy—

Wow.

Behavioral health, surgery centers, primary care services, all to kind of wrap around this patient that was having a difficult time, usually comorbidities, and tough for the payers to figure out as well. How do we resource this patient and move them forward? When opioid addiction is at the center of their pain. Now it's a cycle and also destroying their life. So really tough business. But I brought that lean Six Sigma approach into healthcare and we mapped out different things like cash flow and found out where we were falling down and turned it around and exited actually to a PE group, part of a consolidation process. So I was a free agent at that time, and there was BioVest International, was a phase 3 immunotherapy program in Minneapolis. They weren't doing well for various reasons. They were failing in phase 3, and I joined as kind of a liaison between the board and the CEO to figure out what we needed to do. And we ended up putting it into bankruptcy. There was no path forward, basically, and further investment was not a good idea. We salvaged the assets, kept the best people, spun out a contract manufacturer of immunotherapies. We service the cell therapy industry and the IVD industry. So I went from cars to lawnmowers at Toro to healthcare. I wasn't sure what an immunotherapy was when I came into that business, and now I have depth and more importantly, was able to make a lot of great connections, people know what to do in certain situations. So, I bring my set of skills to the table, and I really look for partners that have strengths where I'm weak.

I think that's fantastic. And of course, being in startups and life science, which is notoriously long cycles and a lot of money required to move things forward, that operational eye can be so key to the success, or at least a quicker failure. It's definitely a, a really highly skilled value proposition for a person to have. In our industry particularly?

Well, there's some place for me here. I know that. And I make room for others to fill the void that I leave. But, you know, now I'm at EviaBio. And EviaBio, I'm so excited about. We are a cryopreservation company. And when people hear that word, they think about freezing bodies or brains or maybe organs. It's an application across industries that we have a tough time with when we freeze things and they thaw, it's just not as good, right, as what it was before. So in the cell therapy supply chain where we're focused, we also have some partnerships brewing in fertility, blood banking, a number of different applications to the life sciences space. There's mRNA applications, a lot of different directions we could take the company. We're focused on the cell therapy clinical market. And why that's an important space is it's the hardest space. And to get the blessing of the FDA would be a point of inflection for us that would enable us to enter other markets. What we're looking to do is provide a supply chain solution for cell therapies to lower the cost of the cell therapy. Right now, many have to go fresh in, fresh out.

Yep.

There's no replay because of the degradation that occurs with the current situations. We're pretty good. We've been using the same solutions for 40 years. My founder of EviaBio is Alison Hubble. She's my— she's a renowned cryobiologist, and if she's listening to this, she'll be mad at me. But I say she's the world's top cryobiologist, and many would agree with that. And I joined the company because of her deep expertise and just really admired the tech that she wanted to commercialize. And so now we're doing that. We're partnering with cell therapy companies, CDMOs, and OEMs to get our technology out there. And we're in an early stage of commercialization. We have some revenue, taking a seed round. Hope that's the last round we're going to have to take, which is exciting. We're figuring it out just like everybody else in the bullpen, which is probably where we're going to go next with this.

That is where we're going to go next. So thank you for just You know, handing me that transition on a silver platter. I appreciate that. So, well, as much as I would love to learn more about how to become a cryobiologist, which sounds like a really badass title right there, let's talk about Bullpen because that's actually how I know you and where I first learned about you and what you guys were doing. So what exactly is Bullpen and what led you to start it? And what do you do on a day-to-day basis as it relates to Bullpen?

When I took that immunotherapy job, there were so many things I didn't know, and we became a GMP contract manufacturer. deep water. So I said I was going to call the other CEOs and investors who were in this space and ask them what to do. And it served me well. I mean, if you go hat in hand to good people and you say, I'm trying to put in a GMP quality management compliance system and conform to ISO 9001 standards, they'll say, yeah, I've done that. And here's who I worked with. And you save yourself 3 to 6 months of fumbling around. More of what I did, I started hosting just informal leadership forums online during COVID and we would talk about specific things, fundraising for oncology, regulatory paths for cell therapy. And it would be a CEO to CEO to investor conversation. And we worked hard. I mean, it seems a little discriminatory, but to keep job seekers and vendors out of the meeting, we didn't want to be sold anything. We wanted to have Real conversations. And the funny thing was, is that those spilled over into other parts of life. I mean, I've been doing this now since COVID and I hadn't been on a Zoom call prior to COVID, I think. Now I'm hosting meetings all the time on Zoom, which is strange. But these people become more than just colleagues that you know on LinkedIn. They tell you about their kids, and we talk about how do we balance everything, like you and I were talking about, Elaine, before we got on here. And you get real advice and you can't talk to other people in your company about these things. You just can't. It spoils the water. And so you can go to other CEOs and other investors. And so I say the bullpen is like a club. I don't want to define it, but like a knitting club or a book club for CEOs and investors. And we let these relationships develop naturally. And so Prior to JPM 2022, I reached out to a friend of mine who played college sports. I played baseball in college and he played golf, and he also played baseball. Quite the athlete. And he happens to be the Life Sciences Executive Director for JPMorgan. So there's several of those in the country. Phil does a really good job in the Midwest and is very, very involved with various boards and industry associations. Just amazing what Phil does for his clients. And I said, Phil, I've been to JPM multiple times and I suck at JPM. It's the worst. I don't know where to go. I end up paying ridiculous hotel rates for really shady hotel rooms. The city is creeping me out. I go and I feel like a failure coming out of JPM, and I want to bring together these other people who feel the same way because investors feel that way. Associations feel that way. Nonprofits, It's an intimidating place. I don't know how many thousands of people come to how many dozens of conferences that are going on in JPM, and it's hard to know what to do. So let's prepare. And he liked that idea, and JPM in general has liked that idea and sponsored the Bullpen in its events. But we called it the Bullpen because that's a sacred place in baseball where the pitchers, the folks who are looking for deals in life sciences, can get together and practice and then also critique each other and make each other better and then root for each other when we're out on the mound pitching, right?

Yeah.

We want each other to throw strikes and to win games. And so that's the baseball analogy. That's what Bullpen is. So for our foreign members, it's always tougher to explain that. It's like you got to really dig in deep and then they lose it. But American folks are used to baseball. And that's the analogy and it's played out. We've done several events. I mean, I don't want to, it's not, we're not counting. It's not about that, but thousands of attendees at our in-person events and they're investors and CEOs and they're kind people because if they're not, they don't get asked back. So Elaine, we've kept her around. She's so nice. Also, James Zanewicz said, oh, of course you guys are buying in. And we like to say it's a not-for-profit in that The Bullpen doesn't need to touch the money. We don't want to. We bring our sponsors in and have them directly sponsor events, donate my time, and there's a bunch of other people who donate their time. So it's volunteer-led, not-for-profit club. That's what the Bullpen is.

I love that. And I think that's such an important piece that's missing in a lot of people's entrepreneurial journey. It can be an incredibly lonely journey. It's something that, you're right, you don't want to, if you're having challenges or problems, you don't want to talk to your employees about it. As you said, it kind of poisons the water. And you want to really get advice from others that have been down that road. And for the most part, people are really wanting to impart that wisdom. Life sciences is hard enough. Developing new drugs is hard enough. Like, find ways that we don't have to recreate the wheel in moving something forward and sharing resources. And I find when you get into the right room with the right people that they're incredibly willing to share those resources with you. I mean, I don't know if that's necessarily a question that I have, but I think it's just something really important that you don't see a lot in this journey. You know, I'm coming from an entrepreneurship position myself. It's hard to find people to talk to and have those counseling kind of therapy sessions in some ways. And then sometimes just like, I don't think I'm doing this right. I mean, I had someone that critiqued my pitch recently. I knew that I wasn't doing it right, and I've been doing this for 10 years. And so it was nice to get out of my own echo chamber.

Well, there are different ways of approaching situations in life, and I want to create a little reverse energy. We partner at JPM down in the Marina District. We're at the Golden Gate Yacht Club all 3 days of JPM. It's outside of the financial district. It's a different atmosphere. It's open. I think people like that vibe. We were there last year and people loved it. And this year we're adding mini conferences. So Day 1 is a Rare Disease Day. JP Morgan is sponsoring a happy hour that night from 4 to 7. The next day is Tools and Services Day. Tulane Medical School is one of the sponsors there. My company, EviaBio, is sponsoring it. That night we have— calling it Fat Tuesday JPM, and Tulane will be supplying some beads and maybe some specialty cakes and drinks. Cake.

Yeah, king cake.

It is Carnival season. It's Carnival season, right? So hopefully— Yes, have a blessing.

I love that.

And then Wednesday we have AI in Healthcare Day, which the AAIH is going to be involved with, which is the Association for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare. Also got news today that UT Austin is getting involved and our friend Steven Ecker, who's just a great bullpen member, former Mayo Clinic former University of Minnesota entrepreneur himself. We're open for the right people and the right programs, and we have a great location. We've hosted 2 America's Cups there. We're right on the water, and I invite the market to come in and partner if you care about this type of partnering.

Yeah, I think it's a really great— I mean, JPM is so overwhelming and one of the more challenging conferences. I mean, it doesn't always necessarily strike me as a conference, to be quite honest, because it Doesn't have like the standard structure you see at BIO, for example, but it's really hard to navigate. And so I really like the idea of having this more curated event, having the days. I mean, my own organization, the Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare, we're really excited and we're getting our member companies excited to come and talk about AI and the challenges and the really exciting things that we're doing in there. So I think it's a really great way to have a little bit more of a focused experience at JPM. And of course, I mean, the Yacht Club in San Francisco. I mean, my gosh, that sounds so fancy.

I mean, what's fun is, you know, our mantra is find somebody to help.

Yeah.

And, you know, if we do that in the bullpen, so my question to you, Elaine, is what do you want to accomplish? And that's a question we can ask everybody. Yeah. And they'll tell us, you know, I'm looking to meet strategic investor or a partner, or I'm doing my seed round and I'm, and I'm lining it up, or I want to close a deal. Well, just asking that question and then you're given an opportunity to help another really impressive person. What a gift that is really in life to be able to do that. And people trust you enough to tell you what they need. That's what it is. And it's kind of feeding off of itself right now. It's amazing how many great people are getting involved.

That's fantastic. So how can people get involved in JPM, the Bullpen session that you're hosting at JPM? Where can they go to find that?

We're prepping for JPM Online right now. Every Wednesday, really, leading up to JPM, We meet and we bring venture capitalists, dealmakers primarily onto panels. Our upcoming panels are angel funding, venture and PE funding, strategic funding, and then M&A and exits. And then we have a pitch competition December 20th. Go to bullpen.ventures and you'll find our website. And there's a little tour of the yacht club there as well, a video. And there's an inquiry form, and there's information about membership. There's a little mission statement that we have to put together. We soon will be posting the schedule for JPM. It's really quite easy. They can, they can get involved with, with our virtual meetings. You need to be really what we call a club member to have full access. We need to kind of hone in around our club members and really resource them in different ways. If you're a club member, you can come out anytime you want to the yacht club. If you'd like to get a table, rent a table, or reserve a table, we are giving our members 10 hours of partnering over the 3 days, and that includes a full buffet and open bar. So we just want to make it comfortable. We really thank our sponsors, Fredrickson Law, Mazzetti, CSC Leasing. JP Morgan has been involved. Silicon Valley Bank has been involved with this. I'm going to miss somebody. Clinically Media. Thank you, everybody. They believe in kind of this whole idea and it's growing. So thanks for asking, Elaine.

I think it's fantastic, especially JPM over the years has leaned more towards people that have the money to go because the hotels are expensive and going and having those meetings in the giant meeting forums, and it can be really challenging. So this feels very approachable, especially for small companies. And those are the ones that have really exciting innovation, but also need a little bit of help. And so I think it's really great that you're doing that. Well, is there anything else that you're looking forward to in 2024? And it doesn't have to be an event, it can just be something that you're excited to learn more about. Love to hear what, what excites you right now.

2024, I think, is going to be a really interesting year. There's going to be a lot of offbeat deals. I think there's going to be a lot of M&A going on and The best folks are really going to be able to take advantage of it and not the people, I guess. And it does come down to people, but the strategies that are well positioned. And so I'm excited about working with my peers and making my team better and working with my team and also to see other folks like Elaine and many members in the bullpen, how their deals pan out. It's going to be a really exciting year, I think.

Yeah. Fantastic. Hoping I can add my own companies to that list. Fingers crossed. So, well, thank you so much, Christian, and we look forward to following the bullpen and Evia Bio in the future. And as always, we'll have more information in our show notes about the things that we've talked about, including the JP Morgan bullpen event that's going to be occurring in January. So thank you once again, Christian. We appreciate it.

Thanks, Elaine. Thanks everyone.

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