BIO from the BAYOU: Build Your Biotech Network with Key Opinion Leaders and Investors
14 Mar 2024 · 16 min
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In this episode of Bio from the Bayou, hosts James R. Zanewicz and Dr. Elaine Hamm interview Dr. Nick Pashos, founder and CEO of BioAesthetics and the inaugural Entrepreneur‑in‑Residence (EIR) at Tulane School of Medicine. Dr. Pashos explains how his PhD research on nipple‑areola reconstruction evolved directly into a company, describing the fear of letting a promising technology sit on a shelf and the permission he received from his PI to pursue commercialization himself. He outlines the core responsibilities of the EIR role—leveraging Tulane’s resources, mentoring nascent entrepreneurs, cutting through red‑tape, and connecting innovators with investors and industry partners. The conversation delves into the unique challenges of spinning out a startup from a university, including technology‑transfer hurdles, funding timelines, and cultural attitudes such as “sink‑or‑swim.” Dr. Pashos contrasts his EIR duties with Dr. Hamm’s Executive‑in‑Residence role, emphasizing mentorship versus external advocacy. He shares what keeps him up at night—patient outcomes in clinical studies and the responsibility for employees’ livelihoods. The hosts discuss the importance of allowing early‑stage failure, the non‑archetypal nature of successful entrepreneurs, and the excitement around current Tulane ventures such as Axiton, Formuta, AxoSim, and Informata. The episode highlights Tulane’s Innovation Institute, the School of Medicine’s supportive ecosystem, and the broader Gulf Coast biotech landscape.
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You're listening to Bio from the Bayou, featuring stories and industry insights from experts in the bustling biotech scene in New Orleans.
The entire Gulf Coast region is buzzing with excitement, and we're here to bring you frontline access to this vibrant ecosystem direct from NOLA, the city that provides Little Lagniappe with everything we do.
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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 of Medicine.
And this is Bio from the Bayou.
Welcome back to Bio from the Bayou. Today's guest is Dr. Nick Pachos. You may remember him as the founder and CEO of BioAesthetics, a successful startup that improves reconstruction options for breast cancer survivors. Check out episode 8 if you'd like to learn more. But most important for today is Nick's new role as the first entrepreneur in residence for Tulane School of Medicine. So welcome back to the show, Nick.
Oh, thank you very much, Elaine, for having me back. I appreciate it. Yeah.
Well, first and foremost, can you provide an overview of your position as entrepreneur in residence and what does that role really entail?
This role kind of came about through having a discussion with you and also the chief business officer at Tulane School of Medicine. on how best to support the entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs from the school and the Tulane Primate Center as well. So, as you know, the School of Medicine has some phenomenal research in all different areas of medicine to help everyone's health. And so the biggest part of starting a business is really how do you kick it off? And so that's where my role comes into play, is how can we use the resources at the School of Medicine and help these individuals out? to start spurring their businesses and taking them to the next level.
Fantastic. Well, and, and you're very unique in that you're not just a startup CEO. This startup is actually based on your research that you did at Tulane School of Medicine. So at what point did you think in your research, like, rather than licensing this to a company, I want to move this forward myself and make this a company myself?
Pretty immediately, actually. So my company Bioaesthetics was founded out of my PhD research, which was an interdisciplinary program in partnership with all the schools at Tübingen University. So it's the Bioinnovation Interdisciplinary PhD Program. And the point of that program was to really have non-traditional pathway for scientists, for people who didn't want to just become professors, which is an amazing career path, but it was for people who were choosing other pathways. And so I really had focused on entrepreneurship early on, or industry. And where you can bring a PhD into the scientific world and industry and actually bring ideation to fruition. And I'd originally started my work working on lungs, and I'd switched it over to nipple and areola reconstruction for breast cancer patients and realized there was a pretty nice market opportunity. And so the biggest scary part of trying to bring an idea to fruition through a university is a lot of times it takes many, many years And millions and millions of dollars to bring something actually to market, to translate it properly. And my biggest fear when I had started this project was that it would just sit on my shelf and nothing would actually happen to it. I would graduate and nobody would want to touch it. And so I thought the best way to actually cause effect inside of people and in the breast cancer community was to do it myself. And that's the reason why I started it. And the reason gave me the permission to do it was my PI said, you know, I don't know how to do this. Go explore it. You have my permission. Just keep doing it until somebody says you can't. And I think that's one of the roles that I'm taking as an entrepreneur-in-residence is giving those people permission to go forward on their own as well and to explore entrepreneurial activities for their research.
So I'm going to stick to that comment that you said about fear. When I was on the investment side, one of my questions I would ask entrepreneurs, and it's really to get entrepreneurs to think about risk, is what keeps you up at night? So what keeps you up at night as a startup CEO?
That's such a large and loaded question.
Why? Hey, that's why I like to ask it.
Yeah, no, it's a great question. I've been asked it several times, right? I think what keeps me up at night from, from a company that is in 2 different clinical studies, right? We're currently pursuing It's a couple different products, but one product is a computerized clinical studies and it's going well and we're going forward with it. And, you know, you have a lot on your mind, right? You have your patients on your mind. That's something that as a scientist, PhD scientist, I never thought I'd ever have, right?
Hmm.
And then starting a company from scratch, bootstrapping it, raising funds, the other undue stress I never thought I'd ever come in contact with. is you're now in charge of a lot of people's salaries, right? And a lot of people's livelihoods. And it's your job to keep it going, right? And to tell an appropriate story and to make sure the science is going in a positive direction. And when it's not, you need to fix it. And so those are the 2 things that probably keep me up at night the most when it comes to running a business and running a startup in general.
That's great. And in addition to those, what are the other challenges and obstacles that innovators can encounter when they're trying to Bring their ideas to the marketplace?
Yeah, I think there are very unique challenges when trying to spin out a startup from a university, right? And those obstacles are different, I think, for faculty and for students and for people who are trying to license out technology from a university without having an already built relationship with them. And I think that is something that The School of Medicine is really trying to push forward and break down those obstacles and challenges for those individuals. And sometimes it is built-in obstacles that a faculty member and student just doesn't know where to go with it, right? Some additional challenges, and that this office is looking to help correct, is how do we help overcome that internal fear, right? And how do we help with red tape? And how do we help guide a new entrepreneur through the technology transfer, through partnering, through investment? And how do we get their name out? Because a lot of times that's the case, right? And so I think this office that we're in through the School of Medicine does a really beautiful job making connections with investors, making connections with larger companies for partnerships. And that gives the entrepreneur, student, faculty member, alumni, a real foot in the door when it comes to just starting a company from scratch, right? It's something that I didn't have when I was a student, and I think that's what drew me to this, right, is how do we make this easier for the next group of people? And the Tulane University Innovation Institute, as well as the School of Medicine, I think, has done a really beautiful job in really bringing that forward and helping it just be easier for the next generation of students.
And frankly, that's not always something you see at universities. I've been on the tech transfer side myself, and a lot of times there's a little bit of an attitude of sink or swim. You know, if you want to be an entrepreneur, you've got to go do it and come back to us when you can give us the money in our agreement, you know, and that's a weird way to go about it. I mean, I really appreciate how James, the Chief Business Officer, thinks about supporting the potential entrepreneurs within the School of Medicine. And it is not a sink or swim type of attitude. It's very much like, no, we want technologies to be successful, and this is one of the ways that we can do it. And so I think that that's a really key aspect that isn't always at universities, but I think that it should. And I think these roles, the entrepreneur in residence, is important. So I'd love to learn more about your sort of thoughts of entrepreneurs in residence. Especially within a university setting.
Yeah, Elaine, just building off that real quick, I think that Tulane's approach to it has been very unique and it's been very conscientious, right, as they go forward with it. I was a student before James, or the chief business officer, started at the School of Medicine, and I was trying to spin out a company, and then he started, right? And at the time, actually, it was through his introduction that we landed our first really big investment deal with a VC out in the Bay Area in California, right? And the company had really started Explode, we were doing preclinical models at Tulane, a couple different ones. And that discussion back and forth between Tulane University and now this newly formed business entity that still as a student, right, a lot of times that actually went through James's office and through the chief business officer, through the chief strategic officer, right? And having an intimate discussion with that and telling them what our needs were, and what the timelines are, right? Because a timeline in a business and a startup are very different than academia and from a grant perspective, right? The goals and milestones are extremely different. So I was at Tulane when that shift started to occur, and it was this very abrupt change, actually. It was a very concerted effort through Dean Hamm's part as well to say, listen, this is something we absolutely need to do. And it's been a wonderful thing to come on as an entrepreneur in residence and assist with that and help entrepreneurs from the back end as well on not just partnerships, but giving them initial advice and how to start. So the entrepreneur in residence plays a little bit of a backseat role in it and just wants to see people succeed in it. And that's where I come into play.
No, I think that's great. And, and for context, so I, I'm also an EIR within Tulane, but a different type. So I'm the executive in residence and you're the entrepreneur in residence. And how I've been thinking about it is mentorship versus advocate. I'm going onto the outside and trying to advocate for companies, but you're the, you're really the boots on the ground and being able to mentor companies and help them with the challenges that they had no idea that they would come across because this is their first time doing it. And sometimes maybe it's not their first time doing it, they just need help because, as you and I both know, startups are hard. So what aspect of your role are you really looking forward to the most?
Yeah. You know, I think it's the ability to work with people who are in my shoes, but today, right? Like I started this company in 2015 and Turing has come such a long way when it comes to innovation and startups and all these amazing technologies are coming out, which they always have been, but you have this new spur of entrepreneurship from faculty and students, and it's just so wonderful to be a part of on the other side. Right. And I'm taking the role where the Chief Business Officer, James, and where my PI had for me is sitting down and telling somebody, yeah, do it. Right. It's okay to do that. And when we hit a bump, we're going to help you figure it out.
Yeah. Right.
And sometimes you need to just give someone permission to allow them to do it properly.
Right.
And to just go forward with it. And that's what I'm most excited about is just like seeing that beginning part of a company and the excitement. And the enthusiasm from all parts, Tulane and from the entrepreneur themselves. It's very fun to be a part of.
Yeah, that first step is really the scariest in a lot of ways and also kind of the most fun to be a part of. And so it's an interesting time point in a startup's career to be at the very, very beginning stages and to kind of help give them permission to be successful or be— or fail, and that it's going to be OK, you know?
Right? Either way, either way, it's totally fine. And that's the whole point of it. In fact, failing early doesn't mean that the entire operation has failed, right? It just means that avenue is no longer viable and that you can go back early on and change your direction of it, right? And reiterate it. And that's the best part of having an umbrella of Tufts University and the School of Medicine is that it gives you that ability to go through and iterate really fast and find a different direction if the first one just doesn't suit your end user as well.
Well, in sort of that fear, you know, and that failure part, there's sort of this perception that you need to have this personality profile to be an entrepreneur, someone that loves to take risks and is comfortable in those types of situations. Do you think that you are that type of person, or did you ever think that you were going to be an entrepreneur?
Nope, I never did. You know, I'm a little bit more of an introvert than probably most people. I like being in a lab by myself. But there's something different about being your own champion and finding a challenge, right, from a business perspective or science perspective, and trying to figure out that challenge and solving that challenge, whether it be fundraising or a scientific challenge for bringing in new technology for breast cancer survivors or whatever it may be, right? It's that type of thing that gets me going. So no, you don't have to have, you know, a standard archetype. of an entrepreneur for it. In fact, it's great when you have somebody who's coming straight out of the lab and learning about entrepreneurship and having the ability to partner up with a business partner who has complementary skill sets as you, right? You never need someone who's identical to you in a company. You always need someone complementary to yourself. So no, I don't think there's a one single archetype that makes a successful entrepreneur. I think it's just the overall willingness and drive to want to see something Agreed. Well, great.
Well, I'm going to ask you one last question. Are there any ventures at Tulane that you're particularly excited about?
There are quite a few ventures at Tulane that I'm excited about. I think the one that's at the forefront right now, Axiton, has done just so beautifully and wonderfully. I mean, the founder of that, Lowry, was a mentor of mine when I was starting a business because he was a couple years ahead of me. But Formuta right now, is a company that is really driving new innovation at Tulane, and I think they're going to make big waves going forward.
Yeah, no, I know both of those companies really well and weirdly came across AxoSim in my day job of running an MS company. We were referred to them and I, it took me a minute. I was like, no, wait, I know that company already through my role at Tulane. And so that was just such a really great moment to be able to see a company that you already know be successful on the larger stage. That's really exciting. And of course, Informata, really excited about them. I love seeing students at that beginning stages of startup beginnings. So, well, fantastic. Well, thank you so much, Nick. I really look forward to working with you and helping to advance the Tulane School of Medicine science from bench to bedside.
Awesome. Thank you so much for having me again.
Of course. Well, as always, we will have Nick's contact information and informational links posted in our show notes. Make sure you check them out to learn more. Thanks once again, Nick.
Thank you.
Thanks for joining us for Bio from the Bayou, and we hope you'll join us again.
If you'd like to learn more about the emerging biotech scene in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region, visit us at biofromthebayou.com, where we have more info on who we are, How to get involved and connected in biotech in New Orleans, and the industry events we'll be hosting where you can meet with us in person.
And we'd be remiss if we didn't give a special thanks to the Accelerator Network for providing funding for this podcast. Learn more about them in our show notes.
We'll catch you on our next episode of Bio from the Bike.
