In this episode, Nucleate Signal welcomes Tony Kulesa, Principal of Pillar VC and Co-Founder of Petri. Tony talks about his journey from academic science to his experiences starting a Life Sciences Incubator and ultimately joining Pillar as a Venture Capitalist. He shares the inspiration for Pillar to develop a thriving biotech ecosystem by providing founders resources, community, skills, and connections to launch founder-led biotech companies.
Show Notes
Tony's career foundations as an academic scientist at MIT and early inspiration for entrepreneurship [0:43]
Engaging in entrepreneurial groups shaped Tony's early career [07:10]
Tony's inspiration to co-found Petri [11:38]
Pillar is rethinking the approach to biotech investing [25:21]
Pillar's investment thesis [30:34]
Tony's advice to a PhD student who is considering industry and entrepreneurship [35:59]