Michael Deem, Innovator
Michael Deem at Khosla Ventures
The 7 Things You Say X But Khosla Ventures Hears Y
I was an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at Khosla Ventures for a year. Here are the 7 things that you say, but Khosla Ventures hears something else.
World leading team. You are intriguing …, but Khosla Ventures just got off a call with a 3x founder who built $10B in value twice. Be a bit humble about yourself, and have a huge vision for the potential of your company. Your startup will completely change a billion-dollar market.
I can show you the data with an NDA. Khosla Ventures is very unlikely to sign an NDA. Unless your company is super exciting … this is a pass. Assume the VC just wants to see the data on the screen. You can flash some backup slides to show real data. They are not asking for you to send them your secret sauce in great detail.
We have 15 patents. Ok, cool, … but do you have freedom to operate? Is your intellectual property (IP) blocking? At the Seed stage, it is OK if you have only applications, if it looks like you are a leader in a new area. In a super hot area, it may be OK that you will have to license IP from other players. At the Series A stage, you want your IP landscape to have more clarity.
KV, you were excited in our first meeting, here now is our upsized ask. If you ask goes up in the second meeting … this is not good. You did not think through your use of funds. A tier-1 like KV being excited means your next task is to get them to want to invest, not ask them for more funding.
I could do that, but.… If you are not coachable – pass. Try to explore their suggestions. The VC has so much experience. They have done this hundreds of times. You, no more than a handful. Treat this as a fantastic, free consulting experience.
Coachability. Are you coachable? A tier-1 VC like Khosla Ventures has enormous experience. They can mentor you on everything from science to go-to-market, if you are willing to listen. If not, they will likely pass.
I don’t know. OK … I like it. Here is an opportunity to see if this founder is coachable. Can we come to an answer, or more likely, can the VC help the founder formulate an action plan to find an answer?
Clear Derisking for Timeline. What is the use of funds? Spend some time thinking about the round from the VC’s perspective. How will this investment progress you towards a potential exit? Try to answer the question: How does this round derisk the next round? The KV partner will want to put this in her report. Help her out with an answer!
You are a great founder. That is why you are pitching to a tier-1 VC. Put yourself in their shoes during your preparation for the meeting, so you have an appreciation for how your message comes across. Good luck.
Michael Deem is Managing Partner at Angeliki Fund, a physical and digital private equity infrastructure fund. Previously Michael was an Entrepreneur in Residence for Khosla Ventures, a tier-1 venture capital firm on Sand Hill. At Khosla, Michael was responsible for reviewing companies for portfolio inclusion, incubating startups, and mentoring portfolio companies. He worked in the life science and sustainability areas. Michael was part of the founding team of Ion Torrent Systems, sold to ThermoFisher for $2.3B in 2014. He was the 3rd person and performed all the original engineering calculations. He was the 10th person and director of drug design at CuraGen ($100M IPO in 1998). He started the first `Synthetic Biology’ PhD program in the US. He was chair of a top-10 Bioengineering Department, with responsibility for 400 people and $27M annual budget. Michael is an active member of The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD).
Dr. Deem is an American engineer, scientist, and inventor. Michael was with Rice University from 2002-2020. At Rice, he was the John W. Cox Professor of Bioengineering and Physics & Astronomy. He was chair of Bioengineering Department from 2014 to 2017. He was the founding director of the Graduate Program in Systems, Synthetic, and Physical Biology. This was the first PhD program in the US with ‘Synthetic Biology’ in the title.
Michael’s expertise lies in the life sciences and nanoporous materials. The Michael Deem Rice University group made many contributions. Among Michael’s fields of specializations are synthetic biology, evolution, vaccines, statistical mechanics, and zeolites.
Michael was an assistant and associate professor at UCLA, 1996-2002. He received his BS from the California Institute of Technology, PhD from UC Berkeley. He received a postdoctoral fellowship from Harvard University.
Michael is an experienced senior professional. He has operated in senior management, Board, and advisor capacities. His intellectual bandwidth has benefited companies from a wide cross section of industries. He has advanced life sciences, artificial intelligence, genomics, data science, biotechnology, energy, and cancer research.
Dr. Deem has published over 200 papers. He has given over 300 invited talks. He is listed as an inventor on 16 US patents. Michael W. Deem Rice University and UCLA professor has mentored hundreds of students and taught over 10000 of undergraduates.
Michael has made significant contributions to bioengineering, physics, and chemical engineering. He developed the widely used tools DIFFAX and ZEFSA for materials science. He created the widely used database of predicted zeolite structures. He invented the hierarchical approach to protein molecular evolution. He developed the pEpitope method to characterize vaccine effectiveness and antigenic distance for influenza. He developed the theory of modularity for biological evolution. He showed that changing environmental pressures lead to the spontaneous emergence of modularity in biological systems. He showed the importance of cross-species genetic exchange for rapid evolution. He developed the polytopic vaccination method for sculpting the immune response to multi-strain pathogens. He created a theory of the competition for access to antigen that allows HIV to escape recognition by the immune system. He has made major contributions to Monte Carlo simulation methods. He is widely recognized as an innovator. For these contributions, among others, Mike Deem received numerous awards.
Michael enjoys life, work, and play. He is an avid rock climber. He enjoys high-performance cars. And he is a long-time Taekwondo practitioner.
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