Last year, Syncona introduced its new launch team – formed to harness our deep institutional knowledge of creating, building and scaling companies around exceptional science. The team supports the quick and effective operationalisation of new companies, to accelerate their early development. A great example of this work has been the team’s involvement in the recent launch of Yellowstone Biosciences (Yellowstone), alongside a £16.5 million Series A financing. Investment Partner, Gonzalo Garcia, and Business Strategy and Operations Partner, Ben Woolven, have been closely involved in the early operational development of Yellowstone and here provide an overview of the launch team’s integral role at Syncona.
What is the launch team and what is its purpose?
BW: The launch team is a cross-functional team of all the things that you need to build a new company, whether that's HR, legal, or finance. It brings together expertise from across Syncona to focus really tightly on effectively and efficiently building a new company. It institutionalises the deep know-how that we have cultivated across the team at Syncona from our experience of building companies and overcoming the various challenges we’ve come across.
GG: The launch team is the operational muscle that we bring to our new deals, especially early-stage company creation. It lets us centralise company building in a way that we haven't done before, allowing us to build companies to a high standard, at a faster pace.
How does the launch team work alongside the investment team?
GG: The investment team does the early groundwork – working on the investment thesis, the diligence, and getting to know the founders. Then, when you get to the point where you decide that this is a company we want to invest in and build, the launch team comes in. Together, the two teams form a cross-functional deal team that can build out a company’s operations and its strategy in parallel.
BW: It’s very important to keep the scientific thesis and ambition front-and-centre as the company finds its feet – the teamwork between this multi-disciplinary group makes this possible. At the point where we switch from diligence assessment to building the company, the launch team accelerates the company creation process, driving operational momentum.
Bringing this to life, how did the launch team work alongside Yellowstone and what impact did this have?
GG: Once the investment thesis had been set and Yellowstone’s founders had agreed to partner with Syncona, the launch team came in and immediately integrated with the investment team members who had led on the diligence and strategy. The capabilities they brought to bear allowed us to translate strategy into practice very quickly, bridging from high-level aspirations to detailed hiring plans, bottom-up budgets, facility needs and so on. This enabled Yellowstone to execute on its operational plans at pace and build out much of its capabilities almost immediately upon its foundation. In addition to speed, the high-quality of the build reflected Syncona’s experience from over the last decade. Overall, the launch team must have saved the company 3-6 months on what can often be a year-long process. This has allowed Yellowstone to quickly kick start its journey towards bringing novel medicines to patients.
BW: Building on what Gonzalo mentioned, when looking back at how we did things, a lot of it came down to experience of knowing what to do, when to do it and in what order. We still lean into our experience as company builders but now it’s a lot more process driven. Between us we also have a lot of personal experience of being in a start-up environment – which is always exciting but often chaotic! The launch team eliminates the chaos and, in the case of Yellowstone, the quick company set up meant that new employees walked into the business feeling supported on day one. That’s invaluable from a cultural perspective.
How would you describe the impact of the launch team in building Yellowstone as compared with previous company builds?
GG: We always look to improve with every company build, but the formation of the launch team has helped us to embed learnings and best practice more effectively. The beauty of the launch team is that everything needed to operationalise a company is all in one place, which has allowed us to more effectively deploy our resources. With Yellowstone we had specialists delivering on their respective domains in parallel and the speed with which it was built is extraordinary.
What happens after a company is launched?
GG: Once the company reaches the point of independence, the launch team steps back. However, Syncona typically stays closely involved with its portfolio companies at the Board level, providing guidance as the company grows, including around senior hiring, company strategy, transactions and M&A. That’s certainly been the case for Yellowstone now that the company is fully up and running.
What’s next for the launch team?
BW: Syncona always has a strong pipeline of new investment opportunities under consideration, with the launch team ready to be deployed as new deals cross the line. What makes that exciting is two things, really. One is that we have this central team with the knowledge to deal with most operational issues and types of work that goes into launching a company. The second is that every company launch is different – every investment thesis will be different, the science behind the company will be different, and the founding team will have different strengths and weaknesses. Whatever the challenge, the launch team will be ready to take it on and help to accelerate world-class science into the next generation of emerging biotech companies.
