Nov 26, 2018 · 30m · 20vc
20VC: Why Raising A First Time Fund Is Like Raising A Seed Round, Why We Need New and Different Fund Models & Why Longevity Is The Most Rewarding Place To Invest with Laura Deming, Founding Partner @ The Longevity Fund
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of The 20 Minute VC, host Harry Stebbings interviews Laura Deming, Founding Partner at the Longevity Fund, to discuss her trajectory as a teenage VC, the evolving science of human life extension, and key strategies for building and funding biotech startups.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Harry holds 42% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Harry as informed peer 2.9 Guest teaching 4.6 Guest disagreement 2.0 Harry pushing back 1.4
speaking balance: gold is Harry, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 23:48 Dismissing downstream funding deficit claims
Laura directly rejects the host's premise that downstream capital is lacking in biotech, stating that empirically every portfolio company that wanted follow-on funding secured it.
Hardest push from Harry ▶ 23:34 Harry challenging downstream capital availabilityHarry refuses to take general optimism at face value and specifically asks whether the reported lack of downstream investors in biotech is a myth or a genuine operational concern.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 12:50 Reframing longevity as low riskLaura completely flips the host's assumption about longevity risk, educating him on how targeting fundamental aging pathways gives therapeutics multiple clinical indications across various diseases.
Harry holds his own ▶ 14:15 Harry citing biotech firm modelsHarry demonstrates strong VC domain expertise by citing specific firm strategies like Atlas Venture and quoting Peter Parker from BioInnovation to question internal creation approaches.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Harry as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Harry pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laura Deming's Unconventional Path into Venture Capital | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Stebbings introduces Deming with admiring, self-deprecating remarks about her early MIT admission and fund founding. Deming educates the host on the fundamentals of aging biology, citing C. elegans worm genetic studies to show longevity is malleable. | |
| Talent Shortages and Mindsets of Young Biotech Founders | 2 | 5 | 2 | 1 | Stebbings asks where young biotech founders are found and why there is a shortage. Deming educates him on the misperception among Bio PhDs who assume drug development requires massive upfront capital when $500k to $1M is enough to start. | |
| Market Timing and Counterintuitive Low Risk in Longevity | 3 | 6 | 3 | 2 | Stebbings raises market timing risk in frontier technologies. Deming offers a counterintuitive reframe, explaining why longevity is actually the least risky biotech sector because its underlying pathways target multiple age-related indications simultaneously. | |
| Founder-Driven Models vs. Internal Fund Build Strategies | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | Stebbings demonstrates domain knowledge by citing specific biotech investors like Peter Parker at BioInnovation and Atlas Venture regarding internal fund creation. Deming counters internal build models by outlining how Genentech's historical success was heavily founder-driven. | |
| Lessons from Raising a First-Time Venture Fund as a Teenager | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Stebbings asks about Deming's experience pitching LPs as a teenager. Deming shares her early mistakes like cold-emailing the Forbes 400 list, explaining how a first-time fund raise functions more like a startup seed round. | |
| Portfolio Construction and Downstream Capital in Longevity | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | Stebbings presses on whether the lack of downstream biotech investors is a myth or a reality. Deming rejects the premise, pointing out that empirically all of her portfolio companies have successfully raised follow-on rounds from outside capital. | |
| Quick Fire Round: Personal Habits, Fund Structures, and Recent Bets | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Stebbings runs through rapid-fire questions covering personal habits, books, and fund structures. Deming provides concise commentary on LP constraints in VC fund structuring and shares personal anecdotes. |
Statements from this episode (10)
Laura Deming: Three decades of research prove aging is genetically malleable
“There was really very little work on aging and longevity, but the past three decades have resulted in massive advances. So we now know that it's possible to genetically control aging, that aging is malleable.”
Deming: Biotech VC funding doubled while new startup creation remained flat
“I think one of the founding into biotech venture capital has doubled over the past couple years, and that's a huge fact, but the number of companies started to stay fairly stable”
Deming: Biotech VC is constrained by founder talent, not funding
“And so I think the fascinating thing is, you know, I always assumed from the outside that biotech venture capital was really limited by dollars, and I think it used to be, but I think the fascinating fact is now it's all about talent, and just, you know, we're…”
Deming: Longevity is counterintuitively the least risky sector in biology
“I literally thought it was the least risky, most likely to work part of biology in general, particularly the part of biology that would be easy to test in humans, and that's very counterintuitive to most people.”
Deming: All Longevity Fund portfolio companies target multi-disease pathways
“All the companies that we invest in have drugs that have worked not just in kind of mouse models of Alzheimer's typically, but also diabetes and heart disease, and kind of typically the pathways that we invest in have been tested in and work in almost every Ag…”
Deming: Internal biotech studio builds yield higher equity and easier LP pitches
“I mean, I think it's a great strategy. It's great for the VCs for certain parameters. I think the likelihood of success is slightly higher. The equity stakes are definitely higher, and there's a better pitch to LPs in the short term.”
Deming: Biotech value stems from founder-driven decisions, not initial thesis
“And I think, you know, maybe sometimes focusing on the thesis of an investment can blind you to the fact that most of the value in biotech comes from the eventual trajectory of the company that's unpredictable at the start. And that trajectory is absolutely di…”
Laura Deming: Raising a first VC fund is like a seed round
“But I think the process for raising your first fund is a lot more like raising a seed round for a company than it is like any kind of mature venture fundraising process I've seen.”
Laura Deming: The Longevity Fund pitched Unity Biotechnology to secure early LPs
“We had just found one of the first companies that we ever invested in, Unity Biotechnology, and we were really, really excited about them. And so I actually used that as the first Deal that I discussed with LPs.”
Deming: VC value creation is limited by rigid fund structure norms
“I think the diversity of fun types. I think we've been artificially constrained by a perception that it's hard to raise a new structure of fun because LPs just kind of, like, amorphously won't like it. I think that's really cut down on the value to be created …”