LA Venture Podcast: How Westlake Village BioPartners Aims to Catalyze Biotech in LA
On this week's episode of LA Venture, hear from Sean Harper, founding managing director of Westlake Village BioPartners, which has two new funds totaling $500 million that's catalyzing the L.A. biotech ecosystem. Harper is the former head of research and development at biopharmaceutical company Amgen. He shares his focus on therapeutics to improve human lives and starting Westlake with Beth Seidenberg.
Key Takeaways
- Harper believes Google's AlphaFold and protein folding will be transformative, but doesn't want to overhype its potential.
- Harper points out that a lot of what's making biology more of a quantitative, predictive science and translatable into new therapies for people comes from the introduction of non-biology technologies like robotics, x-ray or crystallography.
- Westlake Village BioPartners has partnered with Alexandria Venture Investments which has helped to provide turnkey available laboratory space. This should help companies get set up quickly.
"At some point, it's going to be possible to essentially reset the immune system. So it no longer believes that self antigens are foreign. If somebody brings forward a technology like that, it'll be transformative." — Sean Harper
Sean Harper attended medical school at the University of California at San Francisco, completed internal medicine and gastroenterology training at Massachusetts General Hospital, and was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Nobel Laurette Phillip A. Sharp at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He held a number of key leadership positions at Amgen.
Want to hear more of L.A. Venture? Listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
From Your Site Articles
- LA Venture Podcast: Gil Demeter of Pontifax AgTech on the Next ... ›
- LA Venture Podcast: Jim Andelman of Bonfire Ventures ›
- LA Venture Podcast: Lux Capital Bets On Deep-Tech Founders ... ›
- Sinai Ventures' Zach White on Secondary Shares, LA's Future - dot.LA ›
- Sinai Ventures' Zach White on Secondary Shares, LA's Future - dot.LA ›
- Sci Find Is a New AI-Based Tool Is for Biotech Startups - dot.LA ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Subscribe to our newsletter to catch every headline.
Looking for Bargains on Office Space? Prepare for Sticker Shock. Rents Are Higher Than Before COVID
Feb 26 2021
Nearly a year into the worst pandemic in a century, Los Angeles companies expecting to snap up office space on the cheap may be disappointed.
L.A. office rents have held steady or even gotten pricier since COVID, even as more space has become available as most employees continue to work from home.
"I honestly thought rents would have dropped by now," said Michael Soto, research director at the brokerage Savills Inc. "For a lot of tenants, they are still seeing a bit of sticker shock that prices haven't dropped yet."
<p>Despite a 22% vacancy rate, the average asking L.A. office rent at the end of 2020 creeped up to $44.88 a square foot from $42.12 at the end of 2019, according to Savills. In West L.A., where most tech companies are located, rent inched up to $62.96 from $59.58 even as vacancy also increased to 21% from 14%.</p><p>"It's counterintuitive," said Soto. "Usually when availability goes up, rent goes down. But rents have been sticky."</p><p>Soto credits the steadiness in prices to landlords holding firm on pricing, anticipating that workers will return to the office in the second half of the year. </p><p>"We are in a wait-and-see approach to see who blinks first," Soto said. </p><p>Even though overall demand for office space in L.A. has fallen, it is still doing much better relative to other major cities, according to the <a href="https://www.vts.com/vts-office-demand-index-february-2021" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">VTS Office Demand Index (VODI)</a>, a real time tracker of private commercial real estate data. It found demand in L.A. was down only 15% in January compared to the same month in 2020. By comparison, demand plummeted 52% in San Francisco and 68% in New York. </p><p>One reason why is the Netflix effect. Through the pandemic, streaming services <a href="https://dot.la/netflix-google-los-angeles-2645965570.html" target="_self">continued to aggressively expand their L.A. footprint</a>, which helped drive up rent for the market as a whole.</p><p>"These are companies that are flush with capital," Soto said. "They have taken advantage of drop off in leasing activity to expand to get favorable terms."</p><p>Some large tech companies – such as Salesforce, Zillow, Twitter and Dropbox – have said remote work will be permanent. But they are still in the minority as <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/09/a-return-to-the-office-may-be-coming-as-vaccinations-increase.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">most companies plan to return to the office,</a> even if they will not require all their workers to be present all the time. </p><p>Just one in 10 companies expect all employees to return to their pre-pandemic work arrangements, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/just-1-10-companies-expect-all-employees-return-office-n1255589" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to a recent survey</a> conducted by the National Association for Business Economics. <a href="https://dot.la/venture-capital-firms-los-angeles-2649514510/particle-6" target="_self">A dot.LA survey of top L.A. VCs </a>conducted in December found 28% do not expect employees to ever go back, but 44% expect employees to return during the second half of this year.</p><p>Jamie Montgomery, co-founder and managing partner of March Capital, said he never considered giving up his venture firm's Santa Monica office and that he's hopeful his staff can return in a few months. </p><p>"We have a relatively young team and they like the social interaction," Montgomery said. "I think we're in what I would call a creative industry where you kick around ideas and you come up with the best ideas. I mean, I'm not going to sit here at my desk and be a brilliant investor."</p><p>Montgomery says he was able to buck the trend of higher rents when he signed a new lease in December, lowering his rent to where it was five years ago. He was eager to get the deal done before prices increased. </p><p>"I thought if we waited too long we probably would miss that window," he said.</p>
From Your Site Articles
- Is Working remotely Here to Stay And Is It For Everyone? - dot.LA ›
- Netflix and Google Will Dominate L.A. After the Pandemic - dot.LA ›
- The Future of Real Estate: Bigger Offices and Smaller Chains - dot.LA ›
- Los Angeles Could Be What Real Estate Looks Like Post-COVID ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read more
Show less
On today's episode of Office Hours, I'm excited for you to get to know Austin Allison, my co-founder and CEO of our company, Pacaso.
Birds were the first dwellers Austin served with his boyhood bird-house business. Now, with Pacaso, our goal is to democratize second-home ownership by enabling people to co-own an amazing second home --- for 1/8 the cost.
Hear his take on what it meant to have his first company acquired, his number one tip on how to keep his crew focused and how to best navigate what seems like weekly iterations of the start-up environment.
<blockquote>
"Startups are incredibly hard. I mean, like every day is you wake up and it's like eating nails for breakfast. You know, you're just you're just dealing with problem after problem and opportunity after opportunity. And if you love what you're doing and you really believe in what you're doing in your heart, the hard work just feels natural. It feels like a blessing." — Austin Allison
</blockquote><p>
<strong>Austin Allison</strong> co-founded Pacaso to make the dream of second home ownership a reality for more people after experiencing the profound effect it had on his own life. Pacaso is Austin's second startup. In 2008, he founded dotloop in his hometown of Cincinnati, a company that created software to seamlessly manage real estate transactions. Zillow acquired dotloop in 2015, and Austin continued to run dotloop as a Zillow executive until 2018. He lives in Napa, CA with his wife Angela and dog Paris and enjoys spending time in his second home in Lake Tahoe, CA.
</p>
From Your Site Articles
- Proptech Startup Pacaso Raises $17M to Make it Easier to Own a ... ›
- Daina Trout, Health-Ade Kombucha CEO, on How to Pivot - dot.LA ›
- Office Hours Podcast: Bill Gurley On Startups, Venture Capital and ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read more
Show less
LA Tech Updates: Sweetgreen to Go Carbon Neutral by 2027; Santa Monica Opens Zero-Emission Zone
Feb 25 2021
Sweetgreen has pledged to be carbon neutral in six years by cutting its carbon output in half. Santa Monica and the L.A. Cleantech Incubator launched the nation's first zero-emissions delivery zone, a project meant to encourage companies to embrace EV transportation. Sign up for our newsletter and follow dot.LA on Twitter for more updates.
Today:
- Sweet Green wants to get greener
- Santa Monica opens emission-free delivery zone in downtown
<ul class="ee-ul"></ul>
Sweetgreen Promises Carbon Neutrality by 2027
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzEzODQ3MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNTc4NjQxNn0.sad0ogJEI_n5zonFpimBFFqqkA6NSvjXVhk3ckIyeUo/img.jpg?width=980" id="e77aa" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0997ff2630815ab1b3505090cfdb38ca" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />LA Tech Updates: Sweetgreen to Go Carbon Neutral by 2027; Santa Monica Opens Zero-Emission Zone<p>Sweetgreen wants to be greener. </p> <p>The Culver City-based fast casual unicorn has pledged to be carbon neutral in six years by cutting its carbon output in half.</p> <p>"We believe that climate change is the defining challenge of our generation, posing a real and systemic threat to the health of people and the planet," Sweetgreen's founders <a href="https://medium.com/@sweetgreen/our-commitment-to-be-carbon-neutral-by-2027-875a29698252" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wrote in a blog post.</a> "As restaurant leaders in an industry that drives 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions, it is our responsibility to use our platform and resources to confront this crisis head on."</p> <hr><p>The company says it started measuring its carbon output in 2019, which helped it identify areas where it could save energy. It was already well ahead of most other restaurants because of its heavy use of low impact fruits and vegetables rather than beef, but it wanted to do more.</p> <p>Sweetgreen will now use carbon output as a metric for deciding what to put on its menu. It will also work with suppliers to be more environmentally friendly.</p> <p>"To truly future proof our company, we must evolve our supply network and fix our relationship to the soil — and cultivate an environment that benefits the entire agricultural ecosystem: our food partners, customers, team members, and the planet," the founders wrote. </p>Santa Monica Opens Nation's First Zero-Emissions Delivery Zone
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY5MDU3OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NTI1NTIxOH0.T3W4XNFrl3_7TZ-fPB9kBRheOBEh-WeZY3LdoouwhdU/img.jpg?width=980" id="7afd5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d0d1afe8b6f9d941da5b2c303f975ba3" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="kiwibot Santa Monica" data-width="1080" data-height="1080" /><p>Ikea, Shopify and the yerba mate brand Guayaki are just a few of the companies that vow to cut pollution in Santa Monica by using electric vans and delivery robots to fulfill orders.</p><p>The seaside city and the L.A. Cleantech Incubator launched the nation's first zero-emissions delivery zone on Thursday, a project meant to encourage companies to embrace EV transportation by giving drivers access to 20 reserved parking and loading spots. The one-square mile radius will span Downtown Santa Monica and Main Street. </p><hr><p>City officials will be watching for changes in traffic and pollution with an eye towards introducing permanent zones down the line.</p><p>To do that, <a href="https://dot.la/automotus-2650510029.html" target="_self">they've hired Automotus</a>, a venture-backed software startup that monitors curbside traffic. The company will install 20 small video cameras on street lamps lining the parking spots to collect data on factors like congestion and safety. Plus, the technology will alert drivers to open parking spots through an app. </p><p>Automotus' CEO says the cameras will not pick up personally identifiable information. In other cities, however, the software has been used to automate parking violations and issue tickets. </p><p>Santa Monica Mayor Sue Himmelrich said in a statement that the pilot comes at a "critical moment" in the city's recovery. </p><p>"Beyond reducing carbon and congestion, the added bonus is that restaurants can keep higher margins of sales on delivered food items," Himmelrich added. </p><p>To encourage use of the space, local businesses will be given access to two Nissan electric vans and ecommerce software company Shopify will equip merchants in the area with <a href="https://dot.la/kiwibot-delivery-robot-2649919954.html" target="_self">Kiwibot delivery robots</a> to help drop off orders.</p>From Your Site Articles
- EVgo Goes After $2.6B SPAC Deal, Shares Soar - dot.LA ›
- LA's Clean Tech Startups Tackle Climate Change - dot.LA ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read more
Show less
RELATEDEDITOR'S PICKS