Harry Schwartz

Cellio
Regenerative stem-cell startup striving to prevent and cure blindness.
> Work Project
> 2023

Oriane is a venture studio incubating early-stage biotech startups. Julie Sunderland, the founder and former Director of the Gates Strategic Investment Fund, has different levels of involvement in each company. At the time, Julie was acting as the founding CEO of Cellio, Oriane's regenerative stem cell therapy company. The team is comprised top-tier ophthalmologists, scientists, and academics. My role was to assist her with the business side, focusing on operations and fundraising.

With limited biotech training, my fresh perspective was crucial in distilling over a decade of R&D into a concise and compelling narrative for investors. Utilizing my pitch deck and data room, Cellio closed a hefty seed round to advance through in-human clinicaltrials.

I streamlined project management by transitioning the team from chaotic email threads to an organized AirTable system, managing task lists at every all-hands meeting. When the leadership team and investors expressed concernsabout production time and cost per dose, I led a team to address these issues. By empathizing with key stakeholders, identifying redundancies, and re-evaluating timelines, we reduced production time by 115 days and cut costs by $185k. This efficiency gain earned me equity from the grateful founder team.

Working closely with FDA consultants and Cellio's scientific team, I helped navigate the complex regulatory landscape for in-human clinical trials. By leveraging special FDA designations, we optimized approval processes and significantly reduced patient sample size requirements by 90%. This strategic approach not only accelerated our timeline but also made our trials more efficient and cost-effective.

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#Operations #ProblemSolving #NavigatingAmbiguity #DrivingImpact #Fundraising