Many breakthroughs in brain science never become companies. We want to change that.
In October 2025, we hosted our 2nd annual Future Neuro Founders Program. More than 400 founders from 190 universities joined to learn how to turn neuro ideas into companies. We co-created the program with KdT Ventures for idea stage, pre-seed, and seed founders.
Sessions covered how to raise capital, build a team, design a development plan, form partnerships, and tell a clear story.
Here are key takeaways and actionable insights from the program:
The biggest hurdle for academic founders is shifting focus from publications to patient outcomes and market adoption.
Academic resilience is a superpower. Scientific training builds resilience, critical thinking, and tolerance for failure. This is essential for the unpredictable startup journey.
Prioritize translation, not just papers. Founders must commit to commercial translation and real-world impact. Patents mean nothing if the idea never reaches the world.
Avoid incremental improvements if you want to raise from VCs. Pursue big, transformative goals.
Get feedback widely. Share your ideas with diverse accelerators, VCs, and founders, early and often.
Success hinges on a team with complementary skills and a strong operational foundation.
Hire for missing strengths. Build an orthogonal team by recruiting executive talent (e.g., CTOs, COOs) with operational experience before major fundraising rounds. This reduces investor concerns about execution risk.
Test your co-founder relationship. Work with trusted people on small projects to see how you handle stress and make decisions together before committing long-term.
Mission attracts talent. Offer a compelling sense of purpose and strong cultural alignment, especially when competing with large company salaries.
The CEO role is learnable. Lack of formal business experience should not hold you back. What matters is awareness of your gaps and willingness to grow.
Few VCs will fund pre-data, high-risk science. De-risk the science as much as you can before raising.
Clear communication wins. Make the science simple without losing depth.
Pitches should start with the problem, the market size, and a story that creates an emotional hook. Simplify complex technical details.
Stay focused on the first indication and the path to a clear value inflection point.
Align with market pull. Market realities (reimbursement, regulatory paths, customer demand) often derail promising technologies. Early planning for commercialization and adoption is critical.
Plan for scale. Neuro trials are expensive, with pivotal trials often costing more than $100 million. Build strong quality and regulatory systems early to show they can operate at that scale.
The commercial reality: VCs look for founders who are “spiky”. They have one or two traits that stand out – a unique insight, a deep obsession, a strong bias for action – that shape how the company moves.
Big thanks to our session leads: Patrick Malone (KdT), Neal Amin (Sculpta Bio), Mariëlle van Kooten (Powerhouse Bio), Allen Waziri (iCE Neurosystems), Jacob Robinson (Motif Neurotech), Retsina Meyer (Delix Therapeutics), Jacob Donaghue (Beacon Biosignals), John Propst (Nexus Neurotech), Amanda Way (LSI), Anastasia Budinskaya (NFX).
The response to the program shows the growing momentum in brain and mental health. We are excited to support the next wave of founders building in neuro.
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