Elizabeth Iorns on Biotech Companies in YC

TL;DR

Elizabeth Iorns, a cancer biologist and YC partner, explains why biotech companies join Y Combinator: to gain focus on go-to-market strategy, derisk technology, and access capital from non-traditional tech investors—over $200M raised by YC biotechs. Scientists often lack entrepreneurship education (e.g.

Key insights

• Biotech companies in YC benefit from crossover funding: they raise more capital by attracting tech investors (e.g., Andreessen Horowitz, Data Collective) than by sticking to traditional biotech VCs.
• Unlike software startups, biotechs face primarily technological risk (e.g., does the therapy work?) rather than market risk, because curing a major disease like Alzheimer’s is inherently valuable.
• Scientists already possess entrepreneurial skills (articulation, grant writing, presenting) and rarely need a business co-founder; they can “pick it up” during YC.