We make the case that the twin catastrophes of climate change and a crippled health care system shouldn’t be viewed as a threat to the economy, as an economic suppressor — but rather a historic opportunity for reinvention and economic gain.

Roughly, $35 billion is raised by venture capital funds annually, around the globe. Another $55 billion of private equity gets invested into growth opportunities. The promise of that annual $90 billion is to triple their money within ten years.

To most people, that ten year, $270 billion prize sounds like an enormous amount. But I’d argue it’s vastly underestimating the opportunity in front of us.

We are in the middle of an unprecedented shock in modern history. Nobody knows how long this will last. Nobody knows how this will end. I do know this. Nothing is ever as good as it looks or as bad as it feels. We will be fine. We may even be better from it. As they say, never waste a crisis. But first, we must survive it.

You are all IndieBio companies. Which means you are already survivors. Born and bred in the basement on Jessie Street in the Tenderloin. Walking into the office meant stepping over the hardships of life just to face it again in the lab. But this shock is different. Covid-19 will test us all. Our businesses, our commitment to community and our commitment to family. It will hurt and frustrate us. A lesson learned from 2001 and 2008 is that good companies will die because the world has changed around them and they do not wish to recognize it. Do not make that mistake. Public equities have been cut 25% in a couple weeks. Where are the private markets?

Dear IndieBio founders, family and friends,

I am excited to share with you that today I am joining Mayfield, a top-tier venture capital firm with a fifty-year history of people-first investing, as a Partner to co-lead the Engineering Biology practice alongside Ursheet Parikh. I am also transitioning to the new role of Venture Advisor at IndieBio. I will keep my IndieBio board appointments for the foreseeable future. And I will continue helping with pitch decks, milestone setting, business model construction and introductions for all the IndieBio companies because you are all still, and always will be, my portfolio.