Samson Ehlers

But some argue there’s still room for more. Specifically, there’s room for more young biotechs led and run by the scientists and researchers that founded them. While the idea of the scientific entrepreneur isn’t a foreign one, increasingly the highest-profile and best-funded biotech startups are launched from inside the walls of major venture funders like Flagship Pioneering, Third Rock Ventures and Atlas Venture.

These firms often form and incubate young drugmakers around ideas developed in-house and equip them with the tools, funding and executives they need to advance their research. It’s a controlled approach that’s led to high-profile successes like Moderna as well as a host of other well-resourced companies advancing new drugmaking technologies. But it’s birthed similar companies, too, which can struggle to stand out, some argue.

Jake Becraft, the CEO and cofounder of Strand Therapeutics, is one of those advocating for more founder-led biotech companies, as well as for an ecosystem that’s more conducive to funding and supporting their development.

“There’s still good science that goes unfunded, and there’s bad science that gets funded,” he said in an interview.

Becraft founded Strand in 2017 to build medicines from messenger RNA, years before the strips of genetic code would power the COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer partner BioNTech. It’s raised $58 million to date in seed and venture funding, but its investors are from outside the familiar circle of East Coast biotech backers. The company, which now employs about 75 staff, aims to bring its first therapy into clinical testing next year.

BioPharma Dive spoke with Becraft about the founder-led biotech movement, the ongoing public market downturn for drugmakers and the appeal of “platform” companies. The following interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

BIOPHARMA DIVE: There's this idea of founder-led biotech, which is sometimes mentioned in contrast to some of the venture capital models that are out there. As a founder and CEO, what does that idea mean to you? What does it mean for how biotech companies are created?

JAKE BECRAFT: To me, it's not really an ‘either/or’ thing. Venture-created companies will continue to be a thing. I think the biotech ecosystem would be healthier and we'd probably get more revolutionary companies if we had more founder-supported ecosystems.

The playbook for venture creation — for classic drug development, take an asset out of an academic group, discover some novel biology, then take that out into a company and run traditional drug development — became sort of formulaic. Not to besmirch the challenge, but essentially that formula was more reproducible and so a lot of funds started to run these companies.

What we're seeing from people throughout the industry is those sorts of companies ended up being ... there is just less identity when a fund makes it and the leadership is also sometimes rapidly changing. You'll see CEOs and management teams cycle in every two years. I think that generally leads to a very different sort of experience for your employees.

Founder-led biotech, to me, just means the founders and the creators of the technology are given a voice and a position at steering the company. I does not necessarily means that the scientist who does the work has to be the CEO of a company. Certainly, that won't be the case for everyone. Not every scientist is going to have the ability or even the want to take up a CEO role.

You mentioned you thought the biotech ecosystem would be healthier if we had more founder-led biotechs. What are some of the challenges preventing that from happening?

BECRAFT: It was a bias that emerged because of the way that people were doing things. When I started Strand, before there was a founder-led biotech movement, there simply weren't any biotech founders that I knew here in Boston. There were more in San Francisco, but the idea that you would both found a company and run that company was pretty foreign. I remember having a lot of investor meetings where people would completely dismiss the idea, almost rudely. The general nature of that not being the case, leads to people saying, ‘Well, the ends justify the means.’

I don't believe that I'm such an intelligent person that I'm a standout for the ability to start and lead a company. The fact that I did it is more luck and being given the opportunity. What's stopping more people is that opportunity. It certainly isn't the ability to do it.

With more capital being put behind founders now in the biotech space, especially as capital from the West Coast came in and had more openness to this idea, we're seeing people be very successful.

So much of what big biotech venture firms are creating are companies that they've incubated in their own labs, that they've funded and maybe put in their own executives. Is biotech venture capital open to ideas coming from outside their walls?

BECRAFT: Again, it becomes like a playbook that you know. The problem, let's say five years ago in the Boston biotech ecosystem, was that people mistook what was happening with what was the best. They said, ‘This is working and this is how it's happening, so this is the only way that it should be done.’

I'm trying to advocate for something that's less common, because that's what needs the advocacy. I don't think that venture funds starting their own companies need the advocacy. They seem to be doing just fine doing that themselves.

We're hopefully seeing a trend of people continuing to and, obviously, more wins on the board help everyone get more comfortable with it as well.

There’s been a downturn in biotech markets recently. Yet there's still been an enormous infusion of capital into the sector over the past few years. What effect has that had in terms of which ideas get funded?

BECRAFT: Prior to this downturn, there was a lack of discipline. There's still a lack of discipline. Things still to this day seem to be getting funded that — I'm all for go out and fund your innovation, right? I mean, it's capitalism at its best. However, I think a lot of those were not great ideas.

There's still good science that goes on unfunded, and there's bad science that goes funded. Do we really need another AAV for Duchenne muscular dystrophy? No. We should focus on Duchenne, but there's like 20 companies trying to do the same approach and it just seems unnecessary.

You see it with new fancy platforms that sometimes come out of the venture creation arena. Then you look at their development plan and they say ‘We're going to start with liver disease, prove it out there and then we'll be able to solve all these other things.’ I just bang my head against the wall. The liver delivery problem is the problem. It's wonderful that another liver disease is going to be targeted. But the hard part is going to be not going to the liver and getting to the other tissues. This doesn't open up the platform directly. You're just a liver disease company unless you have a real idea for how to not get there.

The idea of a platform has become a buzzword that's often used to describe why a company might have a lower risk of failure. Over the past year, though, I've heard that maybe people are less inclined to invest in that premise. Has there been a shift in how people view platforms?

BECRAFT: People have abused platforms to raise money. Because how many companies actually intelligently develop a platform that will make a difference? How many of them have then, over time, translated that into actual drug approvals? You've got like six companies, probably, that have gotten multiple drug approvals in different diseases — Alnylam, Regeneron, etc.

You have companies that have platforms, and you have companies that have a single asset and a dream. If a company has a Phase 2 clinical trial and then there is a bunch of discovery work, that was never really a platform company. It's more the story that they're using.

Unfortunately, investors have been burned by that and so now, what they would like to do is pull back from the idea of platforms. But more so, it's not that investors are even pulling back from platforms right now, it's just that they don't care about the story as much. They want to talk to you less about the platform and more about the drug.

What impact has this biotech downturn had on Strand? Has the retrenchment in public markets gone through to the private side, or shut any paths that were previously open to you?

BECRAFT: It doesn't directly affect us. You really only feel the effect if you go out and try to raise funds. We're always talking to investors. I have CEO friends who are in similar stages and there's been a big pullback, especially in Series B rounds as well. The problem in the biotech ecosystem is, over time, the private market investors have swum upstream all the way to start their own companies. The later-stage guys have just become crossovers, rather than actual growth-stage private capital.

Because video is an essential channel for marketers, it's important to know how to leverage YouTube for your own business.

This article will cover everything you need to know about creating a YouTube channel so you can start uploading your own videos and growing your audience today.

If you're seeing a "This action isn't allowed" message when you try to create your channel, you may be using an outdated version of the YouTube app.

Here are your options to move forward:

Creating a well-managed YouTube channel with consistent content can help businesses grow better, but doing it right is just as important. Here's how to do it step-by-step.

You'll need a Google account to watch, share, create, and comment on YouTube content. Go to youtube.com and click "Sign In" in the upper right-hand corner. From there, you'll be taken to a Google sign-in page.

Once you're set up with and signed into your Google account, it's time to create a channel. Click your user icon in the upper right-hand corner. This represents both your Google account and your YouTube account (as YouTube is owned by Google). You'll see a drop-down menu, where you'll want to click "Settings."

From there, you'll be taken to your account overview. Click "Create a new channel" under "Your channel."

The first step is to create your new channel name. It can be whatever you want, and doesn't have to be the same name that you used to create your Google account — but we do recommend that it reflects the brand the YouTube Channel will represent.

After you enter the channel name, you might be asked to verify the account via text message or voice call. If that happens, enter the code you receive from the option you choose.

Once you've verified your account, you'll be taken to the dashboard for your channel. Now, it's time to start customizing it.

We'll start with the fundamental details about your channel. From your channel dashboard, click "Customize channel."

From there, you'll be taken to the channel customization page.

You'll notice three tabs: "Layout," "Branding," and "Basic info." These three tabs will help you optimize your channel for viewers.

Start by clicking "Basic info."

Here's where you'll enter some basic information about your channel, like the language your videos are in, as well as a description that helps people discover your channel when they enter search terms that describe what videos they're looking for. These keywords can include what your channel is about, the problems it helps solve, the people and products featured, your industry, and more.

You'll also be able to add links to sites you want to share with your viewers. These links will be displayed over your banner image (more on this later) like so:

In addition to the descriptive details you've added, there's another element of customization for a new YouTube channel: The visuals.

Under the "Branding" tab, you'll be able to add your profile picture, banner image, and video watermark.

Profile pictures help YouTube users identify the creator of a video when browsing video content. You'll see this image appear beneath YouTube videos on the play page, as shown below. YouTube recommends using a picture with dimensions of at least 98 x 98 pixels.

The banner image is a large banner displayed at the top of your channel page, and it's a big opportunity to convey your brand to your viewers. YouTube recommends using an image that's at least 2048 x 1152 px and 6MB or less.

The video watermark is displayed at the bottom right of every video you post (see below). You'll want to choose a logo that best represents you sized at 150 x 150 px.

Click the "Layout" tab.

From here, you'll be able to specify certain details about how you want your content presented on your channel's page. You'll have the option to designate a video spotlight and organize your channel page with featured sections.

To upload your first video to YouTube, click the "Create" button in the top-right corner and follow the prompts.

Optimizing your channel for discoverability is just the beginning. Once you start adding videos, you'll want to optimize them for search, which in turn helps users discover your video.

But this goes beyond giving your videos accurate, clear, and concise titles — though that is important. Below, we describe some of the most important things to optimize on YouTube.

When we search for videos, one of the first things that our eyes are drawn to is the title. That's often what determines whether or not the viewer will click to watch your video, so the title should not only be compelling but also clear and concise.

This should be limited to 1,000 characters — and remember that your viewer came here to watch a video, not to read a lot of text. Plus, YouTube only displays the first two or three lines of text, which comes to about 100 characters, so front-load the description with the most important information.

Using tags doesn't just let viewers know what your video is about — they also help YouTube understand your video's content and context. That way, YouTube can associate your video with similar videos, broadening your content's reach. But approach with caution: just as with your title, don't use misleading tags because they might get you more views. In fact, Google might penalize you for that.

Choosing a category is another way to group your video with similar content on YouTube — but that might not be as simple as it sounds. YouTube's Creator Academy suggests that marketers "think about what is working well for each category" you're considering by answering questions like:

That's it — you've officially not only created a YouTube channel but now also know how to optimize its content for discoverability. For more information on how to best leverage YouTube for marketing, check our entire collection of resources.

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According to wiki: The exterior of the Moon is barren, covered with craters and canyons. It has a weak gravity, but is still able to maintain a breathable atmosphere . Since it has breathable atmosphere, so that's why Naruto didn't used any technique or something else.

Season 4 of Call of Duty: Vanguard and Warzone is already full of great surprises, from good content like new maps and cosmetics to Zombies mode. Not only will players be taking on the walking undead again, but they will also get a chance at plugging zombies with rounds on a fan favorite: Shi No Numa.

Bringing down hordes of undead on Shi No Numa probably feels like greeting an old friend for many Call of Duty: Vanguard Zombies fans. It showed up in World at War, Black Ops, Black Ops III, and many others. Shi No Numa was even the site for a fun Easter Egg.

When players revisit Shi No Numa (the “Swamp of Death” in English), they will be greeted with another returning feature: the Pack-A-Punch. When players used one, their weapons could get an upgrade.

Originally, Shi No Numa never had a Pack-A-Punch, back when it first came to World at War. Now, when players take their first steps on Shi No Numa in Call of Duty: Vanguard, they will come to rely on the Pack-A-Punch. Naturally, it is best to know where to find it and how it works in Call of Duty: Vanguard Zombies.

First off, locate the Pack-A-Punch on the Shi No Numa map. It is not unlocked right away, so players will have to do a bit of legwork if they want to gain access to its incredible power. To do that, they will need to unlock the way to The Dig Site.

Here is the quickest way to enter The Dig Site:

When the Pack-A-Punch is first discovered at the Dig Site in Call of Duty: Vanguard Zombies, it will not offer any benefits. Instead, gamers will have to purchase upgrades with the points they collected from killing zombies. There are a total of three upgrades:

It is similar in function to the Pack-A-Punch in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, minus the option for installing Ammo Mods. When weapons are upgraded in Call of Duty: Vanguard Zombies, it usually gets increased damage, larger magazines, additional effects, and even attachments.

The saying is used to refer to how close two people, or sometimes things, are to one another. If someone says that a couple is like two peas in a pod, they're trying to emphasize how close they are to one another. The phrase alludes to the structure of a pea pod in which the peas are tightly packed and identical.

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