As Some Startup VCs Hunker Down, Others Are Finding New Ways To Fund The Next AWS Of Biology

As Some Startup VCs Hunker Down, Others Are Finding New Ways To Fund The Next AWS Of Biology

James Currier, NFX



James Currier



It was two weeks after the Covid lockdown hit San Francisco. Many entrepreneurs were starting to worry. The venture capitalists of Sandhill Road and South Park were still taking pitch meetings, albeit over Zoom. But the check writing had practically stopped, and "The Great Pause of 2020“ had begun. At the early-stage venture firm NFX, James Currier huddled around a Zoom with his co-founders, Gigi Levy-Weiss and Pete Flint. Being a four-time entrepreneur himself, Currier knew that this was the moment NFX was built for. It's said that generals are made in times of war. The world was at war with a virus, and he was hatching a plan. 



"When everybody is running for the exits, that's when the innovators need us the most,“ he told me.  



And so it happened that when NFX launched its one-of-a-kind FAST Seed program on April 14, they were actually funding startups at three times their pre-Covid rate. "We saw some of the best investment opportunities during this time of crisis“, said Currier.  Since then, NFX has launched a second program called The Bio Draft, designed to speed up the funding and launch of biotech startups (my