Collaborating with leading experts
Our financial partners
Two Bear Capital is led by Mike Goguen, a 20-year veteran of Sequoia Capital. Between 1996 and 2016 Mike sponsored and led 54 company investments to a combined market value exceeding $64 billion. He led investments across sectors including cyber security, bioinformatics, biopharma, IT infrastructure, and semiconductors. Two Bear Capital is dedicated to the belief that VCs can focus on societal impact, while still creating exponential value growth.
Less than 10% of all venture capital deals go to women, people of color, and LGBT founders. Other VCs may see this as a pipeline problem. For years, we have seen it as the biggest opportunity in investment. Backstage Capital has invested in more than 180 companies led by underrepresented founders.
Our scientific partners
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Dr. Jae Lee—Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, University of Miami
Dr. Lee has served as an advisor and collaborator on Novoron’s spinal cord injury program since the company's founding in 2014. It was the Lee lab that conducted the multi-cohort, double-blind study that first demonstrated the therapeutic benefits of our lead compound, NOVO-118, in restoring motor function after SCI. Dr. Lee also serves as a scientific advisor to Novoron.
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Dr. Alban Gaultier—Brain Immunology and Glia Center (BIG) University of Virginia
Alban Gaultier, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Virginia Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG) Center. As a mentor to Dr. Stiles, he helped create the technical foundation and IP for the development of Novoron’s therapeutics to treat MS. He and Dr. Stiles have worked together since before Novoron’s inception and Dr. Gaultier continues to work closely with our team as a scientific advisor.
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Dr. Kenneth Kosik—University of California Santa Barbara
Dr. Kosik is a central figure in the study of tau and was the first to discover the central role of LRP1 in tau spread. Dr. Kosik is now co-investigator on a grant from the National Institute of Aging and is working with Novoron to assess the ability of Novoron compounds to prevent tau spread as a means to treat tauopathies such as Alzheimer’s disease.
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Dr. Jennifer Rauch—University of Massachusetts Amherst
Dr. Rauch was the lead scientist behind the discovery of LRP1 as a mediator of tau spread while in the lab of Dr. Kosik. She is now an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she is continuing her work on tau and LRP1. Dr. Rauch is an investigator on the recently awarded grant from the NIA and her animal models of tau spread are central to Novoron’s drug development plans in this field.