Lars Knutsen, CEO and Co-founder, Requis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

www.requispharma.com

Lars Knutsen’s introductory slide is filled with black lines resembling ant trails–diagrams of the chemical structure of the successful drugs he’s developed over the course of his career. Early on, the self-proclaimed “chemistry nerd” interviewed for a Pfizer-sponsored Ph.D. spot at University College London, where the words of his interviewer stuck with him: “You’ll always have a job, because people are afraid of dying.”

He later joined Glaxo and studied for his Ph.D. while working there. But despite the success he found in big business, he found it difficult to be entrepreneurial in a large company. “You hire people with great ideas and then tell them they can’t do any of them.”

Today, Lars is CEO and co-founder of emerging biotech company Requis Pharmaceuticals, which offers “patented, de-risked treatments for central nervous system conditions.” It’s a perfect fit for him to fully embrace the creative aspects of science.

Science as a Creative Process
“You get high on ideas. Peptides and oxytocin are released in the brain and make you feel good. Everything is chemistry.”

“What do you think the artist thinks about? Do they think about fine wines or black tie affairs? No, they live for that narcotic moment of creative bliss. A moment that may come once in a decade, or never at all.” Lars uses this quote from the movie Art School Confidential to underscore his point. “Making drugs is a highly creative process. Big CEOs at big companies don’t realize that.”

The Malaise in the Pharma Industry
“We are observing a general lack of innovation in the industry.”

The prices of pharmaceutical stocks have plunged, and Lars points to big company mentality as one of the factors. “It’s a tough environment in which to invent drugs. We are observing a general lack of innovation in the industry. When I started, a scientist could argue for a point. Today, that scientist would be fired for arguing that point.”

“Senior management can appear to be remote, and may not understand inventions and research. R & D sites are seen as cost centers.” In addition, Lars notes that “stockmarkets have a very short attention span, which is incompatible with long term R&D horizons.”

The Prescription: Entrepreneurs
“Creativity doesn’t happen when there’s a gun to your head. It happens when you’re doing something relaxing.”

According to Lars, entrepreneurs are valued in the U.S. Small companies are nimble and can change direction quickly, maximizing on creative potential. “We have a great opportunity in ‘de-risked’ Requis. People-sized organizations are the best. Places where everyone can sit down in one room and interact, 400 people tops.”

On Requisom:
“Sleep is like the new sex. Everybody wants it and nobody gets it.”

Sleep aids are a huge part of the biopharma market: $23 billion. “In addition, snoring is a problem and right now there is no drug for snoring.” Requisom addresses both issues. “When evaluated in human volunteers, sleep improved, and subjects stopped snoring.” A tablet comprised of a combination of doxylamine (an antihistamine), tryptophan, and melatonin, Lars notes that separately, these ingredients are available in products on the market right now.

As of now, the FDA decided that Requisom can be available only with a prescription, but it may visit the possibility of over-the-counter access in the future.

Peter Strid, VP of Sales at PeopleLinx

@PeterStrid
@PeopleLinx
PeopleLinx.com

Peter Strid has a hunch we are all pretty bad at using LinkedIn. When he asks the 75-person crowd who uses it, almost every hand goes up. “OK, now who considers themselves effective, or has gotten a sale from it?” All hands, save one, go down.

His latest venture, PeopleLinx, harnesses the power of social networks to help large organizations manage their branding, content, and relationships. “ If I’ve got two sales reps, one of them using social, and the other not, I’m going to bet on the guy who’s using it. The numbers shake out.”

As immersed in startup life as he is today, he would counsel you against leaping into a startup first thing. “If I was kid out of college, I wouldn’t go work for a startup. I’d find out how a big company works, and translate that to startups.”

It is this path that has led him to success with PeopleLinx.

His Non-startup Startup Life
“Taking a risk to get into a startup is made much easier by understanding how big companies work.”

Peter found inspiration in former GE chairman Jack Welsh’s book, Jack: Straight From The Gut. “I thought it was such an amazing organization.” He got a job in GE healthcare as part of their imaging division. “Here I was selling 5,000 pound nuclear imaging devices. My business card said ‘Nuclear Specialist.’ My friends loved that.”

“Understanding how GE works, the politics, how a deal is structured, what the contracts look like, has prepared me to make PeopleLinx a success.”

On Hiring Interns
“It’s wrong to hire an intern to run your social media.”

Part of Peter’s job often includes educating potential clients. “People used to think it was a good idea to hire an intern to run their social media. Wrong! Taking a big, established brand identity like KPMG and giving it to someone inexperienced is a bad idea. People have realized that.”

He describes social as a “three-legged stool for enterprises: It’s what you look like (your profile), what content you post, and who is in your network. If any of those three ‘legs’ are missing, then the stool falls over. The top of the stool is measurement, ROI.”

“If you have 100,000 followers on LinkedIn, it’s one thing. But what if you have 5,000 employees, each with 300-400 connections? Your reach is huge. When you recruit for new jobs, you want to hire the people connected to your network. They stay longer, they’re happier, and there is a lower cost of acquisition for the enterprise.”

On Getting the Most out of Your Content
“We are going to repurpose the shit out of that thing.”

Peter and his team recently wrote a white paper based on a survey they conducted through Survey Monkey. “It took a little bit of time, but it created massive SEO for us. We packed it with data and statistics, and we are going to repurpose the shit out of that thing. We’ll use the individual pieces from it in all our social media blasts to drive traffic back to that one document.”

“If no one knows about your idea, that thing will sit on a shelf and wither away. Tying social media into your idea is a component of success.”