Kieran Curran Biotech Startup Success is Ready for the Next Round

Kieran Curran Biotech Startup Success is Ready for the Next Round Kieran Curran: Biotech Startup Success is Ready for the Next Round All Images Supplied by Kieran CurranALONG the scenic hill trails in the mid-west of Ireland, there is a man frequently to be found these days, pedalling along on a  mountain bike, with a golden retriever bounding happily along behind him.As a man in his mid-30s, he’s of many in his age group who traverse these trails, and you probably wouldn’t look twice. But this man is a multi-millionaire who has helped play a key role in the advancement of biochemistry and genetic research worldwide.“It’s not a terribly glamorous formula for enjoyment, but it’s what I enjoy,” laughs Dr Kieran Curran, founder and CEO of Irish firm GenCell Biosystems, which was acquired in 2014 by the multi-billion dollar US medical tech giant Becton Dickinson Co in 2014 for a reported €150m ($170m/ £121m).To say Kieran Curran is modest is an understatement. Throughout his interview with AGENT, he recurrently stressed that he was just one part of the equation in the GenCell success story.“The core t eam, John Daly, Brian Barrett, Noel Sirr and David McGuire, were absolutely vital in getting us off the ground and acquiring customers early on. I put the formula for success and the rapid pace of development of GenCell down to a collectively ambitious desire to attract high calibre customers and provide technologies that ‘moved the needle’ for what those customers wanted to do in terms of ambitions and  technological capability.”Kieran still meets up socially with his original team, and  is looking  forward to some  biking expeditions they’ve planned for  the summer, but with BD-GenCell now firmly established in Raheen in Limerick City, and the handover phase complete (with one of the original crew, John Daly, now in place as Director of Genomics, Ireland), Kieran is looking to the future.He audibly shudders at his being featured on the rich list compiled by Irish national weekend newspaper the Sunday Independent for the past two years, with his estimated worth of €78m.†œThat kind of attention is not the most welcome thing in the world. What I actually get a kick out of doing is building things; building technologies and hopefully turning them into companies that can provide something interesting and useful. Of course, the positive side is that you improve your own wealth, but that wasnt the sole motivation or at the heart of what I wanted to do with GenCell.” (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Technological RiskAS LONG ago as the mid-2000s when he launched his first startup, Curran Scientific, Kieran and his team were developing revenue streams from specialist solutions for multinational medical device companies, but “what this  didn’t have was any great technological risk; so that was the impetus for forming GenCell Biosystems in 2011”.GenCell developed technology that rapidly accelerated and slashed costs for DNA researchers working to “unravel the code of life” for plants, animals and humans.“DNA sequencing gives you the most detailed window into understanding the structure of DNAâ€"the blueprint for every cell in an organism, which controls how your body grows and reacts to threats like infection. The structure of this long chain of molecules matters an awful lot in terms of how you differ from me, or how a productive corn plant might differ from a less productive corn plant. By understanding the blueprint, you get a real window into how organisms should perform, and how susceptible they are to disease.”“This code, in terms of the human genome or the human DNA sequence, is over three-billion letters long. Many years ago, when people were trying to understand the sequence, it cost over £3bn and took over 10 years. The pace of technology change has been such that you could now do it for just over $2,000, and it might take you two or three days. This remarkable shift in technology happened quietly, on the side from the big silicon revolution in computersâ€"the biology revolution has been one that was quietly burning away.”Although sensitivity to the GenCell customer base prevents him from being too specific on illustrations of the technology at work, Kieran explains  that in crop research, the GenCell technology enabled scientists to take naturally occurring commodity crops such as corn, soy, cotton, quinoa, and “establish what DNA structures were advantageous for productivity and resistance to disease and pesticides: that has helped to really move the needle for those engaged in crop breeding, and ratchet up productivity per acre of land without requiring more water, more pesticides or more labour”.True Grit“It takes a certain mentality to stick with it in the lab…”KIERAN only half-mockingly describes himself as “a mechanical engineer who spent too much time in college”.This description would be to entirely overlook the dogged, practical streak that Kieran inherited from his mother who took over the family business Curran Aluminium after Kieran’s father died, and ran it successfully for over 30 years.“That interest in business comes from the influence of my mother… and the influence there of true grit and perseverance; it was clear that that was what was needed to get something up and running,” he recalled.Having graduated from the University of Limerick in 2002, Kieran  undertook a PhD at the university’s Stokes Institute, researching the development of micro devices for use in medical diagnostics.Moving to the university’s start-up firm, Stokes Bio, he invented the Liquid Bridge Technology that was central to the company’s innovative approach to genetic testing.“Not to sound ostentatious, I suppose it was when I was at postgraduate stage, that I realised I had a flair for experimentation. Some people can do it in theory, but it takes a certain mentality to stick with it in the lab, and actually get it working in a practical senseâ€"I suppose that’s maybe a product of being hands-on in the building trade dur ing the summersâ€"you know, the practical things that just help you pull it together,” he says. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); One More Round…“There comes a time when you feel youd like to explore other opportunities…”ENJOYING the luxury of family life and taking a breather after the gruelling lead-up to GenCell’s acquisition, Kieran is now thinking of his next venture.“It might come as a surprise to people that I would like to establish a new technological venture… but, you know, for the sake of my sanity, having taken out the bins on a Tuesday afternoon, that’s what I hope to build in 2016 and onwards,” he laughs.“There was a good interchange of trust between BD and Gencell, and I have no concerns about the entity and its future in Limerickâ€"I think it looks more than promisingâ€"but there comes a time when you feel youd like to explore other opportunities and thats really the place I am at this year,” Kieran reveals.As MD of Curran Sc ientific, Kieran is interested in technology development  and strategic development. He has a passion for seeing technology companies in his native land, declares that he is actively seeking technological investment and strategic development, and emphasises his wish to to bring to the table “something more than investment”.“While my role in GenCell has now been passed on to one of the faithful, John Daly, in plain speech I’d like to think there was one more round left in me,” he laughs.“I’m a little wiser now…”“The kids are only young for a certain period of time…”ITS clear that Kieran Curran regards this period in his life as an opportunity to make up for valuable lost time and resetting his personal values.Kieran and his wife Julie have a very young familyâ€"Caoimhe (4), Sean (3), and four-month-old Grace)â€"and during the pre-acquisition phase, work-life balance was tough.“To be very frank, there wasnt balance. There was one thing you did, and that’s w hat you tried to deliver on. And what’s maybe the luxury of my existence at the moment is I have a lot more time around home to make amends, as it were. I certainly wouldnt approach it in the same way the second time round. The kids are only young for a certain period of time, and to put the phone to one side and enjoy their full attention is a luxury. Im a little wiser now than I was a couple of years ago,” he admits. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Spirit of adventure“There are great lessons to be learned from Shackleton’s story.”IN JANUARY 2015, shortly after stepping back from BD-GenCell, Kieran took a trip to Antarctica on the centenary of the explorer Ernest Shackleton’s famous expedition, which has long been an interest of Kieran’s.“Shackleton made decisions in trying to achieve goals which were not easy calls to make, and which preseverd the safety of his team, rather than the glory of achievement of the expedition.“I just find that real ly coolâ€"that Shackleton emphasised morale, and that he never let anybody down; and most importantly that he didnt lose one person on that expedition. “That shouts to me of a stand-up guy, who also had a spirit of adventure and who would go for it. There are great lessons to be learned from that, Kieran says.Prove your worth“You can start a business at the weekend, with five-hundred quid in your back pocket, and work your ass off.”FOR a man who prizes life away from the spotlight, it’s unsurprising that Kieran advises young start-ups to take a “one step at a time” approach to setting up a new business.As someone who still marvels about the amazing but quiet advances made in biotechnology during the much higher profile and parallel leaps of the silicon revolution, it’s clear that while Kieran is a Shackleton-inspired adventurous explorer of opportunities, he prizes demonstrable achievement over vaulting  ambition every time.While he says he would “offer nothing but e ncouragement”, Kieran stresses that this support would come “with the proviso that they emphasise their own personal development  en route.”“Im not a big subscriber to the Silicon Valley mentality of, let’s all make 25 million dollars and hope for a billion-dollar exit,” he admits. “You can start a business at the weekends with five hundred quid in your back pocket and work your ass off!”“So why not take that approach? Sure, go for it, but raise your big money when you’re worth itâ€"but lets try to keep the hyperbole to a minimum until you’ve proven your worth,” he  concluded. Kieran Curran Biotech Startup Success is Ready for the Next Round Kieran Curran: Biotech Startup Success is Ready for the Next Round All Images Supplied by Kieran CurranALONG the scenic hill trails in the mid-west of Ireland, there is a man frequently to be found these days, pedalling along on a  mountain bike, with a golden retriever bounding happily along behind him.As a man in his mid-30s, he’s of many in his age group who traverse these trails, and you probably wouldn’t look twice. But this man is a multi-millionaire who has helped play a key role in the advancement of biochemistry and genetic research worldwide.“It’s not a terribly glamorous formula for enjoyment, but it’s what I enjoy,” laughs Dr Kieran Curran, founder and CEO of Irish firm GenCell Biosystems, which was acquired in 2014 by the multi-billion dollar US medical tech giant Becton Dickinson Co in 2014 for a reported €150m ($170m/ £121m).To say Kieran Curran is modest is an understatement. Throughout his interview with AGENT, he recurrently stressed that he was just one part of the equation in the GenCell success story.“The core t eam, John Daly, Brian Barrett, Noel Sirr and David McGuire, were absolutely vital in getting us off the ground and acquiring customers early on. I put the formula for success and the rapid pace of development of GenCell down to a collectively ambitious desire to attract high calibre customers and provide technologies that ‘moved the needle’ for what those customers wanted to do in terms of ambitions and  technological capability.”Kieran still meets up socially with his original team, and  is looking  forward to some  biking expeditions they’ve planned for  the summer, but with BD-GenCell now firmly established in Raheen in Limerick City, and the handover phase complete (with one of the original crew, John Daly, now in place as Director of Genomics, Ireland), Kieran is looking to the future.He audibly shudders at his being featured on the rich list compiled by Irish national weekend newspaper the Sunday Independent for the past two years, with his estimated worth of €78m.†œThat kind of attention is not the most welcome thing in the world. What I actually get a kick out of doing is building things; building technologies and hopefully turning them into companies that can provide something interesting and useful. Of course, the positive side is that you improve your own wealth, but that wasnt the sole motivation or at the heart of what I wanted to do with GenCell.” (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Technological RiskAS LONG ago as the mid-2000s when he launched his first startup, Curran Scientific, Kieran and his team were developing revenue streams from specialist solutions for multinational medical device companies, but “what this  didn’t have was any great technological risk; so that was the impetus for forming GenCell Biosystems in 2011”.GenCell developed technology that rapidly accelerated and slashed costs for DNA researchers working to “unravel the code of life” for plants, animals and humans.“DNA sequencing gives you the most detailed window into understanding the structure of DNAâ€"the blueprint for every cell in an organism, which controls how your body grows and reacts to threats like infection. The structure of this long chain of molecules matters an awful lot in terms of how you differ from me, or how a productive corn plant might differ from a less productive corn plant. By understanding the blueprint, you get a real window into how organisms should perform, and how susceptible they are to disease.”“This code, in terms of the human genome or the human DNA sequence, is over three-billion letters long. Many years ago, when people were trying to understand the sequence, it cost over £3bn and took over 10 years. The pace of technology change has been such that you could now do it for just over $2,000, and it might take you two or three days. This remarkable shift in technology happened quietly, on the side from the big silicon revolution in computersâ€"the biology revolution has been one that was quietly burning away.”Although sensitivity to the GenCell customer base prevents him from being too specific on illustrations of the technology at work, Kieran explains  that in crop research, the GenCell technology enabled scientists to take naturally occurring commodity crops such as corn, soy, cotton, quinoa, and “establish what DNA structures were advantageous for productivity and resistance to disease and pesticides: that has helped to really move the needle for those engaged in crop breeding, and ratchet up productivity per acre of land without requiring more water, more pesticides or more labour”.True Grit“It takes a certain mentality to stick with it in the lab…”KIERAN only half-mockingly describes himself as “a mechanical engineer who spent too much time in college”.This description would be to entirely overlook the dogged, practical streak that Kieran inherited from his mother who took over the family business Curran Aluminium after Kieran’s father died, and ran it successfully for over 30 years.“That interest in business comes from the influence of my mother… and the influence there of true grit and perseverance; it was clear that that was what was needed to get something up and running,” he recalled.Having graduated from the University of Limerick in 2002, Kieran  undertook a PhD at the university’s Stokes Institute, researching the development of micro devices for use in medical diagnostics.Moving to the university’s start-up firm, Stokes Bio, he invented the Liquid Bridge Technology that was central to the company’s innovative approach to genetic testing.“Not to sound ostentatious, I suppose it was when I was at postgraduate stage, that I realised I had a flair for experimentation. Some people can do it in theory, but it takes a certain mentality to stick with it in the lab, and actually get it working in a practical senseâ€"I suppose that’s maybe a product of being hands-on in the building trade dur ing the summersâ€"you know, the practical things that just help you pull it together,” he says. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); One More Round…“There comes a time when you feel youd like to explore other opportunities…”ENJOYING the luxury of family life and taking a breather after the gruelling lead-up to GenCell’s acquisition, Kieran is now thinking of his next venture.“It might come as a surprise to people that I would like to establish a new technological venture… but, you know, for the sake of my sanity, having taken out the bins on a Tuesday afternoon, that’s what I hope to build in 2016 and onwards,” he laughs.“There was a good interchange of trust between BD and Gencell, and I have no concerns about the entity and its future in Limerickâ€"I think it looks more than promisingâ€"but there comes a time when you feel youd like to explore other opportunities and thats really the place I am at this year,” Kieran reveals.As MD of Curran Sc ientific, Kieran is interested in technology development  and strategic development. He has a passion for seeing technology companies in his native land, declares that he is actively seeking technological investment and strategic development, and emphasises his wish to to bring to the table “something more than investment”.“While my role in GenCell has now been passed on to one of the faithful, John Daly, in plain speech I’d like to think there was one more round left in me,” he laughs.“I’m a little wiser now…”“The kids are only young for a certain period of time…”ITS clear that Kieran Curran regards this period in his life as an opportunity to make up for valuable lost time and resetting his personal values.Kieran and his wife Julie have a very young familyâ€"Caoimhe (4), Sean (3), and four-month-old Grace)â€"and during the pre-acquisition phase, work-life balance was tough.“To be very frank, there wasnt balance. There was one thing you did, and that’s w hat you tried to deliver on. And what’s maybe the luxury of my existence at the moment is I have a lot more time around home to make amends, as it were. I certainly wouldnt approach it in the same way the second time round. The kids are only young for a certain period of time, and to put the phone to one side and enjoy their full attention is a luxury. Im a little wiser now than I was a couple of years ago,” he admits. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Spirit of adventure“There are great lessons to be learned from Shackleton’s story.”IN JANUARY 2015, shortly after stepping back from BD-GenCell, Kieran took a trip to Antarctica on the centenary of the explorer Ernest Shackleton’s famous expedition, which has long been an interest of Kieran’s.“Shackleton made decisions in trying to achieve goals which were not easy calls to make, and which preseverd the safety of his team, rather than the glory of achievement of the expedition.“I just find that real ly coolâ€"that Shackleton emphasised morale, and that he never let anybody down; and most importantly that he didnt lose one person on that expedition. “That shouts to me of a stand-up guy, who also had a spirit of adventure and who would go for it. There are great lessons to be learned from that, Kieran says.Prove your worth“You can start a business at the weekend, with five-hundred quid in your back pocket, and work your ass off.”FOR a man who prizes life away from the spotlight, it’s unsurprising that Kieran advises young start-ups to take a “one step at a time” approach to setting up a new business.As someone who still marvels about the amazing but quiet advances made in biotechnology during the much higher profile and parallel leaps of the silicon revolution, it’s clear that while Kieran is a Shackleton-inspired adventurous explorer of opportunities, he prizes demonstrable achievement over vaulting  ambition every time.While he says he would “offer nothing but e ncouragement”, Kieran stresses that this support would come “with the proviso that they emphasise their own personal development  en route.”“Im not a big subscriber to the Silicon Valley mentality of, let’s all make 25 million dollars and hope for a billion-dollar exit,” he admits. “You can start a business at the weekends with five hundred quid in your back pocket and work your ass off!”“So why not take that approach? Sure, go for it, but raise your big money when you’re worth itâ€"but lets try to keep the hyperbole to a minimum until you’ve proven your worth,” he  concluded.