As a species, we have a problem. Bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics. It makes sense: Antibiotics kill all the bacteria they can, but the rest that somehow survive continue to grow and spread. Guess what gene they all have in common? That’s right, what makes them resistant to antibiotics.
We’ve known this for years, but instead of accelerating, work on new antibiotics is slowing down significantly. Why; Capitalism: It is very expensive to develop new drugs, and once they are developed, it is difficult to make much money from them.
PhageLab wants to come to the rescue with a different approach: using a phage (short for “bacteriophage”). Phages are a type of virus that infect bacteria and kill them. Unlike traditional antibiotics, phages can be designed to target very specific bacteria, and this allows us to use them to kill only the bacteria you don’t want (say, salmonella), while leaving your gut bacteria a bit very intact.
Of course, the process is not without drawbacks. One of the reasons broad-spectrum antibiotics work so well is that doctors often don’t know exactly which bacteria are wreaking havoc, and if you have a phage that only attacks a few bacteria, that could be a challenge.
Still, I like phages in general, and the idea behind PhageLab is pretty great. The team shared their pitch deck with me, so let’s see what the company showed investors to raise their $11 million Series A round.
We’re looking for more unique pitch decks to tear down, so if you’d like to submit your own, here’s how you can do so.
It slides into this deck
The page numbering in the deck is weird (page 1 is labeled 1, but page 3 is labeled 2) so keep in mind that when I refer to slide numbers in this teardown, I’m referring to the PDF page number, not what it exists on the slides themselves. The last slide is page 26 of the PDF, but it’s labeled 32, so it’s clear that some slides were deleted from the deck before PhageLab shared it with me. The company says the use of capital transparency has been removed, but it’s not entirely clear what else was deleted.
However, let’s review this deck as if it were the full story and see where this takes us.
- Cover transparency
- Summary slide
- Problematic transparency
- Problem overview slide
- Problem impact transparency I
- Transparency of problem environment
- Issue summary slide
- Slide collision problem II
- Slide collision problem III
- Market size transparency
- “This is how we do it” slide.
- Value proposition transparency
- “What are phages” slide.
- Why now slip
- Solution transparency I
- Solution transparency II
- Transparency of field test results
- “Meet our team” slide.
- Group size transparency
- Seat transparency
- Group transparency
- Summary slide
- Close slide
- Transparency of contact
- Appendix slide
- Appendix: Video Slide
Three things to love
There is some really fantastic storytelling in this deck.
So what about big pharma?
Startups in this space always have to worry about big pharma. They can definitely outplay you, so the question is how do you outplay them.
[Slide 6] Well, this is how you compete: They’ve quit. Image credits: PhageLab
This slide goes a long way toward the answer that: The business case for developing new antibiotics is plummeting, which opens the door for PhageLab.
This makes the urgency clear. . .
[Slide 9] Yes, that will get their attention. Image credits: PhageLab
I have a thing or two to say about how the company describes its problem statement, but slide 9 took my breath away. If we are 25 years away from this doomsday scenario, it is clear that there is a huge opportunity for startups that can make a real impact in this space. It is powerful storytelling.
That’s one hell of a promise of success
[Slide 17] So does it work? Image credits: PhageLab
Bacteria are pretty nebulous, so where do you start? It seems to me that PhageLab asked itself: What is a bacterium that everyone knows exists, knows where does it exist and is it often in the media? Salmonella fits the bill very well. The company has done its research and believes it can completely remove salmonella – a huge and obvious benefit to food supply chains.
In the rest of this teardown, we’ll take a look at three things PhageLab could have improved or done differently, along with their full pitch deck!
