As a species, we have a problem. Bacteria are increasingly resistant to antibiotics. It makes sense: Antibiotics kill all the bacteria they can, but those that somehow survive continue to grow and spread. Guess what gene they all have in common? That's right, the one that makes them resistant to antibiotics.
We've known this for years, but instead of accelerating, work on new antibiotics is slowing significantly. Because? Capitalism: It is very expensive to develop new drugs and, once developed, it is difficult to make much money from them.
PhageLab comes to the rescue with a different approach: using a phage (short for “bacteriophage”). Phages are a type of virus that infects bacteria and kills them. Unlike traditional antibiotics, phages can be designed to attack very specific bacteria, and that allows us to use them to kill only the bacteria we don't want (for example, salmonella), while leaving gut bacteria more or less intact.
Of course, the process is not without disadvantages. 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 attacks only a handful of bacteria, that could present a challenge.
Still, the idea behind PhageLab is pretty cool. The team shared its presentation, so let's see what the company showed investors to raise its $11 million Series A round.
Slides on this platform
The page numbering in the deck is irregular (page 1 is labeled 1, but page 3 is labeled 2), so note that when I refer to slide numbers in this teardown, I'm referring to the number of the PDF page, not what is on the slides. The final slide is page 26 of the PDF, but it is labeled 32, so it is clear that some slides were removed from the presentation before PhageLab shared it for this article. The company says the slide about the use of funds was removed, but it's not entirely clear what else was removed.
Still, let's review this presentation as if it were the whole story and see where it takes us.
- Cover Slide
- Summary Slide
- Problem slide
- Problem Overview Slide
- Problem Impact Slide I
- Problem context slide
- Problem Summary Slide
- Problem Impact Slide II
- Problem III Impact Slide
- Market Size Slide
- “This is how we do it” interstitial slide
- Value Proposition Slide
- Slide “What are phages?”
- Because right now?
- Solution Slide I
- Solution Slide II
- Field Test Results Slide
- “Meet our team” interstitial slide
- Team Size Slide
- Headquarters slide
- team slide
- Summary Slide
- Closing slide
- Contact slide
- Interstitial slide of the appendix
- Appendix: Video Slide
Three positive things
There is some really fantastic storytelling in this presentation.
So what about Big Pharma?
Startups in this space always have to worry about big pharma companies. They can definitely outspend you, so the question is how are you going to outsmart them?
[Slide 6] Well, that's how you compete: the big ones have given up. Image credits: PhageLab
This slide goes a long way toward answering that: The business case for developing new antibiotics is that it is plummeting, which opens the door for PhageLab.
That makes the urgency clear. . .
[Slide 9] Yes, this will get your attention. Image credits: PhageLab
A few things to say about how the company describes its problem statement, but slide 9 takes your breath away. If we are 25 years away from this apocalyptic scenario, it is obvious that there is a huge opportunity for startups that can have a real impact in this space. It is a powerful narrative.
That is a great promise of success.
[Slide 17] So it works? Image credits: PhageLab
Bacteria are pretty nebulous, so where to start? It seems PhageLab asked themselves: What is a bacteria that everyone knows exists? where Does it exist and does it often appear in the media? Salmonella fits in very well. The company has done its research and believes it can eliminate salmonella completely, a huge and obvious benefit to food supply chains.
In the rest, we'll look at three things PhageLab could have improved or done differently.
Three things that could be improved.
This presentation is very, very long. The most successful slideshows these days have 16 slides, and PhageLab probably could have shortened this presentation to tell the full story in 16 to 18 slides as well.
Okay, understandable. But it is a problem.
There are a lot of problematic slides. Slides 3 to 9 all cover various aspects of the problem, and they do so in a somewhat hyperbolic, “OMG, this is a disaster” way:
[Slide 7] Too apocalyptic. Image credits: PhageLab
PhageLab could have significantly shortened their presentation here by reducing this part to two slides: the problem slide itself (what is the problem?) and the problem impact slide (what happens if we don't fix this problem?). We get it, it's a huge problem and people are going to die. It's good storytelling, yes, but there's no real benefit to being dramatic about it.
They are some nice buildings.
[Slide 20] Nice buildings, and…? Image credits: PhageLab
You always have to question every slide. It's really necessary? What part of the story reinforces this? Would an investor choose to invest because the downturn is here and might choose not to if it were not? Slide 20 doesn't pass that sniff test. Yes, it has offices in three countries, but we don't need pictures of them. This slide is a waste.
MMM…?
[Slide 23] Is it okay? Image credits: PhageLab
More like that of buildings. This is a waste. “Science works and we can prove it” seems like it has to be a mistranslation or a misunderstanding of some kind. Of course science works. That's what science does.
PhageLab also uses “science works and we can prove it” on their website as a sort of slogan. Unfortunately, it's just not a very good slogan. It could be used by literally any startup.
The presentation could be cut to just 8 slides having the same impact as intended from the investors' point of view:
- Cover Slide
- Problem slide
- Problem Overview Slide
- Problem Impact Slide
- Market Size Slide
- “This is how we do it” interstitial slide
- Value Proposition Slide
- “Meet our team” interstitial slide
In addition to these eight slides, I would add the Ask, Fund Usage, and Total Team slides at the numbers and profiles level and call it a day.
