Chris Ehrlich reflects on more than three decades in biotechnology and the relationships that helped him navigate venture capital advisory work public markets and clinical development. His approach centers on trusted mentors transparent communication and teams united by a meaningful mission. The result is a practical guide to building support around difficult business challenges.
Mr. Chris Ehrlich is CERo’s current Chief Executive Officer. He brings significant biotechnology industry, business development, venture capital, investment banking, and SPAC experience. He currently serves as the CEO of Launch One Acquisition Corp. He previously served as the CEO of Phoenix Biotech Acquisition Corp. and Locust Walk Acquisition Corp. He was also a Senior Managing Director at Locust Walk Partners where he was involved with sourcing and leading multiple transactions for emerging biopharmaceutical companies, including the sale of Xyphos Biosciences, Inc. to Astellas in 2019 and the sale of Thar Pharmaceuticals to Grunenthal in 2018. Prior to Locust Walk Partners, he was a Managing Director at InterWest Partners (“InterWest”), a venture capital firm.
Company: CERo Therapeutics
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Chris Ehrlich: I have been involved with the biotech sector for over 30 years. My father was a prominent physician on the east coast and told me never to get into medicine or move to California! Despite what appeared at the time to be sound advice, I disregarded both. I got involved in the business side of the biotechnology industry right out of Dartmouth College, where I studied Government. Over the course of my career, I worked in several biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies until I attended business school at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. There, I fell in love with the idea of the Business of Biotechnology and was instrumental in establishing initially a course and conference on the topic, and now actively participate as an instructor in what is a robust curriculum in the area. I left Kellogg and moved to San Francisco to become a venture capital investor. After 12 years, I moved to help build a start-up life sciences advisory firm called Locust Walk, which we grew from 9 to 55 people. Next, I branched out on my own and got involved with the world of Special Purpose Acquisition Corporations. I am now leading my third as CEO. At the same time, I am CEO of CERo Therapeutics, a novel cancer immunotherapy company that is in clinical trials to treat liquid and solid tumors. I am also excited to have started teaching at the University of San Francisco, where I have built a formal course on Bio Entrepreneurship which I will start instructing in October.
Can you share a time when your business faced a significant challenge? How did you navigate through it?
Chris Ehrlich: It seems as if every biotechnology company with which I have been involved has had at least one, if not several, near-death experiences. These were very difficult to deal with at the time, but, as one of my venture capital mentors once advised me early in my career, “experience is what you get when you’re inexperienced.” Fortunately, or unfortunately, I am now quite experienced! The constant challenge in biotech development such as our own is funding, and we have been no stranger to funding struggles to reach our clinical milestones. The most important thing to remember when navigating these challenges is the mission behind the development, and the numerous number of patients who may live significantly better and longer lives because of it. We’ve done a tremendous job of funding ourselves through the next milestone, instead of fundraising just to have it in the bank, which keeps us agile and light on our feet, to quickly adapt as necessary. Through any of our challenges, our team is committed to these patients; we believe this therapy can work for them, and we’re committed to showcasing that in our clinical programs.
How has a failure or apparent failure set you up for later success?
Chris Ehrlich: As I quoted above, most of what I learned in business has come from various setbacks or failures. As the great Henry Ford once said: “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” Now that I am a senior leader, I anticipate lots of challenges and am mentally prepared to face them. That gives me reasonable expectations of what various outcomes can be. The goal(s) are: 1) to try to minimize the number of times you are surprised and 2) to be mentally prepared for various outcomes and scenarios so that you can act quickly. As the motto of Arthur Andersen Consulting used to be: “you can’t predict…you can prepare.” That is how I operate and turn potential failure into success.
How do you build a resilient team? What qualities do you look for in your team members?
Chris Ehrlich: One of my favorite witticisms is that “there is no ‘I’ in team.” At Kellogg, we learned a great deal about working in collaboration with teammates to make better decisions. The trick in biotech is to realize that no one person can be an expert in every discipline and that your job as a team leader is to be the conductor of a team of talented musicians rather than playing each and every instrument. The folks at CERo are among the best, most entrepreneurial teammates with whom I have ever worked. I encourage them to take risks and assume leadership positions within their various functional segments. I also try to give them insight into the rest of the business with an eye towards getting them ready to be CEO’s themselves. In fact, one of my ambitious goals is to be invited to work together again with these folks when they are CEO’s.
How do you maintain your personal resilience during tough times?
Chris Ehrlich: Wow, there are a lot of tough times. I spend a lot of my time on trying to stay sane. I do everything from exercise, to meditation, and many other tried and true techniques. I think the thing that I find most effective is talking with various support groups. I am part of the Young President’s Organization, for example, where a group of my peers meets regularly to discuss challenges of all types.
What strategies do you use to manage stress and maintain focus during a crisis?
Chris Ehrlich: Being the CEO of a microcap public biotech company brings with it significant challenges nearly every day. I have found a couple of useful strategies to help me get through them. The first is to remain physically and mentally calm. I do this through a combination of exercise, working with excellent people, and realizing that I am human. Remaining calm in the face of crises allows me to bring my best self to helping address the issue(s) and maintain (at least the appearance) of confidence with my team.
How do you communicate with your team during a crisis?
Chris Ehrlich: While it sounds cliché, I have learned that the best way to manage and work with teams (management, board members, and investors) is to be very transparent about how you are thinking about things and to get incentives and expectations aligned. Sometimes, I feel that I am overly communicative. But, if you are lucky (or skilled) enough to have folks around you who share a common mission – in our case, curing cancer – then it’s a lot easier to communicate progress or challenges.
What advice would you give to other CEOs on building resilience in their organizations?
Chris Ehrlich: Having mentors you can trust is an invaluable source of support. I’ve found mentors to be some of the best support systems as I journey through dark or difficult times. I think CEOs today need to find their support systems, both inside the organization and not, to help guide them through some of the difficult decisions that have to be made. A key reminder that I think can be forgotten in leadership is being a good listener in addition to leading by example. Being able to hear the best idea, that could be coming from the quietest person in the back of the room, and act upon it regardless of who it came from, is just as important as any other leadership cliché.
How do you prepare your business for potential future crises?
Chris Ehrlich: I feel that every day represents the chance for a crisis. As such, I, personally, am very transparent about the risks – honestly, so much so that I worry that I will scare people off. I remind them that we could be out of business any month and to run their projects and lives with that in mind. That being said, when I have the choice between optimism and realism, I tend to remember to favor the former because very few success stories occurred in a straight line. While it’s important to be transparent and set realistic expectations among your colleagues, I still realize that hope is also an effective and important part of the strategy.
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned about leadership in times of crisis?
Chris Ehrlich: The most important lesson comes back to what we said earlier. You have to learn from your crises because there’s a good chance it’s going to happen again. Leaders face them head-on, get through it, and then reflect on what they learned, who they will and won’t work with again, how to operate under those difficult scenarios, etc. As Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways not to make a lightbulb.” Even in failure, if you are taking lessons about what not to do next time, you are progressing forward.
