By: Mari Boyle
It is an honor to introduce Sean McDonald as Dickinson Law’s June Entrepreneur of the Month. Sean McDonald is the founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Ocugenix, a therapeutics company developing drugs to treat blindness. He has been described as one of Pittsburgh’s “best-known life sciences executives and serial entrepreneurs” by publications such as the Pittsburgh Business Times. He was recognized as CEO of the Year by the Pittsburgh Technology Council for the impact his innovation and creativity have on his community. McDonald has extensive experience building companies from the ground up and helming healthcare and biotechnology businesses, often leading them through successful capital raising rounds, clinical trials, regulatory compliance, and acquisitions. His passion for innovation within the healthcare industry is evident throughout his career and he possesses the envied ability of “idea execution” or bringing an idea to life. But, before he was a CEO, Sean McDonald was a college student at the University of Pennsylvania studying chemical engineering.
The “I Could do that” Moment
Admittedly, becoming an entrepreneur was not a lifelong dream for Mr. McDonald. In college, he didn’t envision himself as an entrepreneur. His specialty was in computer engineering and robotics. Rather, McDonald’s light-bulb moment did not come until later, while he was working in robotics at Westinghouse Electric during the day and pursuing an MBA from Carnegie Mellon in the evening. As he put together his ideas of unique ways to apply robotics technologies coupled with his growing understanding of the business side of things, McDonald realized, “hey, I could do that!” And that is a grossly simplified version of how McDonald’s first company, Automated Healthcare was born. Automated Healthcare was a first of its kind company that, by applying robotics to healthcare, allowed for a robotic medication dispensing system for hospitals. Automated Healthcare’s customers include over 700 hospitals such as John Hopkins Hospitals and Sloan Kettering. McDonald would go on to sell his company to McKesson but remained intimately involved as Group President. McDonald later rejoined the start-up world as President and CEO of Precision Therapeutics, a cancer therapy company dedicated to improving outcomes of cancer patients through individualized treatments.
McDonald’s latest venture is as founder, President, and CEO of Ocugenix. McDonald, along with four others, founded Ocugenix to develop therapies for blindness in those over fifty (wet macular degeneration) or with diabetes (diabetic retinopathy).
Finding the right business
McDonald has experience in founding companies based off his own ideas as well as joining and leading new start-ups. But how does an entrepreneur decide what new idea to back? McDonald recognizes the multitude of ideas there are in the world with potentially more ideas today than ever before. In deciding whether to join, build, or lead a new business, McDonald looks for ideas that capture his imagination.
“You have to be personally excited about the opportunity, because it can take years to get off the ground and the founders may be the only true believers in the business.”
Raising capital in biotech
McDonald has extensive experience in raising significant amounts of venture capital for healthcare and biotechnology companies. McDonald finds that one of the challenges in raising capital, particularly for biotechnology companies, is the difficulty in valuing the company, particularly in its early stages. This is because if the drug the company is developing works, the company can be worth billions. But, if it doesn’t, then it’s worth nothing. McDonald believes that what makes for a successful capital raising round is understanding how an investor thinks and anticipating how they will view the business opportunity. This requires an understanding of the associated risk and the projected timeline, looking at other companies doing similar work, and communicating your vision effectively.
The Entrepreneurial Mindset
There are countless skills that could aid a potential entrepreneur in being successful. But if McDonald had to narrow it down to three, they would be:
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- Relentlessness
- The ability to communicate complex ideas to people in a straightforward manner; and
- A willingness to be honest with yourself. Self-reflection is key. A successful entrepreneur has honest, internal conversations about refining their idea or approach and potentially recognizing when something is just a bad idea.
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McDonald’s advice to those with an entrepreneurial mindset is to learn something really well. The best ideas, McDonald believes, come from those with expertise in a small or specialized area because that is often the area that a big company will miss. Additionally, he advises, don’t be afraid to work for someone. Just because you want to be an entrepreneur does not mean you shouldn’t have the experience of working for someone else. This experience allows you to gain insight into how decisions are made, good and bad. It could potentially lead you to your “I could do that” moment as it did for Sean McDonald.
Mari Boyle, at the time of this post, is a recent graduate of Penn State Dickinson Law. She is interested in corporate and business litigation and graduated with a certificate in Entrepreneurship Law. Mari served as president of the Business Law Society, Senior Editor to the Dickinson Law Review, and was a member of the Moot Court Appellate Advocacy team. After graduation, Mari will begin her legal career as a judicial law clerk at the Delaware Superior Court.
Photo Sources
https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2017/06/21/personalities-of-pittsburgh-sean-mcdonald.html
https://ocugenix.com.
