Lukas Guenther
Partner, Sofinnova MD Start Strategy
Lukas joined us in 2019 and is a partner on the MD Start team. He is a medical doctor and was trained in General Surgery at the Universities of Heidelberg and Freiburg.
As a former surgeon, the hands-on approach at MD Start appealed to him. "We're not up there in the balcony giving the thumbs up or thumbs down" as entrepreneurs make their pitches, he says. “We build the story; we bring in the necessary assets; we create the company, often from scratch."
Lukas was a postdoctoral scientist at the Novartis Center for Immunobiology at Harvard University, where he conducted preclinical research on protective genes. Subsequently, Lukas completed a Fellowship at the University of Minnesota as Organ Harvest Fellow, where he participated in NIH-sponsored clinical trials on islet transplantation.
In 2007, he joined the life science investment team at Wellington Partners, a pan-European venture capital firm where he advanced to investment director and invested in several European early stage life science companies.
Lukas holds a summa cum laude doctorate from Humboldt University (Charité) Berlin. He also obtained a Global One MBA degree from RSM Erasmus.
"We're not up there in the balcony giving the thumbs up or thumbs down as entrepreneurs make their pitches. We build the story; we bring in the necessary assets; we create the company, often from scratch."
Sector
Medical Devices