Portrait No. 001
Elena Itskovich
Partner
Nest Catalyst Ventures
Raised — -
I learned to connect the dots, now Im connecting scientists, innovation and impact. Nest Catalyst Ventures, a life-science fund and global program that helps scientist-founders turn frontier research into venture-ready companies. We partner with exceptional founders that build in the world of bio-engineering, computational biology and frontier science at the earliest stages, grounding her thesis in the rapid convergence of biology, automation, and AI. Through Nest Catalyst, we’ve built a structured pathway for researchers to refine their technology, validate markets, and engage investors.
In her words
“In reality, scientists are driven by impact, run large projects, manage million dollar budgets, communicate their vision, have grit and perseverance - all qualities critical for founders.”
Chapter I
The toughest challenges you've faced as a founder.
I see impact where others see challenge. I spent time with thousands of scientists and realized the way others see scientists is mislead. Most see them as incapable of entrepreneurship, too busy with technological and scientific details. In reality, scientists are driven by impact, run large projects, manage million dollar budgets, convince others that their vision is important, have grit and perseverance- all qualities critical for entrepreneurs. When I started the program many challenged me - why do you think scientists can be founders? CEOs? In our first program, fifty percent of idea stage companies ended up raising significant pre-seeds. All led by women scientists CEOs. We are now at our second cohort, with incredibly powerful scientists at the helm. I’m still struggling raising our first fund - I’m a women, immigrant, a scientist - not your typical investor. But I will continue to believe in our founders, and their success will help me be successful too. The best part? Their success means new medicine for cancer and genetic diseases, less antibiotic resistance, new tools to research Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and so much more.
Chapter II
Your vision.
I see entrepreneurship as evolution. You need a large base, try many different ways until, by almost ‘natural selection’ some companies succeed and change the world. If we want strong ability of our society to develop new therapeutics, diagnostics, and other science-based solutions, we need more companies - and I think more companies means more scientists founders that really understand the technologies they developed or discovered. So when we succeed to empower more scientists to become entrepreneurs, we see more science driven companies, and I think that’s positive impact for everyone.
Chapter III
The impact you want to leave behind — for your industry, your community, and the women who come next.
30 years from now, life science companies will be the norm - we will unlock how to support those companies, and those founders, so that starting life science company is as easy as starting b2b saas. In 30 years, that means cancer already has personalized medicine, that we know how to treat heart disease (differently in men and women), that we have science based solution for longevity, muscle loss, neurodegenerative disease.