Since we landed back in Denver, I have been thinking about the impact that LEX San Diego made on me. As a As I dive into these values, I think about what I learned in San Diego and how we can bring that back to Denver.
- Inclusivity – anyone who wants to work with us is welcome. The all-women bioscience panel was the highlight of my trip. Any other parts of the country would have featured a bunch of middle-age white guys talking about how awesome we are at doing and funding science. San Diego has created one of the strongest bioscience ecosystems in the country and women have been at the helm since the beginning, ensuring that an inclusive environment permeates innovation.
- Collaboration – We get more done together. San Diego is not just San Diego. San Diego does not work without strong collaboration with Mexico, where the two countries sit on each other’s chamber of commerce boards and work together to bring new companies that desire a presence for manufacturing in Mexico and the U.S. for other operations. You don’t get to be the largest medical device manufacturer in the world unless you work together. At the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, we talk a lot about how we work within the Denver metro region; San Diego should challenge us on how we do more across the state. Could the next big relocation come with corporate offices in Denver and a manufacturing facility in Pueblo or Limon?
- Shared Vision – We’re always asking, “What’s next?” This was readily apparent at the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine. With 80 research institutions, 1,100 bioscience companies and some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, San Diego is a powerhouse. In contrast, Colorado has 30 federally funded labs and research institutions and more than 720 bioscience companies. Colorado also has 125 acres of prime real estate on the Fitzsimmons Innovation Campus that are ready to commercialize the next great cadre of bioscience companies and clinical partners on campus to advise. We had the vision to set aside the space we now need to follow through and invest to grow the industry.
- Leadership - We give up power to get things done. The biggest thing that is holding back the Colorado bioscience industry from cracking the top five is access to funding. Forty-five percent of all venture capital goes to Silicon Valley; the next 35 percent goes to the rest of California, New York and Massachusetts. Of the remaining 20 percent, Colorado cracks the top 10 in funding with 3 percent. Colorado needs to take the lead in re-authorizing the Venture Capital Authority, providing $200 million in funding to attract matching investment dollars from the coasts to stimulate opportunities and accelerate reinvestment in Colorado.
- Responsibility – We’re proud to be here and we want to make Colorado even better. San Diego takes care of their own. I was drawn to the Monarch School, where the city has dedicated a school to the homeless youth population and coupled that with a nonprofit to provide wrap-around services to make sure that the kids are fed, clothed and ready to learn and break the cycle of homelessness. Colorado has all these components individually; how amazing would it be if we could coordinate those services and take responsibility for our homeless population?
Mark Spiecker is the president of STAQ Pharma, a Colorado’s Civic DNA Fellow and sits on the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors.
