Karl Handelsman

Karl Handelsman is the Founder at Codon Capital. He also serves as an Investment Director at Roche Venture Fund, and as a Board Member at Good Therapeutics. Karl is a seasoned venture capitalist with over 15 years of experience investing in early stage biotechnology. Karl has worked with entrepreneurs from idea to IPO as a trusted advisor and BOD member. Recently Karl has been working with Steve Blank, the guru of "Lean Launch", to apply his methodology to biotech startups. Prior to his role as a venture capitalist, he worked in business development at two biotech companies later acquired for billions of dollars. Karl founded Codon Capital last year to focus on early stage therapeutics, research tools, and synthetic biology. In collaboration with scientific founders and entrepreneurs Karl fosters early-stage life science innovation. He focuses on early stage pre-clinical therapeutic companies and synthetic biology. The startup search by entrepreneurs and the biotech industry to translate science into products is an evolving practice. In addition to working with science research organizations, such as UCSF and NIH, on translational programs he also makes angel investments in seed and series A startups.