Redefining Ambition: Turning Setbacks into Breakthroughs

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 02:01

your journey began with funding

FolioGo Therapeutics back in: 2005

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 02:18

Yeah, thank you so much for having me, Natalie. It's really an honor. So I guess your first question is what inspired me to do this anyway? And I guess in the laboratory as scientists, we discover new ideas every day. There's always a new thing and it's exciting. And at the time,

for me and for many researchers, what's really, I guess, motivating is this idea that you can create something, develop something, and it has the potential to help people that are really in need. And I guess that's what drove me in a way, is that there was an excitement around applying what you discover.

And of course, you know, at the time I was pretty naive and I didn't really understand the path and the expense and the time intensiveness and just all the things it would take to take a discovery from the bench and develop it into a real medicine for somebody to benefit from. so

You know, but and that's the thing about when you start a when you start up they you know, naivete is a great thing because you jump without realizing all the the pain points that you're going to encounter and the challenges and the you're just so focused on the on the on the gold at the end of the rainbow that these other things seem, you know, not worth worrying about.

And so I would say, you know, there was a mixture, right, of that excitement and unblindedness that finally, you know, got me to think to start up and become an entrepreneur. I had to transition from being an academic scientist to a startup entrepreneur.

And we have a name for this. call it scientist CEO. Where we really, as scientists, we should not be CEOs. But as a CEO, you're wearing all the hats. You're doing the science, you're writing the business plans, you're writing grants, you're paying the bills, you're from A to Z. And so that's the job I took on.

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 04:26

Yeah

and

Mm -hmm. That's so, that is and the same time it's because you don't know everything that has to happen. did you make that transition from being a bench scientist to the founder of the organization?

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 05:02

Yeah, so well, first thing, another motivating piece for me to back up a little bit was when we made the discovery in a lab as a scientist, eventually that lab dissolved and no longer existed. But the discovery was still a discovery and in fact was something that was new and could be patented.

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 05:15

Mmm.

Yeah.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 05:24

I asked the National Cancer Institute where I was working, since the lab was no longer working on it, and since I wanted to spin out a company, I asked them for my intellectual property rights to this invention. And usually in the United States, if you discover something, but you work for an organization or a company, you know, big institution, you don't own that discovery. The institution owns it.

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 05:36

Okay.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 05:51

But in this case, I asked for those rights back. And eventually, after six months, they decided to give it back to me. And once I got the rights to my own intellectual property and my own discovery, I was then able to file my own patent, which is what I did. And so that got me sort of the first step. But then I realized, well, I didn't know how to write a business plan. I didn't know how to form a corporate structure. I didn't know how to bring a board on.

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 05:52

Right.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 06:19

All of the sort of meat and potatoes of starting a business I did not know and so I joined just maybe it's coincidentally In Maryland, I found a group that was launching a program specifically for women technology entrepreneurs and that's how I got my start in at least in terms of thinking in a direction and

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 06:37

Mmm.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 06:43

understanding some of the key components, the financials and, you know, all this like sort of the key components to any business. But in this particular case, this was focused on women who are starting technology related startups. And this was born out of University of Maryland in Baltimore County. So it was a very lucky, you know, right place, right time for me. And I was

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 07:00

Right.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 07:10

I had actually moved away from the Washington DC area and then moved back and I joined this course. And as I was doing the course, I was starting my business. So it was one of those, know, getting on the ramp to take off.

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 07:28

Yeah, that's so exciting. It's also so great that had that vision to get it started. You asked all the questions and you found organizations to help you. Now, made it through the early funding rounds, but eventually encountered the dreaded valley of death. you said earlier to me before we got started that many companies go to this.

you know, encounter the valley of death. How did you maybe talk a little bit about how a lot of different companies do this? And this is not a good thing for society. tell us how did you cope with the setback and what was the tipping point that led you to shift your focus from folio to founding music beats cancer?

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 08:12

Yeah, and like you said, the Valley of Death, just to explain that a little more, it's not a real place, it's a metaphorical place, right? Where great ideas go to die. It's the dearth of funding. And metaphorically, it's like these great ideas dry up on a vine because they simply don't have the requisite cash to keep growing. And that is...

the sort of the fate of so many great ideas that fall in the hands of entrepreneurs, particularly biotech entrepreneurs. And the reason is, is because what it takes to advance biotechnology and the biomedical science is lots of cash, lots of time, lots of intense work that

Realistically speaking, unless you have the already existing networks, the funders, or unless you're already coming from a cash positive, flush space where you have the wherewithal to write grants and wait six months or one year or two years, if you have that,

time and financial wherewithal to do that, great. But for most scientists, CEOs, we don't have that. It's just doesn't exist. And it's for many reasons. Many scientists don't have, like myself, I I was a lab rat, basically. I didn't have the networks. I didn't have investors. I didn't have

high net worth individuals that would back me in any way. all these years of getting a, of being in sciences and getting my doctorate and my postdoctoral work, we're not hanging out with the one or two percenters of the world. So those relationships just don't exist. And that too, a lot of investors

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 10:08

I'm

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 10:15

are on the East Coast, West Coast, lots of women and minorities as well, traditionally don't have the reach to these types of networks. So there's many reasons why people with a great idea simply just don't have access to funds, because the access requires relationships. And, you know,

for most scientists, CEOs, those relationships just don't exist. So I think this problem is not just a problem of money, it's a problem of relationship, the lack of relationships as well. that's really, the valley of death is this really all encompassing problem. And the reality of it is if great ideas for

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 10:51

Mmm, I got you.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 11:05

treating cancer, discovering cancer, monitoring cancer. If they don't come to fruition, it's not only a failure of the entrepreneur and of the industry, it's an impact, a negative impact on society. Because on the one hand, thousands of great ideas aren't being fueled financially. And on the other hand, there's thousands of

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 11:21

Right.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 11:32

people that just don't have solutions for their cancers. Not just in the United States, but worldwide.

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 11:39

Great. So how did this experience shape and fuel you for your next step?

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 11:47

Yeah, well, it was interesting because, you know, we were talking about resilience and I guess when I started the company, I really took it upon myself to, you know, to look under every stone, to write every grant, participate in every business plan competition, to...

Anytime somebody suggested, you know, well, maybe you can ask this person or that person or find funding here or apply there. And I did it. You know, I just went through all of the, you know, approaches and, and venues where someone like myself could learn and access funds. And there were funds for sure, that I was able to raise, but it's not enough, not enough.

when you are developing a treatment for ovarian cancer because what it takes simply to get it to the FDA is millions of dollars. Simply to get it into a clinical trial is a $2 million endeavor and that is no easy lift. So inevitably the stakes

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 12:50

Mmm.

Mm -hmm. Right.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 13:08

were very high to find the actual kind of monies that we needed. And on top of it, I was on this learning curve. So clearly there were going to be a lot of you know, setbacks and lessons learned and wrong directions that I would have taken, did take and would have taken that would have been costly for sure. So that was really tough.

to weather, but what it did do is it taught me all the ins and outs of taking science from the bench and attempting to commercialize it so that a person could benefit. so that journey was just powerful and led me in

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 13:48

Right.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 13:55

put me in a really interesting position to launch something else, which is Music Beats Cancer, which is a charitable organization to help companies like Follow The Therapeutics. And one of the things I thought and I felt very strongly about was the kind of money early stage biotechs needed was what I call passion capital, non -dilutive funds.

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 14:22

Mmm.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 14:24

funds that were not investment, but funds that were the kind of money that could help cover or pay for that next critical experiment so that these companies could actually reach what we call an inflection point where they become more attractive. And the kind of money to do that is not investor money or grant money because grant money takes time.

and it takes peer reviewers. And if your peers don't like what you're doing, then you don't get the money. And if you have to go through a whole six month, one year process, then you're going to fail just because you're going to run out of time and cash. So we needed a way to raise charitable funds, philanthropy basically. And I really believe there's a role for philanthropy in early stage biotech startups.

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 14:56

Mm.

Mm

Excellent. So can you tell me a little bit more about how beats cancer works? Like how exactly do you gather those funds that you're going to transfer to the innovators and how do you find your innovators and how do you match up the philanthropy with the innovators?

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 15:41

Yeah, so at the beginning, it was like all pulling teeth to find those innovators and get them to work with me. just to back up a little bit, MusicBeats Cancer is a charitable crowdfunding platform exclusively for early stage biotechs that are working on cancer fighting solutions. And so our platform allows people to support their

We use their tax deductible dollar to support a cancer fighting solution that they find compelling. So we are a little bit like a GoFundMe type of thing or a Kickstarter, right? Where people can back a great idea versus a like American Cancer Society where you donate because you did a run for walk for life or you just, you know, and then those monies.

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 16:16

Okay.

Okay.

Great.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 16:39

go to some committee that then makes a decision and then that money then goes to a lab, a research lab, right? So we're funding entrepreneurs with solutions in hand. And like, like to say like, you know, entrepreneurs for cures rather than research for a cure, we're funding the actual solutions in hand. And we're allowing the donor to decide what sounds compelling.

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 16:43

Mm.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 17:07

and worthy and as per the donor's interest. And so that's what our model is. And then conversely, the companies set up a campaign on our platform, a cancer fighting campaign, and they receive these funds as grants to carry out whatever the next steps that they need. So this is sort of the interesting...

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 17:18

You

I got you.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 17:29

dynamic that we're a real crowd model a peer -to -peer model and all of this You know, I started music beats cancer. We launched it formally in 2014 and it was the time of uber and airbnb. It was a time when equity crowdfunding launched, you know, and the idea that we could be a

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 17:50

Mm.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 17:55

a crowd model and a peer -to -peer model in the biosciences was novel and still is. Because there's least that I know of, many groups like Music Beats Cancer that are connecting people who want to see change in the war on cancer with people who are working on solutions.

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 18:15

So as you founded it in 2014, which is now 10 years, is there a favorite campaign that you can point to or success that you can point to that you're really proud of?

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 18:20

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, there's several campaigns in our platform that have raised not huge dollars, maybe we'd say smallish dollars between 25 ,000 and 100 ,000 that then got to use these dollars for critical next steps. And I would say all of these campaigns, whether they raise money or not, are just doing cool things. And I think that to me,

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 19:48

Okay.

Ha ha.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 20:00

makes this a lot of fun because they're cool things that you would, I just would never have come across, right? And they're out of the box, which is why they're not being funded. So I would say, and not all of them are about becoming lucrative, financially lucrative startups, because some of them that's their offering isn't going to make them

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 20:07

Right.

Right.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 20:27

you know, the millions of dollars that, you know, that we all hope for some of them, their offering is going to save thousands of tens of thousands of lives. And I think that made that made me very proud to be able to bring on ideas that were lucrative in life saving terms and not necessarily in financial terms. And the reason I say this is because I think what the

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 20:38

I see.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 20:55

the wants to see in terms of fighting cancer may be very different than what pharma wants to see. And here we're offering this opportunity for the public to get behind ideas that they think are going to move the needle, not necessarily what pharma thinks is going to move the needle.

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 21:02

Right, I see.

Gotcha. what kind of habits, I love the fact that you're so society, before the question, I love the fact that you're so societal driven that you really are here to help society overall. Now, what kind of habits and mindsets have helped you stay resilient over the years through the ups and downs?

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 21:22

Yeah

Well, when you say society, think it's really important to think about, and we talked about this as we started, philanthropy, right? Philanthropy is a donated dollar. And what I have learned is that when people contribute a donated dollar, it's really personal. It's something that they experienced.

something that they really care about. And I think, you know, and maybe this is, you know, becomes important habit for me is to really understand where donors are at and what they care about and to learn to listen and to observe, you know, trends and so forth. Because I think how people cast their dollar speaks volumes about

how they want to solve a problem in society. And I think that's really important. And both big and small, right? Every $1 in the collective is really important. And also talking to high network people that have bigger dollars to contribute, everybody has their specific interests.

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 22:45

Right.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 22:56

in terms of what they want to see advance. And it's not always about cancer. Sometimes people are interested in supporting women and minority owned companies. Sometimes people are interested in supporting ideas that are going to benefit the underserved communities, communities in Africa, say, that don't have access. And sometimes people just want to support a cancer that they were impacted by and is deadly.

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 23:06

You

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 23:21

triple negative breast cancer or pancreatic cancer. I think, and there's a lot of also pediatric cancers. I think it's really important to find the answers in the people through watching, listening, and just being observant and alert.

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 23:22

Right?

Mmm.

That's so great. So I have three more questions for you. One is, you you've taken such a powerful mission with Music Beats Cancer. I'm wondering about your latest ambitions and how the listeners can support you in your ambitions. Are there specific ways that they can get their voice heard?

through donation or spreading the word or awareness, what would make the biggest impact for you?

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 24:16

Well, I'd love for listeners to go to our website, musiceatscancer .org and there in the menu bar, there's a link to our campaigns, our active campaigns. And I'd love for listeners to hit that campaign link and just check out these great ideas. What I also think is important, traditionally,

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 24:35

Mmm.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 24:41

When people donate to fight the war on cancer, many of the stories about fighting cancer are the patients themselves, right? And that definitely pulls a lot of heart, emotional, know, heartstrings. But there's another fighter in this battle, and that's the entrepreneur. And for music beats cancer, the entrepreneurs are in the trenches right at the, you know, the

at the forefront of this battle, coming up with ideas to help mitigate, change the direction, improve the outcomes, et cetera. And I'd like to think that Music Beats Cancer in our mission, we're not, while there many organizations supporting the patients, that's not where we're...

where we are focused. I like to think about this whole issue as if there were a flood and people were drowning in the flood, you'd see people rescuing those drowning with lifeboats and so forth. And that's how I think of charity. It's usually rescuing the drowning. Or sometimes we have communities that are like hospitals that are sort of putting everybody on rafts.

Rare are do rarely would you find this person that would swim? You know upstream to figure out how do we just stop the flood to begin with right? that person is a Is is trying to tackle a systemic approach? Right to the issue and that's how I see music beats cancer. We're going after a systemic breakdown in the war on cancer

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 26:04

Yeah.

Right.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 26:20

And I think that there's not many charities that really are thinking this way when it comes to public issues. So I'd love the listeners to jump on board and rethink how we are shifting the paradigm in fighting the war on cancer. And we want more people to get on board with just addressing this valley of death issue. And yes.

going through our campaigns and learning and discovering what they find is interesting or compelling for them. That is what would make me most happy and would be helpful to our cause.

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 26:55

Okay.

Yes, we will help you with that cause. remaining questions. back on your journey, what would you say has been the most important lesson that you've learned about failure, resilience, and ultimately success? And if you were to go back today and talk to your younger self and give that younger self some advice, what would it be?

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 27:18

Yeah, well, I guess there's a lot in that. But I guess, and I at one point, Natalie, we spoke about ambition and I was thinking about that a lot. And I often think when we talk about ambition, we talk about the excitement of it, just the strength and the resilience. But I also think that there's a large component

fear and ambition, the fear of looking bad, the fear of failing, the fear of what would you do if it didn't work out. Right now, of, you know, fear is hugely motivating. I think in order to be successful, those fears are necessary, but they're necessary in that they fuel you in the right direction. You know, they get you up in the morning and you

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 27:44

Mm.

Mm, yes.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 28:10

don't want to see the wrong outcome. And I put a lot of emphasis on that because I think when you're alone at night and you're falling asleep, most of us face and have to confront ourselves and our own fears. And there's actually nothing wrong with that. There's real power in that. I say this because

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 28:31

Mm

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 28:34

I'd like people to understand that being afraid is so normal that the most impactful thing you can do is just observe your own fear and act accordingly as you experience them and not act in a way that I guess where you get triggered to do something negative but get triggered to do the positive, right?

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 28:46

Mmm.

Mmm.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 28:57

But but be respectful of the fact that these fears are real they're there they're motivating you and and I guess Your your question is you know, would I tell my younger self and that would be you know, honestly change nothing at all because I like to apply my wrong paths and

and the fact that I do have fears and the fact that I'm just a normal person. I like to applaud all the hard stuff because there really is no success without all the difficulty. And people always say, you learn nothing from your successes and everything from your failures. And there really is truth to it.

And here I sit today, you know, and I often think about this happened and I really wish I didn't fall into that trap and I wish I didn't listen to that person or these folks took me the wrong path and now I have this loss and that loss. But I like to think about failure in a measured way. They're short term failures. They're not determinants of the end goal. Right.

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 29:56

You

They

don't define you.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 30:12

And

yeah, and you know, when I was growing up, I was a runner, I was a competitive runner. And I remember in the times there was this poster that we all wanted on our wall, back then we would put posters on our wall. And there was this one poster that we all wanted as runners. And it said, the race isn't for the swift, it's to those who keep going. Right? And I then when I became

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 30:18

Mm.

Hehe.

Mmm.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 30:39

Went on to my you know to my doc to do my doctorate above my desk I put that same poster and you know, and I still have that poster because The end game is when you say it ends, right? It's not when you experience the setbacks and so those I like to call the micro losses but the macro goal is

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 30:46

Yeah.

Yeah.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 31:02

is to build Music Beats Cancer so that it becomes the go -to charity for fighting cancer and so that we rethink how we fight cancer and we actually have a public that gets excited about science as I do. And you don't have to be a scientist to find science and innovation fascinating. And that's what I want to achieve with Music Beats Cancer.

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 31:30

That is so excellent. The last question is a bonus question. So you've gone from being a scientist to an entrepreneur to now a nonprofit leader. That's three major transitions.

How has that transition shaped your leadership style, particularly when it comes to mentoring and maybe even talking to other science leaders?

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 31:55

Yeah, so that's really interesting because I would say, I don't know that any of that changed my leadership style. mean, at the beginning, you don't even know you're a leader, right? You're just sitting in a lab and you're not leading anybody because you're not seeing anybody. You're just simply working in a siloed space. But if there is anything, and I didn't share this,

that has changed my leadership style. It's being a mother. And I will say one of the biggest challenges, because through all of this, I was giving birth, I was breastfeeding babies, I was running around toddlers, and today I'm navigating teenagers. And when I first, you know,

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 32:23

Mmm.

Okay.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 32:43

When I first was pregnant and had my kids, I used to be extremely frustrated because I felt like I couldn't do it all. I couldn't be a mother. My time was confounded. My energy was limited. It was hard to find, you're just juggling and struggling. And I still am, as a mother of teenagers.

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 32:52

Mm.

huh.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 33:06

One of the things that really shaped me was I learned that some of the most important sort of characteristics I needed to be a leader was found in being a mother. Patience, right? The patience, love for the baby, right? The ability to look

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 33:22

that is so great.

Mm -hmm.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 33:30

at the end game and not focus on all the little minor breakdowns in the moment. To stand for something. Also, I'm constantly team building and looking for collaborations and working on collaborations and guiding people.

And all this time, you're sort of standing for the big picture, right? And I just like to believe, and I wish we could believe that motherhood is the most important leadership role a woman can have. And maybe you could say a father too, but I guess traditionally it's been the women that are

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 33:54

Mm

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 34:12

holding the house and making sure everything runs. And even in society, something happens at school, they don't call dad, they call mom. And there's this constant, you just emerge as the natural leader in your relationship, in your family, in your communities. And it's no different when you're running an organization and leading a

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 34:21

Yeah.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 34:39

a paradigm shift for a very important issue in society. Leadership is no different. It's the same in all, I guess, facets. And so I like to think about when you're a leader in your home, you're a leader in life.

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 34:56

Yes, makes sense.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 34:59

I say this in part because there's so many women that feel being a mom is a setback. like, and I have experienced it the other way, being a mom is the most powerful thing that you can have under your belt. feel, and it should be in our LinkedIn profiles because it speaks to your ability to be tenacious and at the same time.

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 35:16

Perfect.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 35:23

be loving, right, for the people around you. It's a real skill.

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 35:24

Yes.

Thank you so much for that. really appreciate that insight and your mindset towards that. I also thank you for coming on and talking about Music Beats Cancer. I hope that we can get a bunch of listeners going to the site and looking at all the different opportunities to the researchers move things forward. So thank you so much.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 35:54

This has been so great chatting with you and sharing this. I'm so grateful when people highlight our mission. And I love that you kind of pick apart a journey, right? Because one person's journey is often shared with a lot of people.

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 36:10

you

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 36:16

And I like also, you there's this idea in my mind, like when you're young, you think there's some right path, but the reality is there's no right. There's no right. There's just a journey that happened to work for you because you just kept going.

Natalie Luke, PhD (: 36:16

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes, I love that. Thank you so much. Awesome.

Dr. Mona Jhaveri (: 36:37

And thank you.