Founder-led biotechs are not a novel phenomenon, with longstanding industry leaders like Genentech and Regeneron launching with scientific founders at the helm. However, in recent years, the founder-led movement has gained deeper traction as more and more academics have traded in their roles as scientists for the C-suite and forged a path for others to follow suit. This panel will discuss the emerging prevalence of the academia-to-industry pipeline, what steps panelists have taken on their path to company creation, lessons learned in navigating fundraising as first-time founders, and how they’ve leveraged their scientific background to build out drug development pipelines with a greater potential to deliver impactful medicines to patients.