University Enterprise Labs, an incubator for early-stage life sciences and biotechnology companies, announced its new executive director, Brad Larmie, in December, following a year-long search launched after former Executive Director Diane Rucker stepped down.
Larmie has been in the role for the past three months. Before that, he worked in consulting at Children's Minnesota as a strategy and innovation leader, in pharmaceutical sales and at his parents' company. He serves as a mentor for the Founder's Institute — the world's largest pre-seed accelerator for startups.
His parents moved from Ghana to Minnesota and worked for companies such as 3M Co., Boston Scientific Corp. and Medtronic before starting their own analytical testing laboratory, CHRi Labs. Starting a laboratory poses challenges, such as expensive equipment and space, so his parents rented space for CHRi Labs at UEL. That was Larmie's introduction to the nonprofit.
The Business Journal sat down with Larmie to ask about the resources UEL offers, his goals for the nonprofit, and his passion for helping life science companies. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
How has the transition to running UEL been? It just felt natural to make a transition to UEL because of the opportunity. I get to work with innovators every day, and I'm also working for an organization that's legitimately shattering the barriers for early-stage life science companies. You're not just incubating these companies, you're accelerating a movement. As soon as I stepped into this world, innovation is without a doubt the core of everything that we're doing as well as opportunity. The transition was pretty eye-opening. I'm sitting next to scientists and innovators everyday who are doing work that on paper sounds impossible. UEL is home to 60 companies employing more than 300 people, so seeing the collaboration and talks you get to have in the hall, it's just a vibe. It's pretty exciting.
What is UEL and what kind of resources does it offer? University Enterprise Laboratories is essentially the leading, life science incubator in the state of Minnesota. It's a 150,000-square-foot building that offers move-in ready lab space and other types of space for early-stage life science companies. We provide early-stage companies with flexible and adaptable space and support.
What are some of the barriers life science companies face when starting out? I believe starting a life science company is hard enough, and space should not be one of the hardest parts. You're already trying to prove out, "Can this work?" You shouldn't have the barrier to entry be, "Can I find space that's available?" There's a significant shortage and scarcity of lab space in Minnesota. For an early-stage life science company, they are stuck on where to begin.
What are some of your goals for UEL under your leadership? Right now, we are in the process of doing our strategic plan. The two main focus areas are to help grow the startups in the building by providing them access to resources and to increase our impact by creating an even more nimble space opportunity for early-stage life science startups.
