Wyatt McDonnell recruited his entire founding team from his former employer, 10x Genomics. While they hadn't worked closely together, he targeted individuals who were highly respected for their specific contributions and ability to think robustly, prioritizing proven competence over prior direct working relationships.
Wyatt McDonnell argues that a CEO's success in convincing talented people to join a risky startup is a crucial early validation. This act of "selling the vision" to co-founders is the same skill required to recruit employees and persuade investors, making it a powerful signal of future success.
The Infinimmune team built their core technology in six months, far ahead of their 18-24 month projection. This unexpected success created a "white space" that forced them to immediately grapple with later-stage challenges like target selection, market analysis, and partnership strategy, accelerating their evolution into a more mature company.
Infinimmune intentionally built a diverse investor base including tech-bio funds, traditional biotech VCs, and corporate venture arms like Merck and Regeneron. This diversity fosters a more "fulsome conversation" in the boardroom, allowing the company to analyze opportunities and challenges from multiple, complementary perspectives.
Wyatt McDonnell identifies stubbornness and a high degree of curiosity as critical for founders. He believes founders must hold strong convictions to push through adversity, yet remain curious and open enough to change their minds quickly in response to new evidence, striking a balance between unwavering belief and adaptability.
Instead of relying on warm introductions, Wyatt McDonnell identified his ideal investors by researching who wrote the first checks into companies he admired. He then created a short list and conducted direct cold outreach, a strategy that quickly led to a match with their first investors.
Despite having a powerful discovery platform, Infinimmune deliberately avoided becoming a service company. The founders believed their unique ability to connect human antibody biology directly to potential assets gave them a competitive advantage in drug development that few other companies could replicate, making therapeutics the highest-impact path.