Latterell Thinking: Ken Widder, Latterell Venture Partners’ Man in San Diego, on Early Stage Life Sciences Investing

in San Diego’s Evoke Pharma, Femta Pharmaceuticals, and Meritage Pharma. He also moved onto the board of Luminous Medical, replacing Laterell partner Steve Salmon at the Carlsbad, CA-based company developing continuous blood sugar monitoring technology. He tells me he also discussed Latterell’s decision to invest in Seattle’s HemaQuest and Calistoga Pharmaceuticals, recent deals that were led by Latterell partner Jim Woody, who now sits on those boards.

“It’s been a great deal for the firm,” Widder says. “My office is in San Francisco, and I go up once a week for partner’s meetings. I look for deals whether they are in San Diego or elsewhere.” While there is a West Coast tilt to the firm’s venture investments, Widder says, “We aren’t geographically constrained. It’s just a matter of practicality.”

I met Widder for coffee recently; our discussion was prompted by Latterell’s participation in a $6 million investment round (joined by Domain Associates and Windamere Venture Partners) in Evoke Pharma, which is developing drugs for gastrointestinal diseases. In our wide-ranging conversation, I gleaned these highlights:

—Latterell, which is currently making investments from its third fund, has about $350 million under management. While the firm invests generally in a variety of biotech, biomaterial, diagnostic, and device companies, Widder says about half of each fund gets invested in drug development startups and the other half in medical devices. “We’re early stage investors,” Widder says. “Generally we lead or co-lead our deals. The vast preponderance of our deals are Series A rounds.” Latterell’s investments in Calistoga and HemaQuest, though, were later-stage deals. “We’re looking for exciting technologies that serve unmet medical needs, or that stand out as best-in-class drugs,” Widder says.

—Even though Latterell is focused on making early stage life sciences investments, Widder says the firm follows a traditional venture model. With just five partners, Latterell doesn’t usually take management positions in the companies it helps create. “We’re active board members,” Widder says. “I have extensive operating experience and we bring a lot of practical talent to our companies, but we don’t take active management roles.”

—At a time when many seed-stage biotechs are turning to

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3

Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.