Shared expertise paves the way to success.

What is an Entrepreneur in Residence?
An Entrepreneur in Residence is typically a successful entrepreneur who leads efforts to grow promising businesses and nurtures other entrepreneurs and innovators. They can be found in institutions, venture capital funds, or trade groups. At RI Bio, our EIR works alongside us to develop the life sciences sector in the Ocean State, offering RI start-ups valuable hands-on experience in how to launch and grow.

Who is the RI Bio EIR?
John (Jay) Round, a successful serial entrepreneur who has shared his expertise to help hundreds of others launch and grow.

How does an EIR help RI Bio members?
Jay helps members better understand regulatory issues, technology transfer and funding streams as well as how to connect and collaborate with academic partners. As a benefit of membership, he offers free consulting and advisory services through office hours at our Providence office at CIC. Our EIR Technical Service Suite helps life science companies in a variety of ways including, but not limited to:

  • Patent Analysis – Ensure a patent technology is unique and viable before a cash-strapped start-up spends up to $10,000 prosecuting it.
  • Identifying Lead Sources of Capital – It’s important that a start-up match their technology to the right investor in terms of market and investment scale.
  • Market vs. Tech Review – Most start-ups are challenged by either accessing the market or developing the technology; ideally one is not challenged by both.
  • Responsible IP advancement – A start-up should be careful not to invest too heavily in protecting a technology that will not work or a patent that’s value cannot be readily realized. RI Bio can help identify the “killer” experiments, both technical and market related, that justify pursuing patent protection.
  • R/Non-Dilutive Guidance – RI Bio can help navigate and secure governmental grant opportunities. We can help identify achievable, interesting specific aims and milestones that will merit funding when presented to an SBIR/Non-Dilutive panel.

“My goal is to help Rhode Island start-ups succeed early and often by guiding them in the best use of resources at the academic and state level. Many good and valuable technologies never reach the market; not because they don’t work, but because they didn’t work soon enough. I’m here to help identify and make immediate, valuable connections to stimulate business growth for start-ups.”

– Jay Round

John Round, MBA

John Round, MBA

Entrepreneur in Residence

Jay is an experienced MBA/MS in business and research program development with a successful track record in the biotechnology, medical device, agtech and pharmaceutical industries. Jay’s professional skills include venture capital, market valuation modeling, partnering, intellectual property, search and evaluation, strategy, cell therapy, microbiome, drug delivery, P&L, market valuation and entrepreneurship. Early in his career, Jay was a founding member of Indigo, an agricultural microbiome startup in Cambridge, MA. He also served as Director on the Founding Team of Rubius Therapeutics and was a VentureLabs Associate for Flagship Ventures. Additionally, Jay was the Director of Science Operations at Codiak Biosciences and Vice President at Aleo BME. He also held positions at Biogen Idec, the office of Technology Management at the University of Pittsburgh and was a Fulbright Fellow in India for the U.S. Department of State.