Transcript

Speaker 1

Once I had decided that this notion of building a company was what I wanted to do, I decided to sort of figure out how I could get my hands on some money. And there was a neurology professor of mine, Frank Petito, and everybody knew Frank Petito came from people who were in the business world. He was associated with that. And it turns out his father had been for a short while, chairman of the board of Morgan Stanley. So I went to Frank, I said, "Frank, I'm starting up this venture. Can you put me in touch with some people who might be able to be helpful?" And that sent me down a number of paths. I think he was the one who actually introduced me to George Sing, he also seemed a bit unique as I got to meet him and he was working for a firm called Merrill Lynch Ventures.

I got to meet George and he struck me as a guy who actually did want to build something, who respected science, who really would let us run, who respected the fact that we had really smart people we were trying to bring around. And wasn't trying to be like a super ego venture capitalist like you find today, who think they know more about the science than anybody else, and they're going to decide what you work on. They're going to tell you how to do it. He wasn't that type of a guy. He was a very, very creative, helpful on the business side, super helpful and helping me understand some of these things. And he and I finally went to a Chinese restaurant and we literally scratched out a deal on the terms that he'd give me a million dollars on the back of a napkin, which he, I think still has, or maybe I've got it. It somewhere has to be had. We literally scratched out on the back of a napkin and on a handshake and he lived up to it and he gave us a million bucks to start the company.