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Tony Kulesa
Partner at Pillar VC
Tony Kulesa is a Partner at Pillar VC, a venture capital firm based in the Greater Boston area.13 He was promoted to this position in May 2024, along with Parker McKee and Thomas de Vlaam.23 Kulesa has a strong background in biomedical engineering and extensive experience in the life sciences sector.1
Career Highlights
- Partner at Pillar VC (2021 - Present): Kulesa invests in seed-stage companies, supporting founders with capital, connections, coaching, and peer support.13
- Co-Founder of Petri (2019): He co-founded Petri, an accelerator for early-stage bioengineering companies.1
- MIT Experience: Prior to joining Pillar VC, Kulesa was an Instructor and BioMakerspace Director at MIT (2018-2019), where he created a new BL2 laboratory space for student-driven projects in life sciences.15
Education and Research
- PhD from MIT: Kulesa completed his doctorate in Biological Engineering at MIT, where his research focused on drug discovery and microbial ecology.5
- Bachelor's Degree: He holds a Bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering with additional majors in Math and Chinese from Rutgers University.5
Entrepreneurship and Investment
Kulesa's mission is to help more scientists become founders.3 He has been instrumental in developing the Founder-Led Biotech Summit, which has attracted nearly 4,500 scientists and founders globally.3 As an investor at Pillar VC, his investment range is typically between $100K and $3.0M, with a sweet spot of $1M.4
Tony Kulesa brings a unique combination of scientific expertise, entrepreneurial experience, and investment acumen to his role at Pillar VC, focusing on supporting and nurturing biotech startups and founder-led initiatives in the life sciences sector.3
Highlights
Frequency is back for Summer 2024. Apply by July 2 at: https://lnkd.in/eqitYcun
If you are interested in starting biotech companies, this is a 1 week, part time, crash course experience in all aspects of early stage company building.
Alumni have started leading companies + joined top VC firms worldwide.
The course will run Aug 5-9.
Join a global community of builders. Hear from alumni that are now building incredible companies. Meet a co-founder, strengthen a thesis, or find an application for a technology.
Apply by July 2. https://lnkd.in/eqitYcun
📢 The 2023 Founder-led Biotech Tour
In November, we're teaming up with 50+ founders to bring the community together in four cities.
SF: 11/2 Boston: 11/7 NYC: 11/9 London: 11/13
- virtual events including co-founder matching, speed networking, and more.
Sign up here: founderledbio.com
Rewind to 2021: From revolutionizing healthcare to protecting our planet, biotech is our hope. But the rate of biotech startup creation? Stagnant. Founders are the catalyst.
https://lnkd.in/gQQcMHFi
Since then, the community has exploded.
This year we asked 50+ founders to co-host with us. They are trailblazers. Each are inspiring many more new founders behind them. Together, they have raised $2B+ for incredible new technologies. And all just in the past few years. MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED.
If you can't make it in person, join our virtual events, all throughout November:
- Co-founder matching
- Speed networking And more to come.
If you’d like to get involved, reach out!
