Chuck Donnelly's guest appearances

Chuck Donnelly

Angel Invest Boston

Maine Science Podcast

David Chang

Brad Feld

Jason Calacanis

Jeff Coyle

Catherine White

Johnny Appleseed

Ed Roberts

Semyon Dukach

Jeff Arnold

David Ciccarelli

Howard Stevenson

Jay Shah

Mike Singer

Hall Martin

Chris Selland

OwlTail

Chuck Donnelly started RockStep Solutions in 2014, which grew out of his work at The Jackson Laboratory where he was director of computational sciences. At RockStep, Chuck and his team have developed an information systems product that helps biomedical researchers with their research. Chuck presented at the 2016 Maine Science Festival; you can get in touch with Chuck on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter.-----In other MSF news: after having had to cancel the Maine Science Festival for 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are happy to share that planning has begun for 2022. We are excited to announce that the world premiere of the MSF-commissioned symphonic piece, The Warming Sea will be performed by the Bangor Symphony Orchestra on March 19, 2022. The Warming Sea, written by GRAMMY award-winning composer, Lucas Richman, is a symphonic exploration of hope in the face of climate change.A vital part of this project were the interviews between Lucas and those who have direct knowledge of climate change in the Gulf of Maine - including some people who've been featured on this podcast (Deborah Bronk, Scarlet Tudor, and Heather Hamlin). Lucas met with scientists and experts in the summer and fall of 2019, as well as middle school students throughout the state. These interviews and conversations provided the foundation for The Warming Sea. Further details about the headliner event will be released this fall.To help support this event, we have collaborated with Sea Bags for a limited edition The Warming Sea Sea Bag. Each bag will be numbered and include a score of The Warming Sea’s concluding anthem, “Hope Begins With Truth,” signed by Lucas. Only 150 bags are available.We are taking orders until May 25, 2021; bags will be shipped out by mid/late June. All proceeds will support both the March 19, 2022 world premiere event AND the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine. You can purchase yours at https://bit.ly/MSF-TWS-SB. ~~~~~~~The Maine Science Podcast is a production of the Maine Science Festival. It was recorded at Discovery Studios, at the Maine Discovery Museum, in Bangor, ME. Edited and produced by Kate Dickerson; production support by Maranda Bouchard and social media support from Next Media. The Discover Maine theme was composed and performed by Nick Parker. Support provided by Maine Technology Institute. Find us online:Website - Maine Science FestivalMaine Science Festival on social media: FacebookTwitterInstagramMaine Science Podcast on social media: FacebookTwitterInstagramcontact us: podcast@mainesciencefestival.org© 2021 Maine Science Festival

<a href="https://www.rockstepsolutions.com/company/about/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chuck Donnelly</a> started <a href="https://www.rockstepsolutions.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">RockStep Solutions</a> in 2014, which grew out of his work at The Jackson Laboratory where he was director of computational sciences. At RockStep, Chuck and his team have developed an information systems product that helps biomedical researchers with their research. Chuck presented at the 2016 Maine Science Festival; you can get in touch with Chuck on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuck-donnelly-ba530243/ " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> and follow him on <a href="https://twitter.com/chuckrockstep" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.-----In other MSF news: after having had to cancel the Maine Science Festival for 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are happy to share that planning has begun for 2022.  We are excited to announce that the world premiere of the MSF-commissioned symphonic piece, The Warming Sea will be performed by the Bangor Symphony Orchestra on March 19, 2022. <a href="https://www.thewarmingsea.me/about" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Warming Sea</a>, written by GRAMMY award-winning composer, Lucas Richman, is a symphonic exploration of hope in the face of climate change. A vital part of this project were the interviews between Lucas and those who have direct knowledge of climate change in the Gulf of Maine - including some people who've been featured on this podcast (<a href="https://maine-science-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/deborah-bronk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Deborah Bronk</a>, <a href="https://maine-science-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/scarlet-tudor" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Scarlet Tudor</a>, and <a href="https://maine-science-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes/heather-hamlin" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Heather Hamlin</a>). Lucas met with scientists and experts in the summer and fall of 2019, as well as middle school students throughout the state. These interviews and conversations provided the foundation for The Warming Sea. Further details about the headliner event will be released this fall. To help support this event, we have collaborated with Sea Bags for a limited edition The Warming Sea Sea Bag. Each bag will be numbered and include a score of The Warming Sea’s concluding anthem, “Hope Begins With Truth,” signed by Lucas. Only 150 bags are available. We are taking orders until May 25, 2021; bags will be shipped out by mid/late June. All proceeds will support both the March 19, 2022 world premiere event AND the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine. You can purchase yours at <a href="https://bit.ly/MSF-TWS-SB" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://bit.ly/MSF-TWS-SB</a>. ~~~~~~~The Maine Science Podcast is a production of the Maine Science Festival. It was recorded at Discovery Studios, at the Maine Discovery Museum, in Bangor, ME. Edited and produced by Kate Dickerson; production support by Maranda Bouchard and social media support from Next Media. The Discover Maine theme was composed and performed by Nick Parker. Support provided by <a href="https://www.mainetechnology.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Maine Technology Institute</a>. Find us online:Website -<a href="http://www.mainesciencefestival.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Maine Science Festival</a>Maine Science Festival on social media: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/mainesciencefestival" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Facebook</a><a href="http://www.twitter.com/MEScienceFest" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/mainesciencefestival/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Instagram</a>Maine Science Podcast on social media: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/mainesciencefestival" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Facebook</a><a href="https://twitter.com/MaineSciencePod" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/mainesciencepod/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Instagram</a>contact us: podcast@mainesciencefestival.org© 2021 Maine Science Festival

Chuck Donnelly (information technology)

Julie Morrison

Join Sal Daher's Investment Syndicate List: Click to Join RockStep Solutions improves efficiency by 70% according to one client. This is why the startup is getting word of mouth traffic from clients running in vivo drug trials. Founders Chuck Donnelly and Julie Morrison tell their story and share valuable wisdom about this intersection of software and bio. Highlights include:  Sal Daher Introduces Chuck Donnelly and Julie Morrison, the Founders of RockStep Solutions RockStep Provides a SaaS Solution for a Sector of the Drug Discovery Space That Is Poorly Served by Existing Vendors “The problem that we're solving is data chaos in drug discovery.” “…we have one of our customers that's projecting a 70% efficiency gain.” “We bring value to the pharmaceutical companies by speeding up that pipeline, reducing the number of errors that happen.” “While I was at Jackson Lab… We recognized that there was this gap, if you will, that we just talked about. The NIH actually funded us.” “One full day of my work week was designed to take all my data out of paper and put it into Excel even.” "But they don't actually have any money." I said, "I'm not sure it matters at this point because I'm so passionate about the problem they're solving." “I can tell you that these equity-only deals work very rarely…” On co-founders: “You have to be aligned on your personal values because this is a marriage. In very many ways it's similar.” “There's no question, your family is part of this company. You will not have a work-life balance.” “Ultimately, if we don't get the pricing right, we're not going to succeed. You have to get your pricing right.” “…they're just academic customers paying, I think our cheapest is $50 a user. Right now, in industry we're getting $1,800 per user. That's how different our pricing has scaled up.” “We spent about a year and a half, two years, perfecting the product that we have out in our biopharmas today.” “After a year and a half of doing that, we ended up with a product that is totally, uniquely positioned in the market…” “…if she had gone in thinking that she already knew it and she just was trying to validate it, she would be coming in with her own biases, almost telling the people, "This is how it should be done."” “If you have a toxic person or persons in the company, that goes through the entire company. You cannot; it will kill your company.” “…a hire that almost tore the company apart, to be honest. It was a salesperson forced on us by an investment firm.” “...we can teach anyone anything for the most part…But you can't really change someone's culture or their personality, their willingness to dig in.” “First thing is that it takes a lot longer to raise capital than you might think. The other thing is that you're going to probably need more money than you think.” Deep Wisdom on Grants: “All told we got three grants, total of 1.85 million… from the NIH. That was all great non-dilutive funding and life is good. But I would caution anybody who wants to continue living off of grants, don't do it.” “We could have written another grant, but it's not going to be a market-driven product anymore, it's going to be a grant-driven product.” “The market still needs to stop using paper and spreadsheets.” “…it's hard. I spend a lot of my time raising money.” “…our sweet spot really is the small, mid, to large biotech and global pharmaceutical companies.” “…it feels good when you start seeing people coming to you on word of mouth.” “…there are fires burning every day. It's overwhelming. The big mistake you can make is just trying to put every fire out because you're not going to make any progress.” “…don't do it unless you're ready. This is the hardest thing you will ever do.” “…manage burnout. Burnout is very real.” “I would say another really important tip is you can't do this alone.” 

Join Sal Daher's Investment Syndicate List: <a href="https://www.angelinvestboston.com/our-syndicates" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Click to Join</a> RockStep Solutions improves efficiency by 70% according to one client. This is why the startup is getting word of mouth traffic from clients running in vivo drug trials. Founders Chuck Donnelly and Julie Morrison tell their story and share valuable wisdom about this intersection of software and bio. Highlights include: <ul> <li>Sal Daher Introduces Chuck Donnelly and Julie Morrison, the Founders of RockStep Solutions</li> <li>RockStep Provides a SaaS Solution for a Sector of the Drug Discovery Space That Is Poorly Served by Existing Vendors</li> <li>“The problem that we're solving is data chaos in drug discovery.”</li> <li>“…we have one of our customers that's projecting a 70% efficiency gain.”</li> <li>“We bring value to the pharmaceutical companies by speeding up that pipeline, reducing the number of errors that happen.”</li> <li>“While I was at Jackson Lab… We recognized that there was this gap, if you will, that we just talked about. The NIH actually funded us.”</li> <li>“One full day of my work week was designed to take all my data out of paper and put it into Excel even.”</li> <li>"But they don't actually have any money." I said, "I'm not sure it matters at this point because I'm so passionate about the problem they're solving."</li> <li>“I can tell you that these equity-only deals work very rarely…”</li> <li>On co-founders: “You have to be aligned on your personal values because this is a marriage. In very many ways it's similar.”</li> <li>“There's no question, your family is part of this company. You will not have a work-life balance.”</li> <li>“Ultimately, if we don't get the pricing right, we're not going to succeed. You have to get your pricing right.”</li> <li>“…they're just academic customers paying, I think our cheapest is $50 a user. Right now, in industry we're getting $1,800 per user. That's how different our pricing has scaled up.”</li> <li>“We spent about a year and a half, two years, perfecting the product that we have out in our biopharmas today.”</li> <li>“After a year and a half of doing that, we ended up with a product that is totally, uniquely positioned in the market…”</li> <li>“…if she had gone in thinking that she already knew it and she just was trying to validate it, she would be coming in with her own biases, almost telling the people, "This is how it should be done."”</li> <li>“If you have a toxic person or persons in the company, that goes through the entire company. You cannot; it will kill your company.”</li> <li>“…a hire that almost tore the company apart, to be honest. It was a salesperson forced on us by an investment firm.”</li> <li>“...we can teach anyone anything for the most part…But you can't really change someone's culture or their personality, their willingness to dig in.”</li> <li>“First thing is that it takes a lot longer to raise capital than you might think. The other thing is that you're going to probably need more money than you think.”</li> <li>Deep Wisdom on Grants: “All told we got three grants, total of 1.85 million… from the NIH. That was all great non-dilutive funding and life is good. But I would caution anybody who wants to continue living off of grants, don't do it.”</li> <li>“We could have written another grant, but it's not going to be a market-driven product anymore, it's going to be a grant-driven product.”</li> <li>“The market still needs to stop using paper and spreadsheets.”</li> <li>“…it's hard. I spend a lot of my time raising money.”</li> <li>“…our sweet spot really is the small, mid, to large biotech and global pharmaceutical companies.”</li> <li>“…it feels good when you start seeing people coming to you on word of mouth.”</li> <li>“…there are fires burning every day. It's overwhelming. The big mistake you can make is just trying to put every fire out because you're not going to make any progress.”</li> <li>“…don't do it unless you're ready. This is the hardest thing you will ever do.”</li> <li>“…manage burnout. Burnout is very real.”</li> <li>“I would say another really important tip is you can't do this alone.”</li> </ul>

Chuck Donnelly and Julie Morrison - SaaS for Pre-Clinical Trials