Rob Williamson

Rob Williamson is the founder and chief executive of Traverse Therapeutics, an early-stage, stealth biotechnology company developing a platform for targeted drug delivery across the blood-brain barrier. At the seed and pre-seed stage, the company pairs proprietary biology with artificial intelligence, drawing on insights from its co-founder, Andrew Yang, to move therapeutics across a barrier that has long limited the treatment of neurological disease.

A serial biotechnology entrepreneur, Williamson has spent more than two decades building life-sciences companies and bringing drugs toward the market. His leadership roles include president and chief executive of the protein-degradation company BioTheryX, where he raised a $100 million crossover financing and prepared it for a public offering; chief business and chief financial officer of the oncolytic-virus company OncoMyx Therapeutics; and acting president and chief executive of Triumvira Immunologics, a developer of engineered T-cell therapies. He also serves on the board of a publicly traded radio-oncology company.

Williamson appeared on Open Door Salon alongside Mike Goguen, founder and managing partner of Two Bear Capital, for a conversation on biotech investing, artificial intelligence in drug discovery, and why the most durable companies are often built in the most difficult markets. Williamson brought the founder’s and operator’s perspective, describing how his own company splits its work evenly between proprietary biology and an AI engine, and arguing that the way drug developers interact with computational tools is about to change fundamentally.