Pharma Videos

Investing In Early-Stage Oncology With Yosemite's Dan McHugh

The Business of Biotech episode spotlights Dan McHugh, head of the investment team at Yosemite, a San Francisco‑based venture firm founded by Reed Jobs and Loren Powell Jobs. Yosemite’s mandate is to fund early‑stage cancer‑therapeutics developers, leveraging a mission‑driven capital pool that grew out of the Emerson Collective family office. McHugh traces his path from a bioengineering degree and a Stanford master’s in management science to a stint at Bane & Company and a decade at Emerson Collective, where he helped build a for‑profit oncology strategy alongside Reed Jobs. The spin‑out to Yosemite retained the same core team—just over a dozen people—and continues to debate scope, from pure drug platforms to adjacent device technologies, while staying tightly focused on oncology. A vivid anecdote illustrates the firm’s hands‑on approach: McHugh stepped in as interim CEO of Toune Therapeutics in 2024, guiding the company through its first IND filing for an epigenetic‑editing modality. He cites Reed Jobs’s personal motivation—his father’s death from pancreatic cancer—as a catalyst for the oncology focus, and recalls their shared fencing background as the origin of their partnership. The conversation underscores how mission‑aligned capital, combined with operational experience, can de‑risk early‑stage biotech bets and accelerate translational breakthroughs. For investors, Yosemite’s model demonstrates the value of deep scientific fluency, disciplined debate over technology boundaries, and a willingness to roll up sleeves when portfolio companies need leadership.