BioGenerator Ventures has invested more than $50 million in St. Louis startups, funds that have helped launch more than 130 biotech companies across the region. It’s an exciting milestone for McCarter, who believes St. Louis is entering a pivotal phase in its emergence as a biotech hub—much like where Boston and San Francisco were a generation ago. “St. Louis has two key strengths for building biotechnology companies,” he says. “One is that we have a tremendous wealth of research and development ideas and human capital. Second is that the cost of doing business here is substantially less than other centers.”
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2026 QUESTIONNAIRE
PROFESSIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS & OPPORTUNITIES
What has been your/your company’s most significant success over the past 12 months? BioGenerator Ventures just exceeded $50 million in invested capital in startup companies in St. Louis, helping to establish more than 130 biotech companies in the region.
What has you most excited about the future of your company or industry? We are in the formative stages of building a major biotechnology hub in St. Louis, similar to where biotech hubs like Boston and San Francisco were a generation ago.
If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be and why? The current funding environment for raising capital for life sciences startups outside of artificial intelligence is very challenging. Capital tends to be cyclical, and we are currently in a trough where very viable companies are struggling to attract the investment they need to survive.
What’s the toughest business challenge you’ve had to overcome? The current funding environment for raising capital for life sciences startups outside of artificial intelligence is challenging, and has been for the last several years. It tends to be cyclical, where there are times when there is readily available capital and then other times where capital is very tight and we’re currently in a trough of available capital. So we have very viable companies that are struggling to attract capital and stay viable to attract capital and stay viable. These are companies that, in many cases, are developing life-changing and life-saving innovations. They can’t get their innovations out to impact lives without the investment to grow.
What’s a risk you took in business that didn’t pan out—but taught you something valuable? After a major success with Virta Health, which developed a nationwide telemedicine approach to reversing type 2 diabetes, we tried to replicate the model with a new company at BioGenerator called Journeys Metabolic. While the scientific strategy was similar, the commercial strategy was different. Whereas Virta Health had a very clear value proposition to a self-insured employer, but taking that same kind of solution to health systems turned out to be a lot harder to sell. I learned a lot about the importance of the go-to-market strategy.
What advice would you give to the next generation of St. Louis entrepreneurs or leaders? My advice is to build a company, not around a technology in search of an application, but around a market need for a consumer. Always keep the end user or customer in mind—whether it’s a patient, a researcher, or another company.
MENTORS & PEERS
What is a key strength of the St. Louis metro area business environment? St. Louis has two key strengths for building biotechnology companies. One is that we have a tremendous wealth of research and development ideas and human capital. Second is that the cost of doing business here is substantially less than other centers, both in terms of the cost of establishing a research enterprise, the cost of employees and the cost of living.
What is one thing you would change about the St. Louis metro area business environment?
I think there’s the opportunity to be more entrepreneurial and more open to risk – taking in what we choose to invest in.. St Louis has substantial wealth that is deployed very conservatively. Moving a modest amount of that capital to investment in venture and startups could really move the needle in terms of building a new industry in the region. Many people don’t realize innovations from our region have had a big impact on the world, in both human health and food and agriculture. We’re sitting on a gold mine of talent and innovation. We need to be more bold about investing in it.
Who is the most interesting under-the-radar/emerging business leader in St. Louis? Matthew Cooper, PhD, chief scientific officer of Wugen. The company has raised more than $300 million and has a CAR-T therapy for T cell leukemia in pivotal trials. Matt has also announced plans for his next company, developing CAR-T therapies for solid tumors. He’s an incredible entrepreneur and scientist. BioSTL was an early investor in Wugen. Matt and his company are a testament to what can happen in our community when we support innovation.
Who in your company (or industry) deserves more recognition for their impact? Dave Smoller, Ph.D., one of BioSTL’s entrepreneurs-in-residence. He’s received less recognition because, rather than focusing on high profile biotechnology like therapeutics, he’s focused his career on research tools and services—“the picks and shovels” of the life sciences industry. He has built and sold four companies successfully in that area, including several with BioGenerator. Most recently, he is helping us launch Hypha Life Sciences, a new venture studio fund in collaboration with BioGenerator and Cultivation Capital, to build more research tools and services companies.
What’s a local organization, nonprofit, or initiative that more people should know about—and why? I may be biased, but BioSTL. For 25 years, BioSTL has been quietly building the life science innovation economy in St. Louis behind the scenes, without a lot of visibility and without a lot of hoopla.
BACKGROUND
Where were you born? Chicago, Illinois
What educational degrees do you hold, and where were they earned? I have a Bachelor in Biology from Princeton University, and both a medical degree and a Ph.D. in Developmental Biology from Washington University School of Medicine.
What was your first job, and what did you learn from it? My first job was after the summer of my freshman year in high school, working in a cornfield research plot developing an inbred line of corn for a company called DeKalb (now part of Bayer). That was a pretty typical summer job for most of the kids in my high school in rural Illinois. We either detasseled or pollinated corn. The main thing I learned from it is to embrace work hard.
HOBBIES & INTERESTS
What’s your hobby/passion? I’m passionate about science education, particularly providing opportunities for underrepresented groups to pursue scientific careers. In 1991 I co-founded the Young Scientist Program at WashU. In the program, graduate students at the university do outreach in the St Louis City Public Schools teaching courses on everything from genetics to neuroscience, and then also provide summer internships for students. Over 500 students have come through the summer program learning how to do scientific research, many of whom have gone on to careers as research scientists.
What is one book you think everyone should read (or podcast everyone should listen to) and why? One of the areas that I like to listen to are histories. I recommend 1491 by Charles Mann. It takes a close look at the Americas before Columbus and highlights the extent of Native American civilizations and how they were impacted by European arrival—something many people don’t fully appreciate. For a podcast, I will recommend a new one that we’ve started here at BioGenerator, Innovators Hour. Every month, I interview a company founder or leader from the St. Louis startup community and we release recordings of the interviews monthly. It’s a great way to learn more about the St. Louis bioscience startup community.
What do you do when you’re feeling stuck or uninspired? The key thing for me for staying inspired is exercising almost every day. I rowed in college and played soccer and basketball in high school, and now I run, row, swim, and lift weights. I find that daily exercise keeps me level-headed.
What would people be surprised to learn about you (fun fact)? Most people don’t know that our family has a 90-acre farm. I can’t take credit for that. That’s really driven by my wife, but I try to help out with doing the farm finances, as well as helping to set up and take down for the farmers’ market.
