Hitherto in the shadows like his three sisters, the spotlight is now shining on Reed Jobs, the 31-year-old son of Steve Jobs and Laurene Powell. The couple’s second son has announced that he will lead a venture capital firm with the goal of financing new cancer treatments.
In the New York Times‘ DealBook newsletter, Reed Jobs spoke about Yosemite, the company’s name chosen in homage to the national park where his parents got married. He explained that the start has been exciting thanks to the $200 million raised from several prestigious institutions and influential people in the tech world. Funding for Jobs’ plans has included Rockefeller University, MIT, a serial investor in technology startups John Doerr, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, one of the best-known and most crucial cancer treatments research centres in the US.
A life in medicine
The focus on the medical field was the most logical choice for Jobs, who already had to approach medicine at the age of 12 when he was informed of his father’s cancer diagnosis. Three years later, the boy attended a summer internship at Stanford, taking his first steps towards oncology. In 2011, Reed was 20 years old and studying to become a doctor, a path that was interrupted after his father died on 5 October of that year. At that point, the young man decided to major in history, delving into the evolution of nuclear weapons with a master’s degree.
After completing his studies, Reed chose to join his mother in leading Emerson Collective. This limited liability company uses philanthropy, impact investing, advocacy, and community engagement to drive change in the United States and abroad. Founded in 2004, it is active with plans and initiatives in various sectors: education, immigration reform, environment, media and health.
What Yosemite will do regarding cancer treatments
From 2015 to recent months, Reed Jobs was Managing Director of Emerson Collective’s health sector, working with entrepreneurs, researchers and patients to accelerate cancer research, investing in companies and funding labs and researchers. Yosemite will continue this path but act independently, focusing on a business model that looks in two directions. On the one hand, the corporation will run a for-profit business, relying on Emerson Collective’s connection, experience and knowledge in medical and oncology research and trends. On the other hand, a fund will collect donations from private individuals to support scientists in their studies. The teams that receive the funding will have no strings attached, but to commercialise research and products. Instead they will find in Yosemite, a partner from whom they can obtain money and expertise.
In Jobs’ view, this model is winning because it promotes innovation and ensures the new company’s presence in any successful projects intended for the public.
As it has only come into being, the treatments Yosemite will finance are not known at the moment. Which, although unexpected, is the first creature in the hands of Reed Jobs. “I had never ever wanted to be a venture capitalist. But I realised that when you are actually incubating something and putting it together, you can make a tremendous difference in what assets are part of that, what direction it’s going to take, and what the scientific focus is going to be,” Jobs said.
He and Yosemite will need time to analyse the proposals and decide where to invest. Avoiding mistakes is, as always, a priority. However, according to Forbes, Laurene Powell Jobs, his mother, has a fortune of $13.5 billion, inherited from Apple and Disney, shares owned by her late husband.
