One step closer to a lifespan‐extension drug for dogs & Enterprise Sales Reality Check
Loyal’s STAY clinical trial is now fully enrolled with 1,300+ dogs across 72 vet clinics.
Solo Founder Spotlight - Celine Halioua (Loyal)
This milestone is huge. STAY — a double‑blinded, placebo‑controlled study — is a pivotal step toward developing what could become the first FDA‑approved lifespan‑extension drug for dogs. Loyal will track ~1,300 dogs over ~4 years, capturing millions of data points on biology, quality of life, disease, and lifespan.
This is also a win for solo founders everywhere. Every solo founder's success story expands what future solo founders believe is possible. Celine just pushed that boundary again.
Want to see what the solo path is really like? Read Celine’s reflection: faster decisions, no co‑founder drama, but it’s difficult to step away.
Congrats to Celine and the Loyal team! Give their update a quick like/retweet on X.
“The bar for early-stage enterprise sales is much higher than many founders realize.”
Blake Scholl, Founder & CEO of Boom Supersonic, shared a timely reminder that every enterprise introduction costs the referrer real social capital. So, before you ask, do your homework on the referrer and the person/company you’re asking for an intro to.
Scholl’s account of pursuing Virgin Atlantic demonstrates the level of preparation required to earn trust and land a high-stakes customer.
When I pursued Virgin…I’d read Richard Branson’s book. I’d studied the history of Virgin Atlantic. I knew what he cared about and what mattered to the airline. I showed up with a model of the Overture airplane beautifully painted in his favorite livery.
I loved our airplane model so much - it was the only one we had - that I didn’t gift it to him. Fortunately, I realized this was dumb, went back, found his EA, and got her to hand deliver it to him. Had I not, probably there would be no Virgin deal during the batch, and Boom likely would have died long ago.
As a reminder, warm introductions are the lifeblood of startups. A single introduction can change the trajectory of a business. Do your homework to ensure each one counts.
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Solo, together.
— Julian, Kieran, and the SFP team
