Third Rock Ventures was founded in 2007 by Mark Levin, Kevin Starr, and Robert Tepper, three former Millennium Pharmaceuticals executives who met discussing how big pharma and traditional VCs had abandoned early-stage drug discovery, and decided to build the disruptive-biotech supplier that didn't yet exist. Rather than fund fully-formed startups, Third Rock runs a distinctive 'Discover-Launch-Build-Transform' model: the team tours academic research facilities, workshops breakthrough science with scientists for one to three years, and then constructs companies from scratch around it, defining the structure, vision, and leadership before the company even launches. That company-creation-first approach raised a $378 million debut fund within ten weeks of launching and has since produced more than 60 companies including Bluebird Bio, Agios Pharmaceuticals, Foundation Medicine, Sage Therapeutics, and Editas Medicine, with $3.8 billion raised since inception.
Bluebird Bio's public listing - one of the category-defining gene and cell therapy companies Third Rock built from early scientific concept through IPO, alongside Agios Pharmaceuticals and Foundation Medicine