Philippe Willi

Building TSG · Funding research on MDM2/CDK4-amplified sarcomas ·

[Philippe Willi @philippewilli]

2019: Cold email to Mark Leonard ($CSU).
Expectation: No reply.
Reality: Dinner invitation in Zurich.
What I learned:
→ “Perpetual Owner” isn’t marketing fluff
→ Decentralization scales with company maturity
→ Patience is the #1 M&A virtue
Full story in my LI newsletter 👇

[Philippe Willi @philippewilli]

@YannickBuccella Does the regulatory framework matter? In Switzerland it seems to me that we are very strict in comparison to the U.S and Germany.

[Paul Bonnet @PaulBonnet]

Anthropic files for IPO. But who is poised to get the 💰? My usual breakdown below 👇

Investors will be sharing nearly $1 TRILLION of proceeds on ~$142b invested. A ~6.5x blended multiple on a huge amount of capital, in just 5 years. 🤯

Note: all those numbers assume a $1.5 trillion IPO valuation.

So let’s dive in 🔎

1) The craziest fact: no VC in the Series A or Series B 🤯

The $124m Series A in May-21 was led by Jaan Tallinn (Skype’s co-founder), with Dustin Moskovitz and Eric Schmidt. It is likely to return ~345x the original capital, or ~$43b to those early angels. Mind-boggling.

The $982m Series B in 2022 was led by... SBF and FTX: it will return ~79x the capital invested. FTX’s $500m would be worth ~$39b today.

Plot twist: the estate sold it for ~$1.3b in 2024, in one of the worst trades ever.

2) The first VCs in: Spark and Menlo are killing it 🏆

Spark will make over $10b from its Anthropic investments.

They first came into the 2023 Series C and are making ~79x their investment in that round. They followed in every single round since, investing $777m in total, now worth ~$11b.

Menlo led the Jan-24 Series D and will make ~30x its money on that round. And finally, Lightspeed’s Series E lead will make ~16x in 18 months.

3) The real winners in $ terms: the strategics 💰

Amazon put a grand total of ~$18b in, mostly via convertible notes converting at ~$2 a share, against $58.90 for the Series H investors.

That gives Amazon ~21% of the company, worth ~$310b. That’s ~17x its investment. 💵

Google is not that far behind: its notes and the $10b it put in this April alone will be worth ~$83b.

And that’s before the compute: Anthropic has committed $110b+ to AWS and $111b to Google Cloud. They are both investors and suppliers, so they win twice.

4) Founders and team: incredible outcome, and giving most of it away 🙏

The seven co-founders hold ~240m shares each. That’s ~$21b per person, or ~$150b combined. 👏

And each of them has pledged 80% of it to philanthropy. So ~$120b will be going to good causes. On top of that, Anthropic put 5% of the company (~$75b) into its own Public Benefit Fund.

And the IPO will mint a huge number of UHNW in the team: they will share ~$355b worth of shares, options and RSUs. Perhaps the biggest and fastest employee wealth creation event in history.

Congrats to Dario, Daniela and everyone involved. Legendary. 👏

[Philippe Willi @philippewilli]

What AI can do with data patients already own: a patient in the @Intimasarcoma registry exported his own PET/CT DICOM files – the standard files every hospital hands out on request – and had Claude build these 3D models of a pulmonary artery sarcoma, before and after surgery at @Unispital_USZ . Nothing drawn, all scan data.

[Intimasarcoma @Intimasarcoma]

1/ What an intimal sarcoma looks like – and what it takes to take one out. Two 3D models from one patient’s own PET/CT scans, Feb and Aug 2026. Registry case IS-001, a man in his early forties. Built with Claude from his DICOM files – nothing drawn, everything from scan data.

[Intimasarcoma @Intimasarcoma]

1/ What an intimal sarcoma looks like – and what it takes to take one out. Two 3D models from one patient’s own PET/CT scans, Feb and Aug 2026. Registry case IS-001, a man in his early forties. Built with Claude from his DICOM files – nothing drawn, everything from scan data.

[Philippe Willi @philippewilli]

@kevinace thanks for sharing - in Europe it feels that we are behind the US when it comes to running tests.

[Philippe Willi @philippewilli]

@Zygomatic03 don`t forget ultra rare cancers like sarcomas, which are very rare

[Philippe Willi @philippewilli]

296 published intimal sarcoma patients.

- Mitotic count reported in 5 %
- PD-L1 in 5 %
- TP53 in 3 %.

We thought this was a reporting problem. It isn’t. Our own registry: nine patients, all sharing everything they have.

- Mitotic count 1 of 9
- PD-L1 1 of 9. TP53 1 of 9
- MDM2 amplification confirmed by FISH or sequencing: 2 of 9 – the hallmark lesion of this tumour.

The data doesn’t exist because the tests were never run. The tissue exists. It sits in paraffin blocks in pathology archives and will never be touched again.

So here is the ask. If you have treated an intimal sarcoma patient: we want the FFPE block. We pay for the molecular work-up at a sarcoma centre. The patient gets the result. The registry gets structured data.

[email protected]

[Philippe Willi @philippewilli]

Wieso schaffen wir in der Schweiz nicht ein sauberes elektronisches Patientendossier? Woran fehlt es? Am politischen Willen?

[Philippe Willi @philippewilli]

@ITUSsociety this would be a great addition to our case registry on https://t.co/ly2xHhoUed - any chance to share this as a case study?

[Philippe Willi @philippewilli]

@YannickBuccella lets do it - if you are based in Zurich - always happy to invite you for a coffee. Thanks for the great work you do!

[Philippe Willi @philippewilli]

@HemeOncBuddy don`t forget intimal sarcoma which is also MDM2/CDK4 amplified but ultra rare, I did start a patient initiative https://t.co/ABs0Z4xMq5

[Philippe Willi @philippewilli]

@miriamgonp Super cool - how do you look at the regulatory framework once you would get access to a vaccine, can you do this in Spain or has it to be in U.S? Was the biopsy done at USZ in Zurich?

[Philippe Willi @philippewilli]

@YannickBuccella well said and in a case of ultra rare cancers, a 2nd opinion is needed in my view. For ultra rare cancers we need different approaches. I did start a patient initiative for intimal sarcomas (https://t.co/ly2xHhoUed) to help patients to navigate.

[Philippe Willi @philippewilli]

@kevinace this is very cool, I would hope that we get something like this as well in Switzerland

[Philippe Willi @philippewilli]

Thanks - sorry exclusion criteria from a n=1 perspective, in order to make the right decision. I thought with a low amount of neo-antigens the probability of success drops. I guess the regulatory framework is an exclusion criteria in itsself. Switzerland for example is very strict. Germany more open and the U.S. very open.

[Philippe Willi @philippewilli]

@HansMaulwurf51 @kevinace @BioNTech_Group Hans it would be great to exchange notes

[Philippe Willi @philippewilli]

I was recently interviewed about my ups and downs with TSG, I am after more than 10 years motivated to continue to learn every day - https://t.co/NRQcftgBVx