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Lessons Learned: David Perry, from Chemdex to Anacor

 
• By Roger Longman

Six years ago, David Perry was one of the rock stars of the Web, the founding CEO of Chemdex-Ventro. He stuck with it as the company unraveled, shutting down most of the businesses he'd built, and merging the remainder into what is now an OTC-traded software company. Now he's applying the lessons he learned to his current company, Anacor Pharmaceuticals, a start-up which has discovered a small handful of now clinical-stage compounds.

Six years ago, David Perry was one of the rock stars of the Web, the founding CEO of Chemdex-Ventro, one of the creators of the business-to-business e-marketplace concept. In just three years, he had built his company from scratch to 354 employees and an unaccountable $10 billion valuation. And then he stuck with it as the company unraveled, shutting down most of the businesses he'd built, and merging the remainder into what is now an OTC-traded software company.

But Perry didn't nurse his disappointment for very long. And he's thought long and hard about what happened at Chemdex,...

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