# J. Seth Strattan

> J. Seth Strattan, PhD is a General Partner at Two Bear Capital, a Whitefish, Montana-based venture capital firm investing at the crossroads of life sciences and technology. With a PhD in Structural Biology and a BA in Philosophy from Stanford University, Strattan spent years at Stanford building and leading the engineering and data science teams behind landmark genomics consortia - ENCODE, the Human Cell Atlas, and the International Human Epigenomics Consortium - before pivoting to back the founders tackling biology's hardest problems. He is based in Silicon Valley, leads Two Bear Capital's Menlo Park office, and splits his remaining time between Montana and a family farm in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky.

- **Role:** General Partner at Two Bear Capital
- **Organizations:** Two Bear Capital, Stanford University (former), Leapfrog Bio (Board Chairman), Montara Therapeutics (Board Director)
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** PhD in Structural Biology, Stanford University, BA in Philosophy, Stanford University
- **Known for:** Promoted to General Partner at Two Bear Capital in September 2023, Built and led data engineering teams for three landmark genomics consortia at Stanford: ENCODE, Human Cell Atlas, and IHEC, Serves as Chairman of the Board at Leapfrog Bio (precision oncology)

## Career timeline

- **pre-2010s** — Held entrepreneurial and management positions in enterprise software and consulting
- **2010s** — Built and led engineering and data science teams at Stanford University for the ENCODE, Human Cell Atlas (HCA), and International Human Epigenomics (IHEC) consortia, affiliated with J. Michael Cherry's laboratory
- **2020** — Joined Two Bear Capital; backed early investments including TileDB (Series A, Jul 2020) and Inimmune (Series A, Jul 2020)
- **2020-2021** — Participated in investments in Graphiant (Series A, Dec 2020) and Elisity (Series A, Jun 2021)
- **2023-09** — Promoted to General Partner at Two Bear Capital, leading the Silicon Valley office
- **2024** — Two Bear Capital led $11.2M funding round in Talus Bioscience, advancing AI platform for transcription factor therapeutic discovery
- **2025** — Montara Therapeutics closes $20M oversubscribed seed expansion with Two Bear Capital involvement; Strattan serves on Montara's board

## Achievements

- Promoted to General Partner at Two Bear Capital in September 2023
- Built and led data engineering teams for three landmark genomics consortia at Stanford: ENCODE, Human Cell Atlas, and IHEC
- Serves as Chairman of the Board at Leapfrog Bio (precision oncology)
- Board Director at Montara Therapeutics (neuroscience drugs)
- Contributed to ENCODE project co-authoring peer-reviewed publications on genomic data infrastructure
- Backed 26+ portfolio companies across biotechnology, cybersecurity, and AI at Two Bear Capital
- Investment range of $1M-$20M with a $10M sweet spot across Seed through Series B stages

## Latest updates

- **2026-02** — Two Bear Capital's latest investment was in Rainfall Health (Series A, Feb 2026), adding to a portfolio of 26+ companies
- **2025-03** — Montara Therapeutics closed a $20M oversubscribed seed expansion with Strattan's involvement on the board
- **2024-08** — Two Bear Capital led $11.2M funding round in Talus Bioscience for AI-driven transcription factor drug discovery

## Links

- Website: https://twobearcapital.com/team/j-seth-strattan
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jseth/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/seth-strattan
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Last updated: 2026-05-17