Today, we spotlight investor Valeriya (Val) Shunina. Her perspective on health investments is rooted in her experience at Grey Wolf Therapeutics, an Earlybird Health portfolio company developing a novel antigen modulation technology that controls T cells to guide the immune system. “I actually emailed them about a job from a hospital bed with meningitis, as I really wanted to work there. It’s funny how it all worked out,” she remembers. She values her operational experience and believes that it truly shaped the way she approaches her role as an investor.

After graduating with an MSc in Neuroscience and Translational Medicine, Val took a detour from science and joined a logistics tech startup: "I didn’t want to go straight into a PhD. I didn’t like how you’re kind of blindfolded into thinking academia is the only path, so I took a detour and joined a logistics tech startup to explore a different side of innovation. It was a way to challenge myself, and the skills I gained working with lean teams that move incredibly quickly still come in useful, especially in the fast-paced VC world. Ultimately I knew I wanted to get back into life sciences eventually and that’s what led me to Grey Wolf.” 

Working closely with the CEO at Grey Wolf, Val was actively involved in fundraising. “We thought the Series B raise would take six to nine months, but it took nearly two years. The post-Covid biotech market was tough and investor risk appetite was low. VCs wanted to see clinical data but we needed funds to generate that data, so we were stuck in a classic Catch-22," she recalls. 

During that challenging period, she met Dr. Rabab Nasrallah, Principal at Earlybird Health. “Rabab understood Grey Wolf’s science and vision and was willing to back it,” Val says. “That was true conviction-driven investing and that’s what drew me to Earlybird. That kind of trust is rare, and Earlybird stepping forward to co-lead the round made all the difference.” The experience taught Val that capital alone isn’t enough. “It’s about having investors who get it—who understand the long-term vision and support you through the challenges.”

The capital raise sparked Val’s interest in venture capital, and she reached out to Rabab to learn more about the career path. “In that meeting, Rabab asked me, ‘Do you truly understand what the company does?’ I thought that was a given but when I sat with the question, I realized how easy it is to get lost in details. There’s so much complexity in biotech and cutting through the noise to what truly matters is not easy. Being able to identify the key value drivers was so important as I became Clinical Project Manager at Grey Wolf and it’s one of the key skills now as an investor.”

On a personal level, Val is particularly interested in neurodegenerative disease treatments and precision psychiatry. “The approval of new Alzheimer’s drugs is a huge step forward after decades of slow progress,” she says. For Val, investing in biotech is more than just funding companies – it’s about helping groundbreaking ideas turn into real treatments. 

“I want to work with founders tackling hard problems and making meaningful progress in healthcare,” she says. “At Earlybird Health, we’re supporting those bold ideas and turning them into reality. It’s all about transforming patient outcomes and improving people’s lives.”

Feel free to connect with Val via LinkedIn.