Reed Jobs would rather talk about curing cancer than his last name

Reed Jobs is easy to like—motormouthed, self-deprecating, prone to video-game analogies, and clearly loves his work. He doesn't particularly want to discuss being Steve Jobs's son, but isn't uptight about it. He'd much rather talk about Yosemite, the oncology-focused venture firm he launched in 2023 to build biotech companies from scratch, using a mix of no-strings-attached philanthropy and old-fashioned venture capital.

Three years in, Yosemite has a team of 17 and its second fund targeting $350 million. The firm works only in oncology and makes about one-third of its companies in-house, joining others for the rest. 2.5% of the fund's assets under management goes into a donor-advised fund for unrestricted grants.

Among portfolio companies, Jobs is proudest of Azalea, born from a grant to Jennifer Doudna's lab and now in the clinic, and Quarry, built with Craig Crews around induced proximity. Yosemite also backs Tune Therapeutics (epigenetic editing for hepatitis B) and Histosonics (histotripsy for liver tumors).

Jobs notes AI has become a huge part of Yosemite, accelerating grunt work and finding new drug targets like KRAS. Revolution Medicines doubled survival for pancreatic cancer. On NIH budget cuts, the proposed 40% cut was rejected by Congress; this year's 12% cut is expected to be rejected too. Jobs advocates increasing NIH funding to $100 billion.

The biggest target is p53, the most frequently suppressed gene in cancer. Yosemite is attacking it with three companies. Jobs's team pioneered epigenetic gene editing and safe delivery of gene editing. AI is also being used for synthetic control arms in clinical trials, which the FDA is embracing.

For founders seeking funding, Jobs says to email Yosemite—they remove CVs from consideration and look at every modality. Storytelling matters, but usually the CEO handles that while the founder focuses on science.