STAT+: He grew up near Boston, went to Harvard, and worked at MIT. Why did he found his startup in California?
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- Felix Wong, 33, was born in Quincy, graduated from Braintree High School, and earned two degrees from Harvard during a decade living in Cambridge.
- Wong worked as a post-doc at MIT before founding his biotech startup in Redwood City, California.
- Wong's parents still live in Massachusetts, where the biotech industry has dominated for roughly two decades.
- Wong recently reflected on what he described as the "creative spirit of California" while walking near jacaranda trees outside his Silicon Valley office.
Why it matters: The article frames Wong as a case study in why even deeply Massachusetts-rooted biotech talent is choosing California — Boston has owned biotech for two decades, but Silicon Valley's creative culture is pulling founders westward, a data point for anyone tracking where the next generation of biotech companies will be built.
