How RedPoint Oncology’s Dr. Mengdie Wang is Reaching New Peaks in the Startup Community

Rock climbing includes a lot of starts and stops, all the while navigating up, down, and across to the next point. You can say it’s a similar journey for many founders.

For Dr. Mengdie Wang, being an avid rock climber (in some ways) prepared her journey to launch RedPoint Oncology. Wang is the co-founder and CEO of RedPoint, which is building a new payload class for targeted oncology. The startup’s goal is to eliminate therapy-resistant solid tumors where current treatments fail.   

Startup Boston caught up with Wang to chat about how she got her start, what the first year has been like as a founder, what kind of support the startup ecosystem offers, and more. 

Startup Boston (SB): What’s the story behind RedPoint Oncology? What inspired you to start it? 

Dr. Mengdie Wang (MW): I’m a cancer biologist. Like most PhD students, I originally wanted to become a professor, and I went on to get a tenure-track faculty offer in the United States. 

But during that time, like many families, mine was affected by cancer and one of my colleagues passed away from breast cancer. That made me realize that I wanted my work to reach patients beyond publications. I deeply believed in the research our team had done during my postdoc, and I knew it was time to move it forward.

SB: Tell us about what RedPoint Oncology does. Are you targeting a specific type of cancer?

MW: We develop cancer therapies. More specifically, we’re developing a novel payload class for targeted therapies like antibody drug conjugates. 

Imagine a guided missile for cancer. It works by destroying the cancer cells while leaving most healthy cells unharmed. The guide is an antibody, which targets the cancer cells by binding to the proteins that are enriched on cancer cells. The drug is delivered by the antibody and then released to kill the cancer cell. That drug is called the payload, and at RedPoint, we’re focused on developing a new class of payloads to power these guided missiles for cancer. 

What’s powerful about our technology is that it can kill many types of cancer, including the cancer cells that no longer respond to standard care. Those are the patients who are running out of options today. I studied prostate cancer and breast cancer during my PhD and postdoc, but our platform can be applied across many indications. It's a really exciting time in the field. ADCs are one of the fastest-growing areas in cancer treatment, but the field still relies on a limited number of payload classes. As more patients are treated with ADCs, resistance to those payload classes becomes a bigger problem. That's the gap we're focused on.

SB: How did your background prepare you for the startup world?

MW: So my background, as you can tell, has been mostly in academia. Before starting RedPoint, I had never developed a drug, worked at a pharmaceutical company, or even worked at a startup. My focus was on research. 

But it taught me how to learn new things quickly and how to solve problems under uncertainty. I think that’s one of the underrated gifts of a PhD that many people don’t realize.

Once I realized I wanted to start a company, I started reaching out to people, many of them through cold messages. Many of them got back to me saying they’d be happy to help. Those conversations opened new doors and connected me to mentors and startup accelerators that brought very different perspectives.  

SB: RedPoint recently wrapped up its first year. Looking back, what's the first year been like? What were some surprises and expectations you had? 

MW: I've been a full-time employee for slightly longer than a year. I’m the CEO.

To me, the biggest surprise is I’ve actually had a lot of fun. Before we started the company, mentors told me what to expect: it would be really hard. It is tough, and the funding environment right now is difficult. We're learning a lot through this process. They were right. What I really enjoyed was meeting a lot of amazing people along the way, many of them generously helped me, and I got to gain different perspectives. 

As founders, we constantly live with uncertainty. Something I discovered about myself is that I'm very good at dealing with uncertainty. We don't know if the funding is going to come through, or how the data is going to turn out. It’s part of life. As long as I’m being present, I can deal with it. I really enjoy building RedPoint because I'm building something that I truly believe in, and I've had so much support along the way. All of these make me genuinely grateful and happy.

As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to develop something that helps patients. Here’s the thing — you still need to understand the market needs and what can really make an impact for the patient.

When I first started, I didn’t understand the intention behind that question. My first reaction was: ‘What do you mean by “unmet need”? We are developing a platform that can generate numerous therapies for cancer. Of course, this is needed.’

But there are many layers behind that question. Things like why current therapies aren’t working, what’s truly needed in the field you’re building in, why the solution does not exist today, and why your technology can solve it. You have to build from what the field actually needs, supported by data, not from what feels exciting in your own head. As scientists, we tend to fall in love with our own research, but the work has to solve a real unmet need. That’s a trap a lot of scientists fall into. 

In our own journey, our team participated in the National Science Foundation's I-Corps program, which required us to conduct more than 100 customer interviews to understand what the market actually needed. After customer discovery, to my biggest surprise, there were very limited options for the payloads, the drugs that get delivered to kill cancer cells. And now the field is facing the consequences; once patients develop resistance to one ADC (the guided missile), they often become resistant to future ADCs using the same payload class. We’re building something the whole industry needs. I went to the World ADC Conference and everybody kept saying we need new payloads. I remember sitting there thinking, “That’s exactly what we’re building.” That's when my conviction crystallized. As an academic founder, you often don't have your full conviction on day one. You gradually build it through conversations across the ecosystem and through data. Part of that discipline is being willing to walk away from a hypothesis if the data don't support it.

SB: You mentioned earlier you spoke to different people when you got your start. How has the Massachusetts startup community helped you out this past year or so?

MW: I think the biggest reward has been the mentors. The ones I’ve met have been incredibly generous with their time. One mentor I connected with through Mass Innovation Network was CEO of multiple pharma companies. He later became our industry mentor during the I-Corps program. He’s helping us think about market entry and things I hadn’t considered. For example, when you’re developing a therapy, how does this actually get distributed? 

He also understands the leadership mindset — how to make decisions, hire people, and work with people as the CEO. I’ve also met many mentors with clinical development, patent, and legal expertise. All of them have been tremendously helpful and generous.

SB: What’s some advice you’d give to someone who’s starting out? If you could turn around and say to yourself when you started or to someone who’s in your shoes now, what would you tell them?

MW: The first thing is don’t be afraid to ask for help. I struggled with this when I first started. My biggest fear was rejection. What if they ghost me? But to my surprise, most people respond with kindness.

Another part is building your conviction through data, customer discovery, and honest conversations with the people who understand the field. As scientists, we get excited about our science or the new technology we’ve just developed. But between academia and the real world, there is a gap. You actually don't know enough about the industry’s unmet needs until you go out and talk to people in the field to fully understand the application of your technology. 

Then truly test your hypothesis and refine your product market fit — I think that's really important. You need to ask yourself: am I willing to put my own money into this? Am I willing to put my time and effort into this? It’s not about whether you’re going to be the CEO or the founder. It’s about whether you truly believe that your technology can solve a big problem that hasn’t been solved before and that you can build it into a real business. Then do your own market research and reach your conclusions objectively. 

Final thoughts

Dr. Mengdie Wang’s story is a reminder that successful founders come from varied backgrounds, often bringing their passion and knowledge to solve real-world problems. With RedPoint Oncology, Wang is applying her research, enthusiasm, and drive to discover a new way to treat solid tumors. Her journey also highlights some lessons aspiring entrepreneurs need to keep in mind: don’t be afraid to ask for help and think about why you’re starting this business.   

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About the author: Kathleen Ohlson is a Boston-based content writer with a background as a high-tech writer and storyteller. With a passion for creating content that resonates with audiences, you can connect with her on LinkedIn.