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  1. benwmonahan

    Dear Mr. Loarie,

    I hope you’re doing well!

    My name is Ben Monahan, and I am an student at the University of Chicago studying neuroscience and economics while pursuing the pre-MD/PhD track. I stumbled upon your name when a friend of mine mentioned Bill Campbell, a person I had never heard of before but proved to be an essential coach for many of the top silicon valley executives. I had found the book, Trillion Dollar Coach, on Amazon, and I was curious to look at the reviews before purchasing the book. Sure enough, i found your review at the top of the list of Amazon reviews, with an exceptionally detailed and thorough review, which i am extremely grateful for as I will certainly purchase this book now!

    At any rate, I decided to find you on LinkedIn as your attention to detail and passion for leadership, self-development, and impact truly showed in your review, so I knew I needed to find out more about your background. I was able to find your LinkedIn profile but was unable to connect and send a message to you, but I had a chance to scan your background in the healthcare, biotech, and medtech industries as an executive leader, and I am thoroughly impressed by your extensive expertise and background in the field. I should preface that my ultimate dream is to become a CEO of a biotech company such that I can serve humanity by advancing treatment options and therapies for currently untreatable diagnoses, and I believe I am reaching out to the person that would be able to help me realize this goal as you have already done this yourself!

    For a little background about myself, I grew up playing many sports (e.g. football, basketball, baseball, wrestling, rugby, and soccer), but football was my passion. I grew up watching Tom Brady lead the New England Patriots to many Super Bowl victories, and I knew I wanted to be just like him. As a result, I dedicated my entire childhood and high school career to being the best quarterback I could possibly be. I focused on developing an athletic ability by training 6 days a week at 5:00 am, I ensured that my quarterback skills were polished (both mentally and physically), and I emphasized the development of my leadership skills. I was fortunate enough to be voted as team captain in two instances, sophomore year and senior year, which allowed me to grow as a leader. (As an aside, leadership has always been critical to me, and I was able to strengthen my leadership ability as the class president of my school from 2019-2022, in addition to being the student body president from 2022-2023.) As I was entering my junior season, a critical season for college football recruiting, I was gaining national attention from the likes of Notre Dame, Northwestern, among others. However, I unfortunately, broke my leg during the first game of the season, resulting in the loss of all recruiting interest from the aforementioned college football programs. Nevertheless, after surgery, I was determined to recover and get back on track with my vision. Sure enough, I was fully recovered, stronger, and faster than ever before within six months, which was just in time for the college recruiting period of summer camps. I was able to gain a significant amount of attention from various programs, including Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, and Central Michigan, going into my senior season. I, unfortunately, broke my leg again during the 3rd game, our rivalry game, of the season. When I informed the coaches that I broke my leg again, I lost my offers. After recovering again and reaching a point of full health, I was able to secure an offer from Central Michigan, a Division 1 football program, yet my doctor emphasized that I would have a 30% of never being able to walk again if I injured my leg again. At that point, I faced the tough reality of hanging up my cleats and ending the possibility of pursuing my dreams.

    I decided to see the silver lining in this situation, however. I saw this situation as a message from God to change directions with my life mission, to reorient in the direction of medicine because, without modern medicine, namely surgical procedures, I would not be able to walk today. It was in this moment that I dedicated my life to God, as well, trusting that God has a plan for me even if it might not feel like things are working out in the moment. It was this situation that launched my biggest phase of growth as a leader. Since then, I have dedicated my life to God through the lens of advancing medicine, both directly and indirectly.

    When I began my time at the University of Chicago, I immediately knew medicine was right for me as I thoroughly enjoyed the pre-medicine track, in addition to research. In particular, I am thoroughly fascinated by neuroscience and medicine in the context of the brain. This is in large part because my brother played college football at Valparaiso University, a Division 1 college football program, where he was the starting center. However, he was medically retired from the sport as he sustained a severe concussion, so severe that he fundamentally changed who he was, despite his full recovery. This heartbreaking moment solidified my path: to pursue neuroscience and medicine with relentless passion and to contribute to global developments of treatments for neurological disorders. Since that point, I have been in a neuroscience research lab, studying neuroepigenomics, a field of research that aims to understand the genetic response to life experiences (e.g. trauma, social isolation, etc.) that can explain the reason we change with respect to our thoughts, behaviors, and actions, which is something I am keen on understanding. In addition, I started a club called the Undergraduate Neuroscience Journal Club (UNJC), which was launched to promote neuroscience to undergraduates by hosting world-renowned neuroscientists, neurologists, and neurosurgeons at our meetings, where they present on their research and answer any questions we have as a cohort.

    Importantly, as of a few months ago, a couple of my friends and I have started a company called Verge, which is aimed at serving the neuroscience community (and later expanding to serve the entire field of biology). Verge is the neuroscience social platform advancing the cyberinfrastructure necessary for the neuroscience community to remain stable, organized, and efficient during a period of rapid growth and development concerning discoveries related to the brain. We are also aiming to catalyze a paradigm shift in the field by transitioning from a static environment of research engagement to a dynamic ecosystem in which researchers are well-connected through continuous engagement with the latest, most relevant research, which will ultimately enhance collaboration and advance discovery. In essence, Verge is determined to aid in maximizing the full potential that this neuroscience golden age (which we are currently experiencing) can offer to the field. The reason I am not beginning with a startup in the biotechnology space, namely treatments and therapies, is because I believe this is a major problem for the neuroscience community, and unless my team and I step in to provide the cyberinfrastructure through Verge, we will not see the maximum capability of the field in the form of treatment and therapy development for various neurological disorders. After we can establish a framework by which the neuroscience community can operate in an organized and structured manner, I will then pursue my passion of delivering treatments and therapies for neurological disorders to the world.

    While there is so much more to explain from my perspective as it relates to my personal story and how it has brought me to this point, I will save it for a physical conversation with you, if you are interested. Although I do not know you personally, Mr. Loarie, I am certain that under your guidance and mentorship I would be able to thrive and live out the duty God has placed upon me. It would be an honor to meet you over Zoom or over a phone call to learn more about your story, receive mentorship from you through your experiences, and share more about the work we are doing to build, launch, and scale Verge over the summer and beyond.

    Thank you very much for your consideration, and I look forward to hearing from you soon! If you are interested, please reach out to me at my school email address or my personal cell phone, which I have included below. If you are not interested, I would like to thank you for sharing your review of the Trillion Dollar Coach on Amazon as I’m sure it will be a valuable read as I continue on this life journey!

    Warm Regards,
    Ben Monahan

    CEO/Co-Founder, Verge
    The University of Chicago
    Email: benmonahan@uchicago.edu
    Cell: (630) 329-6232