The Biotech Startups Podcast

"The best thing about starting your own business is you get to design the business that you always wanted to work for." We’re revisiting some of our previous episodes over the holidays this year. Our next re-release is this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, where Jason C. Foster takes us through his remarkable journey of building an international pharmaceutical company across Europe and his transition to founding Ori Biotech, a pioneering cell therapy manufacturing technology company. Jason shares how he moved from Richmond, Virginia to London in 2010 with a pregnant wife and toddler to build what would become Indivior, scaling the business from just a handful of employees to over 1,100 people across 37 countries before listing on the London Stock Exchange in 2014. ​ Jason offers candid insights into the cultural challenges of doing business across Northern and Southern Europe, the complexities of navigating different regulatory environments, and the critical importance of building mission-driven culture over purely financial incentives. He discusses how discovering cell therapy's potential to cure cancer—yet seeing patients unable to access these treatments due to cost and manufacturing limitations—compelled him to co-found Ori Biotech in 2018. Jason explains how the company is revolutionizing personalized medicine by creating scalable, affordable manufacturing platforms for cell therapies, with their Iro platform launching in 2024 and expecting to treat first patients in clinical trials in 2025.

"If you think about what we do as human beings, the vast majority of the value we create is through communication." We’re revisiting some of our previous episodes over the holidays this year. Our next re-release is this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, where Jason C. Foster, CEO and Executive Director at Ori Biotech, shares how his upbringing in Richmond, Virginia and his family’s deep roots in business shaped his entrepreneurial drive and leadership style. Growing up as an only child surrounded by adults, Jason cultivated strong communication skills early on, while paper routes, lawn care, and door-to-door sales instilled in him a bias toward self-sufficiency and finding creative ways to add value. Jason walks through his journey from studying government at the University of Virginia and working on healthcare policy in Washington, D.C., to realizing that real impact on patient outcomes often happens in the private sector rather than in government. He then reflects on his formative years at Columbia Business School in New York City, where exposure to a highly international, high-performing peer group—and to the chaos and energy of post-9/11 New York—pushed him out of his comfort zone and helped crystallize his aspiration to build and lead in healthcare and startups.

"If you can synthesize, then there's no such thing as too much expertise." We’re revisiting some of our previous episodes over the holidays this year. Our next re-release is this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, where Jacob Glanville pulls back the curtain on the “black box” of venture capital for biotech founders, sharing what he learned moving from pitching antibody platforms to pitching VCs. He explains how aligning with each firm’s investment thesis, simplifying your story, and using sharp visuals—while treating fundraising like dating, not a numbers game—can dramatically improve your odds without ever resorting to exaggeration or dishonesty.​ Jacob then dives into choosing the right venture partners, negotiating fair terms, and focusing on what real success looks like for both founders and investors. He shows how the best VCs act as strategic allies and “polishing engines,” and explains why he partnered with NFX and GHIC to help drive Centivax’s universal vaccine programs forward, from RNA-LNP–enabled flu vaccines to broad-spectrum efforts in HIV and coronaviruses, all powered by a village of mentors, collaborators, and family.​

"If you are capable of acquiring knowledge, of applying the knowledge, and you like it, you can succeed. It doesn't matter what it is." We’re revisiting some of our previous episodes over the holidays this year. Our next re-release is this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, in which Jacob Glanville breaks down how he built Distributed Bio from a napkin-stage idea into a full-service antibody discovery platform—without traditional venture capital. He shares how creative partnerships with USF’s biotech master’s program and a scrappy animal facility in Guatemala helped him access labs, talent, and proof-of-concept data, even as early setbacks with SuperHuman 1.0 cost him clients and sleep. The conversation then dives into the realities of scaling: squeezing into half a bench at JLABS before expanding into a 7,500-square-foot facility powered by smart equipment leasing and a growing team. Jacob also introduces his “Respiration Model” of leadership—open debate followed by uncompromising execution—and explains why rising competition and strong universal vaccine data led him to sell Distributed Bio to Charles River Laboratories and spin out Centivax just as the pandemic hit.

"Find the thing that gets you excited, that fascinates you, and then have the thing you love be something else." We’re revisiting some of our previous episodes over the holidays this year. Our next re-release is this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, in which Jacob Glanville discusses his transformative years at Pfizer's Rinat site and his transition to Stanford. He describes how an open, collaborative culture allowed him to roam across teams, trading his coding skills for scientific mentorship while building critical bioinformatics infrastructure for antibody discovery. Jacob shares how he converted a corporate laptop into antibody.pfizer.com, creating an internal web server that centralized analysis tools and enabled scientists to rapidly interrogate antibody libraries. Early access to deep sequencing let him dissect repertoires before and after selection, iteratively design better synthetic libraries, and publish influential papers—ultimately being promoted four times to Principal Scientist with only a BA. Despite this success, his burning idea for a universal vaccine drove him to leave Pfizer, pursue a PhD at Stanford, and simultaneously launch Distributed Bio. At Stanford, Jacob explains how he "separated church and state," keeping therapeutic antibody work in his company while focusing academic research on T-cell receptors and cytokine analysis. He reflects on navigating Stanford's tech transfer process and contrasts the priorities of academia versus industry, emphasizing the value of finding work that fascinates you.

"You don't always know at the time how something will be useful in the future, but if you keep following what fascinates you, those threads can re-synthesize into something powerful down the line."​ We’re revisiting some of our previous episodes over the holidays this year. Our next re-release is this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, where computational immuno-engineer and serial entrepreneur Jake Glanville shares how growing up in a Mayan Tzʼutujil village in Guatemala during a civil war shaped his path into biotech. He reflects on living amid limited access to medicine, navigating personal health challenges like asthma, and witnessing how simple interventions such as deworming transformed entire communities, inspiring his commitment to developing therapeutics and vaccines.​ Jake discusses the profound influence of his grandfather, a Rocketdyne engineer who worked on the engines that sent humans to the moon, and how that legacy lowered his sense of what is "impossible" in science. Watching his parents run a hotel and restaurant gave him an education in operations, resilience, and people management—skills that translated directly into building biotech companies. He also unpacks the negotiation lessons he absorbed from Mayan market culture, where the goal is sustainable, mutual value rather than one-time wins.​ The episode follows Jake's transition to the United States after his father's autoimmune disease diagnosis, his strategic decision to attend UC Berkeley, and how his self-taught programming background fused with population genetics to create a passion for computational immunology.

"The biggest problem that we're seeing right now is that the efficiency gains have not translated to enterprise value. The customer is not seeing that result transcend into unit economics yet." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, we explore Krish Ramadurai's insights on AI-native venture investing and the evolving biotech landscape. Krish unpacks the current state of AI ventures, explaining why the foundation layer is being rapidly commoditized and how defensibility now lives in full-stack applications rather than point solutions. He offers a candid perspective on what founders often misunderstand about market fit, revealing that efficiency gains haven't translated to enterprise value and that most AI companies are building vitamins when customers need painkillers. Krish breaks down the dramatic shift in funding benchmarks, where seed-stage companies now achieve revenue milestones that previously defined Series A rounds. He shares hard-won lessons from the tech bio space, explaining why platforms that forgot biotech is fundamentally a drug business struggled during the biotech winter, and why growth investors can only underwrite assets, not services models. The conversation also explores AIX's firm-building philosophy, emphasizing how combining technical expertise with authentic human connection—being "the same dweeb in and out of the office"—creates a competitive advantage in winning deals against tier-one funds with significantly larger checks.

"I'm only doing this because I'm already doing this or because I couldn't afford to hypothesis test." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Krish Ramadurai, Partner at AIX Ventures, reveals his unconventional approach to building a venture capital career through simultaneous immersion in both academia and industry. The conversation explores how Krish pursued his master's in nanomedicine and PhD at Oxford University while working full-time at Harmonics Capital—an arrangement he negotiated by demonstrating that his research on machine learning algorithms for mRNA optimization directly aligned with his daily venture work.​ Krish challenges conventional wisdom about hustle culture, arguing that productivity drops after 55 hours per week and emphasizing strategic time protection over brute-force effort. He shares candid reflections on what he calls "controlled chaos"—how his achievements weren't the result of meticulous planning but rather making the best of challenging circumstances. The discussion then transitions to his strategic move to AIX Ventures, where he joined as the first institutional partner at a firm helmed by AI pioneers like Richard Socher (inventor of prompt engineering). Krish describes building AIX's TechBio practice from less than 10% to 25% of the portfolio in just over a year, leading nine deals while helping scale a fund that's become the #2 VC globally for performance with eight unicorns from their first fund.

"I was not like, 'Well, this partner helped me on it, and then we shared the deal.' I was like, 'I think I'm good at this because I basically did the output of an entire firm by myself, like, the first two years.'" In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, host Jon Chee continues his conversation with Krish Ramadurai, exploring his unconventional journey from Harvard academia to becoming a venture capital partner in record time. Krish shares how he applied his research training to venture capital, identifying a new category of compute-driven biotech companies before "TechBio" even existed, and executing twelve investments during his first year as an analyst—all while the COVID-19 pandemic sent markets into free fall.​ Krish reveals the critical importance of "shot-calling" in venture capital, explaining why many talented associates and principals get stuck in their careers by not claiming ownership of their wins. He describes compressing his MBA into sixteen months at Washington University while working two full-time positions, his rapid ascent from analyst to partner by consistently performing above his role, and the uncomfortable but necessary transition from technical expert to fundraiser when dealing with limited partners. Throughout the conversation, Krish emphasizes breaking traditional rules when conviction demands it, treating every investment like an evidence-based academic experiment, and understanding that in venture capital, you're only as good as your last deal.

"You’ve just got to embrace the suck. When everything sucks, you just execute against it. It's nice because then when that situation happens again, which adult life works like that all the time, you can be more systematically prepared." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, we explore Krish Ramadurai's unconventional journey from Chicago's South Side to becoming a Partner at AIX Ventures. Krish shares how a career-ending femur fracture during his track and field career redirected his path from Johns Hopkins to the University of Illinois, where he discovered the intersection of hard science and business that would define his future.​​ Krish takes us through his audacious approach to getting into Harvard—auditing classes before formal admission, working three jobs simultaneously to afford tuition, and sending over 500 cold emails to find research opportunities. He reflects on how working alongside figures like US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, CIA Director David Petraeus, and Nobel Prize winner Mike Kremer at the Belfer Center shaped his understanding of applied science and policy intervention. Most importantly, Krish emphasizes how rejection built conviction, turning financial desperation and constant setbacks into the foundation for his success in venture capital.

"Entrepreneurship is great, but, for me, family always came first. [My] wife and kids always came first. I didn't miss a single game or show or anything of the kids, whether it was at 3 PM or 5 PM or 7 PM, I did that. And then I figured out the work otherwise." We’re revisiting some of our previous episodes over the holidays this year. Our next rerelease is part 2 of this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast with Parag Shah, where we discuss his journey from leading the life sciences practice at Hercules Capital to founding K2 Health Ventures. Parag shares candid insights about the pivotal moment he transitioned from banking to private credit, his decision to join Hercules as one of the first employees, and the challenges of scaling a fund from $25 million to over a billion dollars as a public BDC. Parag offers rare transparency about the difficulties of navigating toxic corporate culture while building a successful business, and how those experiences shaped his vision for K2 HealthVentures. He emphasizes the critical importance of work-life balance in entrepreneurship, revealing how he never missed a single one of his children's games or shows despite the demands of building investment firms. The conversation explores the strategic advantages of evergreen fund structures versus traditional LP/GP models, and how K2's unique approach of combining debt and equity across the capital stack, along with dedicating a percentage of profits to underserved healthcare, represents a new model for impact investing in life sciences.

"I was fortunate that my parents pretty much allowed for a more experimental, open approach to education being important, but do what you want to do, right? Try different things, take healthy risks." We’re revisiting some of our previous episodes over the holidays this year. Our first rerelease is part 1 of this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast with Parag Shah, where we explore his remarkable journey from molecular biologist to CEO and Founding Managing Director of K2 Health Ventures. Parag shares how his upbringing in New York City with immigrant parents who encouraged experimentation shaped his entrepreneurial mindset, and describes the pivotal moment when he realized bench science wasn't his calling while researching at MIT's Whitehead Institute.​​ The conversation reveals how Parag boldly proposed building Imperial Bank's life sciences lending practice from scratch, despite being young and relatively inexperienced. He discusses lessons learned from MIT about persistence through failure, translating traditional credit frameworks to venture-backed biotech companies, and the complementary role of debt capital alongside equity financing in life sciences.

"The only advice I can give to my 21-year-old self is that advice doesn't work... But whenever you actually need advice on something that you do not know how to start or how to solve or how to figure out, you should really remember that someone in this world has already figured it out." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, host Jon Chee concludes his conversation with Sergey Jakimov, Managing Partner at LongeVC, exploring the realities of fundraising from limited partners and building a successful longevity-focused biotech fund. Sergey shares his unconventional approach to LP fundraising—telling his story rather than selling a product—and how personal experiences with age-related diseases drive his science-first investment philosophy. Sergey explains why Fund One, which launched with 30% GP capital commitment, has achieved over 3x returns in just three years despite challenging market conditions. He reveals why big pharma's massive liquidity reserves, combined with looming patent cliffs like Merck's Keytruda expiration, create unprecedented opportunities for venture-backed biotech innovation. The conversation explores the vital role venture capitalists play in bringing breakthrough therapies to patients—therapies that big pharma would never risk developing on their own. Looking ahead, Sergey discusses his vision for establishing longevity as an evidence-based, data-driven field while combating the "snake oil" supplements and questionable therapies that damage the industry's credibility. He emphasizes the need to translate scientific success stories into accessible language that attracts generalist capital, ultimately accelerating growth across the entire longevity sector.

"If you die, all your crypto doesn't make sense. All your sustainability doesn't make sense. You have not solved the major existential issue or the major existential threat that you have." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, host Jon Chee continues his conversation with Sergey Jakimov, Managing Partner at LongeVC, as he reveals launching a $25 million longevity fund. Leveraging relationships with top universities and a scientific advisory board featuring Nobel Prize winners, Sergey built a fund with an unconventional thesis: tackle age-related diseases one at a time, investing solely based on patient outcomes. The results—20 companies, zero write-offs in 3.5 years, with portfolio companies approaching unicorn status. The conversation turns personal when Sergey shares his experience as a rare disease patient. At 28, a rare autoimmune neurodegenerative condition left him partially paralyzed, forcing him through a healthcare system offering only outdated treatments. This experience fundamentally reshaped his investment philosophy and cemented his belief that biotech is the most important industry. Sergey also discusses expanding his platform with Ani.vc and the Longevity Science Foundation, while reflecting on why health span and "joy span" matter more than simply extending lifespan.

"Building a deep tech company or building anything, pretty much, like being a founder in anything, it's like planning a bank robbery. It's like putting together a crew where, you know, you need a driver, you need someone to pick locks, you need someone to not sell, and you need someone who has the intellectual capacity to come up with a plan." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Sergey Jakimov, Managing Partner at LongeVC, shares his journey from uncertain graduate student in Budapest to serial deep tech founder. He discusses launching his first startup at age 22 in the conservative oil and gas industry with zero experience, pioneering drug-eluting coatings for orthopedic implants, and building Lungesys—a clinical data platform that revolutionized trial patient recruitment and helped establish the world's largest biobank. Sergey challenges the "dropout culture" narrative while defending both formal education and learning by doing. He reveals why the least specialized person often makes the best founder and shares surprising truths about big pharma, including that only 14% of first-in-class cancer drugs are developed internally.

"Retrospectively, this was honestly the best childhood one can get, and it was absolutely without gadgets." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, we explore the formative years of Sergey Jakimov, founding partner at LongeVC, as he takes us from his childhood in post-Soviet Latvia to his graduate studies in Budapest. Sergey shares what it was like growing up in a small rural town near the Russian border, where limited resources, no technology, and long winters shaped his resilience, diplomacy, and drive to succeed.​ Sergey recounts his unlikely journey into competitive tennis under a retired national coach, training on concrete courts and turning the sport into both a discipline and a livelihood. He describes the grueling path to university admission—waking at 2 AM every Saturday for four-hour bus rides to attend prep courses in Riga—and the intense workload that followed, surviving on just three to four hours of sleep while juggling translation work and coaching gigs. A pivotal parliament internship shattered his idealistic views of government, leading him to embrace technocracy and meritocracy as guiding principles. Finally, Sergey reflects on earning his master's at Central European University in Budapest, where diverse perspectives and world-class academics further expanded his worldview and prepared him for entrepreneurship.​​

"Risk management is really just planning for when things go wrong." In this final episode with Jimmy Sastra, PhD, co-founder and CEO of Monomer Bio, host Jon Chee explores how Jimmy redefines biotech leadership by treating fundraising as a strategic tool rather than a necessity. The conversation dives into building a company that combines scalable software with hands-on lab services, the importance of creativity and risk management in uncertain times, and Monomer’s bold vision for "autonomous science"—where AI and robotics revolutionize experimentation. Alongside deep biotech insights, Jimmy shares personal reflections on balancing entrepreneurship, family, and his immigrant journey while pushing the boundaries of automation in life sciences.

"People are looking at cells, making decisions, and then acting on them—that’s a robotics loop. I felt it could be done autonomously." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, host Jon Chee sits down with Jimmy Sastra, co-founder and CEO of Monomer, to discuss how his team transformed hands-on lab automation consulting into a breakthrough biotech robotics company. Jimmy shares how Monomer’s vertically integrated platform unites robotics, software, and biology to automate cell culture, cut reliance on animal models, and boost reproducibility. He also explains the company’s adaptive go-to-market strategy—ranging from software-only pilots to full robotic deployments—and reflects on the power of cross-disciplinary teamwork, global collaboration, and flexibility in navigating today’s challenging biotech landscape.

"Life is amazing, but it’s also very fragile. I could not think of a more important mission than trying to understand how life works." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, host Jon Chee continues his conversation with Jimmy Sastra, CEO and co-founder of Monomer Bio, tracing his evolution from a self-taught PhD student to a Silicon Valley engineer at the forefront of robotics and biotech innovation. Jimmy recounts his time at Willow Garage during the rise of ROS, his groundbreaking work at Transcriptic—where he helped build the world’s first robotic cloud lab—and how those experiences shaped his vision for Monomer Bio. He also explores the power of hiring for personal mission alignment and shares how a life-changing moment involving his brother inspired a career dedicated to understanding life through technology.

"Maybe because of that experience, we still keep in touch. I feel fortunate that my friends and I built something together back then—even if it started with murals and late nights, it taught me about creativity, risk, and teamwork." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Jimmy Sastra, CEO and co-founder of Monomer Bio, unpacks his global journey from The Netherlands and Japan to transforming lab automation in biotech. Shaped by his father’s engineering legacy at Philips and ASML, Jimmy recalls lessons in creativity, rebellion, and resilience that guided his path from the University of Pennsylvania to a PhD in robotics. His story reveals how curiosity and systems thinking became the foundation for Monomer Bio’s mission to empower scientists through smarter, automated lab solutions.

"If anyone comes to me and says, 'Hey, I’ve got this idea. I think we could do something with it,' I’m like, 'You gotta take the I-Corps class first... it really changes your mindset.'" In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Darren Cooke, Interim Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer and Executive Director of the Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Center at the University of California, Berkeley, reveals how 100 discovery interviews turned a $3 million campus experiment into a powerhouse for biotech innovation. He shares the creation of Berkeley’s flagship fellows program, the launch of speed teaming and venture grants, and how simple ideas like fostering connection and collaboration transformed campus culture. Darren also reflects on the leadership of Chancellor Rich Lyons and offers candid lessons on perseverance, mentorship, and the art of “showing up.”

"If you’re not challenging what you’ve always done, you’re not going to move forward or innovate." In this episode, Darren Cooke, Interim Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer and Executive Director of the Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Center at the University of California, Berkeley, reveals how he’s navigated the fast-changing world of financial advice by embracing regulatory shifts, championing innovation, and building trust through integrity and open communication, sharing hard-won lessons on personal growth, resilience, and finding new opportunities amid uncertainty and change.

"If you ever find yourself in a situation where you’re busy and bored, you really should be doing something else." In this episode, Darren Cooke, Interim Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer and Executive Director of the Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Center at the University of California, Berkeley, traces his bold path from high-stakes law firm litigation to in-house IP leadership at Bio-Rad Laboratories, eventually launching his own practice to guide biotech startups. He dives into career pivots, lessons from Berkeley’s entrepreneurial scene, startup investing, and why simply showing up is often the secret to transformative opportunities and growth.

"If you go down a road and then you realize, Ah, shoot. This was not what I expected, or Why am I doing this? you can do something else. Right? Yeah. Don't sweat it." In this episode, Jon Chee interviews Darren Cooke, UC Berkeley’s Interim Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer, whose journey spans engineering cochlear implants, high-stakes patent law, and leading innovation at Berkeley. Darren shares how formative moments, career pivots, and mentorship shaped his approach to entrepreneurship, offering practical wisdom and behind-the-scenes stories from working with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to building collaborative biotech communities. His multifaceted perspective inspires listeners to embrace change, seek hands-on experiences, and build networks that drive biotech innovation.

"If the door's not open, it's not open. I should only be walking through doors that are open. Why am I going to knock on doors that are closed?" Sandra Shpilberg, Co-founder and COO at Adnexi, revisits her founder’s journey, sharing how setbacks and her son’s curiosity during the COVID-19 pandemic led to the launch of Adnexi, a mission-driven platform for biopharma. She reveals lessons on navigating non-competes, collaborating with market forces, and building resilient teams, while highlighting the rewards and challenges of creating a lasting family business and intentionally cultivating a supportive circle for growth.

“There is something that happens when we create expectations that are actually realistic, that we have a chance to delight ourselves. And then that creates this motivation to keep going and be like, Oh, this is working out much better than I expected.” In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Sandra Shpilberg, Co-founder and COO at Adnexi, shares her remarkable founder’s journey, launching Seeker Health from her living room, landing her first customer on LinkedIn, and scaling a mission-driven startup without outside funding—all while balancing family life and navigating the emotional challenges of entrepreneurship and acquisition offers. Her story challenges Silicon Valley myths, showing that pragmatic optimism, real customer traction, and staying true to one’s values can drive both personal and professional success.

“If you have an entrepreneurial spirit, what was exciting at BioMarin was that we were doing new things, innovating and creating from scratch.” In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Sandra Shpilberg, Co-founder and COO at Adnexi, shares her journey from leading commercial launches at BioMarin to discovering the pivotal market gap in digital patient recruitment while at Nora Therapeutics—a realization that sparked her leap into founding her own company. Her story weaves together the drive for innovation, deep patient connection, and the blend of professional ambition with personal priorities that shaped each career move.

"I walk around the world wanting to tell everyone that healing is possible. All types of healing are possible: physical healing, mental healing, spiritual healing. Healing is possible." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, we explore the remarkable journey of Sandra Shpilberg, Co-founder and COO at Adnexi, from her early childhood in Uruguay to becoming a serial entrepreneur in biotech. Sandra shares the profound experiences that shaped her leadership philosophy, beginning with her family's Holocaust survivor background and her grandparents' courageous decision to start over in a new country with nothing but hope. Sandra opens up about the defining moments that forged her resilience - from a traumatic accident at age four that sparked her lifelong belief in healing, to her family's immigration to Brooklyn when she was 16. She describes navigating American education without knowing English, watching her parents rebuild their careers, and her own journey from Wall Street to Wharton to discovering her true calling in biotech during a transformative internship at Genentech. The conversation reveals how these experiences instilled the entrepreneurial mindset and fearless approach to starting over that continues to drive her success.

“If our real mission is to truly help companies get drugs to patients faster and cheaper, the amount of complexity we have to solve goes way beyond science.” In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Jon Chee talks with Andrey Doronichev about his leap from tech at YouTube and Google to launching OPTIC and reinventing it as BIOPTIC, an AI-powered drug discovery startup. Andrey shares the ups and downs of projects like AIorNot, the pivotal link between big data and drug development, and how “agentic AI” now drives BIOPTIC’s rapid progress—proving that real biotech breakthroughs require humility, adaptability, and big-picture thinking.

"If you as a leader of a startup—no matter how small—or you as an employee of a big organization, you could be the agent of change." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Andrey Doronichev traces his path from launching mobile content in Russia to transforming YouTube for mobile, overcoming fierce Google-Apple rivalry to deliver the iOS app, and pioneering VR at Google. He candidly shares lessons in resilience, startup highs and lows, and the critical role of personal influence behind major milestones, culminating in his pivot to AI-powered biotech with OPTIC. Listeners get practical insights into team-building, dealmaking psychology, and the dynamic realities of entrepreneurship in fast-changing industries.

"If you're genuinely passionate and curious about things, people will feed that curiosity. Do not underestimate that." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Andrey Doronichev takes us from his formative years hustling in post-Soviet Russia to launching a mobile startup amid economic chaos, emigrating as political tides shifted, and boldly landing a role at Google—all powered by grit, curiosity, and risk-taking. Andrey reveals how bootstrapping in Russia’s early Internet boom, betting on mobile YouTube before smartphones were mainstream, and championing innovation at Google transformed both his life and the way billions interact with online video.

"If you leave the queue, you lose your place, and you wait for, like, four hours outside in winter in Moscow to buy some butter, literally. So those kinds of things, it's a massive change." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, host Jon Chee speaks with Andrey Doronichev, Founder and CEO of OPTIC, about his journey from surviving the chaos and scarcity of the collapsing Soviet Union to leading a cutting-edge AI-powered drug discovery platform. Andrey reveals how his upbringing amid upheaval and restricted information, paired with a strong science-driven family, forged his resilience and bold approach to leadership—traits that now drive his ambitious efforts at the intersection of technology and biotech entrepreneurship.

"If you lose that passion, why would somebody else do this? And it comes down to how hungry you are. How bad do you want it?" In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, host Jon Chee talks with Eswar Iyer, co-founder of Aikium, about launching a biotech platform during a market downturn and building a resourceful, mission-driven team focused on data-rich therapeutic design. Eswar shares hard-won lessons on blending computational and experimental innovation, maintaining intentional focus, forging the right partnerships, and fostering a culture of resilience and critical thinking. They also explore fundraising strategies, the rapidly evolving biotech landscape, and the personal leadership philosophies that shape success in early-stage company building.

"If you gain so much knowledge in each of your respective fields, you should be pushing something deeper. Yes, it's harder, but isn't that what you really want to do?" In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Eswar Iyer shares his journey from George Church’s groundbreaking lab to launching spatial biology at 10x Genomics and founding Aikium, candidly revealing how mentorship, bold decision-making, and cross-functional teamwork drive innovation and company creation. He explores navigating tough challenges, learning the business side of biotech, and embracing risk to tackle unsolved problems in drug discovery using AI and high-throughput data, delivering an insider’s perspective on both technology evolution and startup disruption in the life sciences sector.

"If you're not fearful, what is something that you could do? If you're not worried about just publications or things, you could really spend a few years. What could you do?" In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, host Jon Chee explores Eswar Iyer’s dynamic journey from an inquisitive graduate student in India to a trailblazing builder at Harvard’s Wyss Institute. Eswar reveals how hands-on problem-solving and a commitment to non-transactional relationships fueled his scientific evolution, leading to transformative roles where serendipity, mentorship, and neurodiversity powered groundbreaking innovation and fostered a vibrant, high-performing lab culture in biotech’s most exciting environments.

"I was just very naive, and I just wanted to get down and do things. I was not thinking of how to finish my PhD fast; I just wanted to do something that was meaningful." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Eswar Iyer takes us from his curious childhood in India through academic ups and downs at BITS Pilani and George Mason University to co-founding Aikium, a leader in AI-driven synthetic biology. Eswar shares how creative problem-solving, building custom scientific tools, and resourceful learning environments fueled his growth, while supportive mentors and cultural adaptation guided his path. His story reveals how adversity and persistence, combined with a resourceful “startup” mindset, inspire innovation and resilience for biotech founders at every stage.

"We're not making a more sustainable leather. Yes, we do that. What we're making is a better leather. It's real leather, but it comes completely uniform in rectangular sheets that you can then work with super efficiently." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Qorium CEO Michael Newton reveals how his mission-driven team is reinventing leather through synthetic biology and tissue engineering, producing uniform, high-quality material. He draws on his Nike experience to discuss the realities of scaling deeptech, overcoming fundraising and market-entry challenges, forging key partnerships, and stresses the value of mentorship and bold early-career risks.

"Hard things are hard. But we gotta go do them, or we gotta go try." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Michael Newton shares his journey from private equity and finance to launching a pay-per-mile auto insurance startup, leading groundbreaking innovation at Nike, and taking on the CEO role at Qorium, a biotech venture in the Netherlands. He reflects on building Nike Innovation, driving sustainable initiatives like Flyknit, and navigating the leap from corporate life to startup challenges—offering sharp insights into scaling big ideas, evolving as a leader, and staying true to mission-driven work across every stage of his career.

"A true superpower is being able to ask for help. Always... It amazes me how responsive people will be to that." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Michael Newton recounts his unconventional journey from Dartmouth to Wall Street, revealing how lessons learned in private equity—and the challenges of being a generalist—ultimately led him to pursue an MBA at Harvard Business School. He reflects on bold career decisions, the power of mentorship, and the importance of continuous learning, offering listeners an inside perspective on early ambition in New York City and how authentic, context-driven leadership shapes successful teams in biotech and beyond.

"Attitude is by far number one… because you just aren’t gonna achieve anything in life if you don’t bring the right energy." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Jon Chee sits down with Michael Newton, CEO of Qorium, to explore the early influences that shaped his perspective on leadership, resilience, and innovation. From growing up in a gritty yet vibrant Chelsea in the 1980s, to helping in his father’s tech-focused publishing business, to finding his academic spark at Saint Ann’s and Dartmouth, Michael reflects on how his upbringing and mentors shaped his belief in the power of attitude as the foundation of success.

"The whole environment of the company is about discovery and innovation, so it's really buzzing with energy." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Samir Khleif reveals how he took Georgiamune from vision to reality—building a top-tier team, advancing a pipeline of novel drugs, and keeping innovation at the company’s core. Host Jon Chee explores what sets Georgiamune apart, as Samir opens up about navigating the pitfalls of fundraising, the shift from academia to entrepreneurship, and why transparency and self-awareness are crucial for success in biotech leadership.

"I always kept my lab at NCI, so I was always doing my research. But I was asked by him to lead the oncology critical path at the FDA, and I did that. I was doing that while also helping the King of Jordan develop the biotechnology strategy of Jordan and what it would take to move it forward." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Samir Khleif shares pivotal moments from his career at the crossroads of government, research, and entrepreneurship—reflecting on being chosen by FDA commissioner Andy von Eschenbach to lead oncology reform at the FDA, while simultaneously running his NCI research lab and advising Jordan’s national biotech strategy. He highlights the power of academic freedom, assembling a task force of over 120 top experts to advance regulatory change, and the leadership lessons gained building world-class teams—all culminating in a breakthrough that sparked the founding of Georgiamune.

“The way I have grown up in the field is not only to discover basic science findings, but also to have in mind always… how can we translate this discovery into a potential drug or an approach that could be given to patients.” In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Samir Khleif shares his inspiring journey from a formative fellowship at the National Cancer Institute—where he mastered bridging basic science and clinical care—to being handpicked to build the pioneering King Hussein Cancer Center in Jordan. Dr. Khleif’s story reveals how NCI’s culture of translating research into real-world impact shaped his vision for translational medicine and propelled him to bring world-class cancer care to new frontiers, overcoming formidable challenges along the way.

"Education was the highest value in our family. It was not even a question—it was the core." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Samir Khleif—Founder and CEO of Georgiamune—shares how his upbringing as a Middle Eastern refugee, in a family where education was everything, laid the foundation for his pioneering work in oncology and immunotherapy. Khleif recounts how formative experiences with his physicist father and the Boy Scouts instilled discipline, fairness, and a sense of adventure, shaping his leadership approach and fueling his journey from humble beginnings and early entry into medical school to spearheading innovative treatments that reprogram immune responses against cancer and autoimmune disease.

“This isn't just one gene edit—this is multiple edits, working in concert. It’s a fundamentally different chassis.” In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Aaron Edwards, co-founder of KiraGen Bio, shares how a Harvard Business School class project ignited the launch of a pioneering biotech taking on solid tumors with a bold, unconventional CAR T-cell therapy. He unpacks the real-world challenges of building KiraGen—navigating fundraising, assembling a strong team, and leveraging mentorship, partnerships, and machine learning—while highlighting how focus, discipline, and authentic leadership can set a startup apart, even when it means breaking from industry norms.

“This isn't just one gene edit—this is multiple edits, working in concert. It’s a fundamentally different chassis.” In part three of The Biotech Startups Podcast, host Jon Chee and Aaron Edwards dive into the realities of biotech entrepreneurship, spotlighting the power of non-traditional career paths, self-awareness, and creative knowledge sharing. They unpack how embracing new tools, fostering open debate, and democratizing information through platforms like Notion, ELNs, and social media can drive both personal growth and startup success. The conversation highlights the importance of capital efficiency, authentic community engagement, and building a culture where diverse perspectives fuel innovation in today’s fast-evolving life sciences landscape.

"You might not have developed it. You might not know where that is. But you're finding what that North Star is." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Aaron Edwards shares how a bold cold email launched him from Kentucky to a cutting-edge mRNA vaccine lab in Boston, setting the stage for a dynamic biotech career. He explores the culture shock of city life, how curiosity fueled his leadership, and the key lessons learned navigating academia, big pharma, and nimble startups—ultimately revealing how market cycles, organizational models, and operational discipline drive innovation and resilience in biotech.

"There was something else there that I needed to keep searching for... and that's a theme in my life." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, we explore the formative journey of Aaron Edwards, Co-founder and CEO of KiraGen Bio, as he shares how curiosity, conviction, and challenging convention led him from a small town in Kentucky to the forefront of biotech innovation in Boston. Aaron reflects on his upbringing with pharmacist parents, the impact of early mentors, and the pivotal experiences that shaped his leadership style and scientific vision. Listeners will hear how Aaron’s path was shaped by balancing competitive athletics with academic pursuits, navigating personal identity in a close-knit community, and seizing opportunities that broadened his perspective beyond traditional career paths. From his first wet lab experience with butterfly genetics to transformative internships in cancer research, Aaron’s story is one of resilience, self-discovery, and a relentless drive to make a difference in oncology.

"It's not a brute force approach. It's a cleverness-based approach. It's a new kind of information that lets us do new things." Host Jon Chee sits down with Ivan Liachko, founder and CEO of Phase Genomics, to unpack how clever, constraint-driven science turned a scrappy, bootstrapped lab into a genomics powerhouse. Ivan explains how their breakthrough technology—capturing the physical proximity of DNA—opened new frontiers in genome assembly, microbiome discovery, and cancer diagnostics, all propelled by a lean, scientist-led team and organic growth. The episode dives into Phase’s evolution into a data-driven research leader, its focus on non-dilutive funding over venture capital, and its vision for clinical impact and therapeutic spinouts—all fueled by a passion for unlocking powerful new biological information.

"If you get a new kind of information, suddenly you can do something with it that you couldn't do before at all." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Ivan Liachko shares how scientific curiosity and unexpected collaborations took him from DNA replication research in yeast at Cornell to a breakthrough in 3D genome mapping and the founding of Phase Genomics. Embracing Hi-C technology at the University of Washington, Ivan and his team unlocked a new kind of biological information, enabling scientists to assemble genomes and map complex microbial communities and their viruses—transforming what was once impossible into a new standard for genomics. His journey highlights how creativity, collaboration, and seizing serendipitous moments can drive the most impactful scientific innovations.