The Biotech Startups Podcast

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

"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...

“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...

“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...

"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...

“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...