Invisible Ink

In this episode of Invisible Ink, molecular biologist and biotech entrepreneur Daisy Robinton, founder of Oviva Therapeutics, joins Shubha Chakravarthy to share her journey from academia to leading a women’s health startup.

Daisy turned a personal encounter with gaps in female physiology knowledge—despite holding a PhD— into her mission to address ovarian function as a key driver of women’s healthspan, all the way to a successful exit in a tough funding and M&A environment.

Check out this episode for her thoughtful and pragmatic insights on:

1. How to transition successfully from a scientist to founder
2. How to tell if your biotech asset is ready for commercialization
3. How to balance science and business as a scientist-founder
4. The challenges of fundraising in biotech and how to set yourself up for success
5. The art of making science-business tradeoffs, and how to do it well
6. How to convince skeptical male investors of the market opportunity in women's health
7. Tested tips from the trenches for first time CEO's
8. Why storytelling is a game changer, and how to do it well for any audience
9. Thinking ahead: exit and post-exit realities
10. Tips to leverage your scientific training to translate into any domain

and much more! 

In this episode of Invisible Ink, pricing strategist Joanne Smith, formerly an executive at DuPont and now a leading expert in value-based pricing, joins Shubha Chakravarthy to unpack the science and art of pricing for early-stage deep tech startups.


Check out Joanne's real-world, battle-tested advice and smart, practical strategies, as well as her sharp insights on:

1. The single biggest pricing pitfall tripping up technical founders, and how to overcome it
2. How to build courage and confidence in your pricing
3. The essence of value-based pricing
4. How to identify true value in a large customer organization
5. How to quantify your product's value and ROI
6. How to identify value when your product has multiple use cases and applications
7. The one type of buyer you should avoid, and how to spot them in the wild
8. Smart ways to handle price pushback from important customers
9. How to split value between you and your customer
10. Practical and effective tips to overcome price objections
11. How to design effective pilots for risky technologies without sacrificing future pricing upside

 and much more!

In this episode of Invisible Ink, Dr. Maria Blehker—founder of Serendipity Capital and expert in behavioral science—joins Shubha Chakravarthy for a deep dive into how startups, particularly in deep tech and mental health, can succeed by blending scientific rigor with human insight and strategic funding.

Check out this episode to hear her practical tips on how you can leverage research-driven insights from behavioral science to jumpstart progress with your startup as Maria shares her views on:

1. Serendipity Impact VC's thesis and the market opportunity in mental health
2. The emerging founder trends driving new healthcare startups
3. Why behavioral science is your secret superpower to accelerate your startup's success
4. How to accelerate customer acceptance of your new product 
5. Simple steps to improve your sales success in selling an unproven product to a resistant market
6. Then one small reframe that can turn prospects from apathetic to enthusiastic
7. How to find critical flaws in your product without getting your soul crushed
8. Small but powerful ways to overcome stereotype bias that anyone can use
9. Secrets to building strong investor relationships long before you need them

and much more!

In this episode of Invisible Ink, Sharon Tal, co-creator of the Where to Play framework and co-author of the book by the same name, joins Shubha Chakravarthy to walk through how startups—especially in STEM and deep tech—can systematically discover and prioritize their best market opportunities.

Sharon draws on over two decades of experience mentoring founders and academic research to explain why many startups fail due to poor market choices, not product issues. She presents the Market Opportunity Navigator as a structured, three-step tool to help founders avoid costly mistakes, identify high-potential opportunities, and maintain strategic agility.

Tune in to hear Sharon's thoughtful and research-backed perspectives on:

1. Why choosing the right market can make or break your startup.
2. Big founder blind spots that can derail your startup before you even start
3. A powerful new way to unlock unsuspected new market opportunities
4. How not to get blinded by your founder bias 
5. How to evaluate market opportunities, even for products that don't yet exist
6. Why chasing the first customer who knocks might steer you off course — and what to do instead.
7. The myth of "focus from day one" — and why exploration first leads to smarter decisions.
8. How to prioritize markets without giving up your options
9. How to pick the right market when there are no easy answers
10. How to build agility into your startups - and signal flexibility to investors without losing focus 
11. How to be prepared to capitalize on the best opportunities regardless of where you start

and much more!

In this episode of Invisible Ink, Eileen Tanghal, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Black Opal Ventures, joins Shubha Chakravarthy for a deep dive into how founders can better understand venture capital beyond just fundraising and what truly drives VC decision-making.

Eileen reveals what founders often miss: that VCs are entrepreneurs too, managing their own businesses with investor expectations and partnership dynamics. She outlines how founders should think more like CEOs—understanding venture returns, fund dynamics, and how their startup fits into the investor’s portfolio strategy. 

Tune in for Eileen's insights on: 

1. How VC fundable opportunities are born
2. How to get on the same page with a VC instantly
3. The three layers of VC decision making most founders don't know
4. What drives the decision: inescapable VC math it pays for you to know
5. How VCs really evaluate your financial model
6. Inside tips on what makes your roadmaps credible to a VC
7. How TAM, SAM SOM play into a VC's funding decision
8. What VC's look for when assessing your milestones
9. The real test of whether you have a great team, as a VC sees it
10. How to demonstrate credibility even if you've never built a startup or raised funding before
11. Three top takeaways you can implement tomorrow

and much more!

In this episode, Hanna Wu, co-founder and CEO of Amplify, joins Shubha Chakravarthy to share her journey building a customer-centric, digital life insurance platform focused on wealth accumulation.

Tune in to listen to the inspiring journey that took Hanna from running her own financial planning firm to founding the company that has been dubbed a future unicorn by TRAC. Check out Hanna's insights on:

• What it takes to disrupt a legacy industry
• How to take the simple but powerful steps to validate your market and demand
• How to craft a killer value proposition in a competitive field
• How to find the right customer segments to break into a tough business
• How to adapt product offers with changing demand
• The secret formula to tackle market changes in any industry, and the one capability that you can't do without
• How to prepare for unexpected changes in the fundraising market, and the surprising impacts you must be prepared to face
• What it really means to hire an A-team, and how to ensure you're getting the best people on board for the long haul
• The one type of investor you really can't do without, and why they matter
• Road-tested tips to prepare yourself for the long-haul, especially if you want to have a life outside your startup.

and much more!

In this episode, Ingrid Bonde Åkerlind joins Shubha Chakravarthy to unravel the complexities of pricing for early-stage startups, especially in the world of SaaS and “XaaS” business models.

Tune in to hear Ingrid's reflections on her unexpected journey into pricing, starting from scratch in a C2C marketplace to making investment decisions with a venture capital firm. Ingrid shares powerful insights about price inertia, customer psychology, and how anchoring and framing play critical roles in both B2B and B2C contexts. 

Don't miss her practical and actionable insights on:

• Why pricing is often the orphan function in early-stage startups—and why it shouldn't be.
• The psychological biases that impact pricing—across both B2C and B2B markets.
• Why SaaS and XaaS pricing models are harder than they look.
• Key differences in pricing strategy for early-stage versus mature startups.
• How to use customer interviews for pricing research—even without hard data.
• Why pricing isn't just about the number, but about picking the right value metric.
• Best practices for testing different pricing models with early customers.
• Practical tips for reviewing and iterating on your pricing regularly.

and much more!

In this episode, Elise Strobach, co-founder and CEO of AeroShield, joins Shubha Chakravarthy to share her journey from lab discovery to clean tech startup founder. Drawing on her experience as a mechanical engineering PhD at MIT, Elise discusses how a breakthrough in transparent silica aerogels evolved into a venture-backed company tackling one of the world’s biggest energy inefficiencies—heat loss through windows.

Tune in to listen to Elise's thoughtful and actionable takes on:

1. How the path to commercialization happens in the real world
2. The big, unsuspected factor that can make your breakthrough marketable
3. Key pivot points that drive commercialization impact in the research phase, and how to capitalize on them
4. How to do customer interviews the right way
5. The surprising secret to making your innovation attractive in the commercial market
6. What big adverse events can teach you, and how to turn them to your advantage
7. A killer strategy to optimize your grant outcomes
8. How to use grant applications to also build customer traction 
9. How to build your execution roadmap when dealing with uncertain funding outcomes
10. A secret to overcome imposter syndrome

and much more!

In this episode, Maja Voje, go-to-market strategist, author, and growth expert, joins Shubha Chakravarthy to unpack the real essence of go-to-market (GTM) strategy—far beyond the buzzword.

Drawing from her extensive experience advising startups and corporates alike, Maja reveals her tested GTM framework, rooted in experimentation, structured thinking, and real market insights. She breaks down the six mission-critical elements of GTM: understanding the market and competition, defining your early customer profile (ECP), building value-aligned products, crafting sharp positioning and messaging, pricing based on perceived value and evidence, and finally, setting up scalable growth and sales channels. 

Check out her information-packed, tested and foolproof views on:

• How to define and validate your go-to-market strategy early on
• Why “launch” is not the same as go-to-market, and why that matters
• How to pick your beachhead market and early customer profile (ECP)
• How to think about your product in a way that  improves the odds of product market fit
• What product-market fit actually looks like in the real world
• Why pricing isn’t just about numbers and what to focus on in setting price
• How to position your product to stand out (without overthinking it)
• How to choose and sequence your growth channels
• The top 3 actions for founders rethinking their GTM strategy

and much more!

What if the way we think about building a business is fundamentally flawed? In this epsiode, Heidi Neck, a leading voice in entrepreneurship education, shares actionable insights from her extensive research and experience, emphasizing that "organizations are not entrepreneurial, people are".

Whether you're navigating a high-growth startup or seeking to instill innovation within an established company, you'll gain practical tools. Learn to apply the Entrepreneurial Thought & Action (ET&A) methodology, master the art of "affordable loss," and understand why a "quilting" approach can be more effective than following a rigid "puzzle". This conversation is a masterclass in cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset, led by an educator who is shaping the future of the field.  










Tune in to listen to Heidi's views on:

1. Why business plans don't work, and how to do better
2. The real inner game of entrepreneurship, and how to cultivate it.
3. The make-or-break differences most founders overlook.
4. The powerful ET&A method 
5. Finding your sweet spot in the face of uncertainty.
6. How to launch and grow, even without funding.
7. The "affordable loss" concept: A risk-reducing mindset shift for smarter decisions.
8. Why negative feedback is your secret weapon.
9. The counterintuitive habit that fuels rapid progress.
10. Embracing the "direction over plan" philosophy for greater agility.
11. Using puzzles and quilts to build your entrepreneurial superpowers
12. The 3 investor questions you MUST answer to unlock capital.

and much more!