The most played episodes among Podcast App listeners.

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   Number 1: Cold Calling Your Way Into Venture Capital | Philip Borden (2/4)

   🧬 The Biotech Startups Podcast is powered by Excedr: helping life science startups accelerate R&D and commercialization with founder-friendly equipment leasing. Skip the upfront costs, stay lean, and focus on breakthrough science. As a TBSP listener, you can get exclusive perks through Excedr's partner network: special savings, promotions, and more. Explore these offers today: https://www.excedr.com/partners. “What I could offer is I'm willing to work hard. I'm willing to learn. I'm willing to be a good contributor.” Philip Borden explains how realizing he did not want to pursue a PhD or spend his career at the lab bench led him toward venture capital. With a molecular biology degree, limited finance experience, and a list of biotech VC firms, he picked up the phone and cold-called his way into Frazier Healthcare in Seattle. Philip shares why personal relationships, phone calls, and in-person conversations matter more than email when building trust. He discusses selling as communication and listening, the humility required to ask for an opportunity, and the culture lessons he learned from working alongside experienced investors. He also explains why investors owe founders timely, respectful answers, including a clear no. The conversation closes with the small customer rituals Labshares uses to honor entrepreneurs, from ribbon cuttings to creating a fun place to work. Key Topics Covered:Career ExplorationMolecular BiologyCold CallingVenture CapitalFrazier HealthcarePersonal RelationshipsPhone CommunicationFounder RespectInvestor ResponsivenessCustomer Experience If you enjoy The Biotech Startups Podcast, please consider subscribing, leaving a review, or sharing it with your friends. Thanks for listening. Listen and subscribe to The Biotech Startups Podcast:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-biotech-startups-podcast/id1679591994Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PSL162R2s0zOwU5913Zv4YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebiotechstartupspodcastWebsite: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/ Find our guest, Philip Borden, at these links:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipbordenWebsite: https://www.labshares.com/ Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonchee/ Learn more about Excedr:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/Website: https://www.excedr.com Intro & Outro Songs Created by OkKyojin, Owned by Excedr:Website: https://flow.page/kyojin Resources & Articles:Labshares About Us: https://www.labshares.com/about-usHarvard Business School: https://www.hbs.edu/Duke University: https://www.duke.edu/University of Washington: https://www.washington.edu/Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/ Companies, Universities, & People Mentioned:Frazier Healthcare Partners: https://www.frazierhealthcare.comRiverside Partners: https://www.riversidepartners.comGalen Partners: https://www.galen-partners.comLongfellow Healthcare Partners: https://www.longfellowhc.comDuke University: https://www.duke.eduHarvard Business School: https://www.hbs.eduAmazon: https://www.amazon.comMicrosoft: https://www.microsoft.comModerna: https://www.modernatx.com Alan Frazier: https://www.frazierhealthcare.comNader Naini: https://www.frazierhealthcare.comPatrick Herron: https://www.frazierhealthcare.comÖrn Almarsson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ornalmarsson Timestamps:00:00 Intro01:31 Choosing Not to Pursue Graduate School03:40 Finding a Path Into Venture Capital04:10 Cold-Calling Frazier Healthcare04:54 Why the Phone Still Matters06:49 Selling as Communication and Listening08:10 Humility and the Frazier Culture09:47 Moving to Seattle11:57 Learning Through Partner Meetings12:26 Screening Deals and Meeting Entrepreneurs12:55 Respecting Founders in Vulnerable Moments15:37 The Importance of Closing the Loop18:30 Manufacturing Luck19:04 Honoring Customers With Ribbon Cuttings19:51 Outro The Biotech Startups Podcast gives you a front-row seat to the business and science of building a biotech. Hosted by Jon Chee, CEO of Excedr, the show features honest conversations with founders, execs, and investors about their work, their companies, and how they got there. From scientific breakthroughs to startup lessons, each episode explores what it really takes to grow a life science company—from pre-seed to IPO.

   September 03, 2026·22min
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   Number 2: 🧬 Execution, Liquidity, & Founder Lessons | Nathan Clark Rerelease (1/4)

   🧬 The Biotech Startups Podcast is powered by Excedr: helping life science startups accelerate R&D and commercialization with founder-friendly equipment leasing. Skip the upfront costs, stay lean, and focus on breakthrough science. As a TBSP listener, you can get exclusive perks through Excedr's partner network: special savings, promotions, and more. Explore these offers today: https://www.excedr.com/partners “There's no secret. It really is just doing.” Nathan Clark reflects on the formative influence of his entrepreneurial father, who showed him that business and even home building are learned through research, effort, and execution rather than secret insight. Nathan also discusses his unconventional high school experience, his decision to study business and finance at the University of North Carolina, and the early interest in biology and futurism that stayed with him. Nathan explains how his quantitative interests led him to Goldman Sachs, where he worked on a collateralized loan obligation trading desk. He breaks down market making, liquidity, bid-ask spreads, inventory, risk management, and the importance of balancing books in an illiquid market. The conversation also explores the habits Nathan developed on the trading desk, including rigorous reconciliation, attention to detail, understanding the mechanics behind the numbers, and making disciplined decisions under pressure. He connects those lessons to entrepreneurship, emphasizing execution, diligence, capital allocation, and learning from other industries. Key Topics Covered:Nathan's upbringing and entrepreneurial fatherExecution over secret insightImposter syndrome and taking actionAn unconventional high school and college pathStudying business, economics, and finance at UNCEarly interest in biology, futurism, and OpenWormRecruiting for investment banking versus tradingGoldman Sachs and collateralized loan obligation tradingMarket making and providing liquidityBid-ask spreads, fair pricing, and bond liquidityRisk management and balancing a trading bookAttention to detail and operational diligenceTransferable lessons for founders If you enjoy The Biotech Startups Podcast, please consider subscribing, leaving a review, or sharing it with your friends. Thanks for listening. Subscribe to the Podcast:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-biotech-startups-podcast/id1679591994Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PSL162R2s0zOwU5913Zv4YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebiotechstartupspodcastWebsite: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/ Find our guest, Nathan Clark, at these links:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-clark-4b850134/Website: https://ganymede.bio/ Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonchee/ Learn more about Excedr:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/Website: https://www.excedr.com/ Intro/Outro music:OkKyojin: https://flow.page/kyojin Resources & Articles:Ganymede: https://ganymede.bio/OpenWorm: https://openworm.org/UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School: https://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/Goldman Sachs: https://www.goldmansachs.com/Affirm: https://www.affirm.com/Benchling: https://www.benchling.com/ Companies, Universities, & People Mentioned:Goldman Sachs: https://www.goldmansachs.com/Affirm: https://www.affirm.com/Benchling: https://www.benchling.com/OpenWorm: https://openworm.org/University of North Carolina: https://www.unc.edu/ Timestamps:00:00 Intro02:00 Early Life and Family Influence03:06 No Secret to Business03:30 Execution and Imposter Syndrome07:53 Choosing an Entrepreneurial Path09:03 Early Interest in Biology11:11 Unconventional High School Experience11:51 Choosing UNC13:48 Business, Economics, and Finance14:33 Joining Goldman Sachs15:36 How Bond Trading Works20:07 Liquidity and Risk28:10 Attention to Detail at Goldman34:07 Lessons for Founders35:19 Outro The Biotech Startups Podcast gives you a front-row seat to the business and science of building a biotech. Hosted by Jon Chee, CEO of Excedr, the show features honest conversations with founders, execs, and investors about their work, their companies, and how they got there. From scientific breakthroughs to startup lessons, each episode explores what it really takes to grow a life science company—from pre-seed to IPO.

   August 17, 2026·37min
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   Number 3: 🧬Unconventional Career Moves in Biotech: Finding a Path to Leadership | Caitlyn Krebs (Part 1/4)

   🧬 The Biotech Startups Podcast is powered by Excedr—helping life science startups accelerate R&D and commercialization with founder-friendly equipment leasing. Skip the upfront costs, stay lean, and focus on breakthrough science. As a TBSP listener, you can get exclusive perks through Excedr’s partner network—special savings, promotions, and more. Explore these offers today: https://www.excedr.com/partners. “There are many different ways to get into leadership roles in biotech — there is not one door.” In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Caitlyn Krebs, co-founder and CEO of Nalu Bio, traces her journey from tagging endangered sea turtles on the Big Island of Hawaii to leading an AI-powered company designing novel cannabinoid-inspired small molecules for pain, inflammation, endometriosis, and metabolic disease. She reflects on being humbled at Brown University, where she fell in love with data analysis while studying leptin and early obesity science, then recounts jumping into the Bay Area’s dot-com boom as the third employee at a startup before, at just 27, taking the helm of BayBio and managing a 26-person board of biotech leaders—along the way crossing paths with a 20-year-old Stanford dropout named Elizabeth Holmes. Key topics covered:Growing Up in Hawaii: Tagging endangered sea turtles and discovering a lifelong passion for scienceBrown University & Early Humility: Getting humbled at an Ivy, doubling down on orgo, and falling in love with dataFrom .com to Biotech: Jumping into a dot-com startup and learning entrepreneurship the hard wayRunning BayBio at 27: Leading a biotech trade group and a 26-person board long before most peers managed a teamBoard Management Lessons: Keeping board meetings focused, aligning motivations, and leveling up with modern tools like Zeck If you enjoy The Biotech Startups Podcast, please consider subscribing, leaving a review, or sharing it with your friends. Thanks for listening. Subscribe to the Podcast:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-biotech-startups-podcast/id1679591994Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PSL162R2s0zOwU5913Zv4Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebiotechstartupspodcast Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/ Find our guest, Caitlyn Krebs at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caitlynkrebs/Website: https://www.nalubio.com/ Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonchee Learn more about Excedr:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/ Website: https://www.excedr.com Intro & Outro Songs Created by OkKyojin, Owned by Excedr:Website: https://flow.page/kyojin Resources & Articles:Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle Conservation: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/green-turtleThe Endocannabinoid System Explained: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5576607/Endometriosis: A Chronically Underserved Condition: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/endometriosisOrganic chemistry explained: https://www.britannica.com/science/organic-chemistryThe Dot-Com Boom and Its Legacy on Silicon Valley: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dotcom-bubble.aspAI-Powered Drug Discovery in Biotech: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-023-01693-z​Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:Brown University: https://www.brown.edu/Zeck: https://www.zeck.app/ John C. Martin: https://www.gilead.com/news/news-details/2021/gilead-sciences-comments-on-the-passing-of-john-c-martin-phdElizabeth Holmes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-holmes-bb7326238Edward Norton: https://fortune.com/2024/04/29/zeck-cofounded-by-edward-norton-raises-7-million-board-meetings-software/ Timestamps: 00:00 Intro05:02 Growing Up on the Big Island of Hawaii06:37 Tagging Endangered Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles08:01 Choosing Brown University Over the West Coast10:26 Culture Shock: From Hawaii to Providence14:01 Undergraduate Lab Experience and Falling in Love with Data17:09 Moving to San Francisco During the Dot-Com Boom18:40 Joining Zedo as a Third Employee and Learning Entrepreneurship21:46 Managing Engineers for the First Time24:14 Transitioning Into the Biotech World via BayBio26:18 Becoming President of BayBio at 2728:38 Key Lessons and Pitfalls in Board Management31:59 Using Zeck to Streamline Board Meetings33:52 Outro The Biotech Startups Podcast gives you a front-row seat to the business and science of building a biotech. Hosted by Jon Chee, CEO of Excedr, the show features honest conversations with founders, execs, and investors about their work, their companies, and how they got there. From scientific breakthroughs to startup lessons, each episode explores what it really takes to grow a life science company—from pre-seed to IPO.

   April 13, 2026·36min
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   Number 4: 🧬 Resilience After Loss: Leadership Lessons for Biotech Founders | Richard Yu (Part 3/4)

   🧬 The Biotech Startups Podcast is powered by Excedr—helping life science startups accelerate R&D and commercialization with founder-friendly equipment leasing. Skip the upfront costs, stay lean, and focus on breakthrough science. As a TBSP listener, you can get exclusive perks through Excedr’s partner network—special savings, promotions, and more. Explore these offers today: https://www.excedr.com/partners. “Every moment is like this opportunity to, like, do the right thing and make something better.” In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Richard Yu, co-founder and CEO of Abalone Bio, reflects on building a company around a bold scientific vision — and the personal moments that shaped his leadership along the way. He unpacks the core insight behind Abalone Bio's yeast-based screening platform: that conventional antibody discovery optimizes for binding over function, like grabbing scissors by the blades. Richard also opens up about the devastating loss of co-founder Gustavo Pesce in a 2021 skiing accident, how the team and investors rallied with unwavering support, and how that crisis ultimately sharpened his sense of purpose and focus. From weathering hundreds of investor rejections to landing partnerships with Pfizer and Sichuan Pharma, Richard offers an honest look at running a biotech startup with a platform-driven, portfolio-management mindset. Key topics covered: Function Over Binding: Why traditional antibody discovery chases binding, while Abalone Bio screens directly for functional impact.Loss & Leadership: How Gustavo Pesce’s sudden passing in 2021 reshaped Richard’s priorities and leadership style.Team & Resilience: How a tight-knit core team, including CSO Toshi and AI lead Samir, rallied to keep the science moving.Platform vs. Pipeline: How Richard balances building the platform with advancing products that prove its value.Revenue & Partnerships: How Abalone Bio uses partnerships like Pfizer and Shichuan Pharma to blend near-term cash with long-term upside. If you enjoy The Biotech Startups Podcast, please consider subscribing, leaving a review, or sharing it with your friends. Thanks for listening. Subscribe to the Podcast:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-biotech-startups-podcast/id1679591994Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PSL162R2s0zOwU5913Zv4Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebiotechstartupspodcast Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/ Find our guest, Richard Yu at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-c-yu/Website: https://www.abalonebio.com/ Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonchee Learn more about Excedr:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/ Website: https://www.excedr.com Intro & Outro Songs Created by OkKyojin, Owned by Excedr:Website: https://flow.page/kyojin Resources & Articles:G Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G_protein-coupled_receptorBinding Affinity vs. Functional Efficacy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affinity_(pharmacology)Molecular Dynamics Simulations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_dynamicsDe Novo Drug Design and Artificial Intelligence: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adl5364Platform vs. Pipeline Business Models in Biotech: https://ergobio.substack.com/p/founders-of-drug-discovery-engineDilutive vs. Non-Dilutive Funding for Startups: https://eqvista.com/startup-fundraising/dilutive-vs-non-dilutive-funding/Memento Mori and Stoicism: https://orionphilosophy.com/memento-mori/​Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:Pfizer: https://www.pfizer.comAbCellera: https://www.abcellera.comAdimab: https://www.adimab.comQB3: https://qb3.org Toshihiko Takeuchi https://www.linkedin.com/in/toshihiko-takeuchi-3135711/ ​Monica Schwartz https://www.linkedin.com/in/monica-schwartz-67761b44/ Lauren Schwimmer https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenschwimmer/ Sameer Soi https://www.linkedin.com/in/sameersoi/ Timestamps: 00:00 Intro02:03 Abalone's Mission and the GPCR Drug Development Vision02:36 The Real Founding Team: Richard and Gustavo03:42 The Devastating Loss of Co-Founder Gustavo Martinez06:39 Finding Clarity and Focus Through Grief09:16 Running Out of Money and Leaning on Core Values11:13 Building the Team After Gustavo's Passing12:18 The State of the GPCR Antibody Market14:05 Why Binding Affinity Is the Wrong KPI15:44 Yeast-Based Screening Technology and Functional Data20:06 Balancing Platform Development vs. Pipeline Products21:01 Revenue Strategy and Business Philosophy25:05 Ideal Collaboration Partners: Pfizer, Sichuan, and Beyond25:41 OutroThe Biotech Startups Podcast gives you a front-row seat to the business and science of building a biotech. Hosted by Jon Chee, CEO of Excedr, the show features honest conversations with founders, execs, and investors about their work, their companies, and how they got there. From scientific breakthroughs to startup lessons, each episode explores what it really takes to grow a life science company—from pre-seed to IPO.

   March 23, 2026·27min
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   Number 5: 🧬 Quitting Physics to Treat Biology Like an Engineering Problem | Richard Yu (Part 1/4)

   🧬 The Biotech Startups Podcast is powered by Excedr—helping life science startups accelerate R&D and commercialization with founder-friendly equipment leasing. Skip the upfront costs, stay lean, and focus on breakthrough science. As a TBSP listener, you can get exclusive perks through Excedr’s partner network—special savings, promotions, and more. Explore these offers today: https://www.excedr.com/partners. Episode Description: "The magic is always at the intersections." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, we explore CEO & co-founder of Abalone Bio, Richard Yu’s journey from his Midwestern and New Jersey upbringing as the son of Chinese immigrants to UC Berkeley and Yale, tracing how living at the intersection of cultures and disciplines shaped his identity as a scientist and founder. He shares how a friend's pitch about “engineering proteins to eat dirt” pulled him from physics into biophysics, igniting a passion for treating biology as an engineering discipline. Along the way, Richard contrasts Berkeley’s sink-or-swim entrepreneurial energy with Yale’s rigorous East Coast culture, reflects on mentors who sharpened his scientific thinking, and explains how his early interest in systems biology and an unconventional postdoc path ultimately laid the foundation for Abalone Bio. Key topics covered: Immigrant Roots & Core Values: How Richard's upbringing as the son of Chinese immigrants shaped his core values of kindness, resilience, and an outsider's perspective that still drives him todayDiscovering Biophysics at Berkeley: A chance conversation with a friend that flipped Richard's worldview — turning a physics major into a biophysics devotee who saw biology as an engineering disciplineEast Coast vs. West Coast Academic Culture: Berkeley's sink-or-swim hustle vs. Yale's rigorous academic intensity — and how Richard drew from bothEarly Intersections of Biology & Computation: Applying early machine learning to protein structure prediction and why Richard believes the magic always happens at the intersectionsChoosing an Unconventional Path: Resisting the academic tractor beam to join the Molecular Sciences Institute, a scrappy, under-the-radar hub that helped shape modern synthetic biology If you enjoy The Biotech Startups Podcast, please consider subscribing, leaving a review, or sharing it with your friends. Thanks for listening. Subscribe to the Podcast:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-biotech-startups-podcast/id1679591994Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PSL162R2s0zOwU5913Zv4Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebiotechstartupspodcast Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/ Find our guest, Richard Yu at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-c-yu/Website: https://www.abalonebio.com/ Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonchee Learn more about Excedr:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/ Website: https://www.excedr.com Intro & Outro Songs Created by OkKyojin, Owned by Excedr:Website: https://flow.page/kyojin Resources & Articles:Biophysics as an Engineering Discipline: https://www.nature.com/subjects/biophysicsProtein Structure & Crystallography: https://www.rcsb.org/ Early AI & Neural Networks in Protein Structure Prediction: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03819-2The Henderson-Hasselbalch Equation: https://www.khanacademy.org/science/ap-chemistry-beta/x2eef969c74e0d802:acid-base-equilibria/x2eef969c74e0d802:buffers/a/henderson-hasselbalch-equationX-ray Crystallography & NMR in Structural Biology: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK26864/Emergent Behavior & Complexity (Flocking / Murmuration): https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-simple-algorithm-that-ants-use-to-build-bridges-20180226/ Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:UC Berkeley: https://www.berkeley.edu/Yale University: https://www.yale.edu/Molecular Sciences Institute: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_Sciences_InstituteNIH (National Institutes of Health): https://www.nih.gov/ Teresa Head-Gordon: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teresa-head-gordon-873b3759Roger Brent: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-brent-0a3b55Rob Carlson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-carlson-22a9792Sydney Brenner: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Brenner Timestamps: 00:00 Intro03:24 Richard Yu’s Upbringing and His Immigrant Family Story06:45 Moving for Work and Growing Up in New Jersey08:10 Early Interest in Computers, Physics, and STEM09:16 Discovering Biophysics at UC Berkeley10:39 First Wet Lab Lessons and Learning How Biology Works13:40 Choosing Grad School Over the Early Tech Boom15:36 Arriving at Berkeley and Feeling Like an Outsider20:10 Yale, East Coast Academic Culture, and Structural Biology25:56 Startup Energy in the Lab and Richard’s Management Style27:23 Moving Away from Academia Toward Applied Science36:47 OutroThe Biotech Startups Podcast gives you a front-row seat to the business and science of building a biotech. Hosted by Jon Chee, CEO of Excedr, the show features honest conversations with founders, execs, and investors about their work, their companies, and how they got there. From scientific breakthroughs to startup lessons, each episode explores what it really takes to grow a life science company—from pre-seed to IPO.

   March 16, 2026·39min
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