The Biotech Startups Podcast

"The moment that you stop being curious in your job is the moment you need to run out the front door."

In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, we explore Amy Hay's remarkable evolution from a longtime leader at MD Anderson Cancer Center to an entrepreneurial consultant and medtech executive. Amy shares the deeply personal and professional challenges of leaving an institution that defined her for two decades, describing how a "painful" leadership change became the ultimate catalyst for her growth and reinvention.

Amy details her global journey, from navigating the cultural nuances of opening oncology clinics in Brazil to the eye-opening experience of consulting in Nigeria, where she learned that healthcare innovation must meet people where they are. She discusses the founding of her consulting firm, Evolve, its timely acquisition by Varian just before the global pandemic, and her eventual full-circle return to the Houston biotech ecosystem to lead strategy in the burgeoning field of cell therapy.

Key topics covered:

• Global Healthcare Nuances: Lessons from Brazil and Nigeria on why "plug-and-play" medical models fail without cultural adaptation.
• Navigating Career Inflections: How to pivot with passion and curiosity when professional circumstances shift unexpectedly.
• The Entrepreneurial Leap: Founding and selling a boutique consulting firm (Evolv) and the importance of timing in business.
• Medtech Integration Strategies: Insights into the human psychology of acquisitions and the merger between Varian and Siemens Healthineers.
• The Future of Precision Medicine: Bridging the gap between academic research and industrial scale in cell therapy manufacturing.

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, Amy Hay at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amychay/Website: https://ctmc.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:Proton Therapy for Cancer Treatment: https://www.cancer.org/cancer/managing-cancer/treatment-types/radiation/proton-therapy.htmlCell Therapy Manufacturing and CDMO Services: https://resilience.com/cell-therapyMD Anderson Cancer Network Model: https://www.premierhealth.com/your-health/articles/premier-pulse/2024-md-anderson-cancer-network-changesAdministrative Fellowships in Healthcare: ​https://www.ache.org/career-resource-center/seek-new-opportunities/administrative-fellowshipsMulti-omics in Precision Medicine: https://www.mdpi.com/topics/Z6ZWJQ7U1I​Theranostics in Cancer Care: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theranostics
Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:MD Anderson Cancer Center: https://www.mdanderson.org/Albert Einstein Israelite Hospital (Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein): https://www.einstein.br/Varian Medical Systems (Varian, a Siemens Healthineers company): https://www.varian.com/Siemens Healthineers: https://www.siemens-healthineers.com/
Henrique Neves: https://www.linkedin.com/in/henrique-sneves/?locale=en_USJames Cox: https://www.astro.org/about-astro/history/history-interviews/james-coxJason Bock: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-b-bock/
Timestamps: 00:00 Intro01:55 The Plug-and-Play Healthcare Lesson: Building Einstein's Oncology Program in Brazil05:58 Meeting People Where They Are: Consulting Work in Nigeria09:15 Getting Bored at the Top: Recognizing When It's Time to Leave MD Anderson13:06 The Luckiest Unluckiest Person: Pivoting After a Career-Defining Loss18:02 Founding Evolv Consulting and Selling to Varian Before the Pandemic22:08 Navigating the Siemens Healthineers Acquisition of Varian27:49 Full Circle: Returning to MD Anderson's Ecosystem Through CTMC30:26 Key Lessons on Managing Humans Through Acquisition and Change32:58 When to Integrate vs. Keep Separate: Alignment and Synergy34:07 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.

🧬 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.
"If you're persistent, you can get there. If I think it's gonna be meaningful, I'm willing to do whatever it takes."

In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Amy Hay, Chief Business Officer at CTMC, shares how she transformed ground-level patient care experience at MD Anderson into high-impact leadership that reshaped cancer treatment delivery. She traces her path from MD Anderson's first-ever internal administrative fellow to spearheading the institution's first proton therapy center and pioneering satellite clinics—including a "flea-bitten" Bellaire, Texas facility that became a runaway success by prioritizing convenience, compassion, and continuity of care. Amy recounts the audacious multi-year journey of raising 125 million dollars by assembling an unlikely coalition of clinicians, physicists, investment bankers, and construction operators, weathering the shock of 9/11 and frozen capital markets, then pivoting to purpose-driven local investors like firefighters' and police officers' pension funds whose communities are directly impacted by cancer.

Along the way, Amy reflects on the challenges of intrapreneurship inside a major academic medical center, the unexpected emotional letdown that follows a "big win," and how that restlessness ultimately pushed her toward global oncology. She shares how collaborations with Hospital Albert Einstein in São Paulo, the American Hospital in Istanbul, and other international partners expanded her perspective beyond elite U.S. centers, sharpening her focus on access, alignment, and building care models that work across diverse health systems—not just in Houston.

Key topics covered:

• Standing out internally: How Amy became MD Anderson’s first internal administrative fellow by connecting frontline experience to C‑suite impact.
• Building a Proton Therapy Center: From a vision with no budget to a 125 million dollar project, and what it took operationally and emotionally to make it real.
• Pivot after 9/11: Why the team abandoned traditional Wall Street fundraising and turned to firefighter and police pension funds aligned with the mission.
• Patient‑centric satellite care: Transforming a “flea‑bitten” Bellaire clinic into a beloved extension of MD Anderson by prioritizing convenience, continuity, and compassion.
• From Houston to global oncology: Amy’s shift from U.S. academic medicine to building international cancer networks and improving access to quality care worldwide.
  
  

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, Amy Hay at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amychay/Website: https://ctmc.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:
Proton Therapy for Cancer Treatment (patient-friendly overview) – https://www.cancer.org/cancer/managing-cancer/treatment-types/radiation/proton-therapy.htmlHow Radiation Therapy Works – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_therapyUnderstanding Pension Funds and Mission-Driven Investing – https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/pensionfund.aspHealthcare Intrapreneurship and Innovation in Large Organizations – https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9530418/Satellite Clinics and Access to Care in Oncology – https://www.accc-cancer.org/docs/documents/oncology-issues/articles/2022/v37-n3/filling-the-gap-app-utilization-to-meet-care-needs-in-oncology.pdf?sfvrsn=d68651de_6Global Disparities in Cancer Care Access – https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cancer
Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:MD Anderson Cancer Center: https://www.mdanderson.org/Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein: https://www.einstein.br/enMassachusetts General Hospital: https://www.massgeneral.org/Loma Linda University Medical Center: https://lluh.org/
James Cox, MD https://www3.mdanderson.org/library/hrc/legacies/cox.html​Ritsuko Komaki, MD https://www.linkedin.com/in/ritsuko-komaki-11a14918/ 
Timestamps: 00:00 Intro01:46 Landing the coveted MD Anderson administrative fellowship04:57 Discovering a passion for ORs, labs, and radiation oncology07:10 Vision to build MD Anderson’s first proton therapy center09:40 Transforming a “flea‑bitten” Bellaire satellite into a patient favorite​11:40 Starting the proton center project with no budget and a “proton family”​14:20 Fundraising pivot after 9/11 and partnering with local pension funds19:18 Building and operating the Proton Therapy Center with Hitachi technology21:32 Lessons in alignment, teams, and “intrapreneurship” inside MD Anderson24:34 Boredom after success and realizing most cancer care happens in the community26:40 Global oncology work with Hospital Albert Einstein and other international partners29:15 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.

🧬 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.
"If you work hard and you try hard, you'll get there. It might take a long time. It might be a little bit bloody, and you might be battered, but you'll get to the top of the mountain. You just have to work hard."

In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, we explore Amy Hay's formative years and the experiences that shaped her unique approach to healthcare leadership. From caring for her grandparents through dementia in Dallas to landing her first job at MD Anderson Cancer Center on the same day as its new president, Amy's journey reveals how personal crisis, liberal arts education, and unwavering resilience can forge a distinctive path in oncology and biotechnology.​

Amy shares how her father's advice to "behave as if you're in your next job" transformed her approach to work, starting from her role as a receptionist where she learned to never say no—only how. She recounts her unconventional college application using a photo essay documenting individuals at a Dallas food bank on Thanksgiving, her child life internship at Santa Rosa Hospital, and how these experiences taught her that meaningful healthcare careers extend far beyond clinical roles. Amy also discusses the critical balance between the business of healthcare and patient care, explaining how her decision to pursue a Master's in Healthcare Administration while working full-time at MD Anderson gave her real-world context to apply theoretical knowledge immediately.

Key topics covered:

• Early Healthcare Exposure: How caring for grandparents with dementia and watching her parents navigate crisis sparked a lifelong passion for supporting people through difficult times
• Artistic Business Thinking: Blending her mother's artistic creativity with her father's business acumen to create novel collaborations and partnerships that shouldn't work on paper but become exceptional
• Liberal Arts Foundation: Using photography and psychology at Southwestern University to understand people deeply, culminating in a child life internship that revealed non-clinical healthcare pathways
• Building Reputation Through Service: Starting as an MD Anderson receptionist in 1996, learning every system, and becoming the go-to problem solver by always saying yes and figuring out how
• No Margin, No Mission: Recognizing the symbiotic relationship between healthcare business economics and quality patient care, leading to graduate education while maintaining full-time work

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, Amy Hay at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amychay/Website: https://ctmc.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:Child Life Specialist Role and Training: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22651-child-life-specialistChild Life Specialists in Cancer Care: https://www.fredhutch.org/en/patient-care/services/child-life.html
Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:MD Anderson Cancer Center: https://www.mdanderson.org/Southwestern University: https://www.southwestern.edu/Santa Rosa Hospital: https://www.christushealth.org/locations/santa-rosa-hospital-westover-hillsHouston Baptist University: https://www.hbu.edu/
​Dr. John Mendelsohn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mendelsohn_(doctor) 
Timestamps: 00:00 Intro05:13 Amy’s upbringing and early passion for helping people08:08 The “behave as if you’re in your next job” philosophy09:23 Influence of Amy’s artist mother and business-minded father11:22 College journey and the photo essay application16:25 Internship as a child life specialist at Santa Rosa Hospital17:40 Undergraduate experience and influential professors20:05 First day at MD Anderson Cancer Center in 199625:34 Learning the business of healthcare and “no margin, no mission”27:26 Bridging research, clinical care, and business29:01 Graduate school experience at Houston Baptist University31:45 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.

🧬 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.
"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.
Key topics covered:

• Building across borders: Navigating cultural differences, employment laws, and business norms while scaling a pharmaceutical company from 3 employees to 1,100+ across 37 countries in Europe and beyond
• ​Culture as competitive advantage: Why culture eats strategy for breakfast, lessons from Netflix's No Rules Rules, and designing companies around autonomy, mastery, and purpose rather than financial incentives
• ​The cell therapy revolution: Understanding personalized living medicines that turn human immune cells into cancer cures, and why 35,000+ patients have been treated but accessibility remains limited
• ​Commercial viability from day one: Why researchers must elevate cost and scalability alongside safety and efficacy in early development, or risk creating therapies that never reach patients
• ​From vendor to trusted advisor: Building Ori Biotech's ecosystem approach with servant leadership, focusing on long-term partnerships over short-term profit maximization

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, Jason C. Foster, at these links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncfoster/ https://oribiotech.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:How to Spin Out of Academia https://www.excedr.com/resources/how-to-spin-out-of-academia-and-into-a-startup How VC-Backed Startups Win When They Lease https://www.excedr.com/blog/how-vc-backed-startups-win-when-they-lease Marketing & Sales Strategies for Startups https://www.excedr.com/blog/marketing-sales-strategies-for-biotechs 
Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:Farlan Veraitch  https://www.linkedin.com/in/farlan-singh-veraitch-a677112/ Reed Hastings https://www.linkedin.com/in/reedhastings/ Dan Pink https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielpink/ 
Timestamps:00:00 Intro​01:39 Touching Down in London and Cultural Adjustments​04:44 Mentorship and Navigating European Business07:09 The Journey to IPO at the LSE​11:08 Lessons in Entrepreneurship and Finding Your Role​15:26 The Power of Culture in Building Companies​20:17 Entering the Venture Ecosystem and Discovering Cell Therapy27:04 Founding Ori Biotech and Building From Scratch33:17 Commercial Viability and Downstream Thinking in Drug Development​39:33 Go-to-Market Approach and Building Credibility​54:59 What's Next for Ori Biotech​57:41 Shout-Outs and Closing Advice​01:00:41 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.

🧬 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.
"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.
Throughout the conversation, Jason and host Jon Chee discuss lessons that stayed with him: the importance of early work experiences, the value of dealing with the public in retail and hospitality, why sometimes leaders must choose the “least worst” option when no perfect decision exists, and how understanding that people are not purely rational transforms how you approach negotiation, sales, and leadership. Jason also shares early insights that foreshadow his later work at Ori Biotech, including the power of mission-driven teams and the need to bridge different cultures and working styles, such as engineers and biologists, to build transformative technologies.
Key topics covered:

• Early Entrepreneurial Roots: How paper routes, yard work, and door-to-door sales built Jason’s work ethic and self-sufficiency from a young age
• ​Family and Business Influence: Growing up in a business-oriented household and seeing sales, travel, and “international business” up close
• ​From Policy to Healthcare: Moving from the House Commerce Committee and FDA reform work in D.C. to recognizing the greater impact potential in the private sector
• ​Columbia MBA Lessons: International exposure, high-performance peers, and pivotal teachings about “least worst” decisions and non-rational behavior
• ​Communication and Leadership: Why communication creates outsized value, and how understanding human behavior shapes sales, management, and startup decision-making

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, Jason C. Foster, at these links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncfoster/ https://oribiotech.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:University of Virginia https://www.virginia.edu/ Columbia University https://www.columbia.edu/ How to Spin Out of Academia https://www.excedr.com/resources/how-to-spin-out-of-academia-and-into-a-startup How VC-Backed Startups Win When They Lease https://www.excedr.com/blog/how-vc-backed-startups-win-when-they-lease Marketing & Sales Strategies for Startups https://www.excedr.com/blog/marketing-sales-strategies-for-biotechs 
Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:Merck https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merck_%26_Co. Medco https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medco_Health_Solutions Larry Sabato https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Sabato Emma Walmsley https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmawalmsleygsk/?originalSubdomain=uk 
Timestamps:00:00 Intro02:30 Growing Up as an Only Child and Early Communication Skills04:33 Family Business Background and Early Entrepreneurial Spirit09:52 College Decision and University of Virginia Experience13:18 Political Science at UVA and Path to Washington D.C.20:39 Choosing Columbia MBA and Moving to New York24:46 Memorable Challenges at Columbia Business School43:01 Job Search During Economic Downturn and Entry into Pharma46:36 Starting Field Marketing Division at Medco50:44 Joining Small Pharma Company in Addiction Medicine54:41 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.

🧬 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.
"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.​

Key topics covered:

• How to pitch VCs: Simplifying your deck, using strong visuals, anticipating objections, and treating fundraising like dating rather than a numbers game.​
• Founder mindset during rejection: Seeking honest feedback, avoiding neediness or defensiveness, and using “your baby is ugly” moments to strengthen the story.​
• Selecting the right VC partners: Investment theses, stage and check-size fit, reputation checks with portfolio founders, and the importance of warm introductions.​
• Negotiation and deal terms: Market comparables, fair ownership splits, avoiding paranoia, and focusing on building a massive outcome rather than fighting over a few points.​
• Beyond the money: How NFX and GHIC provide networks, strategic guidance, media amplification, and “fairy godmother” polishing for Centivax’s universal vaccine platform.​
• Roadmap for Centivax: Universal flu vaccine timelines, pivot to RNA-LNP delivery, expansion into HIV and coronavirus programs, and organizing the company around going first-in-human.​
  
  

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, Jacob Glanville, at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobglanville/Website: https://www.centivax.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:Building Backwards to Biotech (Book by Stephanie Wisner): https://books.google.com/books/about/Building_Backwards_to_Biotech.html?id=6pwlzwEACAAJVenture Capital Investment Thesis Explained: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/investment-thesis.aspRNA-LNP (Lipid Nanoparticle) Vaccine Technology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipid-based_nanoparticleIND-Enabling Studies for Clinical Trials: https://www.fda.gov/drugs/types-applications/investigational-new-drug-ind-applicationHAI Titer and Vaccine Efficacy Correlates: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6530189/Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Standards: https://safetyculture.com/topics/gmpNegotiation Strategies for Founders: https://hbr.org/2014/04/15-rules-for-negotiating-a-job-offerSeries A Fundraising for Biotech Startups: https://www.excedr.com/resources/what-it-takes-to-raise-a-series-aContract Research Organizations (CROs) in Drug Development: https://novotech-cro.com/blog/what-role-cros-drug-development
Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:NFX https://www.nfx.com​​Global Health Investment Corporation (GHIC) https://ghicfunds.org​​Twist Bioscience https://www.twistbioscience.comCharles River Laboratories https://www.criver.com/ Endpoints News https://endpts.com/Stephanie Wisner https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-wisner-5aa4556a/
Timestamps: 00:00 Intro01:00 Condensing the Pitch Deck and Lessons from Fundraising01:26 Finding Mentors and Understanding VC Culture07:45 Handling Rejection and Learning from Feedback11:42 Choosing the Right VC: Beyond Just the Money16:54 Negotiation Strategy and Fair Terms19:01 Building Awareness and Living Rent-Free in People's Minds20:11 Centivax's Next Steps: Universal Vaccines and RNA LNP Technology24:58 Phase 1 Clinical Trials and Platform Validation25:49 Shout-Outs to Team Members and Collaborators29:15 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.

🧬 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.
"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.

Key topics covered:

• Building Distributed Bio's business model: Software licensing, SuperHuman library development, and service contracts without VC funding
• Scrappy early-stage execution: USF grad student partnerships, Guatemala animal facility, and surviving SuperHuman 1.0's defects
• Scaling operations: JLABS growth, equipment leasing strategy, protocol standardization, and hiring 60-70 interns over multiple years
• The "Respiration Model": Balancing organic innovation with hierarchical execution, managing co-founder tensions, and creating culture
• Strategic exit and new chapter: CRO acquisition timing, competitive landscape analysis, and spinning out Centivax for universal vaccines

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, Jacob Glanville, at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobglanville/Website: https://www.centivax.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:Distributed Bio Acquisition https://www.criver.com/charles-river-acquired-distributed-bio Deep Sequencing for Phage Display Library Analysis https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37966608/PEGS Conferences https://www.pegsummit.com/Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud Computing https://aws.amazon.com/health/life-sciences/Phage Display Technology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phage_displayEquipment Leasing for Biotech Startups https://www.excedr.com/resources/equipment-leasing-strategies-for-biotech-startupsIncubator Models (JLABS) https://jnjinnovation.com/jlabsCompanies, Universities, & People mentioned:Pfizer: https://www.pfizer.com/JLABS: https://www.jnj.com/tag/jlabsCharles River Laboratories (CRO): https://www.criver.com/ University of San Francisco (USF): https://www.usfca.edu/Gates Foundation: https://www.gatesfoundation.org/Illumina: https://www.illumina.com/Gilead: https://www.gilead.com/Boehringer Ingelheim: https://www.boehringer-ingelheim.com/Adimab: https://adimab.com/
Timestamps: 00:00 Intro01:09 Finding Co-Founders and the Three-Stage Plan06:46 Building the SuperHuman Library with USF Graduate Students​10:22 Starting at JLABS and Scaling Lab Space​11:19 Equipment Leasing as a Growth Strategy​14:02 Challenges That Kept Him Up at Night​18:13 Learning from Academia vs Big Pharma Approaches​20:27 The Respiration Model: Balancing Innovation and Execution​23:32 Decision to Pursue Acquisition with Charles River​27:15 Spinning Out Centivax and Universal Vaccine Technology​27:43 Pandemic Timing and Gates Foundation Support​32:19 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.

🧬 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.

"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.
Key topics covered:

• Antibody Engineering at Pfizer: Building phage display analysis tools and turning a laptop into antibody.pfizer.com
• Deep Sequencing and Library Design: Using high-throughput sequencing to iteratively improve antibody discovery libraries
• Leaving Big Pharma: Walking away from Principal Scientist to pursue a universal vaccine concept and PhD
• Stanford and Distributed Bio: Balancing academic research, company building, and clean IP boundaries
• Career Strategy: Industry vs. academia, early exposure, and finding work that fascinates you

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, Jacob Glanville, at these links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobglanville https://www.centivax.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:Hidden Markov Models https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt1004-1315Technology Transfer 101 https://www.excedr.com/blog/what-is-tech-transfer Spinning Out of Academia & Into a Startup https://www.excedr.com/resources/how-to-spin-out-of-academia-and-into-a-startup 
Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:Rinat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinat_Neuroscience_Corporation Pfizer: https://www.pfizer.com​ Stanford University: https://www.stanford.edu​ UC Berkeley (University of California, Berkeley): https://www.berkeley.edu Kimmen Sjolander https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimmen-sj%C3%B6lander-98a592/?originalSubdomain=nl Jaume Pons https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaume-pons-7560384/ Arvind Rajpal https://www.linkedin.com/in/arvind-rajpal/ Andrea Rossi https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrearossisf/ Wenwu Zhai https://www.linkedin.com/in/wenwu-zhai-1083575/ Javier Chaparro-Riggers https://www.linkedin.com/in/javier-chaparro-riggers-0415093/ Sawsan Youssef https://www.linkedin.com/in/sawsan-youssef-b274b010/ 
Timestamps:00:00 Intro01:25 Landing a Job at Pfizer and First Days in Industry03:47 Building Bioinformatics Tools and the Antibody.Pfizer.com Server08:10 Creating a Web Server and Collecting Antibody Data10:59 Deep Sequencing Antibodies and Building Better Libraries13:45 Why Leave Pfizer for Stanford17:16 Going Behind Enemy Lines: From Berkeley to Stanford18:46 Advice on Industry Experience vs. PhD Programs20:44 Starting Distributed Bio Before Stanford24:34 Finding What Fascinates You vs. What You Love27:33 Navigating Stanford's Tech Transfer and Keeping Church and State Separate29:44 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.

🧬 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.
"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.
Key topics covered:

• Growing Up in Guatemala: How limited healthcare and infectious disease exposure motivated Jake's focus on medicine and immunology​
• Family Influences: The impact of a rocket engineer grandfather, entrepreneurial parents, and an artist mother on his scientific ambition​
• Entrepreneurial Mindset: Lessons in operations, problem-solving, and people management from running a restaurant in volatile conditions​
• Mayan Negotiation Principles: Market-born lessons in fair, relationship-focused deal-making and being "pushy smooth"​
• Berkeley and Computational Immunology: Combining molecular biology, population genetics, and programming to analyze immune diversity

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, Jacob Glanville, at these links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobglanville https://www.centivax.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:Tzʼutujil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tz%CA%BCutujil_peopleHidden Markov Models in Biology https://www.ebi.ac.uk/training/online/courses/pfam-creating-protein-families/what-are-profile-hidden-markov-models-hmms/Guatemalan Civil War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemalan_Civil_War 
Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:University of California, Berkeley: https://www.berkeley.edu/ Pfizer: https://www.pfizer.com/ Rocketdyne: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocketdyne Glenys Thomson https://www.linkedin.com/in/glenys-thomson-26961533/ 
Timestamps:00:00 Intro02:29 Growing Up in Guatemala and Grandfather's Influence05:16 Healthcare Challenges and Early Interest in Medicine07:23 Learning from Parents' Restaurant Business09:43 Artistic Training and Cross-Disciplinary Thinking10:16 Mayan Culture and Negotiation Philosophy11:07 The Hard Mode of Hospitality Business12:52 Meeting People and Building Relationships14:50 The Art of Negotiation and Leadership16:49 Learning to Say No17:29 Decision to Attend UC Berkeley19:56 Discovering Computational Immunology22:58 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.

"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.
Key topics covered:

• AI Commoditization: Why the core AI foundation layer is eroding and defensibility requires full-stack, wedge-owning solutions
• Funding Paradigm Shifts: How revenue benchmarks have evolved with companies skipping entire funding stages
• Tech Bio Reality Check: Why AI biotech platforms failed by forgetting that biotech is a drug business, not a software business
• Customer-Centric Building: The importance of understanding actual customer needs versus assumed efficiency gains, especially in healthcare's 16-month procurement cycles
• Firm Culture & Winning Deals: How EQ, technical depth, and authenticity enable winning competitive Series A rounds with smaller checks against tier-one investors

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, Krish Ramadurai, at these links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krishramadurai/https://www.aixventures.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:Full-stack applications vs point solutions https://mitratech.com/resource-hub/blog/point-vs-platform-solutions-tech-stack-strategies-to-prepare-you-for-the-future/ Power law distribution in venture capital returns https://www.bipventures.vc/news/explainer-what-is-the-venture-capital-power-lawChoose the Right Contract Research Organization https://www.excedr.com/blog/contract-research-organizations CRO Expansion: Growth Without Adding Lab Space https://www.excedr.com/blog/cro-expansion-how-to-grow-without-adding-lab-space 
Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:OpenAI: https://openai.com/ Insilico Medicine: https://insilico.com/ Recursion Pharmaceuticals: https://www.recursion.com/ Sujata Bhatia https://www.hks.harvard.edu/about/sujata-k-bhatia Abhirup Banerjee https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhirupb88/?originalSubdomain=uk Shaun Johnson https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaunbjohnson/ Richard Socher https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardsocher/ Christopher Manning https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-manning-011575/ Anthony Goldbloom https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonygoldbloom/ Pieter Abbeel https://www.linkedin.com/in/pieterabbeel/ 
Timestamps:00:00 Intro02:21 State of AI-Native Venture Capital & Market Commoditization04:21 Defensibility, Full-Stack Wedges & Shifting Funding Benchmarks07:35 AI Froth, Customer Overwhelm & Painkillers vs Vitamins09:51 Where AI Actually Matters in Biotech & AI-Developed Drugs13:26 The Reality of Venture Capital: Glamour vs Fund Management15:29 Building AIX: Firm Culture, Mission & Track Record17:23 Why Founders Choose AIX: EQ, Technical Depth & Being “Normal”21:45 Communicating Complex Science & Making STEM Accessible22:40 Looking Ahead: Fund III, 100 New Cures & Practicing the Craft24:35 Shout-Outs, Mentors & the Importance of Good People25:01 Advice to 21-Year-Old Self: Failure, Tactical Suffering & Growth26:43 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.