In this podcast episode, Davit Buniatyan, the founder and CEO of ActiveLoop, shares his journey from academia to entrepreneurship. He discusses pivoting from his PhD research to founding ActiveLoop, reflects on the significance of Y Combinator (YC), and highlights the benefits of settling in Silicon Valley for startup success. Davit also addresses the challenging decision to continue as a solo founder after the departure of co-founders and offering investors the option to withdraw their funding. Additionally, the conversation explores broader entrepreneurial challenges, including fundraising strategies, balancing innovation with scaling, and insights into the evolving landscape of AI hardware. Davit also discusses Armenia's potential role in the global AI ecosystem.

Joining us in episode 5 is Marvin Liao, a Partner at Diaspora VC, formerly a Partner at Venture Capital fund 500 Global, with over 450 investments under his belt. Tune in to listen to Marvin's story of accidentally entering the VC world, his approach to sourcing good deals, insights into his anti-portfolio, and his perspective on emerging European markets, computational biotech, and digital healthcare. Additionally, he shares his thoughts on why startup accelerators may have become obsolete.

Harry Glorikian is an executive leader with extensive experience in the life sciences and healthcare sectors. He's also a general partner at Scientia Ventures VC firm. In this episode with Harry we discuss:

1. His venture capital journey and his prior experience in the healthcare and life sciences industry.

2. Evaluating investment opportunities in the biotech sector and the importance of the team in a startup's potential success.

3. The success of Scientia Ventures IPOs and the notable example of Royalty Pharma.

4. The challenges and nuances of investing in biotech.

5. The traditional and low-tech nature of the venture capital industry.

6. Exciting trends in biotech and health tech, including AI applications, remote clinical trials, gene editing, immuno-oncology, and data analytics.

7. Emerging biotech hubs and factors that contribute to a geography's potential for success in biotech startups.

8. Lessons learned from investment failures and the importance of active listening and sharing experiences.

9. The impact of working in the biotech and health tech industry on personal health and wellness.

10. The prevalence of pseudoscientific advice in the health and wellness space and the need for evidence-based approaches.

In this episode our guest is Zaré Baghdasarian - an entrepreneur and C-suite leader with whom we discussed current top investment sectors, founder qualities indicative of future success, common startup mistakes, overvaluation and exciting investment deals.