Fuel focus and building relationships when the noise is loud

Season 2 | Episode 1

Season 2 opens with a reset.

In this kickoff episode, Deborah and Karim reflect on JPM week and the quiet discipline it takes to move through crowded rooms without getting pulled into noise. Instead of chasing every event or optimizing for visibility, they focus on what’s actually controllable: energy, attention habits, and how they show up for people.

The conversation explores why rushing creates transactional energy and why meaningful relationships are built by slowing down and staying present. They discuss protecting fuel through sleep food movement and boundaries, and how small intentional choices compound over time into trust, leverage, and clarity.

The episode also looks inward at goal setting and self-assessment. Not every target needs to be hit to make progress, and growth often means recalibrating priorities rather than adding more. By replacing unhelpful habits with better ones and focusing on stewardship over short-term wins, founders and operators create durability in uncertain markets.

Season 2 will bring more guests, more behind-the-scenes building, and more signal for the community. This episode sets the posture for the year ahead calm focused and grounded in what actually moves things forward.

Fundraising, platform leverage, and the relationships that make biotech move.

BLPN Series | Episode 4 of 4

As JPM week approaches, we close the BLPN Series with a founder conversation that sits right at the intersection of science, capital, and the human reality of building.

Deborah and Karim are joined by Regina Leung, CEO of Sylamore Bio, a gene therapy company advancing rare disease programs while building a CNS delivery platform designed to cross the blood-brain barrier. Regina shares how Silimot is using a dual-track strategy: moving a lead rare-disease indication toward the clinic while leveraging platform partnerships to validate the tech, generate revenue, and de-risk development.

The conversation gets practical about what “raising in a hard market” actually looks like: why platform companies are often misunderstood, why chasing buzzwords backfires, and why founders are better served by 10 high-quality conversations than “a thousand frogs.” We also unpack the operational side—how to scale a team carefully, avoid hiring mistakes, and stay disciplined when partnership milestones demand more capacity.

We end where biotech always ends: with patients. Regina shares a sobering reminder of what’s at stake in ultra-rare disease—and why optimism isn’t naïve when it’s paired with execution, humility, and community.

This episode is about staying authentic, building the right relationships, and remembering that delivery—of drugs, of leadership, of help—wins.

Technology, trust, and doing the work when no one is watching

BLPN Series | Episode 3 of 4

As JPM Healthcare Conference week approaches, this episode of the BLPN Series shifts the focus from headlines and hype to what it really takes to move science forward: durable technology, patient outcomes, and teams willing to do the hard, unglamorous work.

In this conversation, Deborah and Karim are joined by Alex Herzlinger of Highland Instruments to explore what it means to build neurotechnology that actually delivers impact. Alex walks through Highland’s non-invasive brain stimulation platform, the long road of NIH-backed clinical validation, and why Parkinson’s disease became their go-to-market focus. The discussion moves beyond pitch decks into clinical reality—what patients experience, how functional improvement restores independence, and why rigor matters more than novelty.

Drawing on Alex’s background in the military, medtech commercialization, and entrepreneurship, the episode highlights a recurring BLPN theme: progress comes from consistency, humility, and collaboration—not shortcuts. We talk about earning trust with data, aligning technology with real clinical workflows, and how communities like BLPN help founders sharpen execution rather than posture for attention.

This episode is about substance over shine, building for patients first, and showing up prepared when it’s finally time to step onto the JPM stage.

Work-life harmony, failing earlier, and the human side of biotech.

BLPN Series | Episode 2 of 4

In the second episode of the BLPN Series, Deborah, Karim, and Vassili sit down with Chandima “Chandi”  Bandaranayaka, CEO of Precision Quantomics, for a follow-up after the Moneyball program at BIO and a real look at what it means to build when life is also happening. Chandi shares the story of rushing home from BIO as his two-year-old landed in the ICU, and how that moment sharpened the “why” behind his company’s mission: helping drug developers see earlier, with better biological signal, how therapies may behave across human populations, including pediatrics.

From there, the conversation moves into the messy, necessary idea of “failing earlier” in pharma. Chandi explains how quantitative proteomics can add a critical layer of data to PBPK modeling and modern AI workflows, reducing late-stage surprises, saving capital, and protecting patients. The group also gets practical in classic BLPN fashion: what’s real today (assay kits in use with pharma), what’s still being built (their Translational Proteomics Atlas), and who the ideal partners are right now, including organ-on-a-chip and microphysiological systems teams. And yes, Deborah leans fully into her role as biotech’s “Hitch,” asking the best question founders rarely get asked: if we were setting your company up on a first date, who are you trying to meet?

This episode is about purpose under pressure, the courage to learn the truth sooner, and the BLPN mindset in motion: find someone who can help, make the connection, and keep building.

Ego, resilience, and the community that moves biotech forward

BLPN Series | Episode 1 of 4

As the industry moves into a new year and gears up for JPM Healthcare Conference week, this first episode of the BLPN Series sets the tone for what actually matters when building gets hard.

In this conversation, Deborah and Karim are joined by Christiaan Engstrom, founder and CEO of BLPN, to unpack why progress in biotech is so often stalled by ego, isolation, and misplaced focus on capital as the first solution. Drawing from experiences across athletics, life sciences, and company building, Christiaan explains how BLPN and its Moneyball framework were designed around a simple principle: help first, without agenda.

The discussion challenges the idea of “biotech winter” as something to wait out, reframing tough cycles as filtration mechanisms that reward resilient teams, clear leadership, and real collaboration. We explore why community often creates more leverage than money, why founders need peers who will tell them the truth, and how servant leadership becomes a competitive advantage in uncertain markets.

This episode is about getting out of your own way, choosing people over posturing, and walking into the next season with clarity, humility, and momentum.

One word, letting go, and what it really means to move forward

Episode 32 of Time, Fuel, & Money is a year-end reflection on growth, friendships, and the quiet work that happens between milestones.

In this episode, Deborah and Karim look back on a year defined by fruition the ideas realized, relationships deepened, and paths clarified. They explore the practice of choosing a single word to guide a year, drawing on concepts from One Word and reflecting on how fruition shaped 2025, not as an ending, but as an uncoiling.

The conversation turns toward what comes next. Deborah shares why flourish feels like the right word for the year ahead, growth rooted in depth, health, and sustained execution. Karim reflects on letting go, cocooning, and the discipline of starting before motivation fades, emphasizing connection, presence, and finishing what was started.

Woven throughout are candid reflections on friendship, energy, cultural rituals around the New Year, and why real progress often requires subtraction, not addition.

This episode closes the year the way the podcast began, with an unscripted conversation about time, fuel, and money, and a reminder that flourishing starts by making space for what matters next.

Why “hope” can create anxiety, how agency changes the equation, and why sometimes the best move is no move

Episode 31 of Time, Fuel, and Money lands in that strange pocket between Christmas and the New Year, when the world slows down just enough for everything you’ve been suppressing to surface. Deborah and Karim welcome Vassili back to the mic and unexpectedly end up in a deep conversation about what hope actually is and why, for a lot of people, it doesn’t feel comforting at all.

In this episode, Vassili offers a sharp reframe: hope can quietly pull you into the future, and once you live in the future, you start wanting things from it and that’s where anxiety and suffering begin. Deborah connects it to the holiday season pressure, when reflection turns into self-criticism, and Karim pushes the idea further, separating grounded hope tied to action from naive hope that becomes cognitive dissonance. The conversation moves through faith, agency, and the temptation to outsource your sense of security to jobs, systems, or other people.

The episode closes with a counterintuitive takeaway that hits especially hard this time of year: sometimes the most powerful form of hope is “no action” in the moment letting emotions pass, releasing the pressure, and choosing your next move from clarity instead of momentum.

This episode is about staying present, rebuilding agency, and entering the new year without being dragged around by outcomes.

Ego, timing, and the real drivers of acquisition as a new deal cycle begins

Episode 30 of Time, Fuel, and Money lands at a familiar inflection point: year-end dealmaking, shifting power, and a market quietly preparing for what comes next.

In this episode, Deborah and Karim explore what happens when startups grow into empires and how ego, timing, and leadership archetypes often determine who survives the transition. Using Netflix’s evolution and the Blockbuster miss as a lens, they unpack why scale is rarely about technology alone and why market access, distribution, and trust drive acquisition outcomes more than founders expect.

The conversation expands into biotech and diagnostics, examining recent multibillion-dollar deals and why acquirers are often buying customers and channels, not just innovation.

As the industry heads into JPM week, the episode sets the stage for an upcoming BLPN interview series, where founders, operators, and investors will be tested on how they think about competition, positioning, and long-term fit in consolidating markets.

This episode is about reading the season correctly and preparing for the year ahead.

Why high performers struggle more with rest than with 14-hour workdays

Episode 29 digs into why “time off” feels like an energy imbalance for founders, operators, and clinicians whose nervous systems are wired for motion. Deb, Karim, and Vassili unpack the latest GLP-1 disappointment in Alzheimer’s, why drugs alone can’t reprogram behavior, and how placebo, awareness, and the vagus nerve all shape our ability to slow down. They explore what it means to treat rest as a trainable skill—not a reward you earn by burning out.

You’ll hear practical ways to design recovery into your week: solo dinners as nervous-system resets, micro-moments of stillness that don’t trigger panic, and a more honest look at hustle culture’s obsession with 14-hour days.

This episode helps ambitious people build sustainable performance by learning to rest on purpose, not by accident or collapse.

Topics:

• Why rest feels like an “energy imbalance”
• GLP-1, Alzheimer’s & the limits of magic bullets
• Placebo as real behavior-change technology
• Vagus nerve 101: gentle slowing vs. emergency brake
• Micro-practices for recovery (alone time, movement, new environments)
• Simplifying daily routines so holidays don’t wreck your rhythm
• Hustle culture, 14-hour days & identity
• Treating rest and recovery as high-priority skills for founders and investors

How high performers navigate the emotional whiplash of “time off”

Episode 28 sits inside the tension founders feel during the holidays: the brain wants motion while the calendar demands stillness. Deb, Karim, and Vassili unpack why rest feels like anxiety, why gratitude can sting when you’re burnt out, and how dopamine and cortisol shape our seasonal mood. They offer a more compassionate frame for year-end reflection—one that doesn’t rely on performance or forced positivity.

This episode helps high performers rest without guilt, pressure, or comparison.

Topics:

• Neuroscience of rest vs. urgency
• Dopamine, cortisol & holiday stress
• Actual rest vs. paused work
• Redefining laziness for high performers
• Gratitude without performance pressure
• Honoring invisible seasons
• Choosing rest that actually fits you