Time, Fuel, & Money

Reactive founders, unrealistic timelines, and the art of listening before you leap

Season 2 | Episode 3

Deborah is live from Advanced Therapies Week in San Diego, Vassili is on his way, and Karim is holding down the conversation from wherever the year of the Horse has him pointed. The Lunar New Year transition sets the tone: bold, forward, and honest about what the last season taught them.

The episode opens on a pattern Deborah keeps running into at conferences — founders and dealmakers who lead with money before they've earned the right to the conversation. The irony she puts plainly: you can be in the same room as some of the most valuable minds in biotech, and people will skip past them chasing a hundred-dollar bill taped under a chair.

Karim brings in The Obstacle Is the Way — not as motivational content, but as a genuine frame for how to stop reacting and start reading situations clearly. Events are neutral. We assign them meaning. Rockefeller understood this when everyone else was panicking during the Depression. Most early-stage founders don't, which is why "18 months to clinical trial" keeps showing up in decks that have no business saying it.

The conversation gets specific: the language barrier between academic medicine and venture capital, why leading with patient impact actually pushes investors away, and what it really takes to get into the manufacturing queue before you even have your IND enabling studies mapped. Deborah's analogy — the Baby Boom daycare waitlist problem applied to biotech — is one of the cleaner frames this show has produced.

The close is quieter: boldness this year might not mean charging forward. It might mean listening to yourself clearly enough to know when to pivot, and trusting that the uncoiling actually leads somewhere.

Doomscrolling, dopamine myths, and choosing real connection over noise

Season 2 | Episode 2

Season 2 continues with a familiar voice back in the conversation. Deborah Karim and Vassili open the year reflecting on what has been quietly draining people’s energy and attention and why it feels harder than ever to slow down.

Deborah, Karim, and Vassili unpack why doomscrolling isn’t really about “the internet,” but about an internal need for relief—especially when pressure (from society or from ourselves) starts to feel constant. They challenge the common “dopamine = pleasure” narrative, reframing dopamine as part of the reward system—not the thing that actually creates happiness—and explore how modern commerce and social platforms exploit that loop.

The conversation also draws a line between empty consumption and real restoration. Karim shares how baking (and even making espresso) becomes a meditative process—an example of using effort to reconnect with yourself rather than numb out. Deborah adds the nuance: social media can be useful when it drives action and learning, but it becomes “brain rot” when it replaces living.

They close on relationships: the difference between community and transaction. If you’re building only to “get something,” the relationship is already on borrowed time. The alternative is simpler—and harder: show up without an agenda, reduce the pressure you’re carrying, and choose connection that gives energy back.

This episode is about noticing the loop, naming it, and breaking it—so you can feel better and build better.

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.