Challenges and Triumphs in Cancer Detection Startup

Part 2 of 3.

My guest for this week’s episode is Maneesh Jain, CEO and Co-Founder of Mirvie, a life science company that predicts pregnancy complications before they happen by revealing the underlying biology of pregnancy health. Mirvie is dedicated to shaping the future of pregnancy health through simple, personalized blood tests.

Before Mirvie, Maneesh was a founder, CEO, or executive of five successful start-ups, which include Parallele Bioscience, Auriphex Bioscience, Ion Torrent, Butterfly Network, and Cirina. All of the businesses successfully exited or commercialized to the likes of Affymetrix, Illumina, Life Technologies, the FDA, and GRAIL, respectively.

Join us as we sit down with Maneesh to talk about having the confidence to learn new things outside your comfort zone and how it is likely to be a core skill for future generations. Maneesh also discusses leveraging learnings from the semiconductor industry's supply chain to find new paths to innovation.

Lastly, we cover his thoughts on how to maintain culture when going through mergers and acquisitions, and how using the power of liquid biopsies led to his success at Cirina and later Mirvie. Please enjoy my conversation with Maneesh.

Find Our Guest, Maneesh Jain, at these links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/maneesh-jain-2509388/
https://www.mirvie.com/

Find Our Host, Jon Chee, at these links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonchee
https://www.excedr.com

Social & Website
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@excedr
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/excedr_inc
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExcedrInc
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/excedr
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@excedr
Podcast Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:38 Episode start, starting Aurifex BioScience, company scale and its effect on innovation
04:38 Getting out of your comfort zone, having the confidence to learn something new
06:29 Going to Ion Torrent, leveraged learnings from supply chains in the semiconductor industry
09:58 Scaling a team and designing go-to-market strategies as the first commercial hire
13:30 Acquisitions and mergers, keeping culture intact when having a partner company
15:25 Butterfly Network, clinical applications of using ultrasounds on a chip, democratizing technology
19:24 Working with the FDA, founding Cirina and the power of liquid biopsies
22:36 Early detection of cancer, building teams across the world
25:54 Biggest challenges and triumphs at Cirina, global applications of clinical studies
27:44 Outro

Enriched Notes:
Topics Mentioned:
Stanford Genome Technology Center https://med.stanford.edu/sgtc.html
Bootstrapping Your Startup https://www.excedr.com/resources/how-to-bootstrap-biotech-startup
Illumina https://www.illumina.com/
DNA Sequencing with Illumina https://www.excedr.com/blog/featured-manufacturer-illumina
Next Generation Sequencing https://www.excedr.com/biotech-life-sciences/ngs-next-generation-sequencers
NGS Overview https://www.excedr.com/blog/next-generation-sequencing-101
454 Life Sciences https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/454_Life_Sciences
Medical Imaging https://www.excedr.com/blog/medical-imaging-and-radiology-overview
FDA https://www.fda.gov/
Cirina/GRAIL https://grail.com/press-releases/grail-and-cirina-combine-to-create-global-company-focused-on-early-detection-of-cancer/
Lab Equipment https://www.excedr.com/blog/medical-lab-equipment-list

People Mentioned:
Mostafa Ronaghi https://www.linkedin.com/in/mostafa-ronaghi-505440/
Jonathan Rothberg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Rothberg
Min Cui https://www.linkedin.com/in/min-cui-64bb178/ 

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.