Federico Paoletti, co-founder of Exogene, founded his biotech company immediately after finishing his PhD, which led to a steep learning curve and many valuable lessons he now shares with other founders. He and his co-founder learned to operate like a tech startup inside biotech: validate the market before the product, iterate fast, and let customer discovery shape the platform thesis. He shares how a tough SF fundraising trip reframed their pitch from an asset-only story to a bigger, platform-driven vision that fits the right investor audience. We dig into non-dilutive funding tactics, using a success-fee grant writer, building a lab-in-the-loop data flywheel without overhiring, and hiring senior talent creatively with part-time plus equity to reach milestones without burning runway. We also cover the founder mindset: asking “dumb” questions to accelerate learning, leveraging mentors who understand both tech and biotech, tracking macro signals to time raises, and pushing back on default VC expectations when they don’t serve the company’s stage.
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00:00 Founder arc and why market-first beats tech-first in biotech
06:30 The SF trip that reframed the story: asset vs. platform, and pitching the right investor
2:45 Building a non-dilutive funding stack: six UK grants, early platform revenue, friends-and-family as match
18:10 Success-fee grant writer playbook and how non-scientist reviewers evaluate
22:00 Hiring to milestones: part-time senior talent + equity, geo-distributed team to extend runway
27:30 Mentors who span tech and biotech, and the cadence that compounds
31:40 Founder mindset: ask “dumb” questions, iterate in public, push back on default VC expectations
36:20 Watching macro signals (e.g., NVDA) to time raises and plan runway
