Choosing Passion Over Safer Bets

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In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Jon Chee talks with Andrey Doronichev about his leap from tech at YouTube and Google to launching OPTIC and reinventing it as BIOPTIC, an AI-powered drug discovery startup. 

Andrey shares the ups and downs of projects like AIorNot, the pivotal link between big data and drug development, and how “agentic AI” now drives BIOPTIC’s rapid progress—proving that real biotech breakthroughs require humility, adaptability, and big-picture thinking.

Key topics covered:

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Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-biotech-startups-podcast/id1679591994

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PSL162R2s0zOwU5913Zv4

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebiotechstartupspodcast 

Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doronichev/

Website: https://bioptic.io/

 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonchee

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/ 

Website: https://www.excedr.com

Website: https://flow.page/kyojin 

AlphaFold: https://deepmind.google/science/alphafold/

Enamine REAL Database: https://enamine.net/compound-collections/real-compounds/real-database

Schrödinger (computational chemistry & drug discovery software): https://www.schrodinger.com/platform/

OpenAI: https://openai.com/index/introducing-deep-research/

Perplexity: https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/introducing-perplexity-deep-research

OPTIC: https://bioptic.io/

Google: https://www.google.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/

AIorNot: https://aiornot.com/

Insilico Medicine: https://insilico.com/

Atomwise: https://www.atomwise.com/

BenevolentAI: https://www.benevolent.com/

Schrödinger: https://www.schrodinger.com/

PureTech: https://puretechhealth.com/

Artem Cherkasov: https://www.linkedin.com/in/artem-cherkasov-155165b/?originalSubdomain=ca

David Thacker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thackerd/

Anna Kostikova: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annakostikova/?originalSubdomain=nl

Eric Elenko: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-elenko-560b1b44/

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

01:45 OPTIC’s Market Collapse and AIorNot Spinout

07:02 Startup Pivots and Lessons from Tech History

09:42 TED Inspiration: Moving OPTIC to Drug Discovery

10:36 Winning a Kaggle Protein Function Challenge

15:20 Pivot to BiOptic and New AI Mission

16:35 Surfing Metaphors and Startup Timing

21:22 BiOptic Platform’s Early Technology Roadmap

26:18 Research Collaborations and Platform Expansion

36:29 Holistic, Agentic AI Vision for Biotech

46:55 Search/Evaluation Agent and Industry Strategy

55:50 Surviving Pivots, Focusing the Next Phase

59:15 Shout-outs, Mentors, and Advice

01:02:45 Outro

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.