The Biotech Startups Podcast 🧬 Childhood Without Tech: Building a Foundation for VC Success | Sergey Jakimov (1/4)
Nov 10, 2025
36:53
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"Retrospectively, this was honestly the best childhood one can get, and it was absolutely without gadgets."
In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, we explore the formative years of Sergey Jakimov, founding partner at LongeVC, as he takes us from his childhood in post-Soviet Latvia to his graduate studies in Budapest. Sergey shares what it was like growing up in a small rural town near the Russian border, where limited resources, no technology, and long winters shaped his resilience, diplomacy, and drive to succeed.​
Sergey recounts his unlikely journey into competitive tennis under a retired national coach, training on concrete courts and turning the sport into both a discipline and a livelihood. He describes the grueling path to university admission—waking at 2 AM every Saturday for four-hour bus rides to attend prep courses in Riga—and the intense workload that followed, surviving on just three to four hours of sleep while juggling translation work and coaching gigs. A pivotal parliament internship shattered his idealistic views of government, leading him to embrace technocracy and meritocracy as guiding principles. Finally, Sergey reflects on earning his master's at Central European University in Budapest, where diverse perspectives and world-class academics further expanded his worldview and prepared him for entrepreneurship.​​
Key topics covered:
- Post-Soviet Childhood: Growing up in rural Latvia with no gadgets, outdoor adventures, and resourcefulness as survival skills
- Athletic Discipline: Training in tennis from age six on concrete courts under a retired national coach, developing grit and work ethic
- Academic Journey: Finishing school early, grueling university workload at Riga Stradiņš University, and working multiple side hustles
- Political Disillusionment: Parliament internship revealing bureaucratic inefficiency and cementing technocratic/meritocratic beliefs
- Graduate Education: Earning a scholarship to Central European University in Budapest, studying political economy and quantitative methods
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Find our guest, Sergey Jakimov, at these links:
Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonchee
Learn more about Excedr:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/
Website: https://www.excedr.com
Intro & Outro Songs Created by OkKyojin, Owned by Excedr:
Website: https://flow.page/kyojin
Resources & Articles:
Technocracy vs Democracy https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/technocracy.asp
Political Economy Studies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_economy
Meritocracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meritocracy
Cognitive Biases https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases
Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:
Longenesis https://longenesis.com/
Longevity Science Foundation https://longevity.foundation/
Riga Stradiņš University: https://www.rsu.lv/en
Central European University (CEU): https://www.ceu.edu/
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
03:42 Growing Up in Post-Soviet Latvia
06:56 Childhood Without Technology: Tennis and Diplomacy
11:20 Training on Concrete Courts
14:47 Choosing University and International Relations
17:49 Weekly Bus Rides to Riga for University Prep
19:32 University Experience: Three-Hour Sleep Nights
21:59 Side Hustles: Translation Work and Tennis Coaching
22:47 University Professors and Merit-Based Learning
27:02 Parliament Internship: Idealism Meets Reality
31:31 From Politics to Grad School Abroad
34:16 Central European University in Budapest
35:26 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.