🧬 Fengru Lin - TurtleTree - Part 1 | Growing Up in Hong Kong & Singapore | Serendipity & Its Effect on Career Paths | Connecting the Dots in Business | The Complex & Fragile World of Food Production | The Importance of QA/QC

Part 1 of 3.

My guest for this week’s episode is Fengru Lin, Founder and CEO of TurtleTree, a biotech company revolutionizing food for good. Having raised a 40 million dollar Series A, TurtleTree is creating cell-based milk, with a current focus on releasing LF+, the world’s first sustainably produced lactoferrin made with cutting-edge precision fermentation technology.

Prior to TurtleTree, Fengru worked at UL, Salesforce, and Google, gaining a tremendous amount of experience in sales and business development. Her breadth of experience makes her insights invaluable to life science companies looking to create opportunities for themselves in their verticals.

Join us as we sit down with Fengru to talk about her upbringing in Hong Kong and Singapore and her time in the Girl Guides. Fengru talks about how her early love of planning helped hone her operational management skills as an adult.

We also cover her thoughts on the value of business people for their ability to connect the dots and communicate ideas effectively. Lastly, Fengru talks about graduating college, her internship at Nestle, and how her first job out of college at Collis Asia taught her about the importance of QA/QC. Please enjoy my conversation with Fengru Lin.

Find Our Guest, Fengru Lin, at these links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/fengru/
https://www.turtletree.com/

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

Timestamps:
00:20 Intro
01:43 Episode starts, Fengru’s upbringing in Hong Kong, being self-reliant and determined, joining Girl Guides
04:00 How loving planning helped hone operational management skills as a child
05:40 Going to Singapore Management University, diving into tech as the internet boomed
07:27 The value of business people connecting the dots and communicating between individuals
11:24 Summer jobs, internship at Nestle, learning what you want and don’t want in your career
14:04 Getting a job at Collis Asia after college, learning about QA/QC and how it is still an applied skill
16:07 Going into international sales and business development, empowering your team
19:22 Traveling internationally, learning about cultural differences in business
21:28 Outro

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/

Enriched Notes:

Topics Mentioned:

Girl Guides https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_Guides
Daiwa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daiwa_Securities_Group
Nestle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9
What Should Investors & Founders Expect https://www.excedr.com/resources/investor-founder-expectations
Write a Lean Business Plan https://www.excedr.com/resources/how-to-write-lean-business-plan
Write a Business Plan https://www.excedr.com/resources/how-to-write-a-business-plan-for-biotechs
What Is Cash Runway https://www.excedr.com/blog/what-is-cash-runway
UL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UL_(safety_organization)
Loan Covenants & Their Effects https://www.excedr.com/resources/loan-covenants-and-their-effects
Blanket Liens & Their Effects https://www.excedr.com/resources/blanket-liens-and-their-effects 

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.