The Biotech Startups Podcast 🧬 The "Respiration Model": Balancing Debate & Execution | Jacob Glanville Re-Release (Part 3/4)
Dec 22, 2025
34:03
🧬 The Biotech Startups Podcast is powered by Excedr—helping life science startups accelerate R&D and commercialization with founder-friendly equipment leasing. Skip the upfront costs, stay lean, and focus on breakthrough science.
As a TBSP listener, you can get exclusive perks through Excedr’s partner network—special savings, promotions, and more. Explore these offers today: https://www.excedr.com/partners.
"If you are capable of acquiring knowledge, of applying the knowledge, and you like it, you can succeed. It doesn't matter what it is."
We’re revisiting some of our previous episodes over the holidays this year. Our next re-release is this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, in which Jacob Glanville breaks down how he built Distributed Bio from a napkin-stage idea into a full-service antibody discovery platform—without traditional venture capital. He shares how creative partnerships with USF’s biotech master’s program and a scrappy animal facility in Guatemala helped him access labs, talent, and proof-of-concept data, even as early setbacks with SuperHuman 1.0 cost him clients and sleep.
The conversation then dives into the realities of scaling: squeezing into half a bench at JLABS before expanding into a 7,500-square-foot facility powered by smart equipment leasing and a growing team. Jacob also introduces his “Respiration Model” of leadership—open debate followed by uncompromising execution—and explains why rising competition and strong universal vaccine data led him to sell Distributed Bio to Charles River Laboratories and spin out Centivax just as the pandemic hit.
Key topics covered:
- Building Distributed Bio's business model: Software licensing, SuperHuman library development, and service contracts without VC funding
- Scrappy early-stage execution: USF grad student partnerships, Guatemala animal facility, and surviving SuperHuman 1.0's defects
- Scaling operations: JLABS growth, equipment leasing strategy, protocol standardization, and hiring 60-70 interns over multiple years
- The "Respiration Model": Balancing organic innovation with hierarchical execution, managing co-founder tensions, and creating culture
- Strategic exit and new chapter: CRO acquisition timing, competitive landscape analysis, and spinning out Centivax for universal vaccines
If you enjoy The Biotech Startups Podcast, please consider subscribing, leaving a review, or sharing it with your friends. Thanks for listening.
Subscribe to the Podcast:
Subscribe to the Podcast:
Find our guest, Jacob Glanville, at these links:
Website: https://www.centivax.com/
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:
Distributed Bio Acquisition https://www.criver.com/charles-river-acquired-distributed-bio
Deep Sequencing for Phage Display Library Analysis https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37966608/
PEGS Conferences https://www.pegsummit.com/
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud Computing https://aws.amazon.com/health/life-sciences/
Phage Display Technology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phage_display
Equipment Leasing for Biotech Startups https://www.excedr.com/resources/equipment-leasing-strategies-for-biotech-startups
Incubator Models (JLABS) https://jnjinnovation.com/jlabs
Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:
Pfizer: https://www.pfizer.com/
Charles River Laboratories (CRO): https://www.criver.com/
University of San Francisco (USF): https://www.usfca.edu/
Gates Foundation: https://www.gatesfoundation.org/
Illumina: https://www.illumina.com/
Gilead: https://www.gilead.com/
Boehringer Ingelheim: https://www.boehringer-ingelheim.com/
Adimab: https://adimab.com/
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:09 Finding Co-Founders and the Three-Stage Plan
06:46 Building the SuperHuman Library with USF Graduate Students​
10:22 Starting at JLABS and Scaling Lab Space​
11:19 Equipment Leasing as a Growth Strategy​
14:02 Challenges That Kept Him Up at Night​
18:13 Learning from Academia vs Big Pharma Approaches​
20:27 The Respiration Model: Balancing Innovation and Execution​
23:32 Decision to Pursue Acquisition with Charles River​
27:15 Spinning Out Centivax and Universal Vaccine Technology​
27:43 Pandemic Timing and Gates Foundation Support​
32:19 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.