Grow Everything Biotech Podcast 153. Ghosts of Biotech Past: Veronica Breckenridge’s Playbook for Smarter Scaling
In this Halloween-themed episode, Veronica Breckenridge from First Bite returns to discuss her eye-opening "Industrial Bio-Manufacturing Graveyard Report." Drawing from her experience scaling companies like Apple and Tesla, Veronica reveals why 80% of bio-manufacturing startups fail—and it's not because of bad science. The conversation explores critical mistakes like targeting commodity markets too early, underestimating downstream processing costs, and the "build it and they will come" mentality that has buried promising ventures. Veronica explains why now is actually the best time to invest in bio-manufacturing, citing decreasing costs (3 million times cheaper in 25 years), rising consumer demand for healthier alternatives to petroleum-based products, and increased government support for domestic manufacturing. She shares tactical advice on patient capital structures, the importance of strategic partnerships over going solo, and why bio-manufacturing is more analogous to hardware scaling than pharmaceutical development. The episode offers valuable lessons for founders, investors, and anyone interested in the future of sustainable manufacturing.
Grow Everything brings the bioeconomy to life. Hosts Karl Schmieder and Erum Azeez Khan share stories and interview the leaders and influencers changing the world by growing everything. Biology is the oldest technology. And it can be engineered. What are we growing?
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Chapters:
- (00:00:00) - Halloween intro and SNL's Snack Homies discussion
- (00:04:17) - Zombie apocalypse: Could fungi or viruses cause real zombies?
- (00:09:12) - Beyond Meat stock surge and meme trading
- (00:11:34) - Introducing the Graveyard Report and Veronica Breckenridge
- (00:14:23) - Why Veronica moved from Tesla to bio-manufacturing
- (00:19:45) - The three recurring market fit errors killing startups
- (00:27:56) - Why targeting commodity markets is a seductive trap
- (00:35:18) - Downstream processing: The overlooked cost killer
- (00:42:31) - CapEx overruns and the importance of strategic partnerships
- (00:48:07) - Patient capital structures for deep tech ventures
- (00:53:22) - What makes this moment different: Why invest now
- (00:58:14) - Quick fire questions and closing thoughts
Links and Resources:
- First Bight
- The Industrial Biomanufacturing Graveyard Report
- Biowell Biotech Accelerator
- Ginkgo Consulting
- Capgemini
- McKinsey
- 120. Busting Biotech's Bottlenecks: Veronica Breckenridge on the Path to Industrial Scale
- 151. Report on Reports: Cash Flow, Carbon, and the Bioeconomy
- Zombie-like effects from fungus
- Beyond Meat’s Stock Spike
- TedX Boston
- Technoeconomic Analysis Tool
Topics Covered:
industrial biomanufacturing, biotech, business, growth stage, graveyard report, halloween
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Email: groweverything@messaginglab.com
Music by: Nihilore
Production by: Amplafy Media