The Biotech Startups Podcast

"The biggest problem that we're seeing right now is that the efficiency gains have not translated to enterprise value. The customer is not seeing that result transcend into unit economics yet."In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, we explore Krish Ramadurai's insights on AI-native venture investing and the evolving biotech landscape. Krish unpacks the current state of AI ventures, explaining why the foundation layer is being rapidly commoditized and how defensibility now lives in full-stack applications rather than point solutions. He offers a candid perspective on what founders often misunderstand about market fit, revealing that efficiency gains haven't translated to enterprise value and that most AI companies are building vitamins when customers need painkillers.Krish breaks down the dramatic shift in funding benchmarks, where seed-stage companies now achieve revenue milestones that previously defined Series A rounds. He shares hard-won lessons from the tech bio space, explaining why platforms that forgot biotech is fundamentally a drug business struggled during the biotech winter, and why growth investors can only underwrite assets, not services models. The conversation also explores AIX's firm-building philosophy, emphasizing how combining technical expertise with authentic human connection—being "the same dweeb in and out of the office"—creates a competitive advantage in winning deals against tier-one funds with significantly larger checks.Key topics covered:AI Commoditization: Why the core AI foundation layer is eroding and defensibility requires full-stack, wedge-owning solutionsFunding Paradigm Shifts: How revenue benchmarks have evolved with companies skipping entire funding stagesTech Bio Reality Check: Why AI biotech platforms failed by forgetting that biotech is a drug business, not a software businessCustomer-Centric Building: The importance of understanding actual customer needs versus assumed efficiency gains, especially in healthcare's 16-month procurement cyclesFirm Culture & Winning Deals: How EQ, technical depth, and authenticity enable winning competitive Series A rounds with smaller checks against tier-one investorsIf 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:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-biotech-startups-podcast/id1679591994Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PSL162R2s0zOwU5913Zv4Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebiotechstartupspodcast Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/ Find our guest, Krish Ramadurai, at these links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krishramadurai/https://www.aixventures.com/  Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joncheeLearn more about Excedr:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/ Website: https://www.excedr.comIntro & Outro Songs Created by OkKyojin, Owned by Excedr:Website: https://flow.page/kyojin Resources & Articles:Full-stack applications vs point solutions https://mitratech.com/resource-hub/blog/point-vs-platform-solutions-tech-stack-strategies-to-prepare-you-for-the-future/ Power law distribution in venture capital returns https://www.bipventures.vc/news/explainer-what-is-the-venture-capital-power-lawChoose the Right Contract Research Organization https://www.excedr.com/blog/contract-research-organizations CRO Expansion: Growth Without Adding Lab Space https://www.excedr.com/blog/cro-expansion-how-to-grow-without-adding-lab-space Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:OpenAI: https://openai.com/ Insilico Medicine: https://insilico.com/ Recursion Pharmaceuticals: https://www.recursion.com/ Sujata Bhatia https://www.hks.harvard.edu/about/sujata-k-bhatia Abhirup Banerjee https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhirupb88/?originalSubdomain=uk Shaun Johnson https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaunbjohnson/ Richard Socher https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardsocher/ Christopher Manning https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-manning-011575/ Anthony Goldbloom https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonygoldbloom/ Pieter Abbeel https://www.linkedin.com/in/pieterabbeel/ Timestamps:00:00 Intro02:21 State of AI-Native Venture Capital & Market Commoditization04:21 Defensibility, Full-Stack Wedges & Shifting Funding Benchmarks07:35 AI Froth, Customer Overwhelm & Painkillers vs Vitamins09:51 Where AI Actually Matters in Biotech & AI-Developed Drugs13:26 The Reality of Venture Capital: Glamour vs Fund Management15:29 Building AIX: Firm Culture, Mission & Track Record17:23 Why Founders Choose AIX: EQ, Technical Depth & Being “Normal”21:45 Communicating Complex Science & Making STEM Accessible22:40 Looking Ahead: Fund III, 100 New Cures & Practicing the Craft24:35 Shout-Outs, Mentors & the Importance of Good People25:01 Advice to 21-Year-Old Self: Failure, Tactical Suffering & Growth26:43 OutroThe 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.

🧬 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."I'm only doing this because I'm already doing this or because I couldn't afford to hypothesis test."In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Krish Ramadurai, Partner at AIX Ventures, reveals his unconventional approach to building a venture capital career through simultaneous immersion in both academia and industry. The conversation explores how Krish pursued his master's in nanomedicine and PhD at Oxford University while working full-time at Harmonics Capital—an arrangement he negotiated by demonstrating that his research on machine learning algorithms for mRNA optimization directly aligned with his daily venture work.​Krish challenges conventional wisdom about hustle culture, arguing that productivity drops after 55 hours per week and emphasizing strategic time protection over brute-force effort. He shares candid reflections on what he calls "controlled chaos"—how his achievements weren't the result of meticulous planning but rather making the best of challenging circumstances. The discussion then transitions to his strategic move to AIX Ventures, where he joined as the first institutional partner at a firm helmed by AI pioneers like Richard Socher (inventor of prompt engineering). Krish describes building AIX's TechBio practice from less than 10% to 25% of the portfolio in just over a year, leading nine deals while helping scale a fund that's become the #2 VC globally for performance with eight unicorns from their first fund.Key topics covered:Oxford PhD Journey: Negotiating remote doctoral study while working full-time in venture capital, and how Oxford's unique tutorial system differs from traditional programsWork Efficiency Philosophy: Why 55 hours is the productivity ceiling and how strategic time management enables parallel career tracksBuilding the Venture Flywheel: The deliberate five-year strategy to establish deal sourcing, diligence capabilities, and founder relationshipsAdvisory Ecosystem: Contributing to Nucleate, ARPA-H, and Department of Defense initiatives while maintaining a focused 10-hour quarterly commitmentAIX Ventures Strategy: Joining a boutique AI-native fund backed by world-class practitioners, scaling the TechBio practice, and maintaining disciplined fund sizing to optimize returnsIf 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:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-biotech-startups-podcast/id1679591994Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PSL162R2s0zOwU5913Zv4Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebiotechstartupspodcast Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/ Find our guest, Krish Ramadurai, at these links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krishramadurai/https://www.aixventures.com/  Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joncheeLearn more about Excedr:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/ Website: https://www.excedr.comIntro & Outro Songs Created by OkKyojin, Owned by Excedr:Website: https://flow.page/kyojin Resources & Articles:General Partner vs. Venture Partner Explained: https://visible.vc/blog/general-partner-vs-limited-partner/ mRNA Therapeutics and Delivery Challenges: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11883111/ Tutorial System Fundamentals: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tutorial_system Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:Oxford University: https://www.ox.ac.uk/ AIX Ventures: https://www.aixventures.com/  Nucleate: https://nucleate.org/ ARPA-H: https://arpa-h.gov/ Lux Capital: https://www.luxcapital.com/ Richard Socher https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardsocher/ Christopher Manning https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-manning-011575/ Michael Retchin https://www.linkedin.com/in/retchin/ Timestamps:00:00 Intro01:49 Pursuing Oxford While Working Full-Time at Harmonics03:02 Remote Master's in Nanomedicine: Breaking the Rules05:16 Research Focus: mRNA Optimization and Machine Learning06:45 Oxford's Unique PhD Structure and Three-Year Timeline08:16 Lessons from the Oxford Experience and Trade-Offs12:39 Integrating Graduate Work into Venture Practice14:42 Building Your Tribe: Mentorship and Network in VC17:13 The Path to General Partner and Leaving Harmonics19:36 Advisory Work with Nucleate and ARPA-H22:39 Joining AIX Ventures: Finding the Super-Freaks26:17 AIX Investment Strategy and Fund Structure27:37 OutroThe 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.

🧬 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."I was not like, 'Well, this partner helped me on it, and then we shared the deal.' I was like, 'I think I'm good at this because I basically did the output of an entire firm by myself, like, the first two years.'"In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, host Jon Chee continues his conversation with Krish Ramadurai, exploring his unconventional journey from Harvard academia to becoming a venture capital partner in record time. Krish shares how he applied his research training to venture capital, identifying a new category of compute-driven biotech companies before "TechBio" even existed, and executing twelve investments during his first year as an analyst—all while the COVID-19 pandemic sent markets into free fall.​Krish reveals the critical importance of "shot-calling" in venture capital, explaining why many talented associates and principals get stuck in their careers by not claiming ownership of their wins. He describes compressing his MBA into sixteen months at Washington University while working two full-time positions, his rapid ascent from analyst to partner by consistently performing above his role, and the uncomfortable but necessary transition from technical expert to fundraiser when dealing with limited partners. Throughout the conversation, Krish emphasizes breaking traditional rules when conviction demands it, treating every investment like an evidence-based academic experiment, and understanding that in venture capital, you're only as good as your last deal.Key topics covered:Evidence-Based Venture Capital: Applying academic research methodology to investment diligence and thesis development during COVID-19 market uncertainty​Identifying TechBio Before It Existed: Market mapping compute-driven biotech companies and building a comprehensive thesis workbook that led to investments in Insilico Medicine, Red AI, and others​The Art of Shot-Calling: Why claiming ownership of your wins is critical for advancing from analyst to partner, and how many VCs get stuck by sharing credit​Accelerated Career Progression: Navigating the venture capital hierarchy by doing work above your pay grade and forcing conversations about promotion through demonstrated results​The LP Fundraising Reality: Transitioning from technical diligence to selling yourself as a jockey to institutional investors, understanding emerging versus established fund dynamics​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:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-biotech-startups-podcast/id1679591994Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PSL162R2s0zOwU5913Zv4Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebiotechstartupspodcast Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/ Find our guest, Krish Ramadurai, at these links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krishramadurai/https://www.aixventures.com/  Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joncheeLearn more about Excedr:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/ Website: https://www.excedr.comIntro & Outro Songs Created by OkKyojin, Owned by Excedr:Website: https://flow.page/kyojin Resources & Articles:Due Diligence Best Practices in Venture Capital: https://www.wallstreetprep.com/knowledge/venture-capital-diligence/ Market Mapping for Venture Investors: https://www.growthmentor.com/glossary/market-mapping/ Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:Harvard University (Belfer Center, Taubman Center): https://www.harvard.edu/ MIT: https://www.mit.edu/ Washington University in St. Louis (WashU): https://wustl.edu/ Timestamps:00:00 Intro02:22 Evidence-Based Approach from Academic Research to Venture05:32 First Day at Harmonics and COVID's Impact06:39 MBA While Working Full-Time at MIT11:18 Market Mapping and Building a Thesis16:29 Shot-Calling and Career Advancement in Venture19:35 Accelerating from Analyst to Principal22:02 Transition to Partner and Ownership of Thesis23:31 Fundraising from LPs During COVID25:48 Understanding LP Landscape and Emerging Manager Dynamics30:05 OutroThe 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.

🧬 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."You’ve just got to embrace the suck. When everything sucks, you just execute against it. It's nice because then when that situation happens again, which adult life works like that all the time, you can be more systematically prepared."In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, we explore Krish Ramadurai's unconventional journey from Chicago's South Side to becoming a Partner at AIX Ventures. Krish shares how a career-ending femur fracture during his track and field career redirected his path from Johns Hopkins to the University of Illinois, where he discovered the intersection of hard science and business that would define his future.​​Krish takes us through his audacious approach to getting into Harvard—auditing classes before formal admission, working three jobs simultaneously to afford tuition, and sending over 500 cold emails to find research opportunities. He reflects on how working alongside figures like US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, CIA Director David Petraeus, and Nobel Prize winner Mike Kremer at the Belfer Center shaped his understanding of applied science and policy intervention. Most importantly, Krish emphasizes how rejection built conviction, turning financial desperation and constant setbacks into the foundation for his success in venture capital.Key topics covered:From Superhero Scientists to STEM: How growing up with a cardiologist father and fascination with the scientists behind Marvel superheroes sparked his interest in biotechnology and applied research​Pivoting After Injury: The femur fracture that ended his track career and forced an unconventional path to higher education​The Unconventional Harvard Path: Auditing graduate courses before admission, juggling three jobs, and leveraging one connection into a full graduate school opportunity​Building Conviction Through Rejection: How sending 500+ cold emails and facing constant rejection taught resilience and self-understanding that would prove essential in venture capital​Applied Science in Action: Working on biological water filtration in Sub-Saharan Africa, collaborating with global policy leaders, and transitioning from think tank work to venture investingIf 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:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-biotech-startups-podcast/id1679591994Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PSL162R2s0zOwU5913Zv4Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebiotechstartupspodcast Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/ Find our guest, Krish Ramadurai, at these links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krishramadurai/https://www.aixventures.com/  Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joncheeLearn more about Excedr:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/ Website: https://www.excedr.comIntro & Outro Songs Created by OkKyojin, Owned by Excedr:Website: https://flow.page/kyojin Resources & Articles:Nobel Prize in Economics https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2019/summary/ 3D Bioprinting Technology https://news.mit.edu/2025/new-3d-bioprinting-technique-may-improve-production-engineered-tissue-0917 Venture Capital Due Diligence Process https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/duediligence.asp Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:Harvard University https://www.harvard.edu​ University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign https://illinois.edu​ Johns Hopkins University https://www.jhu.edu​ Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs https://www.belfercenter.org​ Harvard Kennedy School Taubman Center https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/taubman Ashton "Ash" Carter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Carter ​​David Petraeus https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidpetraeus/ ​​Michael Kremer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Kremer Paul Farmer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Farmer Sujatha Bhatia https://www.hks.harvard.edu/about/sujata-k-bhatia Rachel McCleary https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-mccleary-b26bb630/ Werner Bayer https://economics.illinois.edu/spotlight/historic-faculty/baer-werner Eric Schmidt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Schmidt Timestamps:00:00 Intro04:38 Upbringing and Early Interest in STEM06:18 Parental Expectations: Doctor, Lawyer, or Engineer08:49 Femur Fracture and Shift in College Plans10:28 Undergraduate Experience at University of Illinois11:47 Research on Biological Filtration in Sub-Saharan Africa17:19 Path to Harvard Graduate School19:58 Working Multiple Jobs While at Harvard23:21 Working at Belfer Center and Meeting Key Mentors25:34 Sending 500 Cold Emails and Facing Rejection28:22 Embracing Failure and Building Conviction31:47 OutroThe 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.

🧬 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.Episode Description:"Entrepreneurship is great, but, for me, family always came first. [My] wife and kids always came first. I didn't miss a single game or show or anything of the kids, whether it was at 3 PM or 5 PM or 7 PM, I did that. And then I figured out the work otherwise."We’re revisiting some of our previous episodes over the holidays this year. Our next rerelease is part 2 of this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast with Parag Shah, where we discuss his journey from leading the life sciences practice at Hercules Capital to founding K2 Health Ventures. Parag shares candid insights about the pivotal moment he transitioned from banking to private credit, his decision to join Hercules as one of the first employees, and the challenges of scaling a fund from $25 million to over a billion dollars as a public BDC.Parag offers rare transparency about the difficulties of navigating toxic corporate culture while building a successful business, and how those experiences shaped his vision for K2 HealthVentures. He emphasizes the critical importance of work-life balance in entrepreneurship, revealing how he never missed a single one of his children's games or shows despite the demands of building investment firms. The conversation explores the strategic advantages of evergreen fund structures versus traditional LP/GP models, and how K2's unique approach of combining debt and equity across the capital stack, along with dedicating a percentage of profits to underserved healthcare, represents a new model for impact investing in life sciences.Key topics covered:Transitioning from banking to private credit and joining Hercules Capital in its earliest daysTaking Hercules public and scaling from $50 million to over $2 billion in life sciences investmentsNavigating difficult corporate cultures and the importance of building intentional company cultureAchieving sustainable work-life balance as an entrepreneur without sacrificing family prioritiesFounding K2 HealthVentures with an evergreen structure and dual mission of profit and purposeIf 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:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-biotech-startups-podcast/id1679591994Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PSL162R2s0zOwU5913Zv4Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebiotechstartupspodcast Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/ Find Our Guest, Parag Shah, at these links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paragshah333/ https://k2hv.com/  Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joncheeLearn more about Excedr:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/ Website: https://www.excedr.comIntro & Outro Songs Created by OkKyojin, Owned by Excedr:Website: https://flow.page/kyojin Resources & Articles:Biotech Startup Fundraising https://www.excedr.com/resources/biotech-startup-funding-optionsVenture Debt Financing https://www.excedr.com/blog/venture-debt-for-biotech-startups-overview Business Development Companies (BDCs) https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bdc.asp Evergreen Fund Structures in Private Capital https://www.hamiltonlane.com/en-us/knowledge-center/evergreen-funds Understanding LP/GP Relationships: https://visible.vc/blog/general-partner-vs-limited-partner/ Private Credit and Venture Debt Explained https://www.investopedia.com/terms/v/venturecapital.asp Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:Comerica Bank: https://www.comerica.com ​Hercules Capital: https://www.htgc.com Roy Liu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roy-liu-36a35/Anup Arora: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anup-arora-368ba81/Meghan FitzGerald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghanmfitzgerald/John Hale: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-hale-770158b/Timestamps:00:00 Intro02:11 Pivoting to Private Credit and Starting a Fund13:06 Importance of Corporate Culture in Firm Building14:50 Going Public: Benefits and Pressures of a Public BDC18:60 Knowing When It's Time to Leave23:33 Taking a Break and Finding Balance29:34 Founding K2 HealthVentures38:30 Raising $400 Million: A Stark Contrast42:14 Evergreen Structure and Long-Term Partnership45:04 Working Across the Capital Stack48:46 The Value of Co-Founders53:14 Looking Ahead: Growth and the K2 Foundation54:38 Shout Outs and Gratitude57:43 Advice to Your 21-Year-Old Self01:02:06 OutroThe 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.

🧬 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."I was fortunate that my parents pretty much allowed for a more experimental, open approach to education being important, but do what you want to do, right? Try different things, take healthy risks."We’re revisiting some of our previous episodes over the holidays this year. Our first rerelease is part 1 of this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast with Parag Shah, where we explore his remarkable journey from molecular biologist to CEO and Founding Managing Director of K2 Health Ventures. Parag shares how his upbringing in New York City with immigrant parents who encouraged experimentation shaped his entrepreneurial mindset, and describes the pivotal moment when he realized bench science wasn't his calling while researching at MIT's Whitehead Institute.​​The conversation reveals how Parag boldly proposed building Imperial Bank's life sciences lending practice from scratch, despite being young and relatively inexperienced. He discusses lessons learned from MIT about persistence through failure, translating traditional credit frameworks to venture-backed biotech companies, and the complementary role of debt capital alongside equity financing in life sciences.Key topics covered:From Science to Finance: Transitioning from MIT molecular biology research to credit investing and discovering alternative career paths for scientists​The Power of Risk-Taking: How liberal parenting, MIT's challenging environment, and willingness to fail fast shaped an entrepreneurial mindset​Building Credit Frameworks: Adapting traditional lending principles to venture-backed life sciences companies and understanding value inflection points beyond revenue​International Experience: Learning credit fundamentals at Bank Boston in Buenos Aires and navigating cultural differences while building professional expertise​Entrepreneurial Banking: Creating Imperial Bank's life sciences practice from scratch and the art of asking for resources when entering the unknownIf 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:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-biotech-startups-podcast/id1679591994Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PSL162R2s0zOwU5913Zv4Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebiotechstartupspodcast Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/ Find Our Guest, Parag Shah, at these links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paragshah333/ https://k2hv.com/  Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joncheeLearn more about Excedr:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/ Website: https://www.excedr.comIntro & Outro Songs Created by OkKyojin, Owned by Excedr:Website: https://flow.page/kyojin Resources & Articles:Biotech Startup Fundraising: https://www.excedr.com/resources/biotech-startup-funding-optionsVenture Debt Financing https://www.excedr.com/blog/venture-debt-for-biotech-startups-overview Venture Capital and Venture Debt Relationship: https://dealroom.net/faq/venture-debt-financing The Human Genome Project https://www.genome.gov/human-genome-project Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology): https://www.mit.edu​ Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research: https://wi.mit.edu​ Comerica Bank: https://www.comerica.com ​Hercules Capital: https://www.htgc.com Larry Suskind: https://dusp.mit.edu/people/lawrence-susskind John Ehrenfeld: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnehrenfeld/ Timestamps:00:00 Intro02:44 Upbringing in New York City and Parents' Influence05:19 Early Science Teachers and Inspiration09:31 Choosing MIT and Meeting His Wife10:54 MIT's Rigor and Learning to Persist13:09 Fraternity Experience and Building Diverse Connections14:34 Undergraduate Research at the Whitehead Institute17:46 Pursuing Environmental Policy and Graduate School21:34 From Environmental Policy to Banking in Argentina25:45 Bank Boston's Credit Training Program32:39 Embracing Uncertainty and Being Willing to Fail37:51 Building Imperial Bank's Life Sciences Credit Framework41:32 The Role of Debt vs. Equity in Biotech Financing45:44 OutroThe 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.

🧬 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."The only advice I can give to my 21-year-old self is that advice doesn't work... But whenever you actually need advice on something that you do not know how to start or how to solve or how to figure out, you should really remember that someone in this world has already figured it out."In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, host Jon Chee concludes his conversation with Sergey Jakimov, Managing Partner at LongeVC, exploring the realities of fundraising from limited partners and building a successful longevity-focused biotech fund. Sergey shares his unconventional approach to LP fundraising—telling his story rather than selling a product—and how personal experiences with age-related diseases drive his science-first investment philosophy.Sergey explains why Fund One, which launched with 30% GP capital commitment, has achieved over 3x returns in just three years despite challenging market conditions. He reveals why big pharma's massive liquidity reserves, combined with looming patent cliffs like Merck's Keytruda expiration, create unprecedented opportunities for venture-backed biotech innovation. The conversation explores the vital role venture capitalists play in bringing breakthrough therapies to patients—therapies that big pharma would never risk developing on their own.Looking ahead, Sergey discusses his vision for establishing longevity as an evidence-based, data-driven field while combating the "snake oil" supplements and questionable therapies that damage the industry's credibility. He emphasizes the need to translate scientific success stories into accessible language that attracts generalist capital, ultimately accelerating growth across the entire longevity sector.Key topics covered:Fundraising Philosophy: Why telling your authentic story attracts like-minded LPs better than traditional pitching and sellingBiotech in Down Markets: How good science always raises money and strategic assets get acquired even during economic downturnsBig Pharma's Urgency: Understanding patent cliffs, liquidity reserves, and why pharma needs venture-backed innovation more than everEvidence-Based Longevity: Building longevity investing around diseases and molecular assets rather than romanticized anti-aging conceptsIndustry Growth Strategy: Creating accessible success stories and attracting generalist capital to scale the longevity fieldIf 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:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-biotech-startups-podcast/id1679591994Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PSL162R2s0zOwU5913Zv4Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebiotechstartupspodcast Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/ Find our guest, Sergey Jakimov, at these links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakimov/?originalSubdomain=lvhttps://longevc.com/ Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joncheeLearn more about Excedr:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/ Website: https://www.excedr.comIntro & Outro Songs Created by OkKyojin, Owned by Excedr:Website: https://flow.page/kyojin Resources & Articles:Patent Cliff https://www.foley.com/insights/publications/2025/09/patent-cliff-ma-activity-for-companies-right-now/ Keytruda Patent Expiration https://www.barrons.com/articles/merck-keytruda-patent-expiration-new-version-b0cc14d1  Preparing for Pre-Seed & Seed Funding https://www.excedr.com/resources/how-to-prepare-for-pre-seed-seed-funding Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:Merck https://www.merck.com/​​ Roche https://www.roche.com/​​ Novo Nordisk https://www.novonordisk.com/ Garri Zmudze https://www.linkedin.com/in/garri-zmudze-982a48138/ Timestamps:00:00 Intro01:55 Fundraising from LPs and Communicating a Science-First Thesis06:02 Building a Community of Like-Minded LPs11:53 Big Pharma's Liquidity and Patent Cliffs Create Opportunity13:23 Vision for the Future and Creating Added Value16:13 Making Longevity Accessible to Generalist Investors16:54 Combating Snake Oil and Building an Evidence-Based Field19:39 Shout-Outs to Team and Colleagues21:35 Advice to 21-Year-Old Self23:52 OutroThe 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.

"If you die, all your crypto doesn't make sense. All your sustainability doesn't make sense. You have not solved the major existential issue or the major existential threat that you have."In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, host Jon Chee continues his conversation with Sergey Jakimov, Managing Partner at LongeVC, as he reveals launching a $25 million longevity fund. Leveraging relationships with top universities and a scientific advisory board featuring Nobel Prize winners, Sergey built a fund with an unconventional thesis: tackle age-related diseases one at a time, investing solely based on patient outcomes. The results—20 companies, zero write-offs in 3.5 years, with portfolio companies approaching unicorn status.The conversation turns personal when Sergey shares his experience as a rare disease patient. At 28, a rare autoimmune neurodegenerative condition left him partially paralyzed, forcing him through a healthcare system offering only outdated treatments. This experience fundamentally reshaped his investment philosophy and cemented his belief that biotech is the most important industry. Sergey also discusses expanding his platform with Ani.vc and the Longevity Science Foundation, while reflecting on why health span and "joy span" matter more than simply extending lifespan.Key topics covered:From Angel to Institution: Launching a $25M longevity fund with deal access, KOL relationships, and a science-first thesisDisease-by-Disease vs. Curing Aging: Why pragmatic, disease-focused investments outperform holistic longevity approachesA Founder's Health Crisis: How becoming a rare disease patient at 28 transformed Sergey's investment philosophyExceptional Fund Performance: Achieving zero write-offs across 20 companies, with portfolio highlights in ADCs and cancer diagnosticsExpanding the Platform: Building Ani.vc for animal health and the Longevity Science Foundation for fundamental research grantsIf 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:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-biotech-startups-podcast/id1679591994Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PSL162R2s0zOwU5913Zv4Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebiotechstartupspodcast Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/ Find our guest, Sergey Jakimov, at these links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakimov/?originalSubdomain=lvhttps://longevc.com/ Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joncheeLearn more about Excedr:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/ Website: https://www.excedr.comIntro & Outro Songs Created by OkKyojin, Owned by Excedr:Website: https://flow.page/kyojin Resources & Articles:Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs) in Cancer Treatment: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/antibody-drug-conjugates​​ Longevity Investing and Healthy Aging Economics: https://www.mckinsey.com/mhi/our-insights/the-economic-benefits-of-investing-in-healthy-aging​​ Rare Autoimmune Neurological Disorders: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/autoimmune-disease​​ Blood-Based Cancer Diagnostics and Early Detection: https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/screening/research/blood-testsHealth Span vs. Lifespan: Quality of Life in Longevity Research:  https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/healthy-aging/what-do-we-know-about-healthy-aging​ Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:UC Berkeley: https://www.berkeley.edu/​ Harvard University: https://www.harvard.edu/​ Stanford University: https://www.stanford.edu/​ Insilico Medicine: https://insilico.com/​​ AOA Diagnostics (AOA Dx): https://aoadx.com/​​ Longevity Science Foundation (LSF): https://longevity.foundation/ Garri Zmudze https://www.linkedin.com/in/garri-zmudze-982a48138/ Alex Zhavoronkov https://www.linkedin.com/in/zhavoronkov/ Timestamps:00:00 Intro01:54 Transition from Founder to Investor07:46 Health Span vs. Lifespan: A Philosophical Approach10:35 Why Biotech Matters Most14:50 Personal Health Crisis and Patient Perspective23:39 Building a Science-First Investment Fund25:09 Fund One: Portfolio and Strategy28:07 Antibody-Drug Conjugates and Early-Stage Diagnostics30:46 Fund Two and Animal Health Ventures34:09 Longevity Science Foundation: Supporting Fundamental Research34:14 OutroThe 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.

🧬 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.Episode Description:"Building a deep tech company or building anything, pretty much, like being a founder in anything, it's like planning a bank robbery. It's like putting together a crew where, you know, you need a driver, you need someone to pick locks, you need someone to not sell, and you need someone who has the intellectual capacity to come up with a plan."In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Sergey Jakimov, Managing Partner at LongeVC, shares his journey from uncertain graduate student in Budapest to serial deep tech founder. He discusses launching his first startup at age 22 in the conservative oil and gas industry with zero experience, pioneering drug-eluting coatings for orthopedic implants, and building Lungesys—a clinical data platform that revolutionized trial patient recruitment and helped establish the world's largest biobank.Sergey challenges the "dropout culture" narrative while defending both formal education and learning by doing. He reveals why the least specialized person often makes the best founder and shares surprising truths about big pharma, including that only 14% of first-in-class cancer drugs are developed internally.Key topics covered:The "Bank Heist Model" of Team Building: Why founders should assemble specialists rather than be experts in everythingThree Startup Journey: From CFD engineering to medical devices to clinical data platformsEducation vs. Experience Debate: Defending formal education while emphasizing learning by doingClinical Trial Innovation: Streamlining patient recruitment and building the world's largest biobankBig Pharma Reality Check: Debunking misconceptions about how the pharmaceutical industry operatesIf 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:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-biotech-startups-podcast/id1679591994Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PSL162R2s0zOwU5913Zv4Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebiotechstartupspodcast Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/ Find our guest, Sergey Jakimov, at these links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakimov/?originalSubdomain=lvhttps://longevc.com/ Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joncheeLearn more about Excedr:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/ Website: https://www.excedr.comIntro & Outro Songs Created by OkKyojin, Owned by Excedr:Website: https://flow.page/kyojin Resources & Articles:Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Modeling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_Fluid_Dynamics Drug-Eluting Coatings for Medical Implants: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8070023/ Magnetron Sputtering Technology: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/materials-science/magnetron-sputtering Clinical Trial Patient Recruitment Challenges: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41573-022-00070-5 Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:Longenesis https://longenesis.com/McKinsey: https://www.mckinsey.com/ AstraZeneca: https://www.astrazeneca.com/ LongeVC: https://longevc.com/ Garri Zmudze https://www.linkedin.com/in/garri-zmudze-982a48138/ Timestamps:00:00 Intro01:52 Student Life in Budapest03:03 The "What's Next?" Uncertainty08:39 First Company: CFD Modeling and Oil & Gas at 2212:54 Second Company: Medical Devices and Drug-Eluting Coatings17:07 The Bank Heist Model of Assembling Teams20:25 The Value of Education vs. Dropout Culture25:46 Hard Skills and Breaking Paradigms28:41 Teaching IP and Venture Capital29:52 Third Company: Clinical Data and Lungesys38:10 Selling to Big Pharma41:14 OutroThe 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.

🧬 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."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 skillsAthletic Discipline: Training in tennis from age six on concrete courts under a retired national coach, developing grit and work ethicAcademic Journey: Finishing school early, grueling university workload at Riga Stradiņš University, and working multiple side hustlesPolitical Disillusionment: Parliament internship revealing bureaucratic inefficiency and cementing technocratic/meritocratic beliefsGraduate Education: Earning a scholarship to Central European University in Budapest, studying political economy and quantitative methodsIf 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:Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-biotech-startups-podcast/id1679591994Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PSL162R2s0zOwU5913Zv4Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebiotechstartupspodcast Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/ Find our guest, Sergey Jakimov, at these links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakimov/?originalSubdomain=lvhttps://longevc.com/ Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joncheeLearn more about Excedr:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/ Website: https://www.excedr.comIntro & 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.aspPolitical 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 Intro03:42 Growing Up in Post-Soviet Latvia06:56 Childhood Without Technology: Tennis and Diplomacy11:20 Training on Concrete Courts14:47 Choosing University and International Relations17:49 Weekly Bus Rides to Riga for University Prep19:32 University Experience: Three-Hour Sleep Nights21:59 Side Hustles: Translation Work and Tennis Coaching22:47 University Professors and Merit-Based Learning27:02 Parliament Internship: Idealism Meets Reality31:31 From Politics to Grad School Abroad34:16 Central European University in Budapest35:26 OutroThe 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.