Advertise on podcast: Lab to Startup

Nitin Joshi is the CEO and co-founder of CAGE Bio, a clinical-stage company using an ionic liquid platform to deliver drugs into the skin while keeping them out of the bloodstream. He is also a rare kind of founder: someone who spent decades inside pharma companies like Elan and ALZA before building anything of his own, and who has now done it three times. We start with the science. What an ionic liquid actually is, why a deep eutectic system solves the biocompatibility problems that stalled earlier work in the field, and why local concentration with minimal systemic exposure changes what is possible in dermatology. Then we get to CGB-600, a topical DNA aptamer. Pushing a ten kilodalton oligonucleotide through skin was considered functionally impossible ten years ago. Nitin explains how that program came together, and the harder question underneath it: how a founder knows when to trust a platform's reach and when to stay disciplined. The second half is about how he builds. Incline Therapeutics, which he pulled out of a shelved ALZA program and took to market before its acquisition by The Medicines Company. inTUMO, carved out of solid-tumor work. What living through two exits taught him about designing a therapeutics company for acquisition from day one without distorting the science. And how roughly $18M has carried CAGE Bio to two Phase 2 assets, a program headed toward Phase 3, and a preclinical collaboration with Mayo Clinic. This episode has great lessons both for aspiring entrepreneurs building therapeutics startups and a special treat for a mid-career scientist sitting on an idea and wondering whether the window has closed.   Shownotes https://cagebio.com/ Problems being solved at Cage Bio Challenges delivering to skin & issues with systemic delivery to treat skin diseases What are ionic liquids and how they are being used to treat skin diseases Collaboration between three labs: UC Santa Barbara, Northern Arizona University, Los Alamos History of ionic liquids and their evolution to deliver drugs (Choline+Geranic acid) Invention vs formulation Mitragotri Lab for drug delivery at Harvard University 3 Immuno-dermatology programs- Atopic dermatitis, Alopecia Areata, Vitiligo Building the company in Dallas-Fortworth Delivering 10KDa Oligonucleotide Experienced biotech executives founding startups: Founding story Incline Therapeutics, IONSYS, and rescuing a shelved program inTUMO and the loco-regional approach to solid tumors Designing a therapeutics company for acquisition Platform play vs Product company Discipline in fundraising- generally lower cost in dermatology and focus on efficiency Fund raising story:Capital efficiency on roughly $18M Building in Dallas-Fort Worth Unlearning lessons from working in the industry vs lessons that helped as an experienced operator transitioning to founder CEO position Advice for the forty-five-year-old scientist with an idea Let the team take the credit for wins and take the credit for the failures

Mehdi Kargar, Ph.D., is the CEO and Cofounder of Maxterial. They arecommercializing an affordable metallic coating to protect surfaces against extreme environments and to reduce the use of hexavalent chrome, and cyanides, known to cause cancers. This is the story about how Maxterial cracked the code to replacing Hexavalent Chromium without sacrificing cost, speed, or performance, and the decade of near-deaths, grit, and serendipity it took to build a deep tech revolution.   Maxterial received seed-stage funds from Peter Thiel's Breakout Labs, then backed by the Corporate Venture arms of Saint Gobain and Anglo American; the NSF, and now the U.S. Department of Defense'. In a major development, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee has approved a bill to provide $5M in 2027 for the further evaluation and adoption of their technology, MaxShield.   Shownotes https://www.maxterial.com/ Problems with hexavalent chromium (also known as chromium-6) and why it has been difficult to  Product ecosystem fit: Founder is basically having to create a whole ecosystem for the product while developing good ROI for everyone involved. Solution: Nickel & Molybdenum alloy Listen to customers! They might be looking at a different use for your technology Evolution of technology: From grad school (Virginia Tech) to startup- pivot from focusing on publications to patents Serendipity: Scanning Electron Microscopy image that lead to bigger use cases As a founder, be less rigid!  Pitch to Peter Thiel's investment arm https://breakout.vc/ that won them over by saying: "Good entrepreneurs are like a superbug (MRSA). I am going to build this startup successfully!"  Move from Blacksburg, VA (Virginia Tech) to Silicon Valley: Why moving to better startup ecosystems was important For startups/aspiring founders, trade shows are a better place to understand industry needs Evolution of customers A "No" from anyone during the journey can change into Yes by persistence- always work towards it Invest in relations: People invest in people Kindness of strangers Working with the government: "Applying for SBIR and getting money is not working with the government!" Understanding the ecosystem: Working with DoD, lobbyists, retired personnel from armed forces Maxterial's MaxShield aims to replace hard chrome in cylinder use

Doug Crawford, Ph.D., is the founder of MBC BioLabs and also a Managing General Partner of Mission BioCapital. Doug's goal is to help entrepreneurial scientists create successful startups. His dream is that every entrepreneurial scientist with a dream be given a chance.  Since its founding, this program has helped launch 500 companies and helped raise over $20 billion in capital. Robert Blazej, Ph.D., is a Partner at Mission BioCapital and Director at MBC BioLabs. He is a passionate biotechnologist with a diverse skillset spanning business, life science, engineering and intellectual property. Robert Blazej brings 10 years of operational experience both as a successful entrepreneur and as a leader within an international corporation. Previously, Robert was CEO of Allopartis Biotechnologies, a company he co-founded with the vision that microdroplets would transform the scale and pace of life science research. Allopartis was acquired by Novozymes in 2013. This conversation can be considered as the 2026 State of the Union for early-stage biotech. The biotech landscape has shifted drastically- we moved from the grow-at-all-costs zero-interest-rate era to a world of tight capital and high discipline. The undisputed capital of biotech in Boston is facing unprecedented lab vacancies. AI is dominating every pitch deck. And China has rapidly evolved from a manufacturing hub into a multi-billion-dollar discovery engine.   Shownotes https://mbcbiolabs.com/; https://www.missionbaycapital.com/ How did Doug and Robert meet? Progress Mission Biolabs made in the past 4 years God's eye view of the biotech startup world- What is being built? DNA of the founders: repeat founders on the rise Capital restraints and advances in science made the current period the best time to launch biotech startups. With the advent of AI, we should not be making knowable mistakes Companies are using AI to jumpstart what they are going to work on Discovery costs are the overall cost of drug discovery- So, don't get too excited! How to address reduction in NIH non-dilutive funding ⅓ of startups in incubators are serial entrepreneurs; ⅓ are mid-career scientists from established companies  Comparing Boston and the Bay area biotech ecosystems 73% of pharma's revenues are from discoveries sourced externally Alternate models: Arena bioworks, Arc Institute, Chan Zuckerberg institute Book recommendation - Thinking in Bets Actual impact of AI at Mission Biolabs Where Ai might have the most impact- healthcare delivery? China affairs: Regulatory changes, investments, return of talent European biotech affairs

Jared O'Leary, Ph.D., is the co-founder and CEO of SirenOpt, and Ali Mesbah, Ph.D. is his cofounder and also his former PhD advisor. Ali is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at UC Berkeley.   SirenOpt is a Berkeley spin-out that is solving one of manufacturing's biggest blind spots. Their PlasmaSens platform uses cold atmospheric plasma and AI to non-destructively inspect thin films and nanomaterials in real-time—catching defects and inconsistencies that traditional methods miss entirely. They're helping manufacturers of batteries, semiconductors, and aerospace components accelerate R&D, optimize production, and dramatically improve quality control.   In this episode of Lab to startup, we talk about how the industry currently solves the problems, and how SirenOpt is improving them; Then we deep dive into their technology; the origins of the startup from research at UC Berkeley; customer discovery, especially importance of relationship building and how it is different from just interviewing potential customers; lessons from working with industry; their fundraising journey and many other topics including Jared's experience working at Theranos.   Shownotes: https://www.sirenopt.com/ Advance coatings, thin films and micro/nano scale materials are critical in several industries. But manufacturing these components are inherently probabilistic SirenOpt providing hardware and software solutions for real time tracking Overview of current solutions   SirenOpt technology overview Initial medical applications Challenges with cold atmospheric pressure plasma Transition from an academic project to startup journey Feedback from industry Lessons from Jared working at Theranos Importance of transparency and building trust while working with customers Importance of academic thinking while building deeptech startups Market exploration: Foray into battery industry Customer discovery vs relationship building Support from Ali: from an academia-industry relationship point of view Venture scalability: Demonstrating the size of the market Working with semiconductor industry Lessons from working with academic PI as your cofounder Fundraising journey Role played by accelerators and incubators: Berkeley Skydeck & Activate Lessons from hiring Long term vision & lessons transitioning from academic scientist to a startup CEO

Yogev Debbi and Prof Avi Schroeder (Technion Israel Institute of Technology), co-founded Mana bio along with Dr. Kira Radinsky and Roy Nevo. They are leveraging data, machine learning and high throughput screening to design novel Lipid NanoParticles for targeted extrahepatic delivery of nucleic acid therapeutics and vaccines. Lipid nanoparticles are microscopic fatty bubbles that deliver genetic medicines into your cells—think of them as the FedEx trucks of molecular biology. Remember the mRNA vaccines that saved millions during COVID? They used lipid nano particles as the delivery vehicle.. The little secret behind those vaccines is that we got lucky. Those lipid nanoparticles worked beautifully for the liver and immune system. But if you try to deliver RNA to your brain, your lungs, or a tumor, those would be a massive failure! Scientists are still running thousands of experiments hoping to stumble onto the right formulation. This actually was my postdoc work as well, which makes this episode very special. I always wished there was a better way to design these delivery vehicles—and that's exactly what today's guests have built with AI." We talk about how they founded and currently building Mana Bio- a big part around how biologists and chemists can interact with technologists, especially data and AI geeks to build something important. Their story provides a great framework for scientists and tech folks to work together. Shownotes: https://www.mana.bio/ How Avi got started using data/AI to design LNPs Optimizing LNP formulations targeting different organs Working with Bob Langer and Dan Anderson @MIT Yogev transitioning to gene editing Defining the problem & cross disciplinary conversations and projects Language that helps interactions between scientists and software/AI folks Deepdive into the platform- building data sets Data scraping, validation, improvisation, new data generation (both positive and negative data) Cleaning data and normalization Work in the wet lab: 'I trust my colleagues and believe data can be replicated" Data moats: Proprietary data vs public data Daily routine in the lab and interactions with the data/AI team Cross Functional dynamics Scientists trying to save money vs optimizing for more valuable time Lab hypothesis predictions vs AI predictions: competitive spirit Factoring in errors by the machines and humans Business model: Building customized solutions for drug delivery Potentially becoming a pharma company Regulatory affairs Fears that keep them up Dynamics of a diverse founding team: Roy Nevo and Dr. Kira Radinsky (the other two co founders) Message to academia: "Publish more data- including failures. This will accelerate science" Omri Drory, Kira Radinsky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5hX3vq3iNk

Dana Foss and Ross Wilson are the cofounders of Editpep, a biotech startup focused on developing CRISPR-based therapeutics. They are using a proprietary peptide-based delivery platform that enables targeted delivery to specific cell types, particularly for hard-to-reach areas like the brain. While Dana Foss is the CEO, Ross Wilson is also an Assistant Adjunct Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology and also the Director of Therapeutic Delivery at the Innovative Genomics Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. He is one of those very few academics that co-founded a startup and is very active in building Editpep. Ross explains how he does it all so well! Dana was  previously a postdoc in Ross Wilson's lab, where she developed the technology. Ross was a postdoc in Nobel Laureate Jennifer Doudna's lab. Now he has his own lab and collaborates with Jennifer Doudna at the Innovative Genomics Institute.  In this episode of lab to startup, we will explore their initial decisions that lead to launching the startup; existing CRISPR delivery technologies, their challenges, and then do a deep dive into their delivery technology. opportunities,; fundraising efforts, and their future goals. Shownotes https://www.editpep.bio/ CRISPR Delivery problem and current solutions Existing solutions like AV, LNPs are mostly limited to mice Ribonucleoprotein, a complex of RNA and protein (RNP): Technology deep dive Outsiders bringing in fresh perspective Dana transitioning out of academia: working on a shared goal Hard to shepard the technology towards the patient by depending on a third party Self motivation and gumption: Ways to move technologies out of the lab Early stage co-founder chemistry Ross's innovative role being an academic and entrepreneur Fundraising journey Open mindedness to non-traditional investors Investors: Berkeley Skydeck,  Lindonlight Collective Filters for selecting investors Getting to market: Parallels from other delivery companies like Alnylam Counterintuitive decisions Future goals Connecting the dots

Chandana Haque is the Executive Director of Altitude Lab, a healthcare startup accelerator building a community of diverse entrepreneurs in Utah. Altitude Lab was cofounded in 2020 by Chandana and Chris Gibson, the co-founder & CEO of Recursion in Salt Lake City. They recently announced the launch of a pre-seed venture fund aimed at supporting early-stage biotech startups impacted by recent federal funding policy shifts.   This pre-seed venture fund is dedicated to funding the highest impact ideas transitioning from basic research to industry. In partnership with Altitude Lab, they provide capital, lab space, and mentorship to high-potential SBIR reviewed companies, offering continuity for startups affected by recent funding policy changes while strengthening Salt Lake City's position as a national biotech hub.   We talk about the Altitude fund, Altitude lab, lessons learned from other ecosystems; support from Recursion, better ways to support healthcare founders and many other topics.   Shownotes Altitude lab fund: a pre-seed venture fund dedicated to funding the highest impact ideas transitioning from basic research to industry.  Fund announcement: https://ir.recursion.com/news-releases/news-release-details/altitude-lab-launches-pre-seed-venture-fund-anchored-recursion Altitude labs: a health care accelerator building a community of diverse entrepreneurs in Utah Lessons learned (and unlearned) from Boston and Bay Area startup ecosystems Criteria for selection: Technology vs market readiness Founder fit, connecting founders to the right resources Turning a scrappy startup to a fundable one Overhyped areas in biotech Finding winners and lost opportunities Support from Recursion Pharma  Supporting diversity: Anecdotes of diverse founders Support from the University of Utah

Monica Rosoff, the founder and CEO of LBBAL™ Alianza. Prior to launching Alianza, Monica was a partnering executive with roles of increasing seniority at Genentech, Gilead, Kite and Exelixis. Over the course of over two decades, she had the opportunity to lead and participate in a wide diversity of deals, negotiations, diligence exercises, alliances, technology transfers, M&A integrations, dispute resolution negotiations, amendments and terminations–at all stages of the drug development and commercialization lifecycle and in multiple therapeutic areas. Dr. Rosoff earned a doctorate in Pharmacology from the University of Washington and conducted her postdoctoral work at Stanford. We talked about lessons learned from her experiences in alliance management, especially for early stage startups.  Shownotes Monica Rosoff https://lbbalalianza.com/ Monica's entry into alliance management Principles that guide a good partnership: What's best for the patient? Find synergies, timing and motivations Who to approach at a big pharma when identifying a partner? Evaluating motivations of a big pharma: Get specific Building trust Performing due diligence-How? Power dynamics: How to deal with a big partner when you have a power imbalance? Role of lawyers Communicating failures Have a list of "To-dont's" as opposed to "To-do" list Conflicts might be important Repeating problems: Lessons learned How to prepare for unexpected changes at big companies? Conflict resolution: What to pick fights on? Allocating resources

Zack Shildhorn is an investing Partner at venture firm Lux Capital. He played multiple key roles that helped the firm scale from less than $100M to more than $4B in assets under management. After witnessing thousands of pitches, he saw that even the most disruptive startups often struggled to develop effective narratives. Having worked closely with leading technology companies as an investor and Board member, he brings a unique ability to connect with key stakeholders and distill complex ideas into engaging and relatable presentations. In order to help founders beyond Lux, He launched a firm called Series Z, to help a select group of tech companies and funds bring their vision to life. Zack also recently partnered with Khosla ventures to help founders there as well.  Zack kindly agreed to share some of the lessons from his experience teaching the art of storytelling to founders and VCs. I think you will benefit tremendously from this episode.  Show Notes: Series Z: https://www.series-z.co/ Zack Schildhorn: https://x.com/zacktrak Most founders are in a challenged position Repetition, iteration, feedback Founders have the disadvantage of not knowing an investor's mindset Selling vision: Why should investors care? Framing your pitch: Ways to capture investor's attention How to appeal to the emotions of an investor? Fear and greed Starting a presentation with words and not slides Presenting technical idea: How not to inundate listeners with too much data Reframing problems: Addressing known apprehensions How to not get offended by a question or being defensive? Media links: Power of Narrative for Entrepreneurs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-llii7frwco Framing your pitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4V89rywlR0 Pitching investors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYkOoRJGuvk

Corey Goodman, Ph.D., is the managing partner of venBio, a venture capital firm he cofounded in 2011. venBio already has 7 FDA approved drugs on the market, saving and improving lives. Corey spent 25 years as Professor of Biology at Stanford University and Evan Rauch Chair of Neurobiology at U.C. Berkeley, where he was a HHMI Investigator, Head of the Neurobiology Division, and co-founder and Director of the Wills Neuroscience Institute. Corey co-founded seven biotechnology companies, and led one of them (Renovis) as President and CEO from a private to public company until its acquisition by Evotec. Two of the companies he co-founded have been acquired and three have done IPOs to date.  He then moved to Pfizer, where he was President of the Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovation Center and a member of the executive leadership team. We talk about transformation of UC Berkeley as a startup powerhouse;  his entrepreneurial journey starting with the founding of Exelixis while being a faculty at UC Berkeley; role played by mentors and co-founders; lessons learned from founding startups that founders today could benefit from; changing careers at various stages of his life as he turned 50 and 60 (he recently turned 73); lessons from big pharma; experiences and lessons from partnerships and acquisitions by big pharma; and his experiences investing. Show Notes: Corey Goodman, Ph.D. Corey Goodman's autobiography: https://www.sfn.org/-/media/SfN/Documents/NEW-SfN/About/History-of-Neuroscience/20220914_HON_volume12_goodman.pdf Turn around story of UC Berkeley entrepreneurship: remarkable 10 years People and leadership matter Carol Christ Exelixis: Corey's first startup, co-founded with Gerry Rubin. George Scangos joined the company as CEO in 1996;  Learning from genetic modeling organisms Find a big brother/sister who can help you: Role played by Stelios Papadopoulos and Ed Penhoet Donald Kennedy: Corey's mentor Taking risks at various stages of life: Turning 50, 60, and now 73 Life as an executive at Pfizer and lessons learned in that space Big pharma companies are unbelievably inefficient in early stage drug discovery James Allison: Immune checkpoint inhibitors Importance of academia and startup ecosystem in drug discovery Lessons from big pharma acquiring biotechs: What, when, how and what not to do Lessons learned from biotech partnering with big pharma: Don't partner on everything- keep some to yourself Operator VCs: Investors/board members who went through building companies are more valuable than those who come from consulting backgrounds Building teams Transition to Pfizer and out: "Come change the world" Launching VenBio: Everybody's voice matters Investment thesis

Abhishek Tripathi, is the Director of Mission operations of the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. Abhi is also the Chair of the Air and Space track startups at Skydeck, which is UC Berkeley's startup accelerator program. For over two decades, Abhi has been at the forefront of human and robotic space exploration. At SpaceX, he spearheaded the certification of both the cargo and crew Dragon programs, a pivotal achievement in commercial spaceflight. His expertise was further showcased as Dragon Mission Director, where he orchestrated a dozen critical cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station. Abhi's technical acumen reached new heights when he assumed the role of Dragon Chief Engineer for Flight Reliability on the groundbreaking Crew Demo 1 and Demo 2 missions. Prior to his transformative work at SpaceX, Abhi honed his skills during a decade-long tenure as an Aerospace Systems engineer at NASA, laying the foundation for his remarkable career in space technology.  We talked about the lessons learned from Abhi's journey at NASA, SpaceX and his work at the University of California, Berkeley, where he continues to lead several space missions. He shared some of the lessons learned from working at a highly demanding job at SpaceX; and also translated his experiences into lessons for startups and life in general. And Yes, he did share some of his experiences working with Elon Musk. Show Notes: Abhishek Tripathi https://www.ssl.berkeley.edu/ Setting overarching goals that ties with the vision for a company Building factories to vow consumers and the larger population (new age moats) Journey at NASA Try to work at a cutting edge company before launching a startup, (except if you are a deeply involved in a research area during postdoc or similar compelling situation) Picking advisors: Pick tactical advisors instead of strategic ones End all instances of gatekeeping (one of the rules set by Musk) Leading the Dragon mission to deliver cargo to ISS Regulations: Working with NASA/government for approvals 'Bring me a rock exercise" Experiences working on Falcon 9 mission Transition to academia https://www.ssl.berkeley.edu/ "Other than the brutal pace of Space X, we have many of the elements of Space X at Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley." Space track https://skydeck.berkeley.edu/ What startups in the space track should possess Timing, funding, technology readiness SSL LEADERSHIP AND ADMINISTRATIVE CONTACTS https://www.ssl.berkeley.edu/administrative-contacts/ https://x.com/SpaceAbhi

Richard Lyons, Ph.D., is the Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer, at the University of California, Berkeley. Rich is an economist and the former dean of the business school. Rich will become the next chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley.  We talk about a wide variety of topics around the Evolution of innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem at Berkeley. We covered topics like paradigm shifts, cultural transformations, overcoming inertia; global impact and many others.  I hope you get some insights from this story, and walk away with appreciation and potentially actionable steps if you are trying to build startup ecosystems on your campuses. Show Notes: https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/faculty/rich-lyons Report on entrepreneurship at UC Berkeley from the Faculty Entrepreneurship Committee: https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/2018-08/Entrepreneurship_at_Berkeley.pdf  UC Regents taskforce report: From Discovery to Societal Impact: A Roadmap to Unleashing UC Innovation and Entrepreneurship: https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/may21/g1attach.pdf Cultural transformation at UC Berkeley: https://newsroom.haas.berkeley.edu/berkeley-named-top-university-for-number-of-venture-backed-companies-founded/#:~:text=PitchBook%20has%20ranked%20Berkeley%20%231,public%20university%20for%20startup%20founders. Bakar fellows program: https://bakarfellows.berkeley.edu/ Cultural transformation to embrace entrepreneurship Mission of academic institutions is impact Overcoming inertia at academic institutions Ecosystem dynamics & talent pipeline Start with "Yes, if" framework to address difficult questions Pilot programs Berkeley RIC  I&E Council Inclusivity: Dual degree program  Berkeley Changemaker program Failures and hurdles Ethical considerations Parts of the ecosystem that could be replicated and hard to do so by other universities Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SCET)

Shahram Seyedin-Noor is the founder and managing partner at Civilization Ventures. Shahram received a JD from Harvard and worked at Wilson Solsinis and Cooley before going into investment banking at firms like Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. He then entered the startup world co-founding several startups. He eventually ended up Angel investing and in 2017, launched Civilization Ventures, focused on supporting cutting-edge innovations in health tech and biology. Shahram has over a dozen exits under his belt, which is a phenomenal achievement. Here are some of his investments: Rewrite (acq. by Intellia), Replace (acq. by Tome), Lemonaid (acq. by 23andme), Singular Bio (acq. by Invitae), Rocket Pharma (listed on Nasdaq), Palamedrix (acq. by SomaLogic), Foresight Diagnostics, BillionToOne, Omada and others. Shahram takes an active role in company building. Prior to founding CV, Shahram was the founding CEO/Chairman of Inspirna, an oncology therapeutics company currently in Phase 2 human trials, and the CFO and VP of Corporate Development at NextBio, a genomics software pioneer acquired by Illumina. Shownotes: https://www.civilizationventures.com/ Success has a thousand fathers but failure is an orphan Accountability: Few people blame themselves for failure and give credit for success to others Evolution of mindset: Don't let others dictate what you can or supposed to do in life EQ is more/equally important than IQ Transition from law school to startups Advice for recruiting a non-scientific co-founder Rewrite therapeutics acquired by Intellia Investment thesis at Civilization Ventures: Drive to do things differently Lessons learned from exits Contact email: [email protected]

Leo Polovets is the Co-founder and General Partner at Susa Ventures. Leo focuses on enterprise software and technical products at Susa. About two years ago, He also started Humba Ventures, a fund that invests in deep tech and critical national sectors like energy and defense at Humba.   Leo led Susa's investments in Mashgin, People Data Labs, Scalyr, and Treasury Prime. Having been a software engineer for 10+ years, Leo approaches challenges with an engineering mindset and supports portfolio companies in vetting and hiring technical talent. Prior to Susa, Leo was the second engineering hire at Linkedin, where he worked on the first versions of products like LinkedIn Jobs and LinkedIn Groups. Leo then worked on payment fraud detection algorithms at Google, and was also an early engineer at Factual, where he built data processing software. Leo received a bachelor's degree in Engineering and Applied Science (Computer Science) from Caltech. We talk about lessons that translate from investing in traditional startups; explore lessons learned about market sizing, pricing, team dynamics, managing burn, scaling, valuation and many other topics in the deep tech space.   Shownotes: https://humbaventures.com/ Leo's presentation on "Exploring Startup Ideas" https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1C-JFkqsY40tidqPD1OZbV3-OXPAyrsPIV5Q_00PkToQ/edit#slide=id.g221d008c440_0_35 Thinking about making money for scientific founders Thinking about market attributes for a potential startup Intro to Humba ventures Investing in deep tech Founder-market fit; Time to make money Investment thesis Communication: between team members, to investors and beyond Working with startup teams: Commercialization Pricing in deep tech: Think of value being created How to ask for money for your product? Aloha robot- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaaZ8ss-HP4&t=5s Story telling Manage your burn! Scaling: Calibrating on talent; learning to delegate; firing Bs and B+s on the team Keeping up with new technologies Thoughts on valuation What Leo likes to hear while being pitched to

Caroline Winnett is the Executive Director of Berkeley Skydeck, a startup accelerator at the University of California, Berkeley. Skydeck started as a mentoring space in 2012 and soon translated into one of the leading startup accelerators in the world. SkyDeck was Formed as a partnership between UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, the College of Engineering, and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research. While it offers all the benefits of a traditional accelerator, what makes Skydeck special is the vast resources of the world's number one ranked public university. The robust and vibrant ecosystem includes a deep network of advisors, industry partners, and attracts some of the best investors. I have seen its evolution first hand because of my own association since my postdocs days at UC Berkeley We discuss the evolution of the startup ecosystem at UC Berkeley and then dive into how Skydeck has been supporting deep tech startups, challenges and lessons learned.   Shownotes: Berkeley Skydeck: https://skydeck.berkeley.edu/ Startup resources at Berkeley: https://begin.berkeley.edu/ Berkeley named top university for number of venture-backed companies Evolution of startup ecosystem at UC Berkeley: Pre & post Skydeck Changing academia-industry relations Skydeck is just not for UC Berkeley community Support for deep tech startups at Skydeck Criteria for picking deep tech startups for accelerations Lessons learned from working with scientific and faculty founders Scalability and market potential of deep tech startups Partnerships with corporations: realistic expectations Picking advisors Commercializing deep tech startups Investing in deep tech: Evaluating founders Tips for applying to Berkeley Skydeck Apply here: https://skydeck.berkeley.edu/apply/