Boba & Biotech

Inside the Biotech Incubator: What Early Companies Get Right (and Wrong)

Guest:  Adam Jenkins What actually makes or breaks a biotech startup - and why is it rarely the science? In this episode of Boba & Biotech, Adam Jenkins and I enjoy some delicious grapefruit-coconut sago from Heytea while we discuss the hidden dynamics shaping today’s biotech ecosystem. From the inside workings of incubators like BioLabs and LabCentral to the uncomfortable truth about “zombie” startups, this conversation pulls back the curtain on what really happens between breakthrough science and company success. Along the way, Adam shares hard-earned insights from years of evaluating and advising early-stage companies, revealing why culture trumps data, why your first hires matter more than your pitch deck, and why taking VC money too early might be your biggest mistake. If you’re a founder, operator, or investor navigating biotech, this episode is equal parts reality check and roadmap. Adam Jenkins is the regional site director for BioLabs, where he manages sites across Boston, Cambridge, Vermont, and Toronto. BioLabs is a global innovation infrastructure company creating the physical and community backbone that powers life science discovery worldwide. Prior to BioLabs Adam worked at Biogen, a global biotech focused on neurology, where he headed their data science teams and helped lead their portfolio strategy. He holds a PhD in genetics from Boston College and an MBA from Indiana University. Links Armon’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/armonsharei/   Adam’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adammjenks/ Biolabs: https://www.biolabs.io/  Credits Hosted by Armon Sharei, PhD Research by Julie Kim, MBA Produced by Arielle Nisseblatt of Pinwheel, Andressa Carroll, Portal Edited and mixed by David Woje of Pinwheel

What should become a company? Lessons from an academic at the center of biotech translation

Guest: Klavs F. Jensen  In this episode of Boba & Biotech, I sit down with Klavs Jensen - professor at MIT and former chair of its chemical engineering department - to explore a deceptively simple question: why do some scientific breakthroughs become companies while others never leave the lab? As we unpack the messy journey from academic discovery to startup, Klavs tries his first-ever boba tea, a refreshing mango green tea (sans sugar!) - while sharing candid insights from decades at the intersection of academia, industry, and entrepreneurship. Our conversation dives into the often-misunderstood relationship between universities, startups, and large companies. Klavs explains why many promising ideas are too early for startups, why incremental technologies struggle to displace existing infrastructure, and why timing, talent, and market forces can matter just as much as the science itself. We also explore the human side of innovation: why the skills required to finish a PhD are very different from those needed to build and run a company, and what makes innovation ecosystems like MIT so uniquely effective. Klavs Jensen is the Warren K. Lewis Professor of Chemical Engineering, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT. He received an MS in chemical engineering at the Technical University of Denmark in 1976 and a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Wisconsin in 1980. His work can be found in more than 490 journal articles, 180 conference presentations, and 63 US patents. He serves as the inaugural editor-in-chief of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s journal, Reaction Chemistry and Engineering. Links Armon’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/armonsharei/   Klavs’ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/klavs-jensen-381995a/  Credits Hosted by Armon Sharei, PhD Research by Julie Kim, MBA Produced by Arielle Nisseblatt of Pinwheel, Andressa Carroll, Portal Edited and mixed by David Woje of Pinwheel

From Lab to Company: Engineering the Next Generation of Biotech Founders

Guest: Soufiane AboulhoudaIn this episode of Boba & Biotech, over matching brown sugar milk teas (great minds, same taste), Souf Aboulhouda, co-founder of Nucleate, and I trace his journey from growing up between France, England, and California to pursuing a PhD in the Church Lab at Harvard - where he first stumbled into the world of biotech startups after watching labmates pitch to investors.  What began as a personal crash course in company formation through the Harvard Biotech Club evolved into Nucleate: a global community now spanning ~40 cities and hundreds of universities. Along the way, the mission expanded from simply launching companies to building people - creating a dynamic talent network that helps scientists explore entrepreneurship, pressure-test cofounders, and find meaningful roles beyond the narrow “CEO or bust” narrative. The conversation dives deep into what actually separates biotech from tech: longer timelines, higher failure rates, capital intensity, and the need for pattern recognition that only experience can buy. We unpack why young founders sometimes outperform seasoned veterans and where they stumble , the cultural problem of investor non-candor, and the widening gap between top hubs like Boston/SF and emerging ecosystems. If he had a magic wand? Compress 15-year product roadmaps into one year and cut clinical costs by 10×, unlocking a future where biology innovation moves as fast as its ambition. Soufiane Aboulhouda received his BS from the University of California, Santa Cruz, has worked at the University of California, San Francisco, and received his PhD from Harvard University in the lab of George Church at the Wyss Institute. His thesis research focused on developing pooled in vivo functional genomics tools to interrogate the biology of cell trafficking to enhance solid tumor homing of immune cells. Soufiane is the co-founder and CEO of Nucleate, and has previously served as the President of the GSAS Harvard Biotech Club. Links Armon’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/armonsharei/   Souf’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/soufiane-ab/  Nucleate - https://nucleate.org/  Credits Hosted by Armon Sharei, PhD Research by Julie Kim, MBA Produced by Arielle Nisseblatt of Pinwheel  Edited and mixed by David Woje of Pinwheel 

Money Meets Molecules: What Biotech Investors Actually Care About

Guest: Ileana Pirozzi  In this episode of Boba & Biotech, I grab a delicious mango-coconut sago with Ileana Pirozzi, a former biotech investor who’s stepping off the venture sidelines and into the founder seat. From growing up in Italy to studying biomedical engineering at Stanford and working at NASA, Ileana shares how venture capital became a crash course in scientific rigor and why it ultimately felt too distant from real impact. The conversation pulls back the curtain on how VC decisions actually get made: why “no” is so hard to say, how fund dynamics and internal politics shape outcomes, and why most firms prefer to follow rather than lead. They dig into what VCs often miss when judging founders, debate generalist versus specialist investors, and call out overrated and underrated trends. The episode closes with a look at what could truly unlock the next wave of clinical impact: rethinking how clinical trials are designed and run. Ileana Pirozzi is the Head of Healthcare Ventures at Lingotto Innovation in New York City, where she leads early-stage investments in technologies at the intersection of healthcare, life sciences, and frontier engineering. Her work focuses on identifying and backing the next generation of companies redefining diagnoses, treatment and delivery of care. Ileana holds a PhD in Bioengineering and Medical Engineering from Stanford University and a BSc from Brown University. Links Armon’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/armonsharei/  Ileana’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ileanapirozzi/  Lingotto Innovation: https://www.lingotto.com/  Credits Hosted by Armon Sharei, PhD Research by Julie Kim, MBA Produced by Arielle Nisseblatt of Pinwheel, Shirley Mao, rvnway.com  Edited and mixed by David Woje of Pinwheel 

Building and Scaling the Tools and Technologies that Underpin Lifesciences

In this episode of Boba & Biotech, I go for a tasty brown sugar milk tea with Martin Madaus, former CEO of one of the biggest technology providers in our field, Millipore, for a wide-ranging conversation on what actually creates value in life sciences. Martin traces his unconventional path from veterinary medicine to global leadership roles across pharma, diagnostics, and life science tools, and shares hard-earned perspective on platform businesses versus therapeutics, why tool companies often struggle with adoption, and when M&A truly makes sense. He pushes back on the idea that therapeutics are intellectually “superior” to tools and highlights underappreciated technologies like MRD testing and spatial proteomics. Martin also makes a forceful case for moving beyond animal testing in favor of organ-on-chip models. The episode closes with a look at where real clinical impact may come next - from cell therapies to emerging innovation out of China. Martin Madaus is a seasoned public-company CEO, who has led and advised diagnostics and life science tools companies for decades, including serving as Chairman and CEO of Ortho Clinical Diagnostics and as President, Chairman, and CEO of Millipore Corporation, which he led through its $7.2 billion sale to Merck KGaA. Earlier in his career, he was CEO of Roche Diagnostics North America. Dr. Madaus holds a DVM from the University of Munich and a Ph.D. from the Veterinary University of Hannover. Links Armon’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/armonsharei/  Martin’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-madaus-3baaa728/  Credits Hosted by Armon Sharei, PhD Research by Julie Kim, MBA Produced by Arielle Nissenblatt of Pinwheel, Carolyn Corbet of Portal  Edited and mixed by David Woje of Pinwheel