Ian’s customer discovery conversations often start with a simple question about how someone does their work.

Giving scientists the space to walk through their day can surface frustrations that wouldn’t come up in a product demo, including problems so familiar they barely think to mention them.

Ian described listening for moments when someone brings up a task they dread, then following that thread to understand what makes it difficult and whether others face the same issue.

What stood out to me was how he evaluates those patterns.

He looks across company sizes and job roles to see whether a problem affects more than one person or one narrow customer segment.

With limited engineering time and runway, that helps the team decide where to put their effort. He also acknowledged the tension: a product needs to be useful to enough people to support overall business growth, while still solving a specific problem well.

For founders doing customer discovery and building on a limited budget, this can be a helpful lens for deciding which requests deserve a place on the roadmap.

ModernVivo started with a problem that Ian knew firsthand: helping scientists gather research and design experiments.

As customers used the platform, another question kept coming up.

Once they had designed a study, could ModernVivo help them find a contract research organization (CRO) with the technical capabilities to run it? Finding those providers was time-consuming, but it wasn’t something Ian or his team were initially close to.

That feedback helped shape the Marketplace and opened up a new potential customer base.

Ian described approaching CROs to connect them with researchers, only to learn those providers also did substantial study design work and could use the original ModernVivo platform themselves.

That’s a great flywheel.

I liked how addressing one customer need led the team to another group with a related problem. For me, it’s a reminder to stay curious about what happens before and after someone uses your product.

There may be some real gems in those workflows that can inspire your next killer feature, a new customer vertical, or a whole new path for your company.

Ian came into fundraising with no investor network, no connections, no running start.

Looking back, he emphasized preparing materials earlier and getting more people to pressure-test the story before entering the process.

He also shared one tip that may run counter to most fundraising advice: don’t overlook speaking to Associates and junior colleagues at venture funds.

In fact, Ian estimates that half the funds that invested in the company’s $1M pre-seed began as first conversations with Associates.

As Ian explained, an associate may have limited decision-making authority, but someone who understands the company and believes in the founders can still become an internal champion.

Now, the usual qualifying questions are still relevant: the fund should be actively investing, your company should align with their thesis, and their check size should fit your stage and raise.

But the principle remains: build your internal champions, and build them early.

A fun bit in our conversation came when I asked Ian for his thoughts about the “SaaS-pocalypse” - ie, if anyone could vibe-code a SaaS product, does the category still hold water, especially with potential for venture returns?

To address this, Ian pointed to the information ModernVivo needs to connect scientists with suitable CROs. AI can help build an interface quickly, but knowing which providers can actually perform a particular study takes real conversations, relationships, and data.

That brought me back to something Julie Wolf of 2048 Ventures discussed in our very first podcast episode: the companies that will win in the current environment will be those that can build systems of record that capture data from the real world and build unique datasets.

In ModernVivo’s case, I see an opportunity to organize information that still lives in people’s heads, emails, and disconnected workflows.

For founders building tools, I think the useful question is whether serving each new customer helps you learn something that makes the product more valuable for the next one.

If those interactions build a reliable, reusable body of knowledge, you may develop a flywheel that becomes a competitive advantage and harder to replicate over time.

In my view, that’s a much more important angle than just pure development speed.

One thing I was really curious about was Ian’s sales funnel and tech stack. After all, aren’t there so many outreach tools these days?

To my surprise (and delight), Ian still does his LinkedIn outreach manually, checking to make sure that each person he reaches out to actually does the work that ModernVivo can help with.

He also tailors each message accordingly.

Does that sound like a lot of work? I bet it is.

But the proof was also in the pudding: a high share of ModernVivo’s customers - and investors - came from cold outreach.

Ian also talked passionately about just being a “good hang” - someone that people genuinely enjoy talking to, including when the conversation has nothing to do with a sale.

Something that we both agreed on: in an increasingly noisy and AI-driven world, showing up fully and building authentic (and human) relationships is not just better for your mental health; it’s good for business.

What I appreciated most about Ian’s story was just how much of ModernVivo’s traction came through showing up - whether by reaching out to prospective customers, going to conferences, or traveling to in-person meetings.

As Ian put it: “I can’t even say how many happenstance interactions we’ve had that have led to our most productive conversations.”

For an early-stage company, those conversations can result in information and opportunities that would be impossible to plan for from the start.

There’s a lot more in the episode, including Ian’s fundraising approach and what helped him and his team close $1M for their pre-seed round.

For the full conversation, you can watch the full episode here.

A huge thanks to Ian for joining me. I highly recommend connecting with him on LinkedIn.

My conversation with Ian marked the 10th episode of the Bio Founder GPS Podcast! 🎉

Time flies when you’re having fun!

If you’ve been getting value out of these conversations, it would mean a lot if you follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube and share with others in the life sciences community!

There is strength in numbers, and having more folks like you in our corner will allow us to bring on more guests like Ian who can help answer your most pressing questions.

See you next week!

- Vadim

PS: Speaking of amazing guests, to mark the United Nations General Assembly meeting happening in NYC this week, I will have the honor of sitting down with Eunice Ajim, Founding Partner at Ajim Capital - one of the most active pre-seed and seed venture capital firms investing in technology companies across Sub-Saharan Africa.

If you’ve been curious about building or investing in the region, I’d love to hear any questions you may have for Eunice. Just reply to this email and let me know!