Hey {{first_name|default:there}}, it’s Vadim 👋
Welcome to a special Monday night edition of the Bio Founder GPS newsletter - courtesy of the recent flu that’s been going around. If you’re reading this, hope you’re staying healthy!
On a more fun note, today I have an exciting update!
If you’ve been following along with the Bio Founder GPS podcast, you know that for my first two conversations, I sat down with investors to pull back the curtain on what they look for, and how they decide what to back (special thanks to Julie Wolf of 2048 Ventures and Jonah Probell of Lexi Ventures).
Today, we’re flipping the script.
For today’s episode, I got to sit down with Laura Hsieh, PhD, Co-Founder and CEO of TippingPoint Biosciences, for the first founder spotlight on the Bio Founder GPS Podcast.
This is a conversation that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time.
As an early mentor to Laura, and an investor in TippingPoint, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing her lead the company from an early-stage UCSF spinout, secure more than $2 million in pre-seed funding, win several pharma-sponsored golden and platinum tickets and recently close an oversubscrubed $4.5 million seed round.
But those milestones only tell part of the story.
Along the way, Laura had to learn how to negotiate a university license, build relationships with pharma, hire a team, raise capital, and continue leading the science - all while operating with the uncertainty and limited runway that come with building an early-stage biotech.
That behind-the-scenes journey is exactly what I wanted to unpack.
In biotech, we often see the headlines: the multimillion-dollar fundraises, the major partnerships, the new programs and milestones.
What we rarely see is what happened behind the scenes - the decisions, tradeoffs, mistakes, relationships, and building blocks that made those outcomes possible.
That’s why I’m especially grateful to Laura for coming on and being so candid about her journey.
She shared not only what worked, but also what she would do differently, what she had to learn along the way, and how her thinking evolved as she grew into the CEO role.
I think that honesty makes this conversation especially valuable for other scientist-founders who are trying to make the same transition, and who may be navigating many of these questions for the first time.
🧭 HERE’S WHAT WE COVERED:
How Laura went from planning an academic career to spinning a company out of UCSF
The shift from perfecting experiments to building toward value inflection points
Why the biotech market has shifted from platform stories toward asset-level proof
The framework that allowed TippingPoint to select its first indication
What Laura’s pre-seed and seed fundraising processes actually looked like
How early-stage founders can start productive conversations with pharma
What Laura would do differently if she were starting again
And much more!
You can watch the full interview, or listen via your podcast platform of choice below.
Listen + subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts / YouTube
And while you cue those up, here are the four lessons from our conversation that I think every scientist-founder should keep in mind 👇
FIRST, A QUICK NOTE
Did you miss the pitch-deck workshop?
Earlier this week, I hosted a live workshop on how to build a pitch deck that helps investors understand not only your science, but why it matters as a business.
More than 70 founders joined live, and honestly, I had a blast. Thank you to everyone who showed up, asked thoughtful questions, and shared what they’re building!
In case you missed it, I’ve made the recording available for the next week:
And for founders who want to go beyond the workshop, I’m very excited to share that enrollment is now open for the Bio Founder GPS Pitch Deck Intensive, beginning June 30.
Over six weeks, we’ll work together to clarify your story, strengthen your deck, and make sure investors can quickly understand the opportunity behind your science.
The founding cohort also includes access to the upcoming Fundraising Intensive, where we’ll build your target investor list and develop a focused outreach strategy for reaching the right funds.
For the founding cohort, the Fundraising Intensive is included at no additional cost.
Enrollment is limited to 12 founders and closes at midnight ET on June 29. Spots are first come, first served.
Now, back to Laura’s story 👇