Hey {{first_name|default:there}}, it’s Vadim 👋

It’s been a few weeks since our last Bio Founder GPS podcast episode, so today we are going to remedy that 🙂

Quick update before we jump in: as Bio Founder GPS approaches its first anniversary, I finally made it official with a dedicated Bio Founder GPS LinkedIn page 🎉

I’ll be sharing podcast clips, founder resources, and more there, so if you’ve found Bio Founder GPS helpful over the past year, I’d love it if you followed the new page here. It would mean a lot!

Now, for today’s main event: I’m excited to share that recently I got to sit down with Chris Potts, CBO of Persephoni BioPartners, and Co-Founder and CEO of Monarch Therapeutics.

And by “sit down” I actually mean - sit down 🙂 This was officially the first in-person conversation on Bio Founder GPS. The first, I hope, of many.

There were a number of reasons why I was super excited to have Chris on.

First, he spent years as an IP attorney and executive inside companies like Lonza and Legend Biotech before making the jump into entrepreneurship with Monarch.

And today, he sits on both sides of the table: building and fundraising for his own company while helping Persephoni build and back other early-stage biotechs.

Naturally, that gave us no shortage of topics to chat about.

🧭 HERE’S WHAT WE COVERED:

  • Why most biotech failures aren't scientific failures, and what that means for how you spend your time as a founder

  • Where early-stage founders can find their first investors and true-believers (hint, it’s not the same VCs everyone else is chasing)

  • How to quickly qualify investors before spending valuable time pitching them

  • The overlooked IP decisions that can shape a biotech’s value years later

  • How Chris navigates the platform vs. asset debate

  • And much more - including how growing up raising hogs on a farm in Ohio shaped the way Chris thinks about building companies today

You can watch the full interview, or listen via your podcast platform of choice below.

Listen + subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts / YouTube

While that’s loading for you, here are some highlights of what I took away from our conversation👇

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