The Biotech Startups Podcast

In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, host Jon Chee continues his conversation with Stephanie Sirota, Partner and Head of Strategic Partnerships at RTW Investments, as she traces RTW’s evolution from a lean public-equity fund into a major life sciences platform spanning crossover investing, company creation, and global commercialization. Stephanie explains how RTW built the modern crossover ecosystem, why they chose to found Rocket Pharma instead of a fleet of gene therapy startups, and how a disciplined, science-first research process underpins the firm’s long-term, concentrated investing strategy and deep alignment with LPs and portfolio founders.

In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, host Jon Chee continues his conversation with Stephanie Sirota, Partner and Head of Strategic Partnerships at RTW Investments, as she reflects on her path from Lehman Brothers investment banking to macro hedge funds and ultimately biotech-focused investing and firm building. Steph shares how journalism training shaped her strategic thinking, what she learned from navigating multiple market crises, and how those lessons inform RTW’s approach to cycles, institutional architecture, and innovative funding models like royalty vehicles in today’s prolonged biotech bear market.

In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Jon Chee sits down with Stephanie Sirota, partner and head of strategic partnerships at RTW Investments, to explore how a coddled yet cosmopolitan upbringing, years of elite tennis competition, and a humanities-rich education at Columbia shaped her mental toughness, leadership style, and approach to partnering with life sciences innovators. From sports psychology and coaching to the value of breadth before specialization, Stephanie reflects on the experiences that built her resilience and curiosity long before she helped transform RTW into a leading life sciences investment firm.

In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Jon Chee sits down with Fengru Lin, CEO & co-founder of TurtleTree, who is leveraging precision fermentation and a people-first culture to bring the high-value milk protein lactoferrin to market while reshaping how the food system serves both consumers and farmers. They discuss TurtleTree's strategic refocus from cell-based milk to commercially viable ingredients, the importance of business-centric leadership in biotech, and how thoughtful team-building enables faster execution, better fundraising narratives, and earlier commercialization.

In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, host Jon Chee continues his conversation with Fengru Lin, CEO and co-founder of TurtleTree. Fengru shares how rigorous sales training at Salesforce and entrepreneurial autonomy at Google Cloud shaped her approach to customers, investors, and organizational change—then traces how a cheese-making hobby, poor dairy supply chains, and exposure to cell-based meat and seafood startups led to TurtleTree’s founding, early patents, and strategic pivot toward precision fermentation of high-value milk proteins.