The Biotech Startups Podcast

• 🧬 Seed Rounds Are the New Series A: How Funding Benchmarks Shifted | Krish Ramadurai (4/4)

  "The biggest problem that we're seeing right now is that the efficiency gains have not translated to enterprise value. The customer is not seeing that result transcend into unit economics yet." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, we explore Krish Ramadurai's insights on AI-native venture investing and the evolving biotech landscape. Krish unpacks the current state of AI ventures, explaining why the foundation layer is being rapidly commoditized and how defensibility now lives in full-stack applications rather than point solutions. He offers a candid perspective on what founders often misunderstand about market fit, revealing that efficiency gains haven't translated to enterprise value and that most AI companies are building vitamins when customers need painkillers. Krish breaks down the dramatic shift in funding benchmarks, where seed-stage companies now achieve revenue milestones that previously defined Series A rounds. He shares hard-won lessons from the tech bio space, explaining why platforms that forgot biotech is fundamentally a drug business struggled during the biotech winter, and why growth investors can only underwrite assets, not services models. The conversation also explores AIX's firm-building philosophy, emphasizing how combining technical expertise with authentic human connection—being "the same dweeb in and out of the office"—creates a competitive advantage in winning deals against tier-one funds with significantly larger checks.

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• 🧬 Controlled Chaos: Why Success Isn't Planned (And Doesn't Need To Be) | Krish Ramadurai (3/4)

  "I'm only doing this because I'm already doing this or because I couldn't afford to hypothesis test." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Krish Ramadurai, Partner at AIX Ventures, reveals his unconventional approach to building a venture capital career through simultaneous immersion in both academia and industry. The conversation explores how Krish pursued his master's in nanomedicine and PhD at Oxford University while working full-time at Harmonics Capital—an arrangement he negotiated by demonstrating that his research on machine learning algorithms for mRNA optimization directly aligned with his daily venture work.​ Krish challenges conventional wisdom about hustle culture, arguing that productivity drops after 55 hours per week and emphasizing strategic time protection over brute-force effort. He shares candid reflections on what he calls "controlled chaos"—how his achievements weren't the result of meticulous planning but rather making the best of challenging circumstances. The discussion then transitions to his strategic move to AIX Ventures, where he joined as the first institutional partner at a firm helmed by AI pioneers like Richard Socher (inventor of prompt engineering). Krish describes building AIX's TechBio practice from less than 10% to 25% of the portfolio in just over a year, leading nine deals while helping scale a fund that's become the #2 VC globally for performance with eight unicorns from their first fund.

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• 🧬 Why 40% of Venture Funds Failed Last Year (And How to Avoid It) | Krish Ramadurai (2/4)

  "I was not like, 'Well, this partner helped me on it, and then we shared the deal.' I was like, 'I think I'm good at this because I basically did the output of an entire firm by myself, like, the first two years.'" In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, host Jon Chee continues his conversation with Krish Ramadurai, exploring his unconventional journey from Harvard academia to becoming a venture capital partner in record time. Krish shares how he applied his research training to venture capital, identifying a new category of compute-driven biotech companies before "TechBio" even existed, and executing twelve investments during his first year as an analyst—all while the COVID-19 pandemic sent markets into free fall.​ Krish reveals the critical importance of "shot-calling" in venture capital, explaining why many talented associates and principals get stuck in their careers by not claiming ownership of their wins. He describes compressing his MBA into sixteen months at Washington University while working two full-time positions, his rapid ascent from analyst to partner by consistently performing above his role, and the uncomfortable but necessary transition from technical expert to fundraiser when dealing with limited partners. Throughout the conversation, Krish emphasizes breaking traditional rules when conviction demands it, treating every investment like an evidence-based academic experiment, and understanding that in venture capital, you're only as good as your last deal.

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• 🧬 Working 3 Jobs at Harvard: How Desperation Built Conviction | Krish Ramadurai (1/4)

  "You’ve just got to embrace the suck. When everything sucks, you just execute against it. It's nice because then when that situation happens again, which adult life works like that all the time, you can be more systematically prepared." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, we explore Krish Ramadurai's unconventional journey from Chicago's South Side to becoming a Partner at AIX Ventures. Krish shares how a career-ending femur fracture during his track and field career redirected his path from Johns Hopkins to the University of Illinois, where he discovered the intersection of hard science and business that would define his future.​​ Krish takes us through his audacious approach to getting into Harvard—auditing classes before formal admission, working three jobs simultaneously to afford tuition, and sending over 500 cold emails to find research opportunities. He reflects on how working alongside figures like US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, CIA Director David Petraeus, and Nobel Prize winner Mike Kremer at the Belfer Center shaped his understanding of applied science and policy intervention. Most importantly, Krish emphasizes how rejection built conviction, turning financial desperation and constant setbacks into the foundation for his success in venture capital.

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• 🧬 Profit + Purpose: The New Model for Healthcare Investing | Parag Shah Re-Release (2/2)

  "Entrepreneurship is great, but, for me, family always came first. [My] wife and kids always came first. I didn't miss a single game or show or anything of the kids, whether it was at 3 PM or 5 PM or 7 PM, I did that. And then I figured out the work otherwise." We’re revisiting some of our previous episodes over the holidays this year. Our next rerelease is part 2 of this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast with Parag Shah, where we discuss his journey from leading the life sciences practice at Hercules Capital to founding K2 Health Ventures. Parag shares candid insights about the pivotal moment he transitioned from banking to private credit, his decision to join Hercules as one of the first employees, and the challenges of scaling a fund from $25 million to over a billion dollars as a public BDC. Parag offers rare transparency about the difficulties of navigating toxic corporate culture while building a successful business, and how those experiences shaped his vision for K2 HealthVentures. He emphasizes the critical importance of work-life balance in entrepreneurship, revealing how he never missed a single one of his children's games or shows despite the demands of building investment firms. The conversation explores the strategic advantages of evergreen fund structures versus traditional LP/GP models, and how K2's unique approach of combining debt and equity across the capital stack, along with dedicating a percentage of profits to underserved healthcare, represents a new model for impact investing in life sciences.

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