🧬 Startup Survival Skills: Resilience, Frugality & Real Talk in Biotech | Ivan Liachko (Part 2/4)

The Biotech Startups Podcast

🧬 The Biotech Startups Podcast is powered by Excedr—helping life science startups accelerate R&D and commercialization with founder-friendly equipment leasing. Skip the upfront costs, stay lean, and focus on breakthrough science.

As a TBSP listener, you can get exclusive perks through Excedr’s partner network—special savings, promotions, and more. Explore these offers today: https://www.excedr.com/partners.

“Every time you think you’re right and somebody puts you in your place and you learn from it, eventually you’re like, that guy gave me the greatest gift… You learn to love it.”

In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Ivan Liachko, CEO and co-founder of Phase Genomics, delivers an unfiltered look at the realities of building a biotech company, revealing how the mental toll of leadership, managing egos, and embracing frugality shaped his journey from academia to entrepreneurship.

Through candid stories of scrappy problem-solving and bootstrapping Phase Genomics, Ivan and host Jon Chee highlight the surprising overlap between science and business, the importance of knowing which game you’re playing, and why resilience, adaptability, and learning from failure are crucial for startup success.

Key topics covered:

• The Emotional Toll of Leadership: Handling conflict, building resilience, and staying mentally tough.
• From Academia to Entrepreneurship: Turning scientific know-how into business savvy.
• Frugality & Resourcefulness: Scrappy solutions over spending sprees.
• Knowing Your Game: Avoiding hype and matching strategy to your company’s reality.
• Embracing Discomfort and Failure: Growing by learning from mistakes and challenging expert advice.

If you enjoy The Biotech Startups Podcast, please consider subscribing, leaving a review, or sharing it with your friends. Thanks for listening.

Subscribe to the Podcast:

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-biotech-startups-podcast/id1679591994

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PSL162R2s0zOwU5913Zv4

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebiotechstartupspodcast

Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/

Find our guest, Ivan Liachko, at these links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivan-liachko-%F0%9F%87%BA%F0%9F%87%A6-a333055a/

Website: https://www.linkedin.com/company/phase-genomics-inc/

Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonchee

Learn more about Excedr:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/

Website: https://www.excedr.com

Intro & Outro Songs Created by OkKyojin, Owned by Excedr:

Website: https://flow.page/kyojin

Resources & Articles:

Ultra-Long-Range Genomic Information: https://www.ark-invest.com/podcast/phase-genomics

Genome Startup Day: https://innovatebio.org/blog/podcast-genome-startup-day-bacteria-breakthroughs

Life Science and Biotech CEO Stories: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/life-science-and-biotech-ceo-stories/id1725353867

Accelerating Biochemical R&D (TEKsystems): https://www.teksystems.com/en/insights/success-stories/machine-learning-aws-phase-genomics

The Future of Phage Therapy: https://www.scispot.com/blog/the-future-of-phage-therapy-can-bacteriophages-replace-antibiotics

GeekWire Awards: https://www.geekwire.com/2023/how-this-ukrainian-born-ceo-created-a-biotech-startup-where-curious-scientists-thrive/

Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:

Phase Genomics: https://phasegenomics.com

Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/

Cornell University: https://www.cornell.edu/

Brandeis University: https://www.brandeis.edu/

Gates Foundation: https://www.gatesfoundation.org/

Shawn Sullivan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawn-sullivan-mit/

Maitreya Dunham: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maitreya-dunham-b23a9148/

Josh Burton: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-burton-6292a25/

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

02:06 Mental Toll of Startup Leadership

07:03 Learning from Conflict and Managing People

13:00 Immigrant Experience and Grad School Survival

15:18 Starting Phase Genomics and Budgeting

18:52 Frugality: Instant Pot as Autoclave

22:49 Knowing Your Game: Startup Growth Strategies

25:57 Saying No to Expert Advice

28:02 Grad School Selection and Cornell Experience

30:04 Moving to Seattle and Postdoc Life

30:32 Outro

The Biotech Startups Podcast gives you a front-row seat to the business and science of building a biotech. Hosted by Jon Chee, CEO of Excedr, the show features honest conversations with founders, execs, and investors about their work, their companies, and how they got there. From scientific breakthroughs to startup lessons, each episode explores what it really takes to grow a life science company—from pre-seed to IPO.