🧬 Choosing Conviction Over Convention in Biotech | David Li Rerelease (2/4)

🧬 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. “I think having that internal conviction is everything.” In this part of the podcast, David Li reflects on leaving finance after realizing that an investing career would not give him the tangible impact he wanted. He explains what KKR taught him about business and patient needs, then describes the team-and-market test that led him to Benchling. David also discusses the timing behind Benchling’s growth, the rise of new cell and gene therapy workflows, and the luck involved in joining a company at the right moment. He shares what it meant to build sales, marketing, customer success, and culture from the ground up. He then looks back on the early-stage lessons that shaped his next move toward more directly patient-facing life science work, including the importance of conviction, strong teams, and seeing what winning looks like. Key Topics Covered: Long-term career decision-making Patient impact in life sciences Evaluating early-stage teams and markets Benchling’s life science informatics platform Cell and gene therapy market timing Luck, conviction, and career risk Building early-stage teams Sales and go-to-market in biotech software Everest Detection and cancer early detection 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/id1679591994Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PSL162R2s0zOwU5913Zv4YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebiotechstartupspodcastWebsite: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/ Find our guest, David Li, at these links:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-li-9aa210bWebsite: https://www.melioratherapeutics.com/ 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:Benchling Online Lab Notebook: https://www.benchling.com/notebookBenchling at MIT News: https://news.mit.edu/2016/benchling-google-docs-life-sciences-managing-sharing-data-1207Cell and Gene Therapy Report: https://www.iqvia.com/insights/the-iqvia-institute/reports-and-publications/reports/strengthening-pathways-for-cell-and-gene-therapiesAbbVie and Stemcentrx Acquisition: https://investors.abbvie.com/news-releases/news-release-details/abbvie-expand-oncology-presence-through-acquisition-stemcentrxEverest Detection: https://everestdetection.com/ Companies, Universities, & People Mentioned:Goldman Sachs: https://www.goldmansachs.com/KKR: https://www.kkr.com/Benchling: https://www.benchling.com/Stemcentrx: https://investors.abbvie.com/news-releases/news-release-details/abbvie-expand-oncology-presence-through-acquisition-stemcentrxAbbVie: https://www.abbvie.com/Everest Detection: https://everestdetection.com/ Timestamps:00:00 Intro02:03 KKR, Recruiting, and Long-Term Career Thinking03:03 Finding Patient Impact in Investing03:57 The Personal Truth Behind a Career Switch05:48 Choosing Early-Stage Entrepreneurship06:33 The Team-and-Market Test07:46 Digitizing the Lab’s Chaos08:44 Benchling’s Market Timing11:58 Luck, Networks, and the Right Wave13:32 Conviction Behind the Leap14:34 Learning Leadership at Benchling15:54 Returning to Patient-Facing Life Sciences18:24 From Benchling to Everest Detection20:54 Wearing Every Early-Stage Hat22:28 What Winning Feels Like24:03 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.