Petri Podcast

Andras Forgacs is co-founder and CEO of Modern Meadow, a company that is transforming the material world by biofabricating novel materials inspired by leather, without the animal. Andras has built Modern Meadow into a leading biomaterials company, having launched Zoa, the world’s first biofabricated leather brand. Andras is a “principles first” leader who believes that biofabrication has the potential for large-scale impact. Learn how he embraces cognitive diversity on his team, plans for manufacturing scalability from the start, and manages customers’ expectations carefully while innovating.

Sofia Elizondo is a Co-founder and COO of Brightseed, a startup that is illuminating nature’s intelligence to provide health and nutrition benefits to humans. In our chat with Sofia, we learned about how a computationally identified plant compound has the power to improve metabolic health. We also heard tips on being a female founder, devising commercial strategy, and protecting early stage intellectual property.

A constant innovator in patient data and healthcare, Paul Bleicher reflects on Phase Forward’s modernization of clinical trials and offers advice for “crossing the chasm” to tech adoption with risk-averse communities. Phase Forward went public and was later acquired by Oracle, and Paul went on to become the CMO of Humedica (acq Optum), and the CEO of OptumLabs. As a serial entrepreneur, Paul offers insights on the stages of early startup and on humbly knowing your own strengths - even if it means stepping aside as CEO to help your company crush it.

Reshma Shetty was driven to make biology easier to engineer and ended up launching Ginkgo Bioworks with friends from MIT as a high-impact means to achieve their vision. Ginkgo is a platform biotechnology company with applications across medicine, food and nutrition, agriculture, cosmetics, and more. Recently, the company has been using their foundational technology on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic and have spun off Joyn Bio and Allonia, new companies focused on wastewater remediation and sustainable agriculture, respectively. Reshma shares tips for women founders, for building a diverse company, and for bootstrapping until you have a game plan.

Bill Brady is the founder of Kula Bio, a leader in sustainable nitrogen solutions. Bill came to entrepreneurship as a second career after 22 years in industry, and he’s been working on sustainable technologies for more than a decade.