The Biotech Startups Podcast 🧬 "Be On It”: High-Stakes Deals & Building World-Class Teams | Sujal Patel (Part 3/4)
Mar 9, 2026
35:47
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“As an entrepreneur, you have to be on it—taking advantage of every opportunity to build relationships and get the best people on your team.”
In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, we dive into part three of Founder and CEO at Nautilus Biotechnology, Sujal Patel’s story—zooming in on the high-stakes path to Isilon’s acquisition by EMC and what it really feels like to negotiate while your company, your board, and the market clock are all in motion. Sujal walks through how the “strategic partnership” conversations revealed themselves as acquisition positioning, why EMC’s approach felt unusually aggressive and old-school, and how a deal can appear to die on the finish line—only to roar back to life under intense time pressure.
Sujal also shares the tactical and emotional reality of price negotiation, from holding the line when an acquirer tries to anchor you, to staying disciplined in your responses, to making decisions fast when the range tightens and leaks force a deadline. From there, the conversation expands into what happens after the announcement: the commitments he made to EMC about scaling the business, the organizational decisions that protected long-term value, and the personal calculus behind eventually leaving—even when bigger roles were on the table.
Key topics covered:
- The acquisition coming together: From a voicemail intro to “OEM” talks that signaled M&A intent
- Negotiation under pressure: Anchoring, walking away, leaks, deadlines, and landing on a final price
- Founder discipline in the deal process: Controlling reactions, board process, and strategic leverage
- Post-acquisition leadership decisions: Org design, integration choices, and protecting the “crown jewels”
- Lessons carried forward: Hiring quality, developing talent early, and redefining product-market fit beyond the product
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Subscribe to the Podcast:
Subscribe to the Podcast:
Find our guest, Sujal Patel at these links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patelsujal/
Website: https://www.nautilus.bio/
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:
Mass Spectrometry-Based Clinical Proteomics https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12831324/
​Fueling the Future with Mass Spectrometry-Based Proteomics https://www.americanlaboratory.com/607446-Fueling-the-Future-with-Mass-Spectrometry-based-Proteomics/
​The Founder’s Guide to Product-Market Fit
​Product Market Fit: Ultimate Guide for Startup Founders
​Go-to-Market Fit: Founders’ Guide to Crossing the Chasm
Marketing & Sales Strategies for Early-Stage Biotechs
Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:
EMC (now Dell EMC):https://www.delltechnologies.com/en-us/storage/index.htm
​NetApp: https://www.netapp.com
Pat Gelsinger https://www.linkedin.com/in/patgelsinger/
​Harry You https://spacconference.com/speaker/harry-you
​Parag Mallick https://www.linkedin.com/in/parag/
​Michael Dell https://www.linkedin.com/in/mdell/
​
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:47 EMC's Unexpected Voicemail and the OEM Pretense
04:35 Pat Gelsinger's Dinner and Harry You's Surprise Appearance
07:06 The $25 Offer, Bidding Wars, and Walking Away from the Deal
09:57 The Friday Fax: A Fully Executed Merger Agreement at $32.50
11:15 Saturday Negotiation and How $33.85 Became the Final Price
13:00 Post-Acquisition: Running the Division and Reporting to Pat Gelsinger
16:07 Knowing When It Was Time to Leave EMC
18:48 Key Lessons from Isilon: Developing People and Hiring Right
23:15 Redefining Product-Market Fit Beyond the Traditional Definition
26:18 Four Years Off: Investing, Board Seats, and Getting Back in the Ring
29:07 Founding Nautilus: Meeting Parag and the Proteomics Vision
33:47 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.