Origins - Inside Venture Capital, Hosted by a GP and an LP

Building The YC of Biotech with Zach Weinberg

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Jun 3, 2025

Zach Weinberg, the co-founder and CEO of Curie.Bio, is reshaping early-stage biotech investing with a focus on operational support and a founder-first philosophy. He discusses the massive risks tied to traditional therapeutics startups and how pairing drug discovery partners with seed investors can enhance success rates. The conversation also explores the connection between biotech, the global economy, and politics, plus the transformative effects of AI in drug discovery. Zach's insights will leave you inspired about the future of healthcare innovation.

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INSIGHT

Biotech Needs Top Talent Early

Early-stage biotech requires the best, most senior scientific talent from the start to design the drug development plan.
Recruiting these experts is costly and crucial since a wrong plan dooms the company regardless of execution quality.

ADVICE

Shared Scientific Services Model

Build a shared services organization to provide world-class scientists centrally and fractionally to multiple startups.
This reduces cost, risk, and delays for founders needing top talent part-time or intermittently.

INSIGHT

Dual Funding Model for Efficiency

Curie.Bio raised capital to fund both a venture fund for startups and a large shared services team with 87+ people.
This dual company funding is novel and allows capital-efficient drug discovery at seed stage.

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Zach Weinberg, co-founder and CEO of Curie.Bio, is redefining early-stage biotech investing with an operator’s mindset and a founder-first philosophy. His approach combines funding with operational support and direct access to world-class drug hunters to dramatically increase odds of success. Today, Zach sits down with Nick Chirls, GP at Asylum Ventures and Beezer Clarkson, LP at Sapphire Partners to discuss the massive risk associated with traditional therapeutics startups, how pairing a drug discovery partner with a seed investor solves those inefficiencies, and how biotech, the global economy and the political landscape are all closely connected.

Learn more about Sapphire Partners: ⁠https://sapphireventures.com/sapphire-partners⁠

Learn more about OpenLP: ⁠https://openlp.vc⁠

Learn more about Asylum Ventures: ⁠https://asylum.vc

Learn more about Curie.Bio: https://curie.bio

For a monthly roundup of the latest venture insights, including the newest Origins episodes, subscribe to the OpenLP newsletter – delivered straight to your inbox: https://subscribe.openlp.vc

CHAPTERS:

0:00 Welcome to Origins

5:08 Was Hunter High School Harder Than Penn?

10:22 Transitioning From SaaS to Biotech

20:55 Why Is Building a Biotech Venture Firm So Hard?

27:55 Building Curie.Bio

32:24 Zach on Drug Discovery

43:12 Biotech in China

49:42 AI in Biotech

54:51 "The Manhattan Project of Biology"

Origins is produced by Sapphire Ventures in partnership with⁠⁠ Pod People.⁠

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