a16z Live

a16z Bio + Health #17: Proteomics and Product around a Technological Breakthrough

Episode Summary

Parag Mallick, Founder and Chief Scientist, at Nautilus started the company because he believed he had a game-changing innovation for how to approach proteomics (i.e., the study of proteins) with the potential to transform drug development. He talks about how he made the breakthrough, how he turned a technological advance into a product and then a company at-scale,the differences between innovating in a lab and a startup, and what's next in proteomics.

Episode Notes

• Founding story of Nautilus [1:43]
• Why was the Nautilus approach to proteomics a breakthrough? [6:12]
• Why a startup instead of academic research? [9:57]
• How to pick a good cofounder (it's not that different from choosing a spouse) [15:32]
• Advice for academic founders: how to work with VCs  [21:14]
• The tipping points of scale & the challenges of finding good talent  [25:17]
• Is proteomics really a gamechanger? [30:49]
• How is Nautilus bringing it to market? [34:17]
• What Nautilus can learn from Illumina and genomics [37:32]
• Looking ahead to the next 10 years [41:26]

This is an excerpt from the a16z Bio show on Clubhouse, where we explore all the ways that biology is technology. To catch full episodes of the show, follow the a16z Club on Clubhouse.