🧬 How to Build a Startup When Everything is Against You | Andrey Doronichev (Part 1/4)

The Biotech Startups Podcast

"If you leave the queue, you lose your place, and you wait for, like, four hours outside in winter in Moscow to buy some butter, literally. So those kinds of things, it's a massive change."

In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, host Jon Chee speaks with Andrey Doronichev, Founder and CEO of OPTIC, about his journey from surviving the chaos and scarcity of the collapsing Soviet Union to leading a cutting-edge AI-powered drug discovery platform.

Andrey reveals how his upbringing amid upheaval and restricted information, paired with a strong science-driven family, forged his resilience and bold approach to leadership—traits that now drive his ambitious efforts at the intersection of technology and biotech entrepreneurship.

Key topics covered:

• Formative Experiences: Growing up amid chaos, building resilience
• Information Control: Living under censorship and its impact
• Entrepreneurship Mindset: Thriving through uncertainty
• Tech Roots: Turning coding passion into opportunity
• Transition to Biotech: Navigating the jump from software to drug discovery

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/id1679591994

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PSL162R2s0zOwU5913Zv4

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebiotechstartupspodcast

Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/

Find our guest, Andrey Doronichev, at these links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doronichev/

Website: https://bioptic.io/

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:

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/130440.Doctor_Zhivago

Rambo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambo_(franchise)

ZX Spectrum: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum

Enterprise 128: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_(computer)

BASIC Programming Language: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC

The Challenges of Crystallizing Proteins: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2992350/

Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:

Google: https://www.google.com/

Silicon Valley Bank: https://www.svb.com/

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro

03:31 Growing Up in the Soviet Union: A Different Story

05:30 Country Disappearing: USSR to Russia Transition

07:21 Bread Lines and Economic Collapse: Building Resilience

08:51 Information Control and Censorship: The Rambo Incident

11:49 Entrepreneurship as a Path of Uncertainty

12:59 Silicon Valley Bank Crisis: Childhood Trauma Revisited

15:29 Bootstrapping vs. Venture Capital: Different Paths

18:53 Post-Soviet Academia: From Elite to Struggling

21:24 Early Computing: Enterprise 128 and BASIC Programming

25:13 Finding Your Tribe: The Lyceum Experience

26:45 Math vs. Biology: Choosing Certainty Over Chaos

30:05 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.