Navigating the People Side of Building a Biotech Startup
Sierra Nights is not a marketing or pitching event. It is purposefully limited to biotech founders and operators who are navigating the hardest parts of building a startup.
This month's focus is on the people side of the equation:
Build healthier, higher-performing biotech teams through stronger leadership, communication, alignment, and conflict management with Julie Jackle
Learn about the legal side of biotech teams, from cofounder conflict to difficult people decisions, with Elton Satusky
Most of us were trained for the science, not for managing a cofounder relationship, building a team under pressure, or keeping people aligned when everything moves fast and feels uncertain. It does not come naturally and nobody really teaches it.
This is an opportunity to talk about biotech teams under pressure, team dynamics, conflicts, leadership gaps, and how companies quietly break from the inside or find their footing over time.
We have an amazing panel and encourage sharing perspectives from the audience.
Date: May 6
Time: 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
5:00 - 6:00pm: Doors Open and Networking
6:00 - 6:10pm: Welcome from the host & MBC Biolabs
6:10 - 6:15pm: Introduce our sponsor WuXi Biologics
6:15 - 7:30pm: Panel, Show & Tell, Discussion
7:30 - 8:00pm: Networking
Panelists:
Julie Jackle, is the Founder & CEO of Growth Axis. Julie works with life sciences CEOs and leadership teams to translate strategy into execution by strengthening how leaders lead, together. Her work focuses on building resilient leadership teams capable of navigating growth, change, and ambiguity while delivering measurable results. Through executive and team coaching as well as CEO masterminds, Growth Axis supports leaders in making better decisions, aligning teams, and scaling culture alongside the business. Julie’s experience spans Bain strategy consulting, product innovation, and an MBA from MIT Sloan. She specializes in biotech, medical device, and digital health, having guided numerous organizations from seed to IPO or acquisition. Growth Axis builds leadership capability that holds under pressure.
Elton Satusky is a partner in the Palo Alto office of Wilson Sonsini, a globally recognized law firm where he has helped entrepreneurs for over a quarter century. Elton represents both public and private enterprises as their outside general counsel and serves as a key strategic advisor from their inception throughout their life cycle. He advises on complex venture capital and corporate finance transactions, corporate law and governance, mergers and acquisitions, and public offerings. Elton exclusively focuses on companies in human health - biotechnology, diagnostic, medical device, and digital health sectors and serves as coeditor of the firm’s Life Sciences Report, a semi-annual newsletter on this industry. Elton is a frequent guest lecturer at universities, industry and trade group conferences, accelerators, and incubators.
Kris (Krish) Ramadurai is a Partner at AIX Ventures, where he leads technical diligence, deal sourcing, and portfolio operations across the firm’s AI applications and infrastructure, healthcare, and life sciences practices. He has sourced, led, and supported over 50 early- and growth-stage investments across multiple top-decile-performing funds, contributing to a portfolio exceeding $25 billion in enterprise value. His work has supported multiple landmark scientific and technological breakthroughs, including the first AI-designed drug to enter human clinical trials, the first commercial rideshare satellite launched into space, and the first therapeutic discovered using a 3D-bioprinted tissue disease model.
Who should apply
People building or operating in biotech startups and life science companies.
About Sierra Nights:
Sierra Nights is an event series for the parts of biotech that don’t show up on slides. The gaps people are dealing with, the tools they’re actually using, and the signals worth paying attention to. No pitching. No marketing. Just real conversations.
Hosted at MBC BioLabs
Food and drinks generously provided by WuXi Biologics