🧬 How to Build a Startup When Everything is Against You | Andrey Doronichev (Part 1/4)
September 15, 2025
"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.
"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
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Subscribe to the Podcast:
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
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.