🧬Alfredo Andere - LatchBio: Revolutionizing Biopharma Data & Mastering Enterprise Sales (Part 4/4)

04/10/25 • 46 min

🧬 The Biotech Startups Podcast is powered by Excedr —helping life science startups accelerate R&D and commercialization with founder-friendly equipment leasing. Skip the upfront costs, stay lean, and focus on breakthrough science.As a TBSP listener, you can get exclusive perks through Excedr’s partner network—special savings, promotions, and more. Explore these offers today: https://www.excedr.com/partners."Focus and commitment to niche ideas have huge payoffs."In part four of our conversation with Alfredo Andere, co-founder of LatchBio, we explore how the company evolved from a simple workflow orchestrator into a comprehensive platform serving biopharma companies and solution providers. Alfredo shares his approach to enterprise sales, emphasizing the importance of speed, focus, and building strong relationships with customers. He also delves into his philosophy on fundraising and the pivotal role of iterative development in creating impactful biotech solutions.Alfredo reflects on the challenges and rewards of working in niche markets, explaining why deep commitment and loyalty to specific problems are essential for long-term success. Whether you’re a first-time founder or an experienced entrepreneur, this episode is packed with actionable insights on building, selling, and scaling in the biotech space.Key topics covered:

Iterative product development: Expanding LatchBio’s platform from workflows to data storage and analysis
Biopharma vs. solution providers: How LatchBio serves these distinct customer groups
Enterprise sales best practices: Qualifying leads and acting as a consultant to customer problems
Fundraising strategies: Why early-stage rounds focus on vision and team, while later rounds prioritize traction
The power of focus: Avoiding the trap of optionality and scaling only when ready

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/id1679591994Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PSL162R2s0zOwU5913Zv4Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebiotechstartupspodcast Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/ Find our guest, Alfredo Andere, at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alfredoandere/Website: https://www.linkedin.com/company/latchbio/Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joncheeLearn more about Excedr:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/ Website: https://www.excedr.comIntro & Outro Songs Created by OkKyojin, Owned by Excedr:Website: https://flow.page/kyojin Resources & Articles:Viktor Frankl's "Man’s Search for Meaning": https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4069.Man_s_Search_for_MeaningLux Capital’s Article: Why High-Throughput Bio Research Needs Better Tools: Immediately: https://www.luxcapital.com/content/why-high-throughput-bio-research-needs-better-tools-immediatelyAlphaFold 2: https://alphafold.ebi.ac.uk/Bulk RNA-seq Analysis Tools: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_RNA-Seq_bioinformatics_toolsPaul Graham’s "How to Raise Money": https://www.paulgraham.com/fr.htmlCompanies, Universities, & People mentioned:Latch Bio: https://latch.bioIllumina: https://illumina.comOxford Nanopore Technologies: https://nanoporetech.com10x Genomics: https://10xgenomics.comFluent BioSciences: https://www.fluentbio.com/ Scale 10x:

Iterative product development: Expanding LatchBio’s platform from workflows to data storage and analysis
Biopharma vs. solution providers: How LatchBio serves these distinct customer groups
Enterprise sales best practices: Qualifying leads and acting as a consultant to customer problems
Fundraising strategies: Why early-stage rounds focus on vision and team, while later rounds prioritize traction
The power of focus: Avoiding the trap of optionality and scaling only when ready

Previous Episode

🧬Alfredo Andere - LatchBio: Building Biotech Data Tools to Revolutionize Life Sciences (Part 3/4)

🧬The Biotech Startups Podcast is powered by Excedr—helping life science startups accelerate R&D and commercialization with founder-friendly equipment leasing. Reduce upfront equipment costs. Accelerate R&D. Reach commercial milestones faster.🎁TBSP listeners get exclusive offers through Excedr’s partner network—including special discounts, promos, and more: https://www.excedr.com/partners."A lot of decisions when you're doing a startup come down to being naive enough to not know how hard it's going to be—and taking that leap of faith."In part three of our conversation with Alfredo Andere, co-founder of LatchBio, we dive into the early days of building a biotech startup from scratch. Alfredo shares how his team’s chemistry and blind faith led them to drop out of college and fully commit to solving biotech’s data infrastructure challenges. He details their rigorous market research process, which involved conducting hundreds of user interviews, and how this groundwork helped them raise an oversubscribed $5 million seed round led by Lux Capital.Alfredo also reflects on the stark contrast between cutting-edge data tools at tech giants like Google and the outdated methods still used in biotech, emphasizing the massive opportunity to revolutionize life sciences.Key topics covered:

Building trust and chemistry as a founding team: The decision to drop out and go all-in on LatchBio
Biotech’s data problem: Why outdated tools are holding back life sciences innovation
Market research done right: 200+ pages of notes and six paying customers before launching a product
Raising $5M in seed funding: How preparation and customer validation gave LatchBio a competitive edge
Lessons on naivete in entrepreneurship: Why bold risks are essential for tackling big problems

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/id1679591994Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PSL162R2s0zOwU5913Zv4Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@excedr Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/ Find our guest, Alfredo Andere, at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alfredoandere/Website: https://www.linkedin.com/company/latchbio/Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joncheeLearn more about ExcedrLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/ Website: https://www.excedr.comResources and articles:Viktor Frankl's "Man’s Search for Meaning": https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4069.Man_s_Search_for_MeaningLux Capital Insights: https://www.luxcapital.com/riskgaming#contentThe Acquired Podcast featuring Jensen Huang: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/jensen-huangTaiwan Incubator Program: https://startup.sme.gov.tw/en/iaNext Generation Sequencing (NGS): https://www.excedr.com/blog/next-generation-sequencing-101 Google and Facebook Data Infrastructure: https://medium.com/illumination/facebook-google-and-digital-public-infrastructure-ee854e1896ebBulk RNA-seq Analysis Tools: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_RNA-Seq_bioinformatics_toolsMachine Learning Applications in Biotech: https://cdn.fortunejournals.com/articles/ai-and-machine-learning-in-biotechnology-a-paradigm.pdfCompanies, universities, & people mentioned:LatchBio: https://latch.bio/Lux Capital:

Next Episode

🧬 Rabia Khan - Serna Bio: Unraveling the Genetics of AI-Driven Drug Discovery (Part 1/4)

🧬 The Biotech Startups Podcast is powered by Excedr —helping life science startups accelerate R&D and commercialization with founder-friendly equipment leasing. Skip the upfront costs, stay lean, and focus on breakthrough science.As a TBSP listener, you can get exclusive perks through Excedr’s partner network—special savings, promotions, and more. Explore these offers today: https://www.excedr.com/partners."I was born and raised in a developing country. I was born and raised in Pakistan. And it's very interesting when you're born in a developing country. That's your world. Right? That's all you know."In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, we delve into Rabia Khan's remarkable journey from her childhood in Pakistan to founding Serna Bio, an AI-enabled drug discovery company. Rabia shares how her early experiences in a developing country, her aunt's battle with schizophrenia, and the sequencing of the human genome in 2000 sparked her passion for genetics and healthcare. She recounts how her career options were either medicine or engineering, setting her on a path that would eventually lead to pioneering work at the intersection of AI and biotechnology.Rabia describes her transition to McGill University in Montreal, facing the shock of -40°C weather with only a leather jacket while navigating life as an international student with no support system. Despite these challenges, she pursued dual interests in biology and economics, finding her first research opportunity in a schizophrenia lab where she started by pipetting water and washing dishes. Key topics covered:

Formative Influences: Shaped by Pakistan upbringing, aunt's schizophrenia, and genome sequencing
Educational Journey: Balancing biology and economics at McGill
First Research Experiences: From lab basics to discovering a disease-causing gene
Decision-Making Frameworks: Applying economics principles to business decisions
Family Influence: Mother's practicality and father's entrepreneurial drive guided her path