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Boba & Biotech

Armon Sharei | Portal Founder & CEO, Biotechnologies Leader

Boba & Biotech is a candid podcast about what it takes to develop new drugs and the ecosystem of academics, biotechs, pharma and investors behind it. Our field is often misunderstood by outsiders and insiders alike due to the poor communication habits and complex science that underlie human disease.

I, Armon Sharei, was a PhD student in chemical engineering when I was first enamoured by the idea of engineering a patient’s own cells to attack their disease. Throughout my journey, we spun out a company, SQZ Biotech, from MIT, raised $400M in investor and partnered funding from Roche, and went public on the NYSE. Eventually my board and I had a big fight, I got kicked out and started all over again! 

Please join me as we chat with the people that have dedicated their careers to improving human health and how they navigate the challenges of science, money, corporate politics and the rollercoaster of clinical development. As we sip on our boba throughout these episodes, I promise the only sugar coating will be on the bubbles!

Portal Biotechnologies, headquartered in Watertown, MA, is a rapidly scaling cell-engineering platform company redefining how scientists and clinicians engineer cells across research, drug discovery, and therapeutic applications. Since launching its first product in 2024, Portal has built a network of 100+ active customers, received an $8M contract from DARPA and been deployed in most of the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies and leading academic hospitals worldwide.

Armon Sharei, PhD, is the Founder and CEO of Portal Bio. Previously, Armon founded and served as CEO of SQZ Biotech (NYSE: SQZ), where he raised over $400M, advanced three oncology clinical trials, established a $1B+ collaboration with Roche, and led the IPO. A Stanford and MIT graduate and former Harvard Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Sharei holds 30+ patents and has been widely recognized for his scientific and entrepreneurial leadership.


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  • 14 episodes
  • fortnightly
  • Avg 44 min
  • English

Episodes 14

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  • August 27 · 55 min

    SQZ Series Part I - with Jon Gilbert Building SQZ From a Lab Bench to a Roche Deal

    Backed by popular demand, we're kicking off a SQZ series on Boba & Biotech. For part I, Armon sits down with Jon Gilbert, his longtime friend and SQZ’s third employee, now leading the TuneLab effort at Eli Lilly. Taking turns as hosts, they revisit the scrappy, unpredictable early days of SQZ and unpack what it really took to turn a weird but promising idea (literally squeezing cells) into a company pursuing transformative applications in drug delivery and cell therapy. The conversation is packed with stories and lessons from the trenches: what it was like to raise money as young, non-traditional founders in biotech; the winding road to SQZ’s early partnerships and its pivotal first deal with Roche; the story behind the initially controversial (but highly memorable!) smiling-cell cartoons; and the constant balancing act of making decisions in the inevitable gray areas of startup life. Jonathan Gilbert is Senior Director of Ecosystem Growth and Contributor Partnerships at Eli Lilly, where he is leading the growth of TuneLab - a collaborative research environment designed to enable biotechs to leverage AI models trained on decades of Lilly data, while contributing data back to improve those models while preserving privacy. Jon received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from MIT and spent nearly a decade at SQZ, where he helped build the company’s business development, early-stage research, and partnerships engine. Prior to joining Eli Lilly, Jon helped build the first prototypes for Portal and led Corporate Development and Strategy at Entact Bio. Links Watch the original stop-motion video that brought SQZ’s ‘smiling cells’ to life and helped make the science accessible to a broader audience: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJYN4W1apYw Armon’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/armonsharei/ Jon’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-gilbert-innovation-new-therapies/ Credits Hosted by Armon Sharei, PhD Research by Julie Kim,MBA, Portal Produced by David Woje, Woje Productions, Andressa Carroll, Portal Edited and mixed by David Woje

  • July 30 · 42 min

    Robots, Cells, and the Future of Individualized Medicine

    Guest: Fred Parietti In this episode of Boba & Biotech, Armon sits down with Federico ("Fred") Parietti, Co-Founder and CEO of Multiply Labs, for a conversation about bringing robotics and AI into one of biotech's biggest bottlenecks: manufacturing. Fred shares how meeting his future co-founder at MIT opened his eyes to just how manual biopharmaceutical manufacturing still was, inspiring the creation of Multiply Labs to automate the production of advanced therapies. Nearly a decade later, the company has grown into a leader in robotic biomanufacturing, partnering with major pharmaceutical companies to help scale cell/gene therapies, antibodies, and other biologic medicines. The conversation covers the realities of raising capital as a first-time founder, how Y Combinator helped launch their journey in Silicon Valley, why peer-reviewed data and live customer demos matter more than hype, and how AI is shifting biotech's next bottleneck from drug discovery to manufacturing. Along the way, Fred reflects on the resilience required to navigate difficult partnerships and investors, and why staying optimistic is one of a founder's most valuable skills.Fred is the Co-Founder and CEO of Multiply Labs, a biotechnology company developing robotic manufacturing platforms for advanced therapeutics, including personalized pharmaceuticals and cell therapies. A robotics engineer by training, Fred earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. Links Armon’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/armonsharei/ Fred’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/fred-parietti/ Credits Hosted by Armon Sharei, PhD Research by Julie Kim, Briana Mach Produced by David Woje, Woje Productions, Andressa Carroll, Portal Edited and mixed by David Woje

  • June 18 · 32 min

    Building Precision NanoSystems and the Road to a Danaher Exit

    Guest: James Taylor In this episode of Boba & Biotech, Armon sits down with James Taylor, co-founder of Precision NanoSystems, for a candid conversation about building a platform technology for nanoparticle-delivered RNA medicines from a PhD project into an 11-year journey that ended in an acquisition by Danaher Corporation, a leading global life sciences and diagnostics healthcare company. They cover the early grind of bootstrapping with non-dilutive grants, why it took five years to raise a Series A, and the case for staying a tools company even as the "sexier" path to therapeutics beckoned. Taylor opens up about a near-death experience scaling the sales team, the hard lessons of building a channel as a technical founder, and why boards don't run companies, management does. They also dig into building in Vancouver V.S. the US, the tension between royalty and per-unit business models, and what he'd change about how the industry communicates its impact to the world. James Taylor is the Co-Founder and former CEO of Precision NanoSystems (PNI), a Vancouver-based life science tools company specializing in lipid nanoparticle platform technology. He holds a B.A.Sc. in engineering physics and a Ph.D. in genetics from the University of British Columbia (UBC). After 11 years building PNI, James led its acquisition by Danaher, where it was integrated into Cytiva's Life Sciences portfolio. Links Armon’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/armonsharei/ James’ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylorrobertjames/ Credits Hosted by Armon Sharei, PhD Research by Julie Kim, MBA Produced by David Woje, Woje Productions, Andressa Carroll, Portal Edited and mixed by David Woje

  • June 4 · 57 min

    From PhD to Public Company: Jason Kelly on Building Ginkgo and What Comes Next

    Guest: Jason Kelly In this episode of Boba & Biotech, Armon sits down with Jason Kelly, co-founder and CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks, for a conversation about what it takes to build a biotech company from scratch when no one will fund you, why platform business models in biotech are harder than they look, and where he thinks the biggest opportunity in biotech history is hiding. They cover how Ginkgo got started on grants and stubbornness out of MIT, why Jason was deliberate about protecting voting control through IPO, the case for autonomous labs replacing manual bench science, and why longevity and wellness may dwarf everything the industry has built so far. Plus why biotech is still waiting for its YC moment — the infrastructure that would make it as easy for a PhD scientist to start a company as it is for a CS undergrad. Jason Kelly is co-founder and CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks, a publicly traded synthetic biology company he has led since founding it out of MIT in 2008. He holds a BS in chemical engineering and a PhD in bioengineering, both from MIT. Links Armon’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/armonsharei/ Jason’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrkelly2/ Credits Hosted by Armon Sharei, PhD Research by Julie Kim, MBA Produced by David Woje, Woje Productions, Andressa Carroll, Portal Edited and mixed by David Woje of Pinwheel

  • May 21 · 42 min

    The Biotech IPO: What Bankers See That Founders Miss

    Guest: Mark Dempster In this episode of Boba & Biotech, Armon sits down with Mark Dempster, Co-Head of Healthcare Investment Banking at Stifel, to pull back the curtain on what biotech bankers actually do and why it matters more than most founders realize. They cover the public vs. private financing divide, why the stigma around banks helping with private rounds exists and whether it still makes sense, and what founders consistently get wrong when they go public for the first time. Mark also shares his honest take on why generalist investors stay skittish about biotech, what the FDA environment means for the ecosystem right now, and why data ultimately trumps everything else when it comes to predicting who succeeds. Mark Dempster is Co-Head of Healthcare Investment Banking at Stifel, where he has focused on biotechnology and specialty pharma for over 25 years. He has held roles at JP Morgan and Bank of America Securities, and has been with Stifel since 2010. He holds an MBA from the University of Michigan and a B.S. in Finance from Bradley University. Links Armon’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/armonsharei/ Mark’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-dempster-22816b/ Credits Hosted by Armon Sharei, PhD Research by Julie Kim, MBA Produced by Arielle Nisseblatt of Pinwheel, Andressa Carroll, Portal Edited and mixed by David Woje

  • May 7 · 57 min

    From Bench to Boardroom: What Drug Development Actually Takes

    Guest: William Pao In this episode of Boba & Biotech, Armon sits down with William Pao, a physician-scientist who has run oncology R&D at Roche, served as Chief Development Officer at Pfizer, and is now CEO and Co-Founder of Revelio Therapeutics. Few people have seen drug development from as many angles. They get into the real economics behind why a single molecule can cost $600M to advance, what it actually feels like to kill a program you believe in, and why the jump from pharma to biotech is more disorienting than most people expect. Plus: where AI in drug development is genuinely useful, where it isn't, and what the Paxlovid story reveals about why institutional memory matters more than anyone talks about. William Pao is a physician-scientist whose career has spanned academia, industry, and biotech. As a faculty member at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and Vanderbilt University, he was a practicing oncologist recognized for ground-breaking work in targeted cancer therapeutics and personalized medicine. Through executive leadership at Roche and Pfizer, he oversaw the development of molecules now approved across cancer, rare diseases, ophthalmology, infectious diseases, neuroscience, and immunology. He is currently CEO and Co-Founder of Revelio Therapeutics, co-founder of MyCancerGenome, and author of Breakthrough: The Quest for Life-Changing Medicines. He holds an undergraduate degree from Harvard and an M.D. and Ph.D. from Yale. Links Armon’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/armonsharei/ William’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-pao-md-phd-40719295/ William’s book - https://breakthroughbypao.com/ Credits Hosted by Armon Sharei, PhD Research by Julie Kim, MBA Produced by Arielle Nisseblatt of Pinwheel, Andressa Carroll, Portal Edited and mixed by David Woje

  • April 23 · 1 hr 10 min

    Learning Biotech, Surviving Near-Death, and Seeing What Others Don’t

    Guest:Sophia Lugo In this episode of Boba & Biotech, Sophia Lugo and I grab some delicious boba teas to explore her unconventional path into biotech and the realities of building a company at the frontier of genetic medicine. From her early experiences across Harvard, China, and the Gates Foundation to co-founding Radar during her time at Stanford, Sophia shares how urgency, ambition, and a belief in personal agency shaped her journey. She also discusses Radar’s progress, including its mission to solve targeted mRNA delivery and its next milestone of translating in vitro results into in vivo success. The conversation also dives into a critique of the biotech industry - from fundraising as a sales-driven process to the dynamics that shape founder ownership, culture, and exit opportunities. Sophia reflects on a near-death moment early in Radar’s life, the lessons it taught her, and why she believes many of biotech’s constraints, whether cultural or regulatory, are more flexible than they appear. Sophia Lugo is CEO, Chairman, and Co-Founder at Radar Therapeutics, a company enabling precise in vivo genetic medicines, the first company to be able to selectively activate an mRNA therapeutic only in exact cell types of interest. For her work at Radar, Sophia has received the 2024 Biocom Catalyst Award celebrating top professionals under 40 disrupting the life sciences industry. She received her Bachelor’s from Harvard University, Masters from Tsinghua University, and MBA from Stanford University. Links Armon’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/armonsharei/ Sophia’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophia-lugo-6b8091123/ Radar Therapeutics: https://www.radartx.bio/ Credits Hosted by Armon Sharei, PhD Research by Julie Kim, MBA Produced by Arielle Nisseblatt of Pinwheel, Andressa Carroll, Portal Edited and mixed by David Woje of Pinwheel

  • April 9 · 43 min

    Inside the Biotech Incubator: What Early Companies Get Right (and Wrong)

    Guest: Adam Jenkins What actually makes or breaks a biotech startup - and why is it rarely the science? In this episode of Boba & Biotech, Adam Jenkins and I enjoy some delicious grapefruit-coconut sago from Heytea while we discuss the hidden dynamics shaping today’s biotech ecosystem. From the inside workings of incubators like BioLabs and LabCentral to the uncomfortable truth about “zombie” startups, this conversation pulls back the curtain on what really happens between breakthrough science and company success. Along the way, Adam shares hard-earned insights from years of evaluating and advising early-stage companies, revealing why culture trumps data, why your first hires matter more than your pitch deck, and why taking VC money too early might be your biggest mistake. If you’re a founder, operator, or investor navigating biotech, this episode is equal parts reality check and roadmap. Adam Jenkins is the regional site director for BioLabs, where he manages sites across Boston, Cambridge, Vermont, and Toronto. BioLabs is a global innovation infrastructure company creating the physical and community backbone that powers life science discovery worldwide. Prior to BioLabs Adam worked at Biogen, a global biotech focused on neurology, where he headed their data science teams and helped lead their portfolio strategy. He holds a PhD in genetics from Boston College and an MBA from Indiana University. Links Armon’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/armonsharei/ Adam’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adammjenks/ Biolabs: https://www.biolabs.io/ Credits Hosted by Armon Sharei, PhD Research by Julie Kim, MBA Produced by Arielle Nisseblatt of Pinwheel, Andressa Carroll, Portal Edited and mixed by David Woje of Pinwheel

  • March 26 · 39 min

    What should become a company? Lessons from an academic at the center of biotech translation

    Guest: Klavs F. Jensen In this episode of Boba & Biotech, I sit down with Klavs Jensen - professor at MIT and former chair of its chemical engineering department - to explore a deceptively simple question: why do some scientific breakthroughs become companies while others never leave the lab? As we unpack the messy journey from academic discovery to startup, Klavs tries his first-ever boba tea, a refreshing mango green tea (sans sugar!) - while sharing candid insights from decades at the intersection of academia, industry, and entrepreneurship. Our conversation dives into the often-misunderstood relationship between universities, startups, and large companies. Klavs explains why many promising ideas are too early for startups, why incremental technologies struggle to displace existing infrastructure, and why timing, talent, and market forces can matter just as much as the science itself. We also explore the human side of innovation: why the skills required to finish a PhD are very different from those needed to build and run a company, and what makes innovation ecosystems like MIT so uniquely effective. Klavs Jensen is the Warren K. Lewis Professor of Chemical Engineering, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT. He received an MS in chemical engineering at the Technical University of Denmark in 1976 and a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Wisconsin in 1980. His work can be found in more than 490 journal articles, 180 conference presentations, and 63 US patents. He serves as the inaugural editor-in-chief of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s journal, Reaction Chemistry and Engineering. Links Armon’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/armonsharei/ Klavs’ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/klavs-jensen-381995a/ Credits Hosted by Armon Sharei, PhD Research by Julie Kim, MBA Produced by Arielle Nisseblatt of Pinwheel, Andressa Carroll, Portal Edited and mixed by David Woje of Pinwheel

  • March 13 · 52 min

    From Lab to Company: Engineering the Next Generation of Biotech Founders

    Guest: Soufiane AboulhoudaIn this episode of Boba & Biotech, over matching brown sugar milk teas (great minds, same taste), Souf Aboulhouda, co-founder of Nucleate, and I trace his journey from growing up between France, England, and California to pursuing a PhD in the Church Lab at Harvard - where he first stumbled into the world of biotech startups after watching labmates pitch to investors. What began as a personal crash course in company formation through the Harvard Biotech Club evolved into Nucleate: a global community now spanning ~40 cities and hundreds of universities. Along the way, the mission expanded from simply launching companies to building people - creating a dynamic talent network that helps scientists explore entrepreneurship, pressure-test cofounders, and find meaningful roles beyond the narrow “CEO or bust” narrative. The conversation dives deep into what actually separates biotech from tech: longer timelines, higher failure rates, capital intensity, and the need for pattern recognition that only experience can buy. We unpack why young founders sometimes outperform seasoned veterans and where they stumble , the cultural problem of investor non-candor, and the widening gap between top hubs like Boston/SF and emerging ecosystems. If he had a magic wand? Compress 15-year product roadmaps into one year and cut clinical costs by 10×, unlocking a future where biology innovation moves as fast as its ambition. Soufiane Aboulhouda received his BS from the University of California, Santa Cruz, has worked at the University of California, San Francisco, and received his PhD from Harvard University in the lab of George Church at the Wyss Institute. His thesis research focused on developing pooled in vivo functional genomics tools to interrogate the biology of cell trafficking to enhance solid tumor homing of immune cells. Soufiane is the co-founder and CEO of Nucleate, and has previously served as the President of the GSAS Harvard Biotech Club. Links Armon’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/armonsharei/ Souf’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/soufiane-ab/ Nucleate - https://nucleate.org/ Credits Hosted by Armon Sharei, PhD Research by Julie Kim, MBA Produced by Arielle Nisseblatt of Pinwheel Edited and mixed by David Woje of Pinwheel

  • February 26 · 42 min

    Money Meets Molecules: What Biotech Investors Actually Care About

    Guest: Ileana Pirozzi In this episode of Boba & Biotech, I grab a delicious mango-coconut sago with Ileana Pirozzi, a former biotech investor who’s stepping off the venture sidelines and into the founder seat. From growing up in Italy to studying biomedical engineering at Stanford and working at NASA, Ileana shares how venture capital became a crash course in scientific rigor and why it ultimately felt too distant from real impact. The conversation pulls back the curtain on how VC decisions actually get made: why “no” is so hard to say, how fund dynamics and internal politics shape outcomes, and why most firms prefer to follow rather than lead. They dig into what VCs often miss when judging founders, debate generalist versus specialist investors, and call out overrated and underrated trends. The episode closes with a look at what could truly unlock the next wave of clinical impact: rethinking how clinical trials are designed and run. Ileana Pirozzi is the Head of Healthcare Ventures at Lingotto Innovation in New York City, where she leads early-stage investments in technologies at the intersection of healthcare, life sciences, and frontier engineering. Her work focuses on identifying and backing the next generation of companies redefining diagnoses, treatment and delivery of care. Ileana holds a PhD in Bioengineering and Medical Engineering from Stanford University and a BSc from Brown University. Links Armon’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/armonsharei/ Ileana’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ileanapirozzi/ Lingotto Innovation: https://www.lingotto.com/ Credits Hosted by Armon Sharei, PhD Research by Julie Kim, MBA Produced by Arielle Nisseblatt of Pinwheel, Shirley Mao, rvnway.com Edited and mixed by David Woje of Pinwheel

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