My first podcast is out today. It’s with Mark Budde, the CEO of Plasmidsaurus.

I really like Plasmidsaurus, because they took whole-plasmid sequencing from $600 to $15 and turned a "boring" service company idea into a hugely successful company that now serves >70,000 scientists.

We talked about what it means to build a "boring" company, whether the Plasmidsaurus idea could apply to other technologies (like CRISPR screens), and why Plasmidsaurus isn't expanding into China. This podcast is made possible by Astera Institute.

You can find the podcast, THE NEW BIOLOGY, on YouTube, Spotify, and everywhere else.

I’m making this podcast to satisfy my own curiosity. There is no part of me that is assuming that this podcast will ever reach even ten thousand viewers. I’m spending 20-30 hours researching each guest, prior to the interview, because I want to ask good questions that truly cannot be answered in any other way. My plan is to publish a podcast roughly every two weeks, and to feature people who are working to solve really difficult and ambitious problems in biotechnology.

There are many things that I'll improve for future episodes, too! I could do a better job at building up context through my lines of questioning; I feel that my introduction of Mark is too short and non-specific in this interview. My thesis, or reason for interviewing Mark, should have been stated in the first minute.

Also, the lighting and camera positions in this interview are not up to my standards. I'm setting up all the equipment myself and will do a better job next time.

Thanks for watching!