🧬 Betting on Women's Health | Sabrina Johnson (1/4)

Episode notes

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: "A calculated risk is not the same as being irresponsible or cutting corners." In this episode, Jon Chee sits down with Sabrina Johnson, President and CEO of Daré Bioscience, a Nasdaq-listed biopharma advancing women's reproductive health. Daré's team of 25 executes the groomed trail approach — matching therapeutic gaps to FDA-approved actives — with a non-hormonal contraceptive in pivotal Phase 3 and $75M+ in non-dilutive funding from the Gates Foundation, NIH, and ARPA-H. Key Topics Covered: Entrepreneurial Roots: Immigrant parents forged unconventional paths and seeded her comfort with risk. The Science Fiction Pitch: A teacher reframed biomedical engineering as sci-fi and changed her path. New Orleans as a Classroom: A cross-cultural city and cross-disciplinary field that shaped her.