🧬 From CFO to Founder: Building a Women's Health Biotech | Sabrina Johnson (3/4)

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: "Women's health is not niche. It's half the population — I just kept asking why no one was doing this. One Saturday morning I realized: I'm somebody." In this episode, Jon Chee continues with Sabrina Johnson, DARÉ Bioscience CEO, tracing 13 years at Cypress Bioscience — from a hallway eavesdrop that earned her an FDA panel seat, to VP of Marketing, an "interim" CFO role held for nearly a decade, and COO. She covers a fibromyalgia Phase 3 that missed at p=0.058, the disclosure gap, and a hostile takeover that forced the sale — then shares the Monday resignation and elevator pitch that led to founding DARÉ. Key Topics Covered: The Hallway Eavesdrop: A slide-database build over moving weekend and one ask to attend an FDA panel unlocked thirteen years at Cypress.