🧬 Pharma's Coordination Tax & the 2 Paths That Could Actually Disrupt It | Alex Telford (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: "No. I do think you do need to recreate the orchestration. I think you have to retool the organization around these new technologies, and some will not be able to rearchitecture, and they will die. Some will be able to rearchitecture and they will thrive." In this episode, Jon Chee sits down with Alex Telford, founder of Convoke, to examine why large pharma resists AI transformation. Drawing on seven years at Charles River Associates, Alex maps the coordination tax of siloed orgs, the tacit knowledge lost when experts retire, and why software efficiency is the wrong axis to compete on. His frame: factory electrification — the gains don't arrive until you redesign the whole org around the technology.