🧬 Strategic Optionality: M&A Hygiene & Investor Fit | Mike Stadnisky Rerelease (Part 3/3)

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 financial model is the strategy of a business expressed in numbers." In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Jon Chee sits down with Mike Stadnisky, Managing Director of Thielsen Capital, a seed-stage life science tools syndicate. A veteran of four-plus M&A cycles as CEO of FlowJo and Phytonix, Mike walks through the mechanics founders most often get wrong: when to call in partnership favors, how shared customers become acquisition seeds, what IP and cap table hygiene should look like before a deal, and why a rigorous financial model is your most powerful negotiating tool. Key Topics Covered: Patience in BD Partnerships: Why the right time to call in a favor is rarely when you're stressed — and how to use conference deadlines as quiet leverage.