In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Nicole Paulk recounts her unlikely evolution from frustrated academic to biotech founder — driven by years of watching gene therapy companies wastefully rebuild the same tech stack from scratch, a pandemic lockout that barred her from her own UCSF lab, and a sneaky incorporation scheme that was less grand vision, more workaround to get back to the bench. She shares how a frantic three-day cancer grant, a fever-dreamed logo, and a Best Startup win at UCSF's entrepreneurship course led to a $6,000,000 Founders Fund seed with no board attached, and how Siren's unconventional early bet on unglamorous CMC manufacturing optimization — paired with years of deliberate stealth — became the company's most powerful and defensible competitive advantage.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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