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“One of the traits of entrepreneurs: we have to have blind faith… if you know everything that could go wrong and does go wrong, no one would start a business.”
In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, we dive into Sujal Patel's bold decision to leave RealNetworks and co-found Isilon Systems, a distributed storage company built to solve a problem he witnessed firsthand — enterprise customers spending millions on storage systems that simply couldn't handle media files. Sujal shares how a pair of scissors on his desk became the unlikely symbol that pushed him and co-founder Paul Mikesell to finally take the leap.
Sujal recounts the harrowing experience of launching a company at the peak of the dot-com collapse, watching his RealNetworks stock fall from $100 to $8, and still managing to close an $8.4 million Series A as the only such deal in Seattle that year. He walks through Isilon's early growth, landing marquee customers like Kodak by overdelivering on impossible timelines, and the painful but necessary decision to fire both the CEO and CFO of a public company — all while his wife was pregnant with twins — on the same day Lehman Brothers collapsed.
Key topics covered:
- The "Scissors of Opportunity": How co-founder Paul Mikesell's challenge pushed Sujal to finally leave RealNetworks and bet on his distributed storage idea
- Fundraising in a Collapsing Market: Navigating 50 VC introductions, relentless pitch meetings, and a dot-com bubble in freefall to close Seattle's only Series A of 2001
- Building Isilon from Zero: Using $400K of founders' capital to hire a team, build an alpha product, and hit milestones that unlocked Series B funding
- CEO Transition & Public Company Turbulence: Firing the CEO and CFO of a public company during the 2008 financial crisis and rebuilding the entire executive team
- The Path to Acquisition: Transforming Isilon from a -40% operating margin to a billion-dollar run rate in just 23 months under Sujal's leadership as CEO
If you enjoy The Biotech Startups Podcast, please consider subscribing, leaving a review, or sharing it with your friends. Thanks for listening.
Subscribe to the Podcast:
Find our guest, Sujal Patel at these links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patelsujal/
Website: https://www.nautilus.bio/
Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonchee
Learn more about Excedr:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/
Website: https://www.excedr.com
Intro & Outro Songs Created by OkKyojin, Owned by Excedr:
Website: https://flow.page/kyojin
Resources & Articles:
Distributed computing (overview): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_computing
Distributed file system (how scale-out storage works): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_file_system
SATA / Serial ATA :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SATA
Minimum viable product (MVP):https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_viable_product
Revenue recognition: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/revenuerecognition.asp
Chapter 11 bankruptcy (context for “Lehman Monday”): https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/chapter11.asp
Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:
NetApp: https://www.netapp.com
Kodak: https://www.kodak.com
Rob Glaser: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-glaser-431687/
Craig Sherman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crsherman/
Jeff Rothschild: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Rothschild
Dan Warmenhoven: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielwarmenhoven/
Don Valentine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Valentine
Pierre Lamond: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pierrelamond/
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
02:22 Spotting the Gap: Enterprise Storage Failing Media Files
07:11 The "Scissors of Opportunity" and Leaving RealNetworks
07:36 Day Zero: Taking the Leap During the Dot-Com Collapse
15:55 Building the MVP and Racing to Series B
19:27 Disrupting the Storage Market and Landing Kodak
23:55 Finding Early Adopters and Building Champions
25:36 Isilon's Growth Trajectory and Hiring a CEO
28:41 Going Public, Revenue Recognition Issues, and Firing the CEO & CFO
32:26 Navigating the 2008 Financial Crisis and Rebuilding the Team
36:16 The George Bennett Story: Recruiting the Transformative VP of Sales
38:58 Outro
The Biotech Startups Podcast gives you a front-row seat to the business and science of building a biotech. Hosted by Jon Chee, CEO of Excedr, the show features honest conversations with founders, execs, and investors about their work, their companies, and how they got there. From scientific breakthroughs to startup lessons, each episode explores what it really takes to grow a life science company—from pre-seed to IPO.
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🧬 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'…
🧬 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'…
🧬 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'…
🧬 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'…
Excedr helps life science companies get the lab equipment they need through flexible 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…
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