How I built a $275 million biotech company from nothing

Рет қаралды 42,443

Күн бұрын

In our new documentary series Backstory we’re profiling the extraordinary Group Partners at the heart of YC. And we’re kicking it off with Surbhi Sarna, YC’s first healthcare and biotech focused Group Partner. In 2018 Surbhi Sarna sold her company nVision for $275 million to one of the world’s leading healthcare companies. But to understand how Surbhi got where she is today, you have to go back to her sophomore year in high school, when a cancer scare upended her life and set her on an entirely new path.
In this episode Surbhi opens up about her health scare, how it impacted her life going forward and how she was able to ignore the people who doubted her along the way. If you've ever felt undervalued or under appreciated, Surbhi's story will provide you with insights and advice on how to overcome those hurdles on your journey to starting a company.
Apply to Y Combinator: yc.link/Backstory-apply
Work at a Startup: yc.link/Backstory-jobs
Chapters (Powered by bit.ly/chapterme-yc) -
00:00 - Backstory
01:00 - Problem with Ovarian Cyst
02:39 - How nVision Medical was Born?
03:34 - Working as an Engineer and Starting a Company
04:24 - Validating the Idea
05:52 - Fundraising to Build a Prototype
06:14 - Investors Reaction to Women's Health
06:45 - Difficulty as a Female Founder
07:22 - Getting Funded
08:13 - Acquisition by Boston Scientific
09:51 - First YC Healthcare and Bio Partner
11:10 - Outro: Being a Group Partner at YC
Archival school footage provided courtesy of Ryan Briggs

Пікірлер: 69

@ycombinator 9 ай бұрын

What problem inspired you to start building a company?

@phillip_jacobs 9 ай бұрын

A crisis I'm going through right now with job searching is pushing me to solve it. It's horrible! The current solutions can't be it - there's just no way.

@marvelousadesina4673 9 ай бұрын

Hunger

@phillip_jacobs 9 ай бұрын

@@marvelousadesina4673 Solving world hunger? I'm keen to join!!

@rupamkundu3574 9 ай бұрын

Death and disease. These are the most fundamental problems challenging humanity that remain unsolved to this day and need urgent solutions. I am building a startup - EternaJuVita that will make it easier for early-stage Biotech startups to succeed and bring cures for many life-threatening diseases to the market. This will include longevity biotech startups too.

@randynorris925 9 ай бұрын

0:51 0:52 0:54

@Flexibot-AI_Shopify_Chatbots 9 ай бұрын

Serbi's story is a testament to the power of resilience and determination. It's inspiring to see how she turned her personal health scare into a mission to help others detect ovarian cancer early.

@TanSatori 8 ай бұрын

It's clear you speak from the heart, Surbhi. Reminded me of a saying : "I have never met a beautiful person who hasn't done a hard thing in their life."

@chapterme 9 ай бұрын

Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) - 00:00 - Backstory 01:00 - Problem with Ovarian Cyst 02:39 - High School and How nVision Medical was Born? 03:34 - Working as an Engineer and Starting a Company 04:24 - Validating the Idea and Focus on the Personal Network 05:52 - Fundraising to Build a Prototype 06:14 - Investors Reaction to Women's Health 06:45 - Difficulty as a Female Founder 07:22 - Getting Funded and Building the only FDA Approved Device to Collect Cells 08:13 - Acquisition by Boston Scientific 09:51 - First YC Healthcare and Bio Partner 11:10 - Outro: Being a Group Partner at YC

@grammar_shark 9 ай бұрын

This is an amazing story! So many examples of actionable advice.

@work2remotejobs 8 ай бұрын

Best video you guys have. Can't wait to see KZfaq begin in shift into this direction of content

@bg2junge 9 ай бұрын

Really inspiring, YC must have a treasure trove of seemingly average people achieving high ranks in the business+tech world.

@minc33 9 ай бұрын

Inspiring stuff! I always think about how hard SaaS is and then I see biotech which is magnitudes more challenging especially for fundraising

@mickandriat2751 8 ай бұрын

This is a very inspiring story, amazing!!

@pscih7149 2 ай бұрын

THIS STORY IS PHENOMENAL!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!

@stableandhappy 9 ай бұрын

Thank You 🙏❤

@vidsontheinternet 4 ай бұрын

love this in-depth story about a female founder. She is the role model we need!

@Moyopheus 4 ай бұрын

Loving these startup founder stories!

@KevinSims-xu6qb 8 ай бұрын

shed a tear, congrats to you Surbhi

@AveryBlueRemix 9 ай бұрын

Inspiring stuff.

@allenmandikutse 9 ай бұрын

Very uplifting and relatable! Thank you for this ❤ inspired to become a group partner soon

@boringmanager9559 9 ай бұрын

Peter Thiel says how one has to be significantly different from the crowd to come up with a fresh vision. And also, I am flabbergasted by how close minded most of the vcs are. Most of them reason about the world in a way:"I don't need it, so no one does"

@danstar5262 9 ай бұрын

Yoe're icredible, thanks for share it

@sherahbassard5893 3 ай бұрын

Thank you - I needed this in my KZfaq algorithm! I’m a nurse with a device that I’m trying to bring to market - all by myself!! - I needed this story!! ❤

@justinwyatt8 9 ай бұрын

No one watching this video actually cares about ovarian health. And neither does this founder. She was lucky enough to be possessed by an idea that happened to be valued by rich people. We only care about being rich while feigning deep values. We only care about the money we can hope to make.

@bhoharegaming 6 ай бұрын

Its so inspiring story.

@Oscarnnanna 5 ай бұрын

Beautiful story

@simple5636 6 ай бұрын

How much money she got from that acquisition?

@fabioramos7261 8 ай бұрын

How many people actually want to have certain habits (waking up early, practicing sports, meditating, etc.) but just can't establish them? This happens for a lot of reasons, which we come to discover later, but getting aware of this sense of inner incoherence broke my heart at the beginning.

@Mind_game7 9 ай бұрын

this is the best video on YC channel. Thank you!

@teddysalas3590 9 ай бұрын

Can you do a video on how start a AI company?

@larsbressers1402 4 ай бұрын

Respect!

@manuelavilasb 9 ай бұрын

So inspiring! Thank you Surbhi for sharing your story :)

@IsaMutlib 5 ай бұрын

She's inspiring!

@Dinbu44 9 ай бұрын

Very Inspiring 🔥

@Anythingforfreedom 8 ай бұрын

This whole "brown woman" thing lol

@anushchandrashetty 7 ай бұрын

I stopped watching as soon as she said 'Brown woman, woman of colour' like seriously if we are still weighing ourselves down with these archaic notions then what's the use of preferential employment companies are practising today?

@JBulsa 2 ай бұрын

Awesome vid. Thanks but more views if u cut the first 4 minutes and make in 2 shorts

@frogthekillerorigina 6 ай бұрын

The repeatability of her mentioning ongoingly that she thought problems in her way might have come as of her being a brown woman is purely annoying. Like she's exactly the example of the fact that despite her color she could create a 275 million dollar company. Money follows value. Money doesn't care about the race nor do VC's. Those statements coming from someone of her caliber are purely nonesense. Being a multiple Founder who has raised money myself I can tell you getting rejected 50 times isn't even bad.

@jeynergilcaga 9 ай бұрын

Amazing! Love your story Surbhi! Inspiring!!!!!🥳🥳🥳

@louis3195 9 ай бұрын

❤Beautiful story. I'm also a founder, cancer survivor at 14

@jonjeskie5234 9 ай бұрын

Its the Elizabeth Holmes who DIDN'T fail 👍

@JBulsa 2 ай бұрын

That's dr. Rashmi

@s3_build 9 ай бұрын

This is awesome! Biotech >>>

@danstar5262 9 ай бұрын

Yeah, I always feel awsome hearing about health 😊

@velorent 9 ай бұрын

That is really inspiring!

@rami8r 9 ай бұрын

so inspiring

@StreamAgency 9 ай бұрын

Excellent story. nVision for the win!

@rakshithareddy2489 9 ай бұрын

love her attitude

@Scoobione 9 ай бұрын

Women are roots of this world. Everything amazing blossoms from women. And to call something lifesaving to women bikini medicine?! So disrespectful. This was a really great story. Thanks for sharing.

@ikennamichael9600 9 ай бұрын

So Inspiring to watch, because of this exact issue, starting a company in a particular field and investors want you see evidence of high experience in the field, they wont want to rely on your knowledge or experience of it and you plan to tackle it.

@FightLegacy 9 ай бұрын

Minority? She's an indian in the medical field lol

@Jack-tk1is 9 ай бұрын

She frm California, even Billionaires play victim there 😂😂

@thinkingcitizen 8 ай бұрын

😂😂😂 as an Indian American, I can assure you there’s no dearth of victims out here

@hl236 8 ай бұрын

And Lebron James is a 7 foot minority who broke ground to get into the NBA. Kidding a side, I applauded what she has achieved.

@kirillcheckmarev6244 7 ай бұрын

Is it the most important outtake from the video lol?

@depaindersinghxll-a4048 7 ай бұрын

its just like you listened to some mood lifting music ❤

@krystlegoingplaces 9 ай бұрын

I LOVE THIS! I'm reading her book now and she's such an inspiration to me, a new founder ❤

@im_that_guy 9 ай бұрын

Why did she have to share what colour her skin is? No one cares. It doesn't matter

@shivamkaushik7589 9 ай бұрын

To you maybe, many people do, they make decisions to invest or not the minute you enter the room, I have seen people leave Ubers when a women driver pulls up, just cause of the stereotypea surrounding around women driving badly, so ya

@misskogepon 9 ай бұрын

Plenty of people do care and it does matter. Gender and race biases are well-known in the venture world in the US, so she is simply stating that obstacle she faced as a non-white female.

@mjad7 9 ай бұрын

To be fair, there’s a ton of brown founders and CEO’s. If anything she’s actually at an advantage with all the new women and poc venture funds out there. She’s falsely attributing not being able to fundraise to her being a brown woman. When in reality over 99% of white men cant fundraise either with no sales.

@phillip_jacobs 9 ай бұрын

Investor: "Women's health isn't a big enough market" Haha hectic! Why don't we just nuke the earth, while we're busy neglecting the literal need for life 😂 We love the guts you had Surbhi!! It lays the foundation for many 🙏🏽 No pun intended on "guts" 🙏🏽

@TheMountainBeyondTheWoods 9 ай бұрын

"I'm a brown woman, I'm a woman of color..." "was it hard for me to fundraise because I was a brown woman without a higher degree or..." "investors saying womens health isn't a big enough market" Such BS, what a miserable person, you lost me, I don't care, goodbye.