In the 7th episode of Untold Stories meet Szabolcs Nagy, the CEO and co-founder of Turbine AI Turbine AI is a simulation-driven drug discovery company, delivering targeted cancer therapies to targeted patient populations.

The company’s origin story dates back to 2015 when Szabi with his business background completed the team of Kristóf, the machine learning engineer and Dani, the system biology expert. Out of their numerous business ideas, The Tripod (as they refer to themselves) decided to dedicate their work to the better understanding of complex cancer.

“We can only do one thing right, and we need to do that one thing right.”

Shortly after, they were already working with Bayer’s team in Berlin as they won the company’s G4A innovation program. In only half a year they managed to carry out their “killer experiment”, and came up with groundbreaking results even the company’s R&D team weren’t able to obtain in the past 5-10 years.

“...we can actually predict how cancer cells behave and we can actually find novelty that they would not be able to identify otherwise...”

In the following years the company got off the ground. From a service based model they pivoted into a drug discovery company, moved their base to the UK where the drug discovery ecosystem is more vivid, and raised 10 million euros during the pandemic from top-tier investors such as Accel Partners.

Jump into the search for the Holy Grail of Biology with us, and explore the Untold Story of Turbine! Press play, and find out the answers for the following questions:

<01.46>

What made Szabi become an entrepreneur?

<05.38>

Why is the co-founding team of Turbine called “The Tripod”?

<07.39>

What is the origin story of Turbine and when did Szabi join it?

<11.24>

How was his transition to adjust to the biotech field?

<13.59>

How does product market fit and traction work in the biotech field?

<16.50>

How was it to participate in Bayer’s G4A Program Accelerator Program?

<19.06>

How did the early consultinglike projects shift overtime? What’s their current business model, and how did they get there?

<28.14>

What are the social aspects of their vision?

<30.58>

Other than Bayer, what other mentors had an impactful effect on Turbine?

<35.53>

How did they start their fundraising process?

<41.49>

How important is it to have a venture capitalist that really understands the company?

<48.07>

How many people do they have now, and how do they manage working in different locations?

<50.41>

After finding the right business model and the strategic direction, what other challenges did they have so far?

<50.40>

How does Szabi spend his time as a CEO?

<56.33>

What is his advice he wants to share with us?