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At Akcea Therapeutics, biotech leadership meant more than drug development—it meant building with purpose, addressing long-overlooked areas of health, and paving the way for future leaders. And at the helm was founding CEO Paula Soteropoulos.

On this episode of Ventured Growth, Katie Segien sits down with Paula to explore how she helped take Akcea public, launched therapies for underserved diseases, and advanced efforts in women’s health—a space historically underfunded and under-researched. With 35 years of experience across pharma and biotech, Paula shares how she's using her platform to drive both innovation and inclusion.

She also talks about mentoring the next generation of women CEOs, shaping boardroom dynamics, and why genomic medicine could help close longstanding gaps in women’s care.

Topics include:

• Leading Akcea through IPO and pivotal drug launches
• The massive underfunding of research into women’s health
• Mentoring and elevating women in biotech leadership
• Building purpose-driven executive teams
• What’s next in in vivo genomic medicine
• And more…
  
  
  

Paula Soteropoulos is a seasoned biotech executive, board member and advisor whose career spans a broad range of therapeutic areas, including rare disease, cardiovascular and metabolism, infectious disease, renal, and transplant and oncology. Paula is a Venture Partner at 5AM Ventures, and serves as Chairman of Ensoma, and on the boards of directors of Dianthus Therapeutics, Rallybio, and Kyowa Kirin. Paula was the founding CEO of rare disease therapeutic developer, Akcea Therapeutics, and was a board director at UniQure. She serves on the advisory boards for Chiesi USA and Tufts University Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. Paula continues to lead and advise companies at the intersection of science, leadership, and women’s health.

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At Eight Sleep, product innovation isn’t just about comfort—it’s about performance, health, and personalization at scale. And behind the numbers powering that mission is CFO Nick Chammas.

On this episode of Ventured Growth, Catherine Jhung sits down with Nick to discuss how Eight Sleep evolved from a niche product for athletes into a sleep fitness brand with global momentum. From raising $100M to expanding manufacturing across continents, Nick has helped steer the company through pivotal growth milestones.

He shares insights into their new AI-powered sleep agent, how digital twins are driving personalized rest, and why the best product feedback comes straight from the customer.

Topics include:

• Applying AI to sleep and biometric data
• From product-market fit to global expansion
• How Eight Sleep is solving for menopause, snoring, and temperature regulation
• Leading a capital-efficient team of 100
• Nick’s personal journey from banking to scaling a hardware brand
• And more…

Nick Chammas is the CFO of Eight Sleep, the world’s first sleep fitness company. With experience across finance, operations, and strategy, he brings a holistic view to driving growth in a competitive consumer tech landscape.

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In the high-stakes world of startups, few roles have evolved more dramatically than that of the CFO. Today’s finance leader is expected to move beyond spreadsheets — shaping strategy, influencing product development, and building cross-functional trust. M.G. Thibaut has done all of that and more.

In this episode, Eddie Lopez is joined by M.G. Thibaut — former CFO of Strava, DroneDeploy, and Copper, and now the founder of Coterie CFO and Executive-in-Residence at Scale Venture Partners. With roots in investment banking and big tech, MG has spent over 16 years helping venture-backed startups grow, scale, and stay agile through every stage.

Now, she’s focused on building something new. MG shares the founding story of Coterie CFO, a community redefining the relationship between finance leaders and the fintech tools they rely on. She also opens up about her advisory work at Scale, the traits of high-performing finance teams, and why she believes today’s CFO must be as comfortable with ambiguity as they are with analytics.

Topics Include:

• How MG pivoted from investment banking to startups
• What makes a modern CFO indispensable to a startup’s success
• The founding vision behind Coterie CFO
• Building trust and transparency with CEOs and teams
• The evolving role of the CFO in a tech-driven world
• And other topics…

M.G. Thibaut is a startup CFO turned venture partner and community builder. She is the founder of Coterie CFO and an Executive-in-Residence at Scale Venture Partners, advising startups and mentoring emerging finance leaders.