Improving Lives Through Advancements In The Science of Aging - Victor Bustos of Refoxy Pharma

Impact Hustlers - Entrepreneurs with Social Impact

Imagine living a long and healthy life. Imagine not getting sick at all at 80 years old, or who knows, maybe 100 years old. The possibilities are endless thanks to today’s advancements in science and technology, and today, Victor Bustos joins us as the COO and Co-Founder of Refoxy Pharma. Refoxy is a biotech startup whose goal is not to extend the human lifespan but primarily to extend health. Basically, Refoxy aims to keep people healthy for as long as possible, which is both noble and challenging in itself, right?

Initially, Victor was working in academia, but then he was motivated by the fact that life seemed too short coupled with him having read studies on how it was possible to change how long and how healthy people could live. Thus, Refoxy Pharma was born. Pivoting from the academe to creating a startup, however, was no easy feat, so Victor had some amazing insights and lessons to share with us about his journey from PhD student to startup founder. You won’t want to miss what he has to say.

Victor’s key lessons and quotes from this episode were:

• “What is a scientist if not an entrepreneur?” (26:44)
• “It is important to not sell yourself short as a scientist, because there is a lot that one can bring as a scientist into any endeavor. And so, just having this open mind of being able to learn anything and try to learn anything, that's going to give you a lot of ground.” (27:29)
• “In the end, it's just a matter of asking the right questions and trying to find the right tools to answer those questions.” (29:17)

In this episode, we also talked about:

• Refoxy Pharma and what it’s like working with Apollo Health Ventures (9:11)
• Academia vs. entrepreneurship (22:10)
• Why scientists and entrepreneurs are more similar than you think (28:53)
• Risk mitigation (36:01)

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