Meet Stacy Chin, Ph.D.

I’m a PhD-trained startup executive and advisor with 10+ years of experience working alongside founders, academic spin-outs, and early-stage companies building technically complex, high-risk R&D ventures. My background spans company formation, technical strategy, fundraising, and commercialization—helping teams translate strong science into credible businesses that can attract capital and partners. I work closely with academic teams, university spin-outs, and early-stage startups to shape strategy around fundraising, commercialization, and execution, particularly where technology risk, market uncertainty, and capital intensity intersect. I’ve advised founders across biotech and pharma, hard tech and manufacturing, AI/ML, defense and dual-use, and climate and energy, often supporting first-time technical founders stepping into executive roles.

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As part of this work, I’ve helped teams secure $50M+ in non-dilutive funding and served as an NIH and NSF SBIR/STTR reviewer for five years, experience that informs how I pressure-test strategy, positioning, and execution—not just proposals. I bring a pragmatic, operator-level perspective focused on sequencing R&D, fundraising, and commercialization in a way that supports long-term company building.

 

Relevant experience includes advising teams on:

• Early-stage startup and spin-out strategy

• Fundraising positioning (dilutive and non-dilutive)

• Commercialization and go-to-market planning

• Translating complex R&D into investor- and partner-ready narratives

• Navigating federal programs such as SBIR/STTR and larger R&D initiatives when relevant