is a self-professed bad scientist and bad musician but despite –and perhaps even because– of those limitations, he’s built some pretty good companies.

As CEO of and , he makes a distinction between the invention of a drug in the lab and the level of innovation in its development. Although he compares the work to that of a CRO, he clarifies that it’s really a bit upstream from there. And in the future, if you hear Protodigm start talking about being a “Pre-RO,” you’ll know that little brainstorm came out of this podcast.

Mike runs a record company, aptly named Medical Records and hosts his own book club slash podcast about innovation in pharma.