🧬 People Aren’t Rational: Why That’s an Advantage as a Leader | Jason C. Foster Re-Release (1/2)

"If you think about what we do as human beings, the vast majority of the value we create is through communication." We’re revisiting some of our previous episodes over the holidays this year. Our next re-release is this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, where Jason C. Foster, CEO and Executive Director at Ori Biotech, shares how his upbringing in Richmond, Virginia and his family’s deep roots in business shaped his entrepreneurial drive and leadership style. Growing up as an only child surrounded by adults, Jason cultivated strong communication skills early on, while paper routes, lawn care, and door-to-door sales instilled in him a bias toward self-sufficiency and finding creative ways to add value. Jason walks through his journey from studying government at the University of Virginia and working on healthcare policy in Washington, D.C., to realizing that real impact on patient outcomes often happens in the private sector rather than in government. He then reflects on his formative years at Columbia Business School in New York City, where exposure to a highly international, high-performing peer group—and to the chaos and energy of post-9/11 New York—pushed him out of his comfort zone and helped crystallize his aspiration to build and lead in healthcare and startups.