Time, Fuel, & Money
Time, Fuel, and Money is a conversation for founders, investors, operators, and high-performers who want to understand the deeper forces that shape how we live, build, lead, and make decisions. Hosted by Deborah Moorad, Karim ReFaey, and Vassili Kotlov, the show blends neuroscience, psychology, business, energy, and human behavior—turning complex ideas into practical, emotionally intelligent frameworks.
Each week, we explore what really drives progress: alignment, awareness, relationships, incentives, momentum, and the hidden energy behind ambition. Through stories from biotech, venture capital, government, aviation, engineering, and everyday life, we break down how time, fuel, and money work together—and how they quietly shape careers, companies, and character.
This is not a hustle show. It’s a clarity show.
A place to think deeper, grow wiser, and operate with more intention—without losing your humanity.
New episodes weekly. Join us and rethink the rules.
Time, Fuel, & Money
The Bio-Boom Waiting Game
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Reactive founders, unrealistic timelines, and the art of listening before you leap
Season 2 | Episode 3
Deborah is live from Advanced Therapies Week in San Diego, Vassili is on his way, and Karim is holding down the conversation from wherever the year of the Horse has him pointed. The Lunar New Year transition sets the tone: bold, forward, and honest about what the last season taught them.
The episode opens on a pattern Deborah keeps running into at conferences — founders and dealmakers who lead with money before they've earned the right to the conversation. The irony she puts plainly: you can be in the same room as some of the most valuable minds in biotech, and people will skip past them chasing a hundred-dollar bill taped under a chair.
Karim brings in The Obstacle Is the Way — not as motivational content, but as a genuine frame for how to stop reacting and start reading situations clearly. Events are neutral. We assign them meaning. Rockefeller understood this when everyone else was panicking during the Depression. Most early-stage founders don't, which is why "18 months to clinical trial" keeps showing up in decks that have no business saying it.
The conversation gets specific: the language barrier between academic medicine and venture capital, why leading with patient impact actually pushes investors away, and what it really takes to get into the manufacturing queue before you even have your IND enabling studies mapped. Deborah's analogy — the Baby Boom daycare waitlist problem applied to biotech — is one of the cleaner frames this show has produced.
The close is quieter: boldness this year might not mean charging forward. It might mean listening to yourself clearly enough to know when to pivot, and trusting that the uncoiling actually leads somewhere.