How James Murray Went From Law School to Leading a Biotech VC Firm

Episode Description Today, we sat down with the co-founder and partner of Excite Ventures, James Murray. The now venture capitalist shares with us his unconventional journey from law school and bartending in the city to building a biotech-focused venture capital firm. James started his venture career in finance with no prior finance experience, working his way up from an intern to a trader, and before he knew it, he was co-founding Excite Ventures. Excite focuses on early-stage investments in biotech and life sciences, backing cutting-edge innovations in areas like ophthalmology, surgical robotics, and gene therapy. In the episode, James walks through how the firm was built from the ground up, starting with an $100K investment that quickly turned into an early success, and how they've scaled since. We dive into biotech vs. traditional VC, why biology is particularly challenging, and James shares his insights on AI, specifically how it's beginning to transform drug discovery and clinical trials. Beyond investing, James gives founders advice and emphasizes the importance of storytelling, building milestone-driven companies, and the power of simply showing up and saying yes. He also shares his core philosophy—"if not you, who"—and how that mindset has guided his career. We cover a lot of ground in this episode, including: His early experience helping grow a firm from $25M to $900M AUM Why he chose venture over hedge funds, trading, and private equity How Excite Ventures was built through unexpected connections Real examples of portfolio companies (like Retrosense + surgical robotics) His take on why harder industries (biotech, hardware) may become more attractive than software The concept of having a "prepared mind" when investing The story of being offered a trader role despite having zero experience The idea that biotech startups are really about building "data packages" (not revenue yet) The Greatest Piece of Advice: 👉"If not you, who?" Links and show notes from this episode: Excite Venture's Website Excite Ventures on LinkedIn James Murray on LinkedIn Finta ========== Visit Ambition Today on the Web: ​ Follow Kevin Siskar on Twitter: ​twitter.com/TheSiskar Follow Kevin Siskar on Instagram: instagram.com/thesiskar Follow Kevin Siskar on Facebook: facebook.com/kevin.siskar Add Kevin Siskar on Snapchat: snapchat.com/add/krsiskar Kevin Siskar brings you ambitious entrepreneurs inspired by Tim Ferriss Show, How I Built This with Guy Raz, Residual Income, Entrepreneur on Fire, NPR, HBR, TED Radio Hour, the StartUp podcast with Alex Blumberg by Gimlet Media, Pat Flynn, Tony Robbins, The Uncertain Hour, Bigger Pockets, Art of Charm, Dave Ramsey, Planet Money, Jocko Podcast, EntreLeadership, Zigler, APM Marketplace, This Week In Startups with Jason Calacanis, Mixergy, Seth Godin, Joe Rogan Experience, GaryVee, James Altucher, Monocle 24, How to Start a Startup, Crooked Media, and The $100 MBA Show with Omar Zenhom, and Casey Neistat. Be sure to listen and

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How James Murray Went From Law School to Leading a Biotech VC Firm is an episode from Ambition Today by Siskar.co.

This episode is 45:41 long.

This episode was published on Apr 15, 2026.

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