"I never had aspirations to be an entrepreneur. I went to grad school with the idea that I was going to be a professor." But yet, Chuck Frazier, alongside his co-founder, Savannah Dearden, are now onto their third startup in 12 years and their second one together as co-founders (they initially worked at Apeel Sciences together for quite a few years). The duo is currently building a platform to solve their own pain points from time at previous startups. Nurture is what has resulted: a way to visualize epigenomics data and speed up typically long iteration cycles for scientists.

FoundedSB had the chance to sit down with Chuck to hear more about what he's building and what resulted was a very insightful conversation. You'll get to hear about his path to becoming an entrepreneur, his perspectives on building in Santa Barbara, and what has kept him going.

Overview of Nurture

Chuck and Savannah began Nurture just 9 months ago with a small team, all of whom have worked alongside the duo at previous startups. Nurture is seeking to develop the infrastructure and platform for epigenomics research. Currently, there is a gap between the speed at which scientists can conduct an experiment and when they can understand/interpret the results. Tellus, Nurture's first product which is now in beta testing, is aiming to solve the gap. Users will be able to model out their own data from epigenomics research. In the past this process could take months and it was hard to visualize more than one data point, but this is not longer the case. What makes the system particularly powerful is that it will allow users to not just see current markers, but also visualize past and present. Chuck explained why this was so important:

"Take cancer [for example]: it's not one trigger, one single change. From an epigenomic perspective, it's a series of small changes that cascade over time and eventually tip you into a cancer state. You have to understand that entire map: where you were, where you are, where you're going, to figure out whether a cell is heading toward that state."

This is why epigenomics, Chuck believes, is at the beginning of an inflection point, just starting to take off. There are pretty massive implications when we understand the full picture of the epigenome and Nurture is hoping to become the go-to platform when this data visualization is done. But how did Chuck end up here anyways?

Why Startups?

Chuck went to grad school with the idea that he was going to be a professor. Both his parents were teachers and he loved the idea of doing research, so it just made sense. But, just 3 months away from a Ph.D., some friends Chuck knew from UCSB grad school who had started a company called Apeel Sciences, began hanging around the lab, trying to convince Chuck to come learn what they were doing.

"I listened long enough that I got curious, I wanted to know what they were building. What I realized is that what I was really attracted to was the idea of building something from the ground up."

It was an opportunity too great to pass up, so Chuck diverted his plans and went the startup route, graduating in December and starting in January of 2015.

As one of the first ten employees and going through the massive growth that Apeel experienced, Chuck began to fall in love with not just the technical side, but also the business side of the company.

"It wasn't like I came in with that mindset, but at some point it was like: this technology that I helped create is now out there and people are making money off of it, and that's a really cool thing."

Within about 3 to 4 years Chuck decided this was something he really wanted to do himself. So he spent the next few years at Apeel trying to learn as much as he could about building a business from scratch. Luckily, because of how quickly Apeel was growing, getting cross-training in different departments was easy. According to Chuck, "I basically got my MBA from Apeel Sciences." It prepared him well, because when he eventually did leave to found his first company with Savannah, Temporal Agriculture, in 2023, he felt very comfortable with the business side of operating.

Building with a Co-Founder

Now, more than 3 years into owning a company and a decade in the startup field, Chuck is more driven than ever. He credits this to a love of solving hard problems. In startups, it's a constant grind of solving one problem after another. But, Chuck views it as "when you get to the other side and look back and say, that was hard, but here we are. Then you get the privilege of looking at the next problem, because you've tackled the previous one."

Chuck also credits another major factor that has helped get him through the daily trenches of starting a company: a co-founder. According to Chuck, he would never build a company without a co-founder and he can't imagine a better one than Savannah (caveated by saying every company and person is different).

"I've heard it described that in startups you only feel two emotions: pure joy and sheer terror, and there's nothing in between. Sometimes you feel both at the same time. Having another person there as an equalizer, someone to share in that, really helps a lot."

Chuck actually stated that they don't think the same way, but because of this, they are always able to bring their own unique perspectives to sharpen each others ideas. The duo's dynamic of constantly refining each others ideas has become a very valuable asset to the company as well: creating an efficient leadership system.

'Feeling the Pain' of your Customers

Chuck emphasized the importance of getting on the ground floor with your early customers and feeling their pain points directly, in order to clearly understand the problem. He's done this at all three companies now and argues it's made a huge difference each time. "As an entrepreneur, you're solving for pain points, finding the value that comes from solving them, and you can't see that from the outside. You have to feel that pain yourself to understand what it takes to solve it. Just get out there in the world and find ways to experience the pain your customers are feeling, so you can figure out how to fix it."

"With Temporal, that meant spending time out in the field, talking to farmers, getting our hands in the dirt, spending a day in their life. Being out there for harvest. Being out there for planting. Figuring out, sweating in the sun out in the field, where it actually hurts. It was the same at Apeel, get out there, be boots on the ground, and figure out where it hurts for your customers."

At Nurture, the product is actually born out of the pain Chuck and Savannah had at their past two companies. In the last days of Temporal, Savannah and Chuck looked at each other and said: "we really love this epigenomics space, we think this is where biology is going, but it's held back by a lack of infrastructure that we felt firsthand in two previous companies." The duo has a unique perspective because they are the target customers, they felt the pain directly. So it gave them real clarity of what needed to be built to solve the problem.

Building in Santa Barbara

Chuck has built startups solely in Santa Barbara, and the area has served him and his companies well. From lab space to airport access to a great lifestyle. It's a small but mighty space, and many founders like Chuck are taking advantage.

But Santa Barbara is small, so this means more limited access to deep founder communities, funding, and resources. Chuck stated that if you're building in Santa Barbara, "The connectivity here is really nice, but you have to accept that a lot of what you need isn't local. Even on the fundraising side, there are great angel investors in this area, a lot of people who've built successful technology businesses, but they're not the ones who take you to scale. They get you started, which is wonderful, that's what you need. But you're going to have to go to San Francisco and New York for the investors who'll continue providing capital as your company scales. You have to be willing to fly a lot."

Luckily, the SBA airport is lightning fast and located right by UCSB, making day trips on commercial flights up to SF or down to San Diego really easy. It's been a huge asset for Chuck and his team. For founders willing to make these somewhat frequent trips, they are rewarded with what Santa Barbara is perhaps most well known for: the natural beauty.

"From a lifestyle perspective, it's an awesome place to build a business. On a hard day, you can just go stand in the water. That part is really great."

Tucked between the beach and the Santa Ynez mountains, it's hard to beat being able to take a swim in the ocean or a hike in the mountains whenever you want. No matter the time of year, it is always gorgeous here. A simple walk around one's neighborhood can clear your mind on a hard day. Here at FoundedSB, this is why we argue Santa Barbara is a great place to build a startup: places like SF or NYC can't compete with the lifestyle.

Advice for Future Founders

We asked Chuck to share some advice for future founders. The first thing he said was to "spend a lot of time learning from people who've done it before. If you know the space you want to go into, be a sponge." Secondly, "Get yourself out there, spend a day in [the customer's] shoes. When you dig in and get hands-on with the problems, you see things from a completely different perspective."

This is exactly what Chuck has done in his career: getting involved with the customers and learning from people who've done the startup thing already.

Final Thoughts

The team at Nurture sees the epigenomics industry as being right at the start of an inflection point, as there is an uptick in companies building into the space. If the timing is right, Nurture may be on track to grow rapidly over the next few years.

At Temporal Agriculture, it would take 5 people three months to run one experiment (about $250,000 for one turn of the iteration cycle). So the big question Chuck and Savannah at Nurture are trying to answer: "how do we do that in a week instead of three months?" If they can successfully accomplish that at a large scale while the momentum of the space reaches a critical mass, Chuck stated, "We want to be the infrastructure that undergirds the entire epigenomics age."

You really never know where life is going to take you. Chuck approached an opportunity with curiosity and a willingness to learn, and look where he is now. Although he would have never envisioned he'd be here, he said, "I can't imagine doing anything else with my life at this point."

We wish him the best of luck with building Nurture and want to thank Chuck for taking time to meet with FoundedSB. If you are interested in what he is doing at Nurture or just in general as an entrepreneur, you can check out his LinkedIn here. And if you found this article helpful, consider joining FoundedSB's free mailing list to get exclusive access to weekly founder interviews, just like this one. Our mission is to provide high quality coverage of startups and founders in Santa Barbara.