This article first appeared on Authority Magazine.
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As a part of our series about cutting-edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Valerie Goodwin-Adams.
Valerie Goodwin-Adams is a biotech visionary with deep expertise in oncology and cell and gene therapy, bringing a strong record of driving strategic growth and acquisitions at emerging life science companies. She currently leads ImpriMed’s global sales and operations as Chief Commercial Officer, advancing the company’s market entry into human precision medicine. Goodwin-Adams previously led the commercial acquisition of AllCells as Chief Revenue Officer. She holds an MBA from the Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University and a BA from San José State University.
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Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Idiscovered my passion for marketing as an undergraduate, where I fell in love with the craft of storytelling and positioning. That curiosity deepened into an obsession with the economics of marketing — how ideas move people and markets. Pursuing an MBA in marketing economics gave me the tools to blend narrative with measurable strategy.
My first roles in technology taught me the mechanics: product positioning, launch cadence, demand generation, and a relentless focus on ROI. Those years were formative. I enjoyed a string of wins that proved I could drive adoption and consistently exceed revenue goals.
After several successful launches, I began asking a deeper question: What do I actually want to represent? Tech taught me how to represent momentum; I wanted to represent meaning. That led to a deliberate reassessment of purpose and impact. Biotech emerged as the clear answer — complex products, high stakes, tangible outcomes, and the chance to translate scientific advances into real-world health improvements.
Moving from tech to biotech was conscious and strategic. I leaned on my strengths — leadership, go-to-market frameworks, narrative design, sales strategy, and revenue discipline — while building new muscles like clinical literacy, stakeholder alignment across clinicians and payers, and sensitivity to ethical implications. Early wins came from applying product marketing discipline to scientific problems and from building cross-functional bridges that accelerated adoption.
What sustains me is the combination of craft and consequence. The commercial metrics matter because they fund continued innovation; the human and animal impact matters because it gives the work meaning. That balance — strategic rigor plus purposeful impact — is why I moved into biotech and why I stay. I truly love what I do.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
Collaborating with remarkable mentors has given me enduring lessons that continue to influence how I lead, learn, and live.
When I moved into biotech, I quickly realized how different and how profoundly human this industry is. Early in that transition, I shadowed a clinician using a diagnostic device I was responsible for at Abaxis. They weren’t talking about market share, features, or pricing. They were talking about time — how much time they could give this patient, and which decisions might meaningfully change that timeline. It was a moment of clarity: the strategies I built, the narratives I shaped, and the partnerships I forged would ultimately influence decisions made in rooms just like that around the world.
That was the moment I understood the true weight and privilege of this work. Marketing wasn’t just about driving adoption; it was about translating complex science into clarity so clinicians could act with confidence. It was the time in my career that strategy, purpose, and impact aligned perfectly.
That experience sharpened my sense of responsibility, deepened my commitment to ethical and effective communication, and reaffirmed why I chose to move into biotech: because when the work truly matters, every decision matters, and every decision can help save a life.
Can you tell us about the cutting-edge technological breakthroughs that you are working on? How do you think that will help people?
At ImpriMed, we are on the cutting-edge of advancing precision medicine, including:
- Human Precision Medicine: We integrate xCellSense®, our live-cell functional-analysis platform, with AI-powered decision-support software. This combination enables clinicians to deliver individualized treatments for hematologic diseases — improving outcomes for every patient.
- Veterinary Precision Medicine: We apply the same proven platform to companion animals. Veterinary oncologists can now design personalized cancer therapies that extend survival and enhance quality of life for pets.
- CRO Services for Pharma: Our AI-driven efficacy-assessment platform uses patient-derived live cells to evaluate novel compounds pre-clinically or during trials, helping pharmaceutical partners raise clinical-success rates.
How do you think this might change the world?
Our breakthroughs have the potential to transform both patient care and pharmaceutical innovation:
- Faster right‑first‑time therapy: Personalized treatment selections and optimized combinations improve survival and quality of life for pets and humans. Durable responses and life extension become the norm, not the exception.
- Smarter Pharmaceutical R&D
- Candidate selection: patient‑derived efficacy signals de‑risk preclinical pipelines and help prioritize compounds with human biological relevance.
- Trial design: enrich for responsive populations, optimize dosing/combination arms, and shorten timelines through early translational readouts.
- Cost and attrition reduction: improved go/no‑go decisions reduce late‑stage failures and lower overall R&D spend per approved therapy.
Together, these advances bring precision, speed, and hope to medicine — reshaping outcomes for patients, families, and the industry at large.
Keeping “Black Mirror” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks of this technology that people should think more deeply about?
From my perspective, the promise of this technology is overwhelmingly positive. By enabling better clinical decisions and more precise therapeutic recommendations, we extend survival and improve quality of life for patients. The focus is on leveraging science and AI responsibly to deliver individualized care. When applied with rigor and ethical oversight, I see only upside — a future where medicine is more accurate, compassionate, and effective.
Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this breakthrough? Can you tell us that story?
The tipping point really belongs to our co-founder, Dr. Sungwon Lim. After more than a decade working in the cancer drug industry, he kept asking himself a simple but profound question: Are we truly using all the tools already in our medical toolbox? He saw how patients in urgent need of treatment often had to wait ten years or more for a new drug to reach the market. While innovation is essential, he realized that new drug development alone shouldn’t be the only way to improve cancer care.
That realization led Sungwon, together with his longtime friend Dr. Jamin Koo, to co-found ImpriMed in 2017. Both had earned PhDs at Stanford after studying chemical and biomolecular engineering at KAIST in South Korea, and they shared a conviction that existing drugs could be used more intelligently if matched to the right patient.
Their breakthrough was combining live-cell functional analysis with AI-powered prediction models. By integrating those models into the clinical workflow — and solving the challenge of collecting the vast clinical outcome data needed to make them truly predictive — they created a service that enables oncologists to identify the therapies most likely to work for each patient before treatment begins.
That was Sungwon’s tipping point: the moment he saw a path to make cancer care faster, smarter, and more personal for the patients who need it now.
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What do you need to lead this technology to widespread adoption?
We are already seeing meaningful traction in select market segments (as below). The next step is scale. Our focus is on continuing to evangelize ImpriMed’s offerings across both the animal health industry and human healthcare markets — building awareness, deepening trust with clinicians, and demonstrating the measurable impact of precision medicine in everyday practice.
- 3,500,000+: Over 3.5 million human oncology and hematology patient records advancing precision medicine
- 150+: A leadership team with 150+ years of combined biotech experience driving innovation and excellence
- 50+: A network of 50+ tertiary-care hospitals worldwide
- 22,000+: More than 22,000 canine and feline hematologic-cancer tests performed on our platform
- 400+: A global veterinary network of 400+ specialty hospitals
- 500+: Comprehensive ex vivo drug-sensitivity data from 500+ patient samples
What have you been doing to publicize this idea? Have you been using any innovative marketing strategies?
In veterinary oncology, we’ve focused on earned media and thought leadership, positioning ImpriMed where trusted voices already shape the conversation. Our innovations have been featured in TechCrunch, Dogster, DVM360, USA Today, and other major outlets — giving clinicians, pet parents, and veterinary decision-makers exposure to our technology.
Because the U.S. has about 500–600 board-certified veterinary oncologists, we’ve prioritized relationship-driven engagement. To support that, we launched the Veterinary Cancer Pioneers Podcast, where leading oncologists and researchers share their journeys, clinical insights, and groundbreaking work. This series has become both an educational resource and a respected channel for ongoing dialogue with the oncology community.
Our focus on high-quality educational content has also transformed our digital presence. By consistently publishing clear, accessible resources on lymphoma and pet cancer, our website now attracts more than 2,000 visitors daily — making it one of the most widely visited information hubs in veterinary oncology.
Building on the momentum, we are now applying the same strategies to human precision medicine: leveraging educational content, expert storytelling, and thought leadership to drive broader awareness and trust.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I don’t credit a single mentor with shaping my career; instead, I draw strength from a network of support that began in childhood. As the fourth of nine siblings, I learned early how to lead, stand out, solve problems quickly, and negotiate — practical skills I still use every day. Our family ethos was simple: “you can do anything you set your mind to.” That belief, coupled with hard work and reinforced by Napoleon Hill’s phrase, “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve,” has been a guiding principle throughout my journey.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I’ve used my commercial success to give back through targeted philanthropy, mentorship, and by modeling responsible leadership that creates opportunities for others.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
1.“Adaptability is the constant.” Biotech and life sciences evolve through acquisitions, pivots, and breakthroughs. Resilience and flexibility are the keys to thriving.
2. “Empathy and vulnerability is not optional. It’s the foundation of leadership.” Strategy and execution matter, but empathy and vulnerability builds trust, creativity, and loyalty across teams. I was once told by a CEO I reported to that I came across as intimidating, and his recommendation was that I try to be more relatable as a person by being more vulnerable. I took this advice to heart.
3. “Mentorship is a legacy, not a side project.” The most lasting impact comes from developing others and creating pathways for future leaders.
4. “Confidence is the qualifier.” In male-dominated industries, waiting for permission to lead can hold you back. Initiative and self-belief are enough. You don’t need to wait to be “tapped on the shoulder.” I never did.
5. “Culture scales with growth.” Revenue expansion is exciting, but protecting values and culture of excellence ensures growth is sustainable.
6. “Patience is power.” Owning a vineyard taught me that growth takes time — vines don’t produce their best fruit overnight. In both science and leadership, patience, planning, and perseverance is an active investment in long-term success.
If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
You never know what a single idea can trigger. For us, the movement would be evangelizing precision medicine more broadly — amplifying its promise with a megaphone or patients, families, and clinicians everywhere can benefit. At ImpriMed, our mission is clear: to improve survival and quality of life. What could be more impactful than bringing that possibility to the widest audience!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Stay curious enough to learn, humble enough to listen, bold enough to act.”
I was raised to hold excellence as a baseline, while giving equal weight to having fun, listening, and speaking with purpose. That balance taught me to act boldly without fear — habits that continue to shape how I lead, make decisions, and lift others. Today, I still operate with NO FEAR, guided by curiosity and a drive to win, coupled with tenacity.
Some very well-known VCs read this column. If you had 60 seconds to make a pitch to a VC, what would you say? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
ImpriMed is a California-based precision medicine startup pioneering AI-powered cancer treatment technology. We began by helping veterinarians identify the most effective drugs for individual canine blood cancers, improving survival and quality of life for pets.
Our platform tests patients’ live cancer cells against multiple anti-cancer drugs, then applies advanced AI models to predict which therapies are most likely to succeed. This reduces the time and cost of finding the right chemotherapy while giving oncologists actionable insights for truly personalized care. Alongside drug response prediction, we provide immunophenotyping, PARR assays, and MDR1 genotyping. To date, we’ve supported more than 12,000 canine and feline lymphoma patients across 380+ veterinary hospitals in 45 states.
In parallel, we are extending this proven approach to human oncology. By combining live-cell functional analysis with multi-modal AI, we aim to connect the right drug to the right patient — accelerating adoption, improving outcomes, and reshaping the future of cancer care.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
You can connect with me on LinkedIn — Valerie Goodwin-Adams.
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
