In this episode of Fundraising Demystified, Mustafa Al-Adhami, co-founder and CEO of Aztek Diagnostics takes us on his incredible journey through the highs and lows of fundraising and building a medical device startup. From a modest beginning as a refugee ten years ago to now being on the cusp of bringing their revolutionary product to market, Mustafa’s story is one of perseverance, learning from mistakes, and taking risks. Join us as we delve into the challenges faced in the healthcare industry, the importance of grants and funding, and the power of staying curious and asking questions.
Here are some key points in this episode
02:25 Rapid antibiotic sensitivity test development.
07:51 Investors invest in a line.
14:44 Government grants can provide valuable funding for startups.
20:48 Surround yourself with experienced advisors.
25:17 Overcome obstacles and keep trying.
33:26 Investors value belief and assistance.
36:04 Ask for advice, believe in yourself.
About Mustafa Al-Adhami
Mustafa Al-Adhami is the co-founder and CEO of Aztek Diagnostics. He has a PhD in mechanical engineering with a focus on blood hemodynamics. Mustafa's background in research and his personal experience with his grandfather's illness inspired him to develop a rapid antibiotic sensitivity test. He is passionate about addressing the problem of antibiotic resistance and improving patient outcomes. Mustafa has navigated the challenges of building a healthcare startup, including raising funding, conducting clinical trials, and navigating regulatory processes. He believes in surrounding himself with experienced advisors and investors who can provide guidance and support.
Links Mentioned
You can connect with Mustafa via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/maladhami/.
To know more about the company and their product you can visit Aztec Diagnostics' website at https://astekdx.com/.
Hosted by Jason Kirby - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonrkirby/
Thunder website - https://web.thunder.vc
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Fundraising Demystified
Astek Diagnostics co‑founder and CEO Mustafa Al‑Adhami shares how a family health crisis inspired Jiddu, a rapid antibiotic susceptibility test aimed at cutting multi‑day waits to actionable results. He and host Jason Kirby discuss prototyping microfluidics at home, early grants (NSF SBIR, state programs), navigating YC and seed funding, running clinical studies across complex UTI patient groups, and the realities of FDA, reimbursement, and strategic exits.
Empiric antibiotic prescribing can miss the right drug. Astek aims to deliver rapid antibiotic sensitivity results so clinicians can select an effective therapy much sooner.
Jiddu is Astek’s rapid AST platform, named after Mustafa’s grandfather, whose UTI experience inspired the company.
Using acrylic microfluidics bonded with alcohol and an oven, engraved by hand tools, paired with custom software — a lean, basement‑level build validated in a clinical setting.
A mix of venture capital (including YC‑linked capital), Maryland‑based incentives, and federal/state grants such as NSF SBIR and Maryland Industrial Partnerships.
Complete studies across key UTI populations, pre‑submission with the FDA, run pivotal trials, then commercialize — with acquisition by a strategic likely given distribution needs.
Jason Kirby: Hey everyone, welcome back to the show. Your host, Jason Kirby here with Fundraising Demystified. And today we have Mustafa joining us, co‑founder and CEO of Astek Diagnostics. Welcome to the show.
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: Thank you, thank you for having me.
Jason Kirby: I'm excited to have you on the show, excited to learn more about Astek, but let's just go ahead and have you tell a little bit of background on what Astek Diagnostics is and how you conceptualized the idea for the business.
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: Yeah, so we have developed a rapid antibiotic sensitivity test. So every time you go to a doctor and you get an antibiotic, it's a guess. Physicians are guessing that you have a bacterial infection, and they're guessing that the specific antibiotic will actually work. A couple of years ago, my grandfather kind of went delirious overnight, and we had no idea what was going on. It was later discovered that he had a UTI. And it took doctors four days to determine what antibiotics to give him. In the meantime he had fallen, broken his hip, he had no idea who anyone was, and that really changed his life forever. So that day I thought, you know, I had this idea, might as well try to make it happen — if anything it's for my own grandfather — and that's why our product is called the Jiddu; this is what I called my grandfather growing up.
Jason Kirby: Yeah, wow, that's quite the personal origin story for solving a very important problem to you and that's impacted you and your family. So I guess kind of walk us through a little bit about your technical or research background that allowed you to be capable of kind of pursuing this field and pursuing a product like this.
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: Yeah, so I have a PhD in mechanical engineering with a focus on blood hemodynamics. So I studied the sedimentation rate of blood. So I always was close to the biomedical field. And on the side, I was doing this project where we were trying to detect bacteria in water. I'm from Iraq. And in Iraq, we had cholera. So, you know, right in the museum, some people are dying of cholera, and I was like, hey, maybe I could help solve that. So we built this device, and by the end, I took it to a friend who worked at the UNHCR. I was like, hey, you know, we can detect cholera in water, and he was like, we have these straws that are called LifeStraws. They filter out bacteria, so even if there's cholera, really, we don't care to know, because they're filtered out. So my whole idea of that kind of went out the window. So I went back and I was doing a PhD at that point, and one thing led to another, and my grandfather got sick, and we pivoted into doing diagnostics.
Jason Kirby: Gotcha. And so basically seeing this process, having an idea, didn't work out, pivot to a new solution. At what point did this idea come about and you guys started the process of actually building the product and building the company?
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: Yeah, so the idea was there and then I decided the second I graduate I need to pursue this full time. So that was May of 2020. That's when I got the first investment check for Astek and my co‑founder and I decided we should just do this full time and focus on it. One of the biggest things that we accomplished is — in the pandemic, in my basement — within one year we were able to build a prototype that was actually verified in a clinical setting on blood, even harder than urine. We're doing urine now mostly, but we did it on blood. So that was the biggest accomplishment.
Jason Kirby: Wow. And like, so you set up basically a facility in your lab in your basement is effectively what you guys did to kind of get to this kind of stage.
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: Well, I wouldn't call it a facility, so a couple of things. Prior to Astek, I had invented a method to bond acrylic sheets without affecting the specifications of acrylic. So the idea is all you need is alcohol and an oven. So in my basement, I have alcohol — check. My wife's kitchen, I have an oven — check. The only thing that was missing is because we're doing microfluidics, I needed to engrave on this plastic sheet. So what we ended up doing is — have you seen these engraving pens? They're like for jewelry. So we started with getting these, we buy plastic, we engrave it, put some alcohol on it, just compress it, put it in the oven. And this is how we built our microfluidics. But then on the other hand, Kevin is a software developer, so his life was a little bit easier. He built the software, I built the hardware, and that's how we got our first prototype.
Jason Kirby: Wow. So it sounds like finding the right co‑founder was an important part to this. And walk people through the process of, all right, you get a prototype, you have something here, you're raising a little bit of money. How did you get your first outside capital? And how much did you raise? And what was that experience? How did you find those investors?
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, so early on I knew what I was going to do once I graduate. So I spent the last year of graduate school cultivating these relationships. I tried to present at places and share the business idea, just get to meet people, have some coffee chats, because one of the biggest lessons I learned early on is investors do not invest in a point; they like to see a line — see what you have accomplished and if you're sticking with it. So I knew the second I graduated I was going to get that check from TEDCO here in Maryland. It was a $150K convertible note that we received and we knew that was our budget to build the prototype. Once it started working, I had already been in contact with Y Combinator. That became our second check. We went through YC. Unfortunately, I got very sick through YC, so I was not one of the hot companies coming out, did not raise about 20. But we raised enough to stay alive and that was supplemented with a grant from the NSF to build our second‑generation prototype that was more consistent and not made in my basement.
Jason Kirby: You mentioned something I want to highlight for founders listening: investors don't invest in a point, they invest in a line. They want to see multiple points over time of you progressing. And that requires you to establish those relationships prior to ever needing money. With YC, before you applied, you were already in talks. Can you elaborate on that? Did you connect with the partners or other members? How did you go about building a relationship to get into YC?
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: I actually connected with a bunch of companies that did YC and learned how things are done there. What I learned was: do not overthink the application. That was the biggest thing. I sat half an hour, wrote the application exactly as my thoughts — how I'm talking to you right now. Between that and knowing who the partners are and what they’ve done before, I kind of wrote it to them. That was the strategy.
Jason Kirby: Nice, that's good advice. So you get the YC money — YC wasn't the best possible experience due to getting sick — but you still took the business to the next level. You raised a seed earlier this year. So walk us through the fundraising cycle post‑YC.
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: Post‑YC, it gave us about an eight‑month runway. I challenged my team — at that point we were four — “by Christmas, you need to get me clinical data.” I had it on my office door, a countdown to Christmas. If you're part of the team, you know what this is about; if not, you think I'm excited for presents. By Christmas, we had 36 samples tested. That was exactly what we needed to show. I invited the people I’d met to come see our product live. We had investors come to the University of Maryland Medical Center. “Sit here, let’s chat until we get a patient’s sample.” Some said no. Some brought two physicians to make sure we're legit. Traditional AST takes days; by the time we were chatting, our results came. That pushed two people over the finish line — one had endless meetings, but when he saw the product working, he said, “I’m in.” Once we got those first checks, new investors who knew other investors came in, and we kept adding. In the end, we stopped raising to focus on building and hitting milestones.
Jason Kirby: How many investors did you nurture or reach out to and how many ended up actually investing in the business?
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: That was 36 for the people I was working closely with. In this last round, five of them invested and four new investors came on board.
Jason Kirby: And were these all individuals? VC funds? What was the makeup?
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: A mix. Two VC funds (about $750k between them) and the rest were individuals. We had an advantage in Maryland: the Biotechnology Investment Tax Credit (BITC). Every check we get, the investor gets 33% back as tax credit. In‑state they get tax breaks; out‑of‑state they get cash. That helped a lot in the current economy.
Jason Kirby: Glad you brought that up — and your grants as well. Outside of NY/CA there are credits that incentivize investment if you file properly. Worth looking at. You also leveraged grants — about $1.6M. How did you identify which grants were available and secure them?
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: The most basic is SBIR. NSF, NIH, DOD all have them. We got one from the NSF. There are research grants if you partner with a hospital or university. The Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) had a very nice program — we received ~$300,000. The project was started with a grant from the Maryland Innovation Initiative, before company formation. As for large grants, you must fit the scope of agencies like BARDA or DARPA; we haven’t secured those yet.
Jason Kirby: Did you do all the grant writing yourself or hire a grant writer?
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: There’s a part only you can write — your vision and what risks you're mitigating. Our first grant, Kevin and I wrote full‑time for six weeks — but we also had a product to build. Once we had budget, we hired a grant writer: we lay out aims and vision; they adapt language for NSF/NIH. That language is the most time‑consuming part.
Jason Kirby: Roughly what did you spend on grant writing services?
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: It depends. Some charge flat fees; others split. For an NSF Phase II SBIR we paid ~$17,000 plus a 5% success fee. It’s a grant over 100 pages — a lot of work. For Phase I, ~$7,000 up front and ~$2,500 after success. It sounds like a lot, but it’s worth it.
Jason Kirby: It’s effectively equity‑free money. Not every business qualifies, but for R&D‑heavy, impactful tech, it’s worth exploring. So where is the business today? You went through YC, raised about $2M seed. Where are you in clinical trials and what comes after?
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: We’re still about a year and a half from market. We’re doing studies with different patient populations. When we say UTI, people think healthy individuals who get antibiotics and drink cranberry juice. In our case, it’s more complex: pregnant women, post‑menopause — there’s background flora. Another hard group is patients with neurogenic disease (no bladder control). A physician told us, “If you can make it work here, it will work everywhere.” We had our first read in this population at 95.9% accuracy — above our target. We need a couple more months to finish the study. Then we’ll do our pre‑sub, run official trials, and get to market. We’ll need another raise to get there — it’s expensive.
Jason Kirby: Expected. On clinical trials — how did you know what to do? Prior experience, or advisors?
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: You have to surround yourself with people who’ve done it and who are smarter than you. With medical devices you juggle regulatory, trials, reimbursement, fundraising, grants… From day one, I relied on advisors. We hired a COO, Ted Olson, with ~25–30 years’ experience who sold his diagnostics company two years ago. For everything, there’s an experienced person guiding us.
Jason Kirby: Coming from a research PhD background and being an immigrant, what punched you in the face that you weren’t expecting?
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: Ten years ago I was a refugee. My biggest hope would have been a basic job. As a refugee you think “someone will fix it.” In my PhD I realized: I am “they” now; I have to find the solution. That changed everything. I needed a big problem to focus on. Antibiotic resistance found me — because of my grandfather I decided to solve it.
Jason Kirby: Building a business is different than research — you must convince investors and take it to market. What steps got the company to this point?
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: I made many mistakes. I was called stupid many times — it’s fine; I learned. Be curious, ask questions, put yourself in uncomfortable situations. First time I presented in English I froze. Next day I entered the Three‑Minute Thesis competition. I somehow won at multiple levels. With fundraising, I had 36 close investor relationships and five signed — but I don’t tell you about the 150 meetings after which I couldn’t sleep. Just put yourself in the situation — worst case, they call you stupid. Then what?
Jason Kirby: Incredible insights. Many fear “no.” You learn exponentially. My first company’s raise went poorly; the next company I raised $11M in nine days. Don’t worry about perfection — there are variables outside your control.
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: And if you speak English, you’re already a step ahead of me. I learned English from Eminem and 50 Cent — that didn’t fly here. It took years to be comfortable speaking like this.
Jason Kirby: Totally. Let’s pivot to healthcare complexities. What bureaucracy/process challenges do you deal with that typical SaaS founders don’t?
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: Big questions like “who pays?” — reimbursement is hard. FDA isn’t easy — you must say the right thing at the right time and involve professionals early. But it’s necessary: people’s lives are at stake. As a patient, I trust that someone vetted the test. On the founder side, I see why the hurdles exist. Instead of two months, it might take two years — but it’s worth it.
Jason Kirby: You might be the first to call the FDA process awesome — necessary yes, but most founders struggle with it.
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: I’ve seen the alternative where anyone sells anything — that’s terrible. You need trust in hospitals, enabled by these hurdles.
Jason Kirby: From an investor lens, typical outcomes: crash and burn, go‑to‑market yourself, or sell to a larger org. What do you see for Astek?
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: Acquisition seems most plausible. But companies are bought, not sold. Our job is to build a great company. Given distribution complexity, acquisition makes sense. We’ve set critical milestones; once we hit them, conversations with strategics resume. Like with investors, we have coffees so they know our progress.
Jason Kirby: When choosing investors, what did you look for?
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: Investors must understand the risk and longer timelines vs. SaaS. They must believe in the problem’s impact. Our market is huge — even starting with UTI, AST spans many infections — but some biotech markets aren’t. So alignment on impact matters.
Jason Kirby: And beyond capital — advice and connections?
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: The more you ask, the more you get. Some investors say “here’s money, I’ll stay out of the way — ask if you need anything.” I ask: regulatory consultant, quick bridge, etc. Some ghost; others work hard and become part of the team.
Jason Kirby: Important point: be honest and ask for help — it protects their investment. How big is your team now?
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: Seven full‑timers, fifteen total.
Jason Kirby: Small and mighty. As we share your story — refugee PhD to venture‑backed diagnostics — what’s your advice to healthcare founders?
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: Ask for advice, but remember you’re the decision‑maker — you’re closest to the problem. Believe in your solution because it’s not easy; you need conviction.
Jason Kirby: It’s hard to convince others if you’re not convinced yourself. VCs sense hesitation instantly. Great to have you on the show. What’s the best way to follow your work?
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: I’m active on LinkedIn — I try to respond to messages that aren’t trying to sell me something I don’t need. I also have Twitter but barely use it. Our website is astechdx.com. If you reach out, it comes directly to the founders. We read every message about collaboration.
Jason Kirby: Awesome. Mustafa, I appreciate you being on the show. Excited to share this with the world.
Mustafa Al‑Adhami: Alright man, thank you.
Jason Kirby: Perfect.
Credits: Produced by Thunder • Podcast: Fundraising Demystified • Guest: Mustafa Al‑Adhami (Astek Diagnostics) • Host: Jason Kirby.