Navigating through the valley of death during the COVID-19 pandemic
I could not in my wildest dreams imagine navigating a startup through the valley of death during a global pandemic. Now I’ve been doing it for two years, with no end in sight. The COVID-19 pandemic feels like a time loop that keeps resetting itself every 3–4 months with a new variant. The most recent is the Omicron.
In mid-March 2019, when the COVID-19 shutdown happened, we thought the two-month shutdown was not a big problem. We had dealt with hurricanes in Florida. A public health emergency couldn’t be much worse. So, we reorganized our workflow to give priority to work we could do from home; business milestones, data analysis, and planning the next phase of R&D. We made plans for four to six months in case the disaster or the recovery lasted longer. Based on the information we had, Pheronym would be on time for both business and technical milestones within six months. Two months into the disaster, it became clear to us that the pandemic may last longer than we planned.
The following four months we continued with our initial plan with some revisions. We got a lucky break and Pheronym’s NSF SBIR Phase I grant was recommended for funding! We were right on top of our business milestones with the NSF I-Corps Beat-The-Odd-Boot Camp in May — June, which we accomplished using zoom meetings. We also participated in the NSF I-Corps National Teams program, completing over 100 more customer interviews, which improved our business plan by informing where Pheronym fits in the agribusiness ecosystem. We identified our beachhead market and refined our value proposition and more in August-September. Then we followed up with additional 34 interviews together with Keck Graduate Institute students. Three to four months into the pandemic, we realized that full-time work in the lab may not be possible due to social distancing. We had to revise the timeline for our technical milestones. When we made the plans at the beginning of the pandemic, we expected to be able to work full-time to catch up for the technical milestones, not half-time due to social distancing. We needed to start working immediately towards the technical milestones. We decided to hire someone immediately working half-time expecting things to go back to normal in January 2021, and we could start working full time, letting us catch up in no time. Our plans were good, but the reality was grim. Finding qualified and trained candidates was challenging. Despite our best efforts, we could not find the right candidate. In August, we decided to accept the reality that we were not going to be able to find a trained person and we may need to train someone from scratch. Even then, many students at UC Davis and the surrounding area were attending classes remotely and weren’t even in the area. We finally hired someone in November. Training someone from scratch while accommodating social distancing and a half-time schedule took a lot longer than we estimated.
Six to nine months into the pandemic was the worst in many ways. When the pandemic hit the US in March, we had a support system from the Indiebio accelerator, Tech Futures Group (TFG), small business administration (SBA), and the government helping us navigate the pandemic. People were understanding, waving fees, etc. Six months later, it seemed like we were expected to have the same productivity level as if the pandemic was over. However, we still had the same difficulties and the same grim news every day (people were dying in the thousands). We were concerned for our own health, and our families, friends, and employees’ health. We still had supply chain problems, half-day work to accommodate social distancing, and our partners, many of whom are national labs and universities, were operating at reduced capacity. As if Covid was not enough, we had to deal with another disaster, the California wildfires. From August to October 2020, we could not use the greenhouse due to ashes coming through the swamp cooler and making everything covered with ashes. We were behind our technical milestones with no way to catch up, our efficiency was down due to external factors beyond our control.
I was running a startup through the valley of death in the middle of a global pandemic accompanied by other disasters; California wildfires. Running a startup is stressful enough. The additional stress of worrying about our own, our families, and our employee’s health, distance learning for our kids, and the constant zoom meetings with the attendant zoom fatigue were an extra layer of stress. On top of that, constantly strategizing to stay alive, survive, and thrive took a lot of time from our productivity. Then, the realization of the funding situation in the death valley!
We had a fundraising strategy but not one adapted to a pandemic. Government assistance helped for the intended 6 months, not for the year or more that this crisis was going to span. What if money runs out before we submit Phase II? What if we can’t raise funds from investors? At that time all the investors were shying away from early-stage startups. Since we can’t do in-person networking events, it makes fundraising two or three times harder. Our limited time was already inefficient due to the pandemic and stress management. Reevaluating our fundraising strategy reduced our stress and improved our efficiency. We were lucky to receive investments from Sacramento Angels and THRIVE Ag Accelerator and fellowships from Activate-Berkeley that will fund us through our Phase II application and position us for a larger fundraise in 2022.
Sixteen months into the pandemic, things started looking better. Widespread vaccine availability gave us hope of returning to normal. We were able to start working full time so we could start catching up with technical milestones to get Pheronym to the next level toward commercialization. We were able to conduct the field trials that were delayed at the beginning of the pandemic. In 2021, we set up 5 field trials. Three were successfully completed and two are ongoing. The first three field trials were conducted for NemastimTM and we started two more for a new product, a soil amendment we call PheroterraTM. At the same time, we moved to a new incubator space, Agstart, which allowed us to expand and grow.
Recovery from the pandemic has not started even though we all wish and pretend it was over. Over a thousand people are dying in the United States due to COVID-19 every day. It keeps resetting itself with a new variant every 3–4 months. Currently, it is Omicron. Unfortunately, we are all expected to perform at our pre-pandemic productivity and efficiency. Every day something reminds me that we are still very deep in a pandemic and need to be careful with our funds and resources. For example, finding people with basic laboratory skills for R&D is still a challenge. The UC Davis interns we have hired told me that they could not find a lab to get basic training due to the pandemic and social distancing. They haven’t had any hands-on lab work so I still have to do very basic training. Unfortunately, there are no funding sources to provide very basic lab training. That increases my already busy workload and stress.
Global supply chains are severely disrupted. Something as simple as keeping the lab stocked has gone from being a minor chore that only took a few minutes to a major undertaking. For example, we have been waiting for Pipet light P1000 tips for over two months. Micropipettes are the backbone of every biotech lab and the disposable tips for them have been in short supply from the beginning of the pandemic. We secured a good supply of tips early in the pandemic, expecting supply to meet demand within the year. We also had a backup plan which we hoped we would not need but are putting into motion. We just ordered a micropipette that can use older style pipette tips that are more readily available. We even have some tips on hand that we were going to give away before the pandemic. We never thought I would actually use them.
The pandemic is really hard on all of us and it is not about to end any time soon. The Economist thinks it will be with us until 2025. Please be kind to startups and founders because we have a lot more on our plates to stay alive, get our milestones on time to bring a technology that is going to provide eco-friendly sustainable solutions to farmers, improve soil health and make a better planet.
Authors: Dr. Fatma Kaplan is the CEO/CSO of Pheronym and Activate Berkeley Fellow & Berkeley Lab Affiliate Cyclotron Road Cohort 2021. She is also an entrepreneur and an accomplished scientist with experience in both biology and chemistry. She has a Ph.D. in Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology and postdoctoral training in Natural Product Chemistry with a focus on isolating biologically active compounds. Dr. Kaplan discovered the first sex pheromone of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and published it in Nature. Then she discovered that pheromones regulate other behaviors in both parasitic and beneficial nematodes. Dr. Kaplan along with Karl Schiller and Dr. Shapiro-Ilan conducted the first agricultural biocontrol experiment in Space at the International Space Station in 2020. She has very high impact publications, and her dissertation (beta-amylase’s role during cold and heat shock) was cited in textbooks within 5 years of publication. Dr. Kaplan worked as a scientist at NASA, the National Magnetic Field Laboratory, and the US Department of Agriculture — Agricultural Research Service.
Mr. Karl Cameron Schiller is the co-founder, COO of Pheronym and Activate Berkeley Fellow & Berkeley Lab Affiliate Cyclotron Road Cohort 2021. He is an experienced entrepreneur with BA in economics and M.Sc in pharmaceutical economics. Prior to Pheronym, he co-founded Kaplan Schiller Research LLC. and volunteered as president of a not-for-profit organization where he managed 5 people team. In addition, he was a consultant in pharmaceutical product development, cost-effectiveness analysis, modeling, and statistical analysis. His clients include the University of Florida, the University of Alabama, Florida Medicaid, and Pfizer. Along with Fatma Kaplan, he conducted the first agricultural biocontrol experiment in space at the International Space Station in 2020.
Dr. Fatma Kaplan and Mr. Karl C. Schiller co-founded Pheronym to bring nematode pheromone technology to the market and to provide effective, non-toxic, sustainable pest control for farmers and gardeners.
