The Realities of Working at an Agriculture Biotech Startup
No two startups look alike!
According to Forbes Advisor, “Startups are young companies founded to develop a unique product or service, bring it to market, and make it irresistible and irreplaceable for customers”. This means the work you do will be different in each startup due to their unique technology. However, you can apply your transferrable skills depending on how closely related the startups are. According to Steve Blank, “A Startup is Not a Smaller Version of a Large Company”. This means you cannot assume the work environment is the typical big industry where you have departments with a team of scientists and technicians accomplishing product development. The reality is that many seed-stage ag-biotech startups have a lean, very smart, and talented team (1–10 people, including the founders + consultants). Ag startups have access to a limited amount of funds, probably $5 million (very well-funded) or less for the next 3 years, so they have to be very capital-efficient and strategic.
Hands-on work means really hands-on. No one escapes lab work or fieldwork, including the CEO and business development person, in a science-based biotech startup. You are not going to have a trained technician who knows the standard procedures. That is because the unique products in development do not have standard procedures. You will have to develop them. You will be the one who will create the standardized procedure for the startup and the world during the product launch. Initially, you will work closely with the founding team to learn the methods and procedures. Then, you will be expected to take leadership, including developing new methods, procedures, and other tasks as the product is developing. Since this is a science-based startup, as a scientist, you are expected to have excellent skills in designing and executing science experiments, keeping records, data analysis, and project management. , You are also expected to recruit and train your future team (interns, technicians, project managers, etc.).
Your job evolves constantly as product development moves forward. This is a good thing. It means change, so you need to be OK with constant change. Sometimes, your founding team may be good at preparing you for what is coming next, and sometimes, they do not know because they are figuring out what is coming next. Sometimes, the new technology or market does something unexpected, and everyone is surprised.
Just in case you want to be prepared for the anticipated changes in an Ag-biotech startup. Here are some of the expected changes with estimated timelines.
Phase 0 (3–6 months): Developing a product concept, market research, business plan, identifying resources, intellectual property (IP) strategy, regulatory pathway for Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), identifying advisors/consultants and partners, financial projections, creating a fundraising plan, and recruiting.
The transition from Phase 0 to I (6–24 months) is mainly fundraising and IP.
Phase I (8–24 months): Demonstrating proof of concept in the lab and greenhouse, developing, and testing a prototype, creating a plan for scaling up, developing standard operation procedures (SOPs), developing a go-to-market strategy, cost analysis at scale, securing IP, creating product awareness, and fundraising for phase II.
The transition from Phase I to II (0–30 months). This is a rough spot.
Phase II (24–30 months): Demonstrating efficacy in field trials, scaling up manufacturing, pilot manufacturing, establishing quality control parameters, formulation, packaging, labels, preparing safety data sheets (SDS), creating instructions for the customers, testing the prototype with the commercial partners, fundraising for phase III commercialization.
Phase III will focus on commercialization. This will include on-farm demonstrations, regulatory approval, product registrations, scaling manufacturing, preparing sales materials, product launch, market entry (beachhead market), customer support, and increased sales and revenue. The activities shift from R&D to commercialization to sales and revenue.
Time and resource constraints are constant. This means you must have excellent time management, decision-making, and prioritization skills. You also have to be intellectually active, creative, and very efficient. One way to do that is to think about executing projects faster and cheaper without losing any scientific integrity. Furthermore, working as a team is critical to enable your co-workers, consultants, contractors, and partners to accomplish your goals.
Are you ready to create the future of agriculture with Pheronym?
Pheronym uses nematode pheromones to control agricultural pests, providing climate-smart, eco-friendly alternatives to soil fumigants and improving soil health. In other words, Pheronym enables farmers to control pests in the soil using climate-smart and eco-friendly solutions. Check our Job Board for openings to join us.
Author: Dr. Fatma Kaplan is the CEO/CSO of Pheronym. She is an Activate Berkeley Alumni 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 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. 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.
