PerspectivesAre you interested in submitting a Perspective Article? Be sure to read The Science Advisory Board's Editorial Guides for Perspective Articles. Click here. Start-ups for Postdocs: A Survival Guide in Three Parts by Richard Wintle, Ph.D. Part I. Getting Started in Academically Initiated Companies Increasingly, academic researchers are exploring opportunities to commercialize the results of their research. These opportunities can take a variety of forms, from licensing deals or sponsored research agreements with "big" companies, all the way through to the formation of a start-up company based around the researcher's proprietary knowledge and technologies. In the life sciences, the current boom in genomics and postgenomic technologies such as proteomics, microarrays, instrumentation, drug target validation, and related biotechnology fields has resulted in an unprecedented number of small, academically initiated start-up companies. For those of us in the junior ranks who are discouraged by future employment prospects in academic institutions (or the lack thereof), there are many opportunities to be had. The advantages seem almost too good to pass up: a higher salary, the possibility of leading your own research team without writing grants, and the opportunity to participate in the long-term growth of a successful company as one of their first employees. Employment by an early stage start-up can offer a unique blend of science and business experience. However, there are a number of issues that must be weighed before taking this route. Career Path Perhaps the most important issue is that of career path. It has long been an axiom that "leaving" academia for an industrial position, no matter how much science you will be doing, is a one-way street. This has not always been the case, and is somewhat dependent on field--for example, 30 or 40 years ago university chemistry professors often had several years of experience working in industry. Nevertheless, in most fields nowadays, there is little or no room to return to an academic position from an industrial one, at least in the junior academic ranks. Your ability to attract grant funding will likely be a major factor in whether you are hired for an academic position, and this is in turn highly dependent on your recent publication record. Performing research in an industrial context is likely to severely limit, or abolish completely, your ability to publish articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Be sure that you understand this right from the start. Time Commitment University-based start-ups have one key difference from many entrepreneurial enterprises--the founding principals already have established careers that they will likely not give up. Generally, such companies do not follow the model of "building something in the garage and working 18-hour days to make it successful" made famous by companies such as Hewlett-Packard. A major challenge facing the success of academically initiated companies is in securing adequate time commitment from the scientists upon whose expertise the success of the company rests. In the best case, the amount of time spent by the founding principals will be laid out in formal employment agreements, but this is not necessarily so and in any case, it is unlikely that a new junior employee will be privy to the details. Nevertheless, it is worth asking about this, as the situation can have a "trickle-down" effect--you may be hampered in your efforts because the boss is a) never in the office, b) always writing grants, and most importantly c) never available for important meetings related to company operations. This last point can be lethal to the start-up if meetings with potential investors must often be delayed, rescheduled, or cancelled altogether. Another important corollary is that you may be taking the biggest career risk of anyone involved. The founding scientists all have day jobs--their academic careers. Often the greatest risk they face is some embarrassment if their company fails, and possibly the loss of a small amount of start-up capital. You, as a new employee, have likely sacrificed your future academic career in order to take a risk on the growth of their company. It may be worthwhile to gently remind your employer of this from time to time, especially when the question of your salary comes up. Where Are These Start-ups? The biggest single block to obtaining a position in a very early stage start-up company is simply finding one in the first place. Every academic institution harbors many such small (or tiny) companies, but few of these have any public profile to speak of. Newsprint advertisements, web sites, and recruiters all cost time and money, two commodities that are likely in very short supply. As a result, it is very difficult to find out about these companies by following a standard job-seeking route. Here are some suggestions that might help: 1. Beat the bushes. Find a university department in your area of expertise, located in the city where you want to work, and start asking questions. You may have luck speaking with a departmental secretary, with faculty members, or with junior staff (students, postdoctoral fellows). You may be very surprised at how many companies in your field you unearth. There are at least a dozen biotechnology and instrumentation companies within walking distance of my desk in downtown Toronto, and a person passing on the street would miss all of them. 2. The technology transfer office . All academic research institutes, whether located in a university, hospital, or other affiliated research facility, have a technology transfer office. This is the place where all intellectual property agreements (patent applications, materials transfers, confidentiality agreements, and the like) are signed. The people who work in these offices will know about companies located within (or affiliated with) their researchers and will likely be able to provide at least some nonconfidential information to job seekers. 3. Industrial liaison programs. Large academic institutions often have a program to help academic researchers commercialize their discoveries. Two successful examples are the University of Toronto Innovations Foundation/UTech Services in Toronto and University Technologies International of the University of Calgary. These programs will be able to provide you with information on companies directly partnered with their institutions and may also act as recruiters for them. 4. Local initiatives. There may be groups in your area devoted to promoting interactions in a particular sector of industry. An example is the Toronto Biotechnology Initiative (TBI), which holds monthly breakfast meetings. Memberships in such organizations may seem expensive, but might ultimately be well worth it for the networking opportunities they afford. Some, such as TBI, have reduced rates for academic members. Part II. Preparing for an Interview Once you have identified an interesting company, how can you go about landing a job there? There is, unfortunately, no magic secret to landing a scientific position in a start-up. An informal survey of scientists in biotechnology companies in my local area revealed that many were affiliated in one way or another with their company's founding scientists, often as previous graduate students or postdoctoral fellows. For a junior scientist in this situation, the path to employment seems clear--simply ask your present boss if there is a place for you within his or her new company. Others were referred by "word of mouth" by others already within the company or by colleagues of company founders. For those of us who are not so fortunate, what is the best route to finding a position and how can we maximize our chances of being interviewed and subsequently hired? Here are some aspects of your career that you should consider, before applying for a position. 1. Your scientific record. The person who interviews you will likely use standard academic criteria to judge your success to date. More than likely, he or she will be a founder of the company who also holds an academic position as a university faculty member, hospital senior staff scientist, or the equivalent. Here, as in academic science, a strong publication record is the best indication of your ability to succeed at scientific projects on which you have worked. Other achievements, such as scholarships and fellowships, also serve as a reflection of your past successes and future potential. Now is the time to finish submitting papers, catalogue your abstracts and presentations, and generally get the scientific part of your resume in order. 2. Project management experience. Whereas few university-trained postdocs will have managed a project in the accepted business sense, many will have supervised undergraduate or graduate students, high school volunteer students, or technicians. Take a few minutes to make a list of those you have supervised, techniques you taught them, and the deliverables that they produced and awards they achieved while under your supervision (reports, seminars, an undergraduate research project thesis, or a summer student poster award, for example). Make a special note of those who have gone on to bigger and better things in the scientific world. Be prepared to discuss and emphasize this aspect of your abilities. As projects in a new company grow in scope, it will likely be the earliest scientific hires who are called on to direct and manage the newly growing team and any previous experience at training others you can demonstrate will be of value. 3. Scientific skills required. What scientific skills you possess may be less important in a start-up than if you were applying for a position in a medium to large company, where positions typically demand very specific skill sets. However, it is certainly worthwhile investigating a new company to determine what it is doing now and what it intends to do in the future. Is it a proteomics company, where mass spectrometry experience might come in handy? Does the company use microarrays or robotics? Does it intend to perform high throughput genotyping? Even if you don't have exactly the right skills to match the company's scientific plan, it will certainly be worthwhile to review current literature and learn about the techniques it uses. Instrumentation company web sites are a useful source of application notes, descriptions of techniques, and bibliographies concerning specific experimental procedures. 4. Business experience. Training or experience in business affairs may not be of prime importance in securing a scientific position with a start-up company, but it can't hurt. Few scientists have any formal business training, so if you've got it, make sure that you mention it. A very early stage company will likely need someone to research and write project proposals for government funding agencies, scientific reports to investors, or other technical documentation with a business slant to it. In addition, you might be called on to prepare an equipment or operating budget for a new project, perhaps taking different scenarios into account (equipment purchase vs. leasing, for example). Having at least some knowledge of financial language can be helpful in these cases, particularly if you are called on to interact with nonscientific management. The requirements expected of a new scientist in a start-up can be quite varied, particularly since most early-stage companies lack a formal management structure. In addition to the above points, it might be worth finding out about companies competing with your prospective employer, their position in the marketplace, and their successes (both scientific and financial) to date. You might research the scientific goals the start-up is trying to achieve (disease gene identification, protein structure determination, bioinformatics) and whether there are examples in the scientific literature to indicate that they are achievable. In this process, you may even determine that a different company will provide you with a better opportunity for employment. Should you decide to pursue employment in a start-up, consideration of the above points may prove helpful in both reaching, and succeeding at, the interview stage. Part III. Life on the Inside Once you have identified a company you would like to work for, and have been fortunate enough to be hired, what will life be like in your new workplace? Working at an early-stage biotech company will be very different from working in academia, and it will likely provide some surprises to a postdoc or new graduate. Let's explore some of these differences, and how best to adapt to this new, challenging, and exciting environment. The Workplace In an early-stage company, it is likely that you will be doing at least some administrative or secretarial work in addition to your scientific research duties. As well as being understaffed in these areas, start-ups are also typically lacking in employee amenities. Don't expect your own office, secretary, parking spot, and health club membership, at least not until the company grows significantly. If you're joining a very early-stage start-up, don't expect anything at all. You will be lucky to have a desk in a corner of somebody's office and will probably be doing your own photocopying for a while. Get used to it. This is just one of the sacrifices you will have to make in order to participate in the long-term growth of an early-stage start-up. And as a side benefit of (somewhat dubious) value, you might even learn a wide variety of secretarial skills that you did not possess before. Salary The main reason anybody leaves academic research for industry is money. Don't let anybody try to convince you otherwise, least of all your prospective employer. Senior academics running companies may not have a clear idea of the salaries demanded by industrial scientists. It is your duty to inform them, by finding out from acquaintances in industry, what salary range you expect. Discuss with your employer what your title will be: postdoctoral fellow (least desirable), research associate (better, but could mean just about anything), staff scientist (much more respectable, and easier to compare salaries between companies), or Director of Research (you might as well ask). Salaries vary widely, but don't undervalue yourself--postdocs in industry earn far more than their academic counterparts, and staff scientist salaries are typically higher than those of junior academic faculty. (see Next Wave's recent article on the latest biotech salaries in Canada.) Make sure you understand how and when you will be paid. The earlier stage that the company is in, the more important this becomes. Does the company have a payroll system, or will you be paid by check? How often? Who signs the check? Will they be in the country each time you need to be paid? Are there benefits? And finally (and most importantly), how much money does the company have in the bank? Don't be afraid to ask this last question--it is the most important one. For those paid on contract or as consultants, it is probably worth finding an accountant or other financial adviser to help you determine how best to declare your income for tax purposes. In some cases it may be advantageous to act as "self-employed" for tax purposes, at least until the company gets on solid financial footing and sets up a formalized payroll system. Training In a start-up environment, it is likely that your role will encompass more duties than simple science. Photocopying may be easy enough to master, but how about revising a business plan, writing technical documents for regulatory or taxation purposes, preparing a cash-flow summary for your project, assisting with an audit, or coordinating with a space planner and contractors in order to design and build the company's corporate headquarters and laboratory space? You may find yourself at least peripherally involved in any of these activities, and more, especially if the company does not have an experienced business manager. These suggestions may help you to succeed in these unfamiliar activities. 1. Use others' expertise. Your company's accountant, banker, and consultants can all tell you what supporting documentation and information they will require, and they can probably provide you with template documents if necessary. Be wary, however, of spending long periods of time on the phone with professionals (accountants, lawyers, architects, and so forth). Lawyers, in particular, tend to bill in 10-minute increments, and may charge upwards of several hundred dollars an hour for their services. Be sure you understand what costs you are incurring, and whether your employer approved of these expenses. 2. Read, learn, and emulate. Government funding agencies will have examples of documentation they require, many venture capital companies have guidelines on business plans, and there are any number of web sites devoted to business education that will help you out with such arcane documents as cash-flow summaries, Gantt charts, and the like. With a little digging, you will be able to find examples of almost any business document you need. 3. Don't panic. You have completed a hefty chunk of postsecondary education already, know how to plan your time effectively, and can write intelligibly. Business-related documentation requires organization, attention to detail, and some understanding of the goals and objectives. The latter can be learned, and the former are qualities you likely already possess. And remember--by the time you have completed a piece of business documentation, you will most likely have learned much more about the process than your academic employers. Although there is no substitute for an experienced business manager (and you should find out before you join a start-up whether or not they have one), it is possible to learn much of this "on the job." Summary--Is the Start-up World for Me? If you crave a higher salary, a goal-oriented workplace, and are concerned about a future career in academic research, it is probably worthwhile at least exploring industry. The start-up offers a number of advantages not typically found in more established, stable, larger companies. Although inherently risky, joining a start-up is perhaps no more so than embarking on a postdoctoral fellowship. Most start-ups will last at least a few years, and the experience and remuneration you receive from even a failed venture can be valuable additions to your skill set. This article originally appeared in a somewhat different form on Science magazine’s NextWave Canada website, nextwave.sciencemag.org/ca. Reprinted with permission of the author. ### Richard Wintle, Ph.D. is Director of Research Development for Ellipsis Biotherapeutics Corporation in Toronto, Canada. He also currently serves as a member of the Steering Committee for The Science Advisory Board and a member of the Board since April 2002. ### << Previous Next >> [ View All Perspectives ] |
|