Key Experiences from Current Life Science VC Professionals
In the second blog post, we will highlight some key experiences our interviewees shared that led them to their current life sciences VC positions. Venture capital is a notoriously intimidating sector to break into, and it can be particularly difficult to approach as a college undergraduate or recent grad.
From speaking with our interviewees, it’s become clear that the only conventional thing about getting a position in VC is that it is unconventional. Each professional has a slightly different career path, making the industry as a whole colored with people of distinct talents, backgrounds, and experiences.
While everyone is different, there are four general sets of experiences that pushed current life science VC professionals to try their hand at venture capital:
Getting a PhD.
The majority of our interviewees didn’t foresee themselves entering the VC field. Instead, they followed their passion for translational life sciences through graduate school and earned a PhD, ultimately realizing that that same passion broadly intersects with the biotech industry and business world. To explore the side of science outside of the laboratory, several professionals pursued summer fellowships at venture firms, most commonly at entrepreneurial firms such as Flagship Pioneering. Others instead opted to stand in the shoes of a VC professional with year-round internships, which helped them get a feel for and develop the leadership skills that enable career progression after graduate school.
After graduating, career paths diverge widely, but a common trend sees freshly minted PhDs joining a biotech startup to understand what it takes to commercialize and deploy science with an impact. It takes a bit of time to learn about how to think about biotech problems and come up with solutions. It takes a lot of time to learn how and which of those solutions create the most value, and that type of learning comes only from experience in the workforce.
Getting an MBA.
Not all of our interviewees pursued a PhD. In fact, not all of our interviewees were even interested in science during their time in undergrad. Instead, they fell for science later in life–while pursuing their MBA.
As far as conventional business models go, science is a challenging place to be. Ideas are plentiful, but they’re often difficult to pursue. Many times, scientists don’t know how likely they are to be successful until the data is staring them in the face. But these hurdles lead to an interesting question: how do you build a business around something that fails constantly? That’s the question that led our interviewees getting their MBA to focus on the biotech industry. Science is unpredictable and challenging, which makes it alluring to people from all walks of life.
Skills gained from completing an MBA are a bit different than those learned from PhD training, but that doesn’t make them any less integral to pursuing a career in VC. Savvy business training allows recent MBA grads to quickly acclimate to the organizational structure of biotech from a financial perspective, allowing them to grasp a separate side of science: maximizing success for a field where the word “success” is both loosely defined and rarely experienced.
After an MBA, jobs are commonly secured through networking with people met in school, which proves to be a typical way to break into life science VC.
Getting both a PhD and an MBA.
On the far end of the spectrum, there are those who pursue certifications in both science with a PhD and business with an MBA.
These individuals share several characteristics with those who obtained a PhD, including a passion for biology and engineering, but they did not realize their interest in business until they were close to the end of their years in graduate school. Not having much real world experience, they proceeded to get their MBA, wanting to learn essential skills, such as private sector management, that would make them attractive additions to life science companies. Afterwards, these individuals often join a startup or consulting company to develop their professional portfolio.
One of our interviewees emphasized in particular the value of life science consulting, especially with regard to aiding biotech startups in their quest to create as much impact as possible. After earning their degrees, this professional founded a venture creation fund rooted in helping young companies with strategy and operations. They attribute much of their success to skills learned during their time as a consultant.
With a PhD and an MBA, these professionals have a hefty educational background that allows them to connect with people from both the science and business aspects of biotechnology.
Getting neither a PhD nor an MBA.
On the other end of the spectrum, some professionals in the field attain neither a PhD nor an MBA. After majoring in a STEM related field in undergrad, these people knew that they weren’t meant for the lab work component of grad school. Instead, they loved discussing science and thinking about how it could be applied to real-world problems. A popular career choice straight out of undergrad is life science consulting, allowing them to use the scientific and business-oriented sides of their brain by managing teams and clients. Along the same vein, later joining a biotech startup also seems to develop essential skills and experience in entrepreneurship and preclinical science.
Oftentimes, these professionals connect with people from all walks of life as part of their job, developing the network and key skills necessary to make the transition into venture capital.
Of course, these are only some of the most common events experienced by life science VC professionals. In the end, paths to discovering and breaking into VC vary significantly depending on your passions and motivations. The common theme of pursuing a job in life science VC is being able to transfer the skills learned from those previous experiences to explore and invest in the future of biotech development.
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Blog post written by Sarah Syed.
Published Sept 2021