Two years ago I couldn’t have imagined myself leaving a meeting about company finances and jumping into work on redesigning our database. Startups really require a diverse set of skills and lots of flexibility. As a co-founder at AnimalBiome, an early stage biotech startup, I get to use and grow different skills almost every day. Because a lot of people transitioning into industry from academia wonder if working in a startup might be right for them, I wanted to share my experience and some of the things I learned during my Insight Fellowship that have helped me in my new role.

From environmental science to data science

“By transitioning into data science I knew I could still do some of the things I loved from my previous life, like wrestling with messy data and discovering patterns, while having more control over my opportunities.”

I joined the Insight Health Data Fellows program to aid my transition from academic science into a private sector data science position. My academic background is in evolutionary biology — I used DNA sequencing and behavior data to understand how biodiversity forms. I loved the basic research and the scientific questions. I thought of my research colleagues as the artists of the scientific world; we pursued what we did because it is beautiful.

However, as a postdoc I decided that the academic career track was not the right one for me. By transitioning into data science I knew I could still do some of the things I loved from my previous life, like wrestling with messy data and discovering patterns, while having more control over my opportunities.

I wanted to make use of my background in biology, so decided to focus on positions in the health space. I applied and was accepted into the inaugural Fall 2016 cohort of the Insight Health Data Fellows program in San Francisco.

Exposure to data teams and data problems at Insight

Because I did my PhD and postdoc at U.C. Berkeley, the startup culture of Silicon Valley was geographically close, but always seemed worlds away — like it existed for other people but not for me. I had little idea about what was going on over there and no idea how to get into it, but always was attracted to the idea of getting to build a company from the ground up.

Insight offered me a view into this world by arranging for me to pursue a data science consulting project for a small startup. This gave me real-world experience working on an important problem for an actual company and was really fun. Another very useful aspect of the Insight program was getting exposure to the data teams and data problems at a wide range of companies. This really allowed me to get a sense of the types of roles out there.

As I went through the program, I was open to considering all different types of health data companies, and loved visiting them to demo my consulting project. What I really hoped to find was a position in a company that in some way used DNA sequencing.

Timing is everything, and by a stroke of good luck, a friend I’d known from my U.C. Berkeley days decided to commercialize her microbiome research by founding AnimalBiome, and invited me to join the team. This was a really exciting opportunity, giving me the chance to work with really interesting data and helping to grow the company.

Parallels and disparities between academia and startup life

“A milestone to shoot for in a business environment is a minimum viable product that can be tested and refined in iteration, a much different concept from the exhaustive perfectionism demanded by academic projects.”

For me, the transition into startup life felt completely natural. I came from very unstructured academic labs where we were responsible for everything, including generating the questions, fundraising, performing the field and lab work, analyzing the data and writing. I am very accustomed to the feeling of having no idea how to do something and having to find a way to figure it out.

There are many similarities between a startup and an academic lab. Among them: trying to do something incredible on a very lean budget, searching for and adopting new analytical methods, trying to convince people that what you are doing is interesting, and definitely — doing absolutely anything that needs to be done to move forward.

A startup job is intense and uncertain in many ways that a job at a bigger company would not be, but these are fairly familiar to me from my previous academic life so I’m comfortable with them. The ability to tolerate risk and uncertainty is essential for anyone planning to join a startup.

There are also many differences between startup life and academics. First and foremost, everything moves much faster in a business setting than in academics. A milestone to shoot for in a business environment is a minimum viable product that can be tested and refined in iteration, a much different concept from the exhaustive perfectionism demanded by academic projects. Insight really works with Fellows to convert their mindset on this particular point, and it has helped me immensely with my transition.

Some additional differences are: thinking about product, sales, intellectual property strategy and engaging with customers and investors. Among the many business things I have had to learn in the world of startups are how to spell “entrepreneur”, and if “capital” or “capitol” is the one having to do with money.

Something new and completely addicting to me is launching a product and watching it take off. AnimalBiome’s first target area for dogs and cats is chronic diarrhea, which affects 10% of pets in the US and is awful for pets and their people. People spend a lot of money on products they don’t like, and we have developed a remedy that is working with excellent results. Without even advertising, our sales have been steadily growing since its release, and we have many grateful pet owners as customers. We recently heard from one customer that she was “so happy she cried” when the remedy worked for her cat. This sort of thing simply did not happen when I was doing basic research because the work was disconnected from any specific application. It is enormously satisfying.

Coming full circle with the Insight network

Working in a tiny, early stage company means that almost everything I do is impactful. I have a lot of opportunity to work on exciting data sets and solve problems. It also means that I do not have experienced data scientists to learn from. Being part of the Insight network has been really useful to me for this reason.

Through the Insight network I have been in contact with more experienced data scientists that have advised on technical challenges we’re tackling at AnimalBiome. For a lean operation like ours that is not in a position to hire right now, it is wonderful that I have them as a resource. Things have also come full circle: Insight Fellows are now working as consultants on projects with AnimalBiome; something I was doing just a year ago. It has been really fun to get to interact with them and watch their projects unfold. I’m looking forward to participating in and leveraging the Insight network as I move forward in my career.