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The Path Less Travelled: advice from STEM professionals working in startups

The Path Less Travelled: advice from STEM professionals working in startups

Discovering unexpected beginnings, valuable lessons and anti-goals

Giammarco Pacifico
December 13, 2023

Since you are reading this, I bet you are interested in health & bio startups and you might even be considering switching from industry or academia to the startup world.

If that’s the case, get ready for a treat because today you’ll get to learn from scientists and engineers who are working in some great startups around the world. By the end, you’ll have a better idea of the different paths that can bring you to working at a startup, the hard lessons they have learned in the past few years and what they avoid at all costs.

Before we dive in, a special thank you to everyone who contributed to this article: Patricia, Jelisaveta, Martina, Cristiana, Richard, Luca and a couple of anonymous contributors.

The beginning

What’s the best way to join the right startup?

Unfortunately, it’s not as straightforward as applying online to a large company and there are many paths to finding small groups of people doing great work.

If you have an inner drive to create something valuable, the startup world will end up pulling you in its direction, whether you answer the call immediately or not.

“Already in my studies, I gravitated towards startups and the sense of creating something. I didn't immediately join one because I felt I needed to learn more so I looked for traineeships. Then I moved into the startup world (and don't see myself leaving) after working two years in academia and realizing that I thrive better in an environment where I can work in small teams with driven individuals.”

Other times, you end up launching a company with people you admire, even if you were not planning for it at all.

“I was contacted by my fellow co-founders for something unrelated to the startup but ended up talking about a bigger project that became the startup. I was in academia and had known for a while that it wasn't the right place for me so as soon as bureaucratically possible I made the leap.”

What about being in the right place at the right time?!

“My startup is a spin-out from the University I studied at. My Ph.D. supervisor spun out the company during my time there and as my research was closely related to the work that the startup was doing, so it made sense for me to join after I completed my PhD.”

The road

Everybody says that startups are great ways to learn a lot. But why?

Because when everything moves faster you get much quicker feedback on your decisions and you’ll rapidly know if what you did led to a good or bad outcome. It’s well-known that firefighters are great at making quick decisions because their feedback time is literally seconds and over time, this trains them to make better and better decisions under pressure.

Startups are the firefighters of the business world and here are some important lessons after years of practice:

“I learned that the best management is flat, where you can have your thoughts and your ideas are always considered valuable and constructive. If you find this type of management, stay, learn as much as you can, and when you become a manager yourself, do exactly the same. I believe this is the only way to build the best teams and reach the highest goals.”

“Something that I didn't expect is that most of the engineers I work with really like engineering (gadgets, electronics, engines etc). Their passion is making things work and having detailed technical discussions, while in a startup what’s even more important is how their work is going to serve the world.”

“Don't be scared to speak up about your ideas and what you think your contribution to the startup could be. If you don't talk about your priorities and what you want to do, you might end up not getting what you want and eventually fall out of love with your project.”

“The power of network - sometimes it is more important who you know than what you know. Unexpected connections can lead to interesting projects and it can open many doors. Seize those opportunities and nurture them, you never know where they will take you.”

The misdirections

The more people you speak with the more advice you’ll get. Everyone loves to give advice and it’s on you to filter the right advice.

Bad advice is usually not specific to your situation (many times because people don’t know you and did not ask) and it’s coming from people who are not where you want to be.

The hard thing is that bad advice looks exactly like good advice when you hear it for the first time and it usually turns out to be bad only in hindsight; unless you’ve heard it before:

“Industry is boring compared to academia.”

“A corporate job gives you safety.
Although there is nothing wrong with working in a large corporation, and it seems like a safer option at first, seeing all the recent layoffs shows that safety is relative. If you want to grow faster and learn more skills, explore your creativity and try various aspects of a business, which is easier in a startup.”

“Even if you don't like something at first, you will eventually develop an interest in it if you do it for enough time.
If I had believed that, I would have probably been just another working bee and not have explored opportunities the way I have done so far.”

The destination

Knowing what NOT to do is as powerful as having a clear direction, if not more. By learning what we shouldn’t fall for, we build our own framework to question the path of least resistance and make better decisions.

I call these “anti-goals” and you should definitely have some. If you are not sure where to start, here are some examples:

“Not letting myself get too comfortable with working a 9-to-5 for 40 years, even though it can sometimes feel like the easiest thing to do. Getting trapped into climbing the career ladder and not doing anything meaningful with my time is one of my biggest fears.”

“Not compromising my ethical values in the pursuit of professional success.”

“Being stuck doing repetitive jobs all my life. I have changed many positions throughout my career, worked in a few industries and took a one-year work break to do a second MSc. I am always involved in different projects and I believe this variety is precisely what gives me an overview of what I am good at and what I want in life.”

Although these examples and stories all sound different, there are a few heuristics that we can all learn from:

Increase your surface of luck by putting yourself in the best place to be exposed to smart people working on cool things
Listen to people who are (or have been) where you want to be. Ignore the others
Take note of what works and what doesn’t. Don’t let a learning opportunity pass by
Instead of knowing where to go, start by being clear on what to avoid

This week's top scientific reads

Semaglutide works against alcohol abuse too (Journal of Clinical Psychiatry)
Detecting pancreatic cancer with CT scans & AI (Nature Medicine)
New brain waves for building habits (Nature Communications)
Why is exercise good for you? (Science Immunology)
A new way to assess the impact of publications (PNAS)

Read my comments on these articles here.

Latest European funding rounds in health & bio

Ready to turn this news into your next career opportunity? Here is how

Mytos Bio raised $19M to develop their automated platform for cell and gene therapies manufacturing 🇬🇧
OncoVITA raised €4.5M to further develop their therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines, starting with MVdeltaC in oncology 🇫🇷
Everyman Health closed a CHF 1.5M pre-seed round for its digital platform dedicated to men's health, starting with erectile dysfunction 🇨🇭
Health Yourself raised an undisclosed Seed Round to provide a one-stop digital health care solution from testing to treatments 🇨🇭
MiMark raised $4M for their diagnostic platform specialising in biomarkers to develop new solutions for gynaecological patients 🇪🇸
Eligo Biosciences closed a $30M Series B round to further advance their pipeline of biotherapeutics for microbiome gene editing 🇫🇷
Farmless raised €4.8M for their product that uses fermentation to make proteins for food without the need for agricultural land 🇳🇱
Scienta Lab raised €4M to leverage their AI to model individual variables for drug discovery and treatment of immune diseases 🇫🇷
Beyondbmi raised €1M for their digital weight-loss clinical helping users tackle obesity and weight management 🇮🇪
FreeOX Biotech raised €1.7M for their clinical-stage pipeline of assets focusing on Cerebrovascular Protective Therapeutics 🇪🇸
Ryver AI closed a €1.3M pre-seed round to minimize bias in radiology data with AI-generated medical images 🇩🇪

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