Becky Beattie: From Rural Beginnings to Building a National Biotech Network (Part 1)

Intro - 00:00:01: Welcome to The Biotech Startups Podcast by Excedr. Join us as we speak with first-time founders, serial entrepreneurs, and experienced investors about the challenges and triumphs of running a biotech startup from pre-seed to IPO with your host, Jon Chee. 

Jon - 00:00:23: My guest today is Becky Beattie, CEO at LaunchBio. LaunchBio is a nonprofit dedicated to supporting high-growth life science companies. Through its national network of life science hubs, it built an inclusive and collaborative ecosystem that drives industry growth. By connecting entrepreneurs with knowledge, capital, and talent, LaunchBio fosters innovation to advance human health. As CEO of LaunchBio, Becky leverages over 20 years of life sciences experience, blending molecular biology and business expertise to drive impact. Since 2017, she has expanded LaunchBio's national presence and established the highly successful Investor Connect series, NextGen VC Forum and podcast, and Biotech Career Workshop STEM education program for high school students. Becky has also fostered collaborative relationships with ecosystem partners that include accelerators, universities, investors, and industry leaders. With a wealth of industry experience, a history of driving biotech innovation, and a passion for building inclusive, high-impact ecosystems, Becky offers valuable insights you won't want to miss. Over the next two episodes, we'll hear about Becky's journey, from part of the industry to becoming a key player in the life science ecosystem. We'll delve into her unexpected career shift, her role in shaping the shared lab space concept, and her work supporting early-stage founders. Becky shares insights on building LaunchBio's national network, developing programs to connect startups with investors, and addressing the challenges of scaling a nonprofit in life science. Throughout, she offers perspectives on the evolving biotech landscape, the importance of startup communities, and making entrepreneurship more accessible in the life, science sector. Today, we're covering Becky's early days growing up in the countryside. We'll hear about her unexpected pivot from lab work to real estate, how a chance encounter with BioLabs brought her full circle back to biotech, and her role in shaping the shared lab space movement. We'll also discuss her experience helping early-stage founders access critical resources and building thriving life science hubs. Throughout the episode, Becky shares insights on the evolving life science landscape and the power of startup communities, and why collaboration is more essential than ever. Without further ado, let's dive into this episode of The Biotech Startups podcast. Becky. So good to see you again. Thanks for coming on the podcast. 

Becky - 00:02:26: Good to see you too, Jon. Yeah, it hasn't been long, just last week in JP Morgan.

Jon - 00:02:31: The whirlwind reunion of the year, always. Yeah, when we were chatting, I was joking that I have to charge up my battery as much as possible because by the end of JPM, I'm just completely running on low battery on your phone, low battery mode. 

Becky - 00:02:51: Yeah, I came home and asked my family to just talk softly for a while. 

Jon - 00:02:55: I need a little bit of space, just like, please.

Becky - 00:02:58: But no, back at it and really excited to having this conversation, first of all. So thank you for having me. And also to tell you about some of the initiatives we have coming up in the new year. And I mentioned some of this at JP Morgan. I'll get into more details later. But the first one, so today is January 22nd. On January 23rd, we're announcing a accelerator program we've been working on for the last better part of 24 months. We're launching it in Philadelphia. It's created for underrepresented founders. We're lucky to be supported by the Knight Foundation to get this initiative off the ground. It's a hybrid program. We're going to champion 10 companies for the next 12 months with the goal of getting them to the next round of funding. So that's really top of mind. For me today, because we're making a big press announcement tomorrow, and I talked about it last week. So I'm excited to tell you and your audience more about that. And of course, the other cool stuff we have going on at LaunchBio, like our podcast, NextGen VC podcast, and Invested Cures, which is a rare disease farm in San Diego on February 20th in collaboration with UCSD, and Investor Connect, which has been a big focus for us, and really well received. So. More on that later. But that's what I'm all excited about today. 

Jon - 00:04:25: Yeah. And I'm pumped, too. I was like, I was telling you, I was like fired up hearing about it at JPM. And thank you for perfectly timing this podcast right before the release. I was getting the sneak peek before it goes official. But yeah, you know, I think maybe for the listeners out here, just so they can be as hyped as I am, maybe we turn back the hands of time and really, you know, we always like starting at the very beginning and learning about what got you inspired to pursue business and also science and really like what influenced your leadership style and business philosophy. So if you could take us back, like what was your upbringing like? Tell us a little bit about that. 

Becky - 00:05:06: I'm a country girl. I was raised in South San Jose. If you're in San Jose, keep going south until you start seeing cows and horses. And being raised in the country and having the opportunity to raise animals. I was in 4-H. It really influenced me. I think I always have had a interest in business and entrepreneurship. And I was always kind of scrappy as a little kid. I meant, whether that was going in the backyard and picking walnuts and selling bags of walnuts on the corner or flowers, probably to my neighbor's chagrin, picking flowers and making bouquets. That was a winner because people would come home after work and I'd be there like, bring some flowers home to your wife.

Jon - 00:05:57: Yes, that's amazing.

Becky - 00:05:59: But the bigger projects were raising pigs. That's what I did. You would go in the late winter, early spring and buy your piglet for $50. And either my dad would front me the money or I had the money from the last year. And then you have the cost of feed. And pigs, as you may or may not know, eat scraps. And so the more scraps you can give them, the less feed you're using. So it was a real lesson in economics and profits. And pigs grow very fast. So the 50-pound pig became a 250-pound pig. Oh, my goodness. In a matter of months. And you bring it to the fair and you show it. So I had the white 4-H with the green. Everybody wore the same tie. And then the green hat. And you have a cane and you're showing your pig to the judge. Which was fun in and of itself. And it was something me and my dad did together. So I enjoyed that. And then, you know, you could either bring it to auction and try your luck. Or a better way to go about it is ask your dad's business partners who's interested in buying a pig. 

Jon - 00:07:12: Yeah.

Becky - 00:07:14: You pre-negotiate a price per pound and then your dad and Tom bid it up to your agreed price. And then you say goodbye to the pig.

Jon - 00:07:24: Oh, man. What a crash course. How old were you when you had? You're like a 250 pound pig. 

Becky - 00:07:32: Grade school.

Jon - 00:07:33: Oh my goodness. That is, that is amazing. Like that, that experience. I mean, everything I'm hearing, like what you were just describing, like balancing like the food and scraps is like exactly what you said, like a crash course in econ. Did you grow up on a farm? Like your dad was a farmer?

Becky - 00:07:51: No, no. Okay. My dad is a woodworker. He has and has had a successful cabinet business in the Bay Area. Never advertised a day in his life.

Jon - 00:08:02: Oh, wow.

Becky - 00:08:02: His cabinets and kitchens and he does some commercial work is just really beautiful. My mom stayed home with us, but is educated and has a master's degree and later went back into law. But, you know, my mom's influence on me was later to be. What I hope is a good mom and to prioritize family and to cook. I cook like a mad woman. You know, I get up, everybody has breakfast, packed lunches. I know what we're having for dinner. And that's my Italian. My mom is 100% Sicilian. So my parents are awesome. I had a great childhood and a lot of freedom. We had three-wheeler, you know, back then motorcycles, which are now for good reason, not around. I nearly killed myself. Yeah, I would just take off on my motorcycle and go explore.

Jon - 00:08:59: That's awesome. That's awesome. And sometimes I think about. Like I had a similar upbringing where it was. Very much is like, just like, don't get arrested. Don't, don't break laws. Just like stay out of trouble, like, and, you know, do your thing. And I always felt that that kind of enabled just like exploration. And like, I have trouble just like focusing on like one thing. I'm always like trying to like bring together, like, I'm like growing up in Berkeley. I was like, you know, very tied to, you talk about cooking and food culture. Like really like a lot of my friends grew up in doing like, working in kitchens, being in food service and hospitality. And that's a big part of my life, but then there's also this other aspect of my life, where I was like, in the lab. And like, there there's some similarities, but they're, you know, just kind of a different circles of- But I, I like, I try my best to marry them, as much as I can.

Becky - 00:09:58: I think curiosity, I think there's both in culinary and science work there's a curiosity. There's, you know, the experimentation obviously, trying new things, seeing the outcome, measuring the outcome.

Jon - 00:10:11: Yep.

Becky - 00:10:11: Um, there's a lot of similarities. And, yeah, as far as food goes, in my mind, I'm like, everybody has to eat three times a day. So, if you don't like to cook that's a problem.

Jon - 00:10:22: Yeah. It's one of your senses, and you ought to like, you know, try and like indulge that sense, as you can.

Becky - 00:10:30: Maybe I indulged it too much. I don't know.

Jon - 00:10:32: Yeah, we were talking about like smash burgers before we hit record. But I love that. And so growing up, it sounds like you had a lot of freedom to explore and really just like get your hands dirty. Did you know early on that you would ultimately get into the world of science? Or was that something that, you know, you kind of bound to Spark a little bit later on. 

Becky - 00:10:56: Yeah, it's interesting. In high school, you know, I was kind of an okay student. I wasn't like lighting up the world, I don't think. But I did like science. And those are the AP classes I was taking. And I did fairly well. And so looking back, I think as a high schooler, you're just like, I don't know. Yeah, I'll take AP that and you get a good grade. It doesn't mean anything because you're focused on the fact that my Spanish, grade was a disaster. So then when it was time to go to college, so I'm an outdoorsy person. My senior year, I worked at this cool outdoor shop called Any Mountain. And it was like a best thing. Do you remember that?

Jon - 00:11:37: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would like rent gear sometimes from there.

Becky - 00:11:40: Yeah. So I was working with my guy friends and I have two brothers. So that's kind of comfort zone. You could demo ski gear. I was super into skiing and we'd go up to Tahoe. So when I thought about college, I was like, well, I like science and I like to ski. So my aunt was living in Boulder and I went and visited her and it was like, bingo. This is a perfect match. Yeah. And the molecular biology program is very well regarded there. So that's what I ended up doing. And I think, you know, I started my freshman year was really rough because nobody was advising me not to take like a heavy curriculum in the beginning. So, you know, probably damaged my GPA out of the gates.

Jon - 00:12:34: Yeah.

Becky - 00:12:36: But recovered. And my uncle, my aunt's husband, he did engineering with a business degree and combined those two. And that was really my inspiration, Will Coleman, to combine science with business. So that happened a couple of years into it. My freshman year, I had a really neat cell biology teacher, Dr. Andrew Staehelin, a professor. And I went to him and I enjoyed the class and said, you know, is there a place for me in your lab? And he was really kind. I didn't know anything. So he gave me a job and I was, you know, washing dishes and doing all the really gross stuff in a lab that we all know about. And I did it. I put my head down and I did it. I was appreciative to have a job and a paycheck. I paid for my own college. So having a little extra cash was a good thing. And then the second year he gave me a project. He was putting plants in space with NASA. So we were studying how anti-gravity affects cellular structures. And so this was before scanning electron microscopes where you could get a 3D image. So what I did was, are you familiar with diamond knives?

Jon - 00:13:55: No.

Becky - 00:13:56: Okay. It's literally like, it's a very expensive knife. That's very, very sharp.

Jon - 00:14:00: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Becky - 00:14:01: And you put like a little bit of resin or glue on the end and you'd take the root of this plant that had been in space and you cut it like very carefully with a microscope you're watching. And when one cuts, it goes flat. And then because it's sticky, the second one that cuts, it sticks to the next. So you have them lined up.

Jon - 00:14:26:Whoa.

Becky - 00:14:27: But it's really like tricky and very delicate.

Jon - 00:14:30: Yeah.

Becky - 00:14:31: Once you have 20 of them lined up, you take pictures and number them. And then two of them. I forget what I was using some kind of machine that would stack the images and create the 3d models.

Jon - 00:14:46: Oh, wow. And you're just like, Oh my God, like I should, this was in space. I really hope I don't screw up. Yeah.

Becky - 00:14:55: And you're, you're in a dark room and you've got to, it was like a whole, and that really like that, the combination of that experience and very appreciative for the job and opportunity. And then my uncle, what he was doing, I was like, I should probably get a business degree too.

Jon - 00:15:12: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Tell us about that. Was that business degree, like, did you have to pick a kind of a specialty or was it a kind of a broad business curriculum?

Becky - 00:15:23: You pick a specialty. So I did marketing and really, again, following my uncle and what he did. So yeah, two years into college, I added a second degree. So I did a dual degree in molecular biology and business with an emphasis in marketing. And business was kind of a breath of fresh air after taking all these hardcore science classes. I want to say it was easy, but it was kind of easy.

Jon - 00:15:52: Yep, yep, yep, yep. I'm with you.

Becky - 00:15:55: Business school was great. I really enjoyed that. But here's the thing. There was zero overlap between MCDB and business. So I went to summer school. So I went to school for five years and I did summer school every single year. 

Jon - 00:16:10: Yeah, that's like, I also found that to be the case because I was thinking of doing a double major in philosophy.

Becky - 00:16:18: Okay.

Jon - 00:16:19: And philosophy and biology don't really have a curriculum that overlaps. So I was also on that same wavelength. I was like, oh God, how am I going to do this on time? But I think too, despite there not being at least course-wise a bunch of overlap. The kind of rigor of like having a, like, using that other part of your brain is like, I always found that I can always bring it back to, you know, kind of like this like cross-disciplinary kind of training. And I still find to this day that like, I think about like these kind of lessons I've learned in that kind of other major as like, I still use it to this day.

Becky - 00:17:02: So did you get the philosophy degree too?

Jon - 00:17:05: No, no, no, no. I just took a ton of courses. I took a ton of courses. And then this is a classic, you also come to like going to law school when you have a philosophy degree. And I was like, maybe I'll be like, I was like, maybe I'll do like patent law. And I was like, trying to like marry the two. But what ended up happening to science, like my passion for science kind of like took over, but I was still taking like a philosophy course load. But like the law, like kind of there's like the logic and like the proofs that you do in philosophy was really helped me kind of like sharpen my like, kind of like the rigor of my thinking. And there's a lot of it, you can also use in science too, but I'll- I digress. I digress. So I appreciate the marriage of like business and science, despite being, you know, kind of on different ends of the academic.

Becky - 00:17:54: And probably with the podcast and outside of your scientific knowledge and being able to answer the right questions, but thinking about a person's career in a more philosophical way or life, I can see how it lends itself.

Jon - 00:18:10: Totally. Philosophy can get very meta very quick. But also, and here's another thing too, is like, I really appreciate the humanities. It helps critical thinking, but also I think you know, when you're doing a full science, like course load, you don't really get the chance to work on your writing. Cause like. Like when you're writing, you're in the science kind of like. Under that umbrella, it's usually like to write a paper that's going to go to peer review, but like. Writing for peer review is not the same as like communicating like broadly. So I very much, I'm like, oh God, like, thank God. While I was in school, I like took the time to take these like heavy humanity, like writing courses, because like, that's another skill set that I'm like, oh man, so lucky to do it. Because it's like. Going back to school now to learn it would be very hard.

Becky - 00:19:04: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And nobody would. So, you know.

Jon - 00:19:08: Exactly.

Becky - 00:19:09: Raw, raw college.

Jon - 00:19:11: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a good thing. If you're in school, like. Don't go take the opportunity to take us all, all the classes that you can, because it's a, it's like a fleeting moment. And one thing that kind of reminded me when you said Any Mountain, I remember like. Tahoe basically like Sugar Bowl, like tickets used to be like 35 bucks or something like that. And then now like a day ticket is like 150 or something like that.

Becky - 00:19:40: Yeah. You better have a good day of skiing.

Jon - 00:19:42: Yeah, exactly. I'm just like, oh my God. Like I remember I used to like go to Any Mountain, just get tickets and just like, all right, cool. Like a day trip could be like feasible. And now I'm like praying. I'm like exactly what you said. It's like, it's gotta be perfect. Or else this is-

Becky - 00:19:55: One more thing about Any Mountain and then we can move on. But that also provided some really cool experiences because, people like the same thing. So really got into rock climbing and bungee jumping. My kids are just asking about this and I'm like, oh, I'm like, is this something I want to tell them? But you know, we would go on to up in the Sierras and you go on railroad bridges and set up the bungee. And it's like, how much do you weigh? How much do you weigh? That's how much bungee will dip you into the river below. And by the way, when you hear the, the rail coming the train, we got to pack all this stuff and go hide because and we could get, that's bad. I'm like thinking about, Oh God, I put a lot of, I mean, that's 18, right?

Jon - 00:20:48: Yeah. Yeah. That's 18 for you. I mean, you, you were on the, on the bikes. So like you, the risk tolerance was there.

Becky - 00:20:56: Very high risk tolerance. Stupidity.

Jon - 00:20:59: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But sometimes, like, you know, like, I think back on my experiences too, growing up in Berkeley, it was like. Similar it's like-

Becky - 00:21:06: This part of the brain is not quite fully baked.

Jon - 00:21:11: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's like the thing like, in startup life like, I, I do think about this, you know, how my tolerance for risk. It's a crazy thing to start a company or just lead a company. That's not normal. Like behavior or like rip, like. Like, it's just like, you have to have an appetite for risk. And I think for me, I used to snowboard a lot. And I used to be the dude that was like, oh yeah, I'm going to jump off these like massive like cliffs and stuff like that. But it's kind of like... That muscle to be able to like go risk on obviously, do it as safely as you can. But like that is, you know, you kind of need that because if you're going to tackle a big audacious, hairy problem, you're not going to do it by being risk off, like.

Becky - 00:22:05: It's true. And, and, you know, I've thought about that a lot and you can't force somebody to, to have that as part of their personality or soul, you know, because, you know, I have a perspective of, well, why not? I was just thinking about that today or some project came up. I'm like, yeah, why not? You know, what's the worst thing that could happen now? If the worst thing that happened is you could die, then maybe that's worth.

Jon - 00:22:30: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Totally. It's exactly what you said. Like as a kid, it's kind of hard to see the asymmetric profile of it. You're like, oh, like the black Swan event here is just like, I die for, for how much fun now, when you recollect about it, you're like, oh, maybe that was the wrong calculus. But I think, you know, healthy risk-taking is important because like exactly what we said, you have to be able to be like, why not? Why can't we do this audacious thing in the world of whether it be business or science? Because I think if you don't have that appetite, you're going, is this not going to sit well? And you're not going to, you're not going to be able to hit that grand slam when you, you might be settling for singles and doubles, which is not the end of the world.

Becky - 00:23:15: It's a good analogy. If it gives somebody, you know, such massive anxiety that you're not enjoying what you're doing, but if you enjoy that rush and like, why not try this? Why not go for it?

Jon - 00:23:29: Yep.

Becky - 00:23:29: And that's fun. And that kind of. That's an overarching theme in my life. Like if you're not enjoying what you're doing or having fun. You know, then why are you doing it? I combine that with a lot of hard work that I got from my parents. It's really almost extreme work ethic, but you combine, you want to have fun with what you're doing. You understand that hard work is part of life. You know, I think that you can achieve some pretty cool things.

Jon - 00:24:01: Absolutely. And I think too, particularly when I'm speaking to grad students and they're contemplating, you know. Whatever, starting a company, spinning out of their lab. They're like, Hey, like what, you know, if you could, you put yourself back in my shoes, what would you say? And it's just like, for me, one of the big things I always say is just like exactly what you're saying is. You got to like what you're doing and have like a personal affinity to it. Like temperament wise. And also make sure your significant other is also on board too. Cause, that's like another thing because like, that's another aspect. That's like the kind of the two big things is to make sure you can do this and want to do it and not like wake up and want to like pull your hair out and quit. And part of that is like the risk profile has to fit you, right? Like if you need job security. Starting this hypothetical company might not be it. But if you find that this is energizing for you, for sure. Like, and energizing for your significant other too, because you're going to have those hard days and they are going to be there and you don't want them to be like, God, this is awful. And I think too, because like, if you, if you like think about it and you're like, oh, well, I would actually, I want this kind of like less uncertainty, more stability. Then you have your answer right there. It's kind of like, and it's like, it's an introspective thing more than anything.

Becky - 00:25:22: Oh, it's a really good exercise to go through while you're in college and in that first job. And sometimes it takes the first jobs to help inform you of what you don't want to do. And that's why I'm a big, big proponent of internships. And Dr. Staehelin, working in his lab, great experience. It informed me, I don't want to be on the bench. One of my other internships during college was at a medical device. Medical device is more engineering. I like biology. I like cells. I like DNA. Don't want to do that. Thank you very much. And then as my career went on, it just started to become more clear, A, what I was actually good at. I mean, you could do, we could all do a lot of things, but you have to be honest. Like, are you really good at it?

Jon - 00:26:14: Yep.

Becky - 00:26:15: You know, and what are you good at? It's okay just to be more, I love like staying in your lane. Like this is what I'm good at and I enjoy doing it. You're good at something else. Accountant, love you. Thank you. Just tell me where to write the check. You do that for me. I'm going to do this for, you know, my career. But yeah. The more experiences early on, the better.

Jon - 00:26:39: Yep. I couldn't agree more. Kind of what you're describing as an adolescence where you can just go explore. When you're exploring, it's not all puppies and rainbows. There's the thing where this sucks. I don't want to do this.

Becky - 00:26:54: But that's a good thing. That's all part of the process.

Jon - 00:26:57: Yeah, absolutely. And I think I talked about how I was contemplating going to law school. What turned me off was working at a law firm. Right?

Becky - 00:27:06: There you go.

Jon - 00:27:07: But, I have the utmost respect for the practice of law. I have the utmost respect. This is not for me. It's not much like if you are thinking about starting a startup, you got to know going in that that kind of uncertainty rollercoaster is for you. But it's also, if it's not for you, don't feel like you need to fight it. And I think, something too, is that like, you're exactly what you said, like. You don't need to be the best at everything. There are other people who can be good at, you know, exactly like accounting. Just like assemble, have a crew that can kind of like cover your soft spots and you can focus on what you're good on is, I think, I think a younger me would have been like, I need to be the best at everything. But I was like, it's okay. There are people who are better at math than I am. So I will let them do that.

Becky - 00:28:01: It's a beautiful thing to realize. It's really, especially, and we'll talk more about this later, but just when you're building a team, you know, choosing the right people and then saying, here you go.

Jon - 00:28:12: Yep.

Becky - 00:28:12: If you need my help, I'm here. We're checking. We're going to check in. But this is your baby. Like this is part is yours and take it and run and own it and be really good at it. And I absolutely, by the way, I really appreciate your expertise in that area.

Jon - 00:28:27: Yep, absolutely. I feel the exact same way. It's, um... It's almost liberating. You're just like, you know, the pressure is just kind of like, okay, like I can share the load. This is like fantastic.

Becky - 00:28:38: Now, funny story, my daughter, I have two daughters, my youngest daughter, she's tried to use this on me with vacuuming. Like, I'm just not very good at it. And I was like, no, no.

 Jon - 00:28:51: That was the Jedi mind trick.

 Becky - 00:28:52: I know. I'm like-

 Jon - 00:28:54: Oh, I'm just going to turn this back.

 Becky - 00:28:57: You can get good at it.

 Jon - 00:28:58: Yeah, that you can get good at. I believe in your potential for vacuuming. I see it. I see it. You are 99th percentile vacuumer. I will make sure that you will reach your potential. So, you know, you're wrapping up your undergraduate and you said you mentioned you had some internships. You know, did you know what was next after graduation? Was it did you end up going sticking around with one of those internships and making it your full time gig or where were you at? Bring us back to that mindset.

 Becky - 00:29:28: No, I took a little break. My dad gifted me with a month travel anywhere. And we went together to Thailand. And that was really cool just to experience that new culture and the foods and, you know, the people there are so beautiful. It was really great. So my boyfriend at the time, Justin Beattie, that's a little hint, you know, left him behind. And oh, man, did I miss him. Four weeks was a long time. So he had graduated two years before me. And he had job offers out of state. And he decided to stick around. I mean, I told him, I'm like. You should go do what you want, but I'm not a long distance girl.

Jon - 00:30:13: Yeah.

Becky - 00:30:14: Anyways, he stuck around and he had kind of his, it was a first job for him that wasn't totally enlightening. So we decided to go back to Southeast Asia for three months. That was the longest we could do it. I sold my car, kept all of my stuff at my parents' house. And then when we returned from that, it was like, I was very narrowly focused on getting a job. Starting my life, you know, I was broke. We used like every last penny we had. So we decided to move to San Diego. A bunch of my friends had moved down here and a few of them were in biotech. So I started looking for a job and, you know, I'm a spreadsheet person. So I was like, spreadsheet, like applied this date, followed up this date, check marks. And that was really rough. Like, cause I thought, Hey, I've got a double degree. Like I'm young, I'm hungry for work. Well, it doesn't really matter. People don't care. So my cousin sent me, believe it or not, an ad in the newspaper for a salesperson at a company called SarahCare Life Sciences. So I got my first job. It was again, appreciate the opportunity. Somebody was giving me an opportunity. It was rough though. They hired two of us, and there was a, so that we were selling. Fetal bovine serum for cell culture and human albumin for therapeutic use. And there's two of us, me and Suzette were hired and they gave us, a literally like a book that big and said, you're A through N and you're M through Z and, you know, cold call. Like you have, there's no territory. There's nothing. And, oh my God, we were in this like bullpen and the CEO, and come by and ask like, how's it going tiger? Like, how your sales today? So really low base salary. So, and we're like hungry to get this done. So within the first year, I got a territory that had not, it was, there was no territory. And it wasn't really territories over the U.S., but just within who I could cold call on up to $100,000 in sales per month. So it was, I was like, okay, I can sell. Over time, I realized I can do it. I'm not the best at it. And I probably don't want to make a career out of this. But it was fun to make something out of nothing, you know. And in that second year, I brokered the biggest single transaction for $280,000, which was pretty fun as like a young 20 something, you know, getting my feet wet. And then I started managing the VWR account. And so that gave me some experience and distribution sales and working with the sales team. And, you know, you're still young. You're like a baby. I'm still learning like what industry this is. I have to say it was interesting. When my family was like, what do you do? Like, what are you selling to explain Fetal bovine serum?

Jon - 00:33:29: Yeah.

Becky - 00:33:29: I'm like, oh, God.

Jon - 00:33:31: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Becky - 00:33:33: It's essential.

Jon - 00:33:35: I think, especially, coming out of the lab. You know, sales is kind of poo-pooed on.

Becky - 00:33:43: Yeah.

Jon - 00:33:43: It's like, stay away. Like, we like, usually it's like already with business. Sometimes they're like, oh. Your business and like we're science. So like, but then you go into like sales and they're like, Oh, even worse, even worse, even worse. But. Like that was, I had the same exact experience. I was like. Well, one, I went into labs at Berkeley and like even dared broach the business idea of Excedr and was like, let's just say not treated well. I wasn't treated well. But in the early days, I had to do the exact same thing. It's just like. Had to pick up the phone. And it really gave me an appreciation for that, like a very deep appreciation, like a human appreciation for like the grit that it takes and just the wherewithal, like to learn how to do it effectively. And, you know, as like, there's a tasteful way to do it too. But I think. In itself, it's like, those are lessons that I carry with me to this day, too. It's like, how do you do like discovery and like, you know, and, and also taking no, like you get so many hangups, like, and you just learn to be able to like tank it and not, not let you know. And, you know, and that's what people will always be saying no to you. Like, so that skill is like, is portable wherever you are.

Becky - 00:35:06: Yes, I agree. And, you know, the whole cold calling idea, I was just talking to insurance broker today. We had a nice coffee this morning and he's in the life science industry. And I was like, well, how are you finding your success or what's successful for you? And she was like, honestly, it's cold calling. I'm like, good answer.

Jon - 00:35:25: Yeah.

Becky - 00:35:26: And yeah, it's tried and true. And it's a numbers game. And yeah, I think also you find your voice and get comfortable with your voice. And what's your message? And yeah, by the way, I know some people need this. Lots of people don't need whatever I'm selling. But yeah, and that $280,000 deal I brokered, that was good for both sides and for my commission check.

Jon - 00:35:53: Yep, absolutely.

 Becky - 00:35:55: But yes, it was interesting. That was. That was, I mean, it was brutal at the time. I was living in Ocean Beach, if you're familiar.

Jon - 00:36:03: Yep.

Becky - 00:36:04: And I was working in Oceanside. And so it was just this brutal commute. And I remember thinking like, oh man, the, you know, the rose colored glasses have been taken off life in general. Like if this was like being an adult.

Jon - 00:36:18: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Becky - 00:36:21: But yeah, so that was a good first experience. And then it was really not involved with science at all, other than what people were using the products for. But that led to my next job at Eppendorf, which was a really neat combination of taking the business and sales, but using it for these instruments that, and a lot of people probably don't know, Eppendorf has a cell biology division. There's only four or five, probably four now reps in the United States. It's for micromanipulation, for cell injection, nuclear transfer, ICSI, all these techniques that you go in and you demonstrate. And I really like putting together the machines. I thought that that was cool and just screwing things in. I thought this is like a really fun thing to put all of this together. And it has to be precise on these floating. Beds because even vibration will rip your cells apart or embryos apart. So that was my next experience. And it was really a hybrid between science and business. It's capital equipment sales. So the stakes were a little bit higher. And our equipment was the Mercedes-Benz of injectors. So they're expensive. But when you can go in and demonstrate that they work, and that was really fun. Because first of all, I had a 12-state territory. And it's like the best 12 states on the West Coast.

Jon - 00:37:52: There we go.

Becky - 00:37:53: Including Hawaii.

Jon - 00:37:54: Yes.

Becky - 00:37:56: And so I would travel, send all my equipment there. I had a big warehouse that I rent, you know, send all my equipment there, set it up, stay for a week, run experiments. And, you know, if I showed it worked, did the efficiency and there could be a PO at the end. So it was being in the lab, but not having to stay to do all the experiments.

Jon - 00:38:17: Yeah, totally. Totally. I thought the exact same thing. I was like, I'm not the best in the hood, like, and actually like manning this like full time, but I can do it from time to time. And like, I can make this work from time to time. I guess the question, how did you end up getting connected with Eppendorf? Like, how did that opportunity arise?

Becky - 00:38:40: You know, I can't totally remember. I mean, I think I was looking because after two years at SarahCare, I was ready to get more into science. I remember I really had to follow up and be persistent with it. I don't think I was the first choice. I think their first choice was a woman from Canada, but she had some issue with her grade. And so I kept on following up. And then Chip Shook, who was the sales director at the time, gave me the job. And I was even more appreciative because I wasn't maybe their first choice, but I was going to do a good job for them.

Jon - 00:39:20: Hell yeah. There's a... A saying when I talk about like kind of like that persistence that's necessary is It's better to be annoying than forgotten.

Becky - 00:39:29: I like it. Yes. Oh, you can be forgotten so easily.

Jon - 00:39:33: So quickly, so quickly. And obviously don't be an asshole, but don't be an asshole. But like, again, it's like-

Becky - 00:39:40: You gotta follow up. You gotta follow up,

Jon - 00:39:42: And be annoyingly persistent is better than being forgotten. So I love that. And I guess just real quick before we dive more into the Eppendorf experience, you know. For those who don't have, who are not from trained, like sales trained, how did you approach like direct sales versus like working with a, you know, a VWR? How is that different in terms of like sales, like expertise and approach?

Becky - 00:40:08: I think it's both relationship-based. Like people want to do business with others that they like and being genuine in that regard. Direct sales, you have more control, right? But then it's just you. So then in direct sales, you potentially have a team of people that are working on your behalf. Just being strategic about it, I think in understanding what territories have the most potential and what reps are the most engaged. And some people, depending on too, what they're selling and is it valuable for them to be selling your particular product compared to the other stuff? What are they making their money on? Where's the motivation coming from? And do you need to supplement that in some way to get their attention? So yeah, looking at it from their standpoint, how they're spending their time and being strategic about, that end goal is to make a paycheck and a better one is going to get your attention or you're going to focus on those products. But again, it comes down to relationships and people that you click with and then having fun along the way. It's fun to have reps that you go out and bring them to lunch and then go ride and visit customers. And then if you could be valuable and some kind of an asset for them that, hey, I like bringing Becky along because she helps to show them how to do X, Y, and Z.

Jon - 00:41:37: Hell yeah. I couldn't agree more because like, I think, and again, this is not just like sales specific. This is the cross disciplinary kind of thing. It's like. It's like empathy. What do they care about? Like if I were in their shoes, what do they care about? And trying to find like positive sum outcomes rather than just like these transactional zero sum outcomes is kind of like what I'm hearing. And I think. Something too that this reminds me of is like, In any good relationship, you want to be like trust, liked, and respected. And if you have all three, grand slam. If you have one, got to get to work on the others. Two out of three is almost like a, you know, where you like, it's a minimum almost like get, you know, to have a kind of this, the relationship to be working and not have overly friction. Exactly what you said, like another aspect too about that, a good partnership is like It has to be fun. Like you spend so much time with this person that you want to actually be enjoying yourself. Like that's kind of like, I don't think people talk about that enough. It's just like, can you be fun on the job with them and do good work, but also have fun.

Becky - 00:42:46: And do good work. And I think that that's part of growing up too. When you first start working, you're not sure that you're worth people's time. You know, and that's just, I think it's very rare to have a young person that's just very confident and comfortable in their skin. And so, yeah, when I'm going into Stanford to do a presentation, you know, with all these PhD MDs.

Jon - 00:43:13: Yeah.

Becky - 00:43:14: It's hard to feel comfortable and relaxed. And so that happens over time. And I think that that's okay. And I think that on both sides of it, we all just need to be a little bit more graceful with ourselves as we're learning, but also as you're encountering younger people that are newer to their careers to make them feel at ease. You know, they're going through it and hey, they showed up. They're there.

Jon - 00:43:42: Absolutely.

Becky - 00:43:42: You know, help them to feel comfortable. And because most of us have been there, whether you're getting your PhD or you're going to a new grad school or you have a new job, we're all human.

Jon - 00:43:55: Exactly. And I think you got to like constantly reminder yourself because I think the longer you spend your you can spend so much time on your career and just forget what it was like. It's almost like forgetting what it was like to be a kid. But you kind of just need to remember because that's how you like keep the empathy. And like, and I think for me, I never forgot when I was like. Early days, one of our early clients was part of Quest. You think I look like a baby face right now? I looked more baby face like 15 years ago. And when I showed up and. This is why I probably, this is probably like the scar tissue I've built up where I was like, we're going to be primarily digital because of this experience. Like I went to go visit a client and had been a client. They had been a big client for a long time already. They always talk to me on the phone. I sound different on the phone, but then I go in person. And the lab manager who I speak to, spoke to all the time, when I like walked in, they were like. I saw her go to talk to the front desk and was like, I didn't realize the high school field trip was scheduled for today. Yeah, and I was like, no, no, no, it's, it's Jon. Like I flew across the country to say hello.

Becky - 00:45:10: Oh my God. Brutal.

Jon - 00:45:11: Brutal, brutal. But you know, and maybe that's why I had that scar too. And I have this deep empathy for anyone who's like going out, like going out, there's kind of, you're talking about this confidence in yourself, you know, in the early days, it's really hard to like, that set me back for a little bit, send me back for a little bit, but I empathize. Like, I know it's like, it's hard. Like, and I think it's on us. It's like, it's important that we make them feel comfortable and can get that experience. They need to get that confidence. Cause if you don't give them that experience, then, you know, they're just like stuck anyways.

Becky - 00:45:44: Yeah. I'm going to say that's everybody that's listening, including you and I, that's our homework for the next, let's just say week. We encounter somebody that's younger in their career and you just take a little bit of time to talk to them and make them feel at ease. So there, I'm going to put it out there.

Jon - 00:46:03: Yeah. I, I, I a hundred percent behind that. That's is critically important in my opinion. Okay. So you're at Eppendorf now. It sounds like instead of getting airdropped into no territories, you now have 12 territories. And I'm going to guess instead of one kind of a partnership with VWR, there's probably multiple partnerships, across the board.

Becky - 00:46:25: Now I'm working with microscopy reps because our instruments are built on top of inverted microscopes. And so the Nikon, the Olympus, the Leica. And that was fun. Like I still have friends from that infront of one of my friends broke off and started his own microscope company and was has been really successful. So. It was a fun experience. Traveling was fun, although I got married during that time. And it was a joke at my husband's work that he didn't really have a wife. That it was like, you know, it was some fictitious person because I just wasn't in town. I literally I traveled. You know, more than 50%. But before you have kids, it was, it was great. And, you know, I'm very independent and, you know, take advantage of when I'm out of town to try to see other cool things and maximize my time. So, yeah, I appreciated that experience and working with Eppendorf and, you know, visiting Germany, which was really interesting too. And it's a good company. It's really, you know, one of the best quality products in each of the divisions that they have, in my opinion. And then, so I think I did that for about five years and then my first daughter came along. And so it was time to take a break and, you know, traveling 50% of the time with a new baby wasn't going to work out. I thought it might for a hot minute, but yeah, I did that. And it was interesting. I mean, it's a huge delineation in your timeline, pre-kids and post-kids. And it happens immediately as soon as the child is born that everything is different.

Jon - 00:48:17: Yep. Absolutely.

Becky - 00:48:19: So yeah, giving yourself some months to acclimate and like just your central nervous system to kind of settle down.

Jon - 00:48:28: Absolutely.

Becky - 00:48:28: I didn't know it at the time, but it was really important.

Jon - 00:48:32: Yeah, totally. Right before you left Eppendorf, it sounded like, you know, you're talking about doing like traveling, doing demos, doing sales, managing like tons of relationships. It almost sounds like you were like weaving together, you know, you mentioned that you specialize in marketing, like these educational, like kind of like seminars, webinars, kind of like demos. That's kind of like, you know, it's marketing, but it's also sales and it's education as well.

Becky - 00:48:58: Yeah.

Jon - 00:48:59: Is that, I guess, an accurate encapsulation of like, your approach to it when you're at Eppendorf?

Becky - 00:49:05: No, you're absolutely right. And I kind of skimmed over one thing I realized because, you know, there's sales and you have to have a certain strategy to that. But then there's... More business strategy, long-term thought, and weaving in marketing initiatives. And like you said, educational initiatives that I put together a business plan for a UC educational seminar and a particular technique that would use our instruments. And it was a full like marketing plan. And I gave it to my marketing manager. They reviewed it and agreed upon it. And it was a stipend in addition to my salary and commission. So it was like a new project, which was really neat. So I put that into motion and it was successful. And I think that was kind of where I started to narrow down on what I'm good at. Like, can I do sales? Yes. Am I the best salesperson in the room? No. Am I the worst? No. But, you know, so am I good at strategy and marketing and that? Yeah, I am. And do you like it? Yeah, I really like it. So moving on from that, I realized that the strategic development with the end goal of building something bigger than just kind of chugging along was where I wanted to focus and what I, for some reason, happened to be pretty okay at.

Jon - 00:50:34: That's awesome. And I think for me, me too, I'm in a similar boat as you. I'm like, decent at sales, but like marketing, like really like scratches an itch and like, marketing for me, at least this I'm speaking for John now, is lik,e it's just like, effective communication, and effective communication, um, and teaching. And that aspect of it, I think to you know as good as your product may be, there's always an element of, kind of like, effective communication and education you need to do, around this product. Whatever product you, you might be, you know, focusing on. And so for me, I think that, kind of really, got me fired up, um, and when you marry that together, with an effective sales team, it's like it's like, one plus one equals like five, or more. Rather than just them on. Like, cause I know all the time, sales and marketing, sometimes I'm like kind of butt heads. They're like, Oh, like, give me, you know, there's even though they're all, we're all in the same boat, sometimes sales and marketing and butt heads, but it's like, we work better together.

Becky - 00:51:38: Oh, a hundred percent. And I really do feel like marketing is the science of business.

Jon - 00:51:44: Yeah.

Becky - 00:51:45: If it's done well and thoughtfully, you're pulling all of the different elements apart and then putting it back together in a strategic plan that allows you, like I said, to get in tranches, get to a place where it might be hard to get to. If you're just going about transactional, you know, just get this done, find this contract, get it done.

Jon - 00:52:10: Yep.

Becky - 00:52:11: It's forward thinking, but I really like that part of it. And I like that you could experiment with it and then gather the data and then make an informed decision. Is this working or not? And so it's this constant trial, pull it apart, put it back together, see what works, you know, Rubik's cube of a business idea. And they're like, oh, wow. Yeah, that's a full red panel in my Rubik's cube. Like, hold on.

Jon - 00:52:39: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was actually like before I even knew what marketing was. I had this impression that marketing was just like. You know, not quantitative, not measured, not very like, you know, just like kind of like, just like this nebulous thing to me. And one, it can get very quantitative, like really, really quantitative if you want it to be. But the part that was like also just like awesome about is exactly what we were talking about. It's like, if I wasn't running, now that I'm no longer at the bench and I'm not running experiments in the lab. Marketing allows you to do that. Like you can just attest things. It's like, you're always experimenting and testing things and you can be really creative in it, which is like, for me, just like, yes, like this is the, like, that's, that's the ish that I was describing that marketing.

Becky - 00:53:26: Yes, the creativity.

Jon - 00:53:28: Yeah. There's tons of creativity to it, and you can just, you can slice and dice things in so many different ways, um, and then, and then you get data back you get like, instead of like waiting like, months for, for your assay.

Becky - 00:53:41: Yeah.

Jon - 00:53:41: So like, yeah, your marketing initiatives tend, to kind of give you feedback that's a little bit more immediate, and so you're just like, awesome this is working, or, oh, not so awesome, this isn't working, maybe we should stop doing that. Um, so that it's like it's a very for me-

Becky - 00:53:57: Satisfying.

Jon - 00:53:57: Yeah. It's super satisfying. This is like, this is awesome. Um, so, okay. First child is born, you're like, I probably can't be living on a planet anymore. Um, so, what from there, it sounds like, that you're at a crossroads. Where kind of- Talk a little bit about, how you approach the next the next phase for you?

Becky - 00:54:16: So after a year, I was looking to get back into some kind of work. I wanted it to be flexible. I liked the marketing aspect and the strategic kind of planning. And so I was looking around San Diego and who was doing what. And that's when I came across Mary Kennedy. And Mary has been in the San Diego ecosystem. She recently moved to Seattle, but for years, and at the time had something that was newer called the San Diego Biotechnology Network, SDBN. And essentially it was networking and you do quick speed networking kind of sessions in this orchestrated way. And in tandem, she had Comprendia, which was a life science marketing firm, but just herself. So after a few meetings and discussing what she was looking to do, which was to have some help. With SDBN and grow Comprendia. I joined her as a partner and learned a lot from her. And I was opening doors to some bigger accounts on the Comprendia side. And that was fun because in my mind, the sky was the limit. And about a year into that, I had a spinal cord injury, which was like a hard stop on life.

Jon - 00:55:41: Oh man.

Becky - 00:55:42: Yeah. So that everything came to a screeching hold. It really talk about another delineation on your human timeline life.

Jon - 00:55:53: Yeah.

Becky - 00:55:53: It took me out. And my daughter wasn't even two years old. So I still had a baby. It took me out of life for two years.

Jon - 00:56:02: Holy crap.

Becky - 00:56:03: And so I had a number of surgeries and then declined a number of surgeries because things were not going well. And I just really had to focus on healing. And my family was really mad at me for, you know, two surgeries that I called and said, I'm not going to do it. And I went into daily meditative states. And I know that sounds really weird and airy fairy, but I just knew that there is this huge mountain in front of me and I needed to get past it. I knew that there was life on the other side, but it was daunting. And so every day I focused on. Getting past the pain because I was in a huge amount of pain for years and allowing my body to heal to the point where I could function.

Jon - 00:56:54: Yeah.

Becky - 00:56:56: And trying some alternative things. And, and ultimately, you know, what I came to realize is that healing For anybody that encounters a real health crisis, you think my physical body is what I need to be healed immediately. But there's an emotional element to it and there's a spiritual element to it. And those actually take place in front of your physical healing. Because emotionally, I was really scarred by this experience. And spiritually, I was shaken. So once I got those two, once I realized this, which took a while, and I was able to heal those aspects of my life. And then also accept that things were going to be different. And, you know, physically, like, and a lot of people live with different things that you have to move on with life. And so it wasn't going to be like, push the button, it's all better time to go back. It's like, acceptance, emotional and spiritual healing. And then physically, things slowly got better for me. And I was able to come back to life. And my family and my friends really helped me and my daughter. She was so, you know, sweet baby that she was there to be that really pure presence in my life. So then that... Then a friend had another friend who was growing this real estate company for shared, not lab space. So this was just office space. And I met with him, Ron McElroy. And I remember I went down to the downtown office and you know, I'd been out, I was shaken. I'd been out of life and just kind of coming back and why don't you come visit? And so I went, it's really cool. And he's a surfer guy that has this like cool vibe. And this was, he was growing ROC is what it was called R-O-C at the time of WeWork was happening on the East Coast. Kind of like WeWork was like the New York City version and Roc was like the West Coast surfer vibe thing. So it was a cool environment. And I met with him and he was like, introduced me to somebody like, oh, this is Becky. She's going to be working with us soon. And I'm thinking like, what? We didn't even talk about that. And what are you talking about? So he did. He offered me a job. I had no experience in real estate, but I was pretty good at getting in there and figuring things out. And again, taking apart the marketing plan and putting my thought and time into that. And then his goal was to grow the number of locations across the West Coast. And so for a few years, I worked with him and his team and that's what we did. And that really helped me to, like build back my confidence because I was, you know, shaken and then learn some new skills. Because I was, you know, shaken and then learn some new skills and really get exposed to real estate, which I do like that too. My parents, they in the Bay Area had, you know. My dad's company and my mom had different jobs, but they made their mark in real estate. So we grew up with them buying different condo complexes and different real estate assets that... If you're a Californian, to a certain extent, it's probably in a lot of us that we understand that that's where a lot of wealth comes from. So yeah, that was great that I got to learn that side. So that was my brief break from life science.

 Outro - 01:00:47: Thanks for joining us on this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast with Becky Beattie. Be sure to tune in for part two, where we dive into how she helped start LaunchBio, built a national network to support early stage founders, and developed innovative programs to connect biotech startups with investors and critical resources. Becky also shares her perspective, on building thriving life science hubs, scaling shared lab spaces, and the key lessons she's learned along the way. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your friends. See you next time. The Biotech Startups Podcast is produced by Excedr. Don't want to miss an episode? Search for The Biotech Startups Podcast wherever you get your podcasts and click subscribe. Excedr provides research labs with equipment leases on founder-friendly terms to support paths to exceptional outcomes. To learn more, visit our website, www.excedr.com. On behalf of the team here at Excedr, thanks for listening. The Biotech Startups Podcast provides general insights into the life science sector through the experiences of its guests. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked from the podcast is at the user's own risk. The views expressed by the participants are their own and are not the views of Excedr or sponsors. No reference to any product, service or company in the podcast is an endorsement by Excedr or its guests.