After completing their respective P.h.D programs, Noelle Hutchins and Alex Delbridge knew that academia wasn’t for them. Noelle wanted to see the translational impact of science, instead of staying in the lab. Alex didn’t want to hyper-specialize — he loved collaborating across disciplines instead of staying in one field. Both Noelle and Alex saw working in healthcare investment as venture capitalists as a way to bridge science and business. 

Noelle and Alex came to Brown on September 16, hosted by the Corporate Outreach Committee of Brown’s Biomedical Engineering Board (BMEB), to talk about the journeys that led them to work at Omega Funds — a Boston- and Geneva-based venture capital firm that focuses on investing in healthcare and life sciences companies. 

Graylen Chickering, one of BMEB’s Corporate Outreach Committee Co-Chair, says: “our goal as a committee is to expose graduate students to work areas that are not purely academic…because venture capitalists get involved with healthcare ideas and companies of all stages, we thought the event would be interesting to students curious about all different industry directions.” 

Omega Funds is a “global leader in healthcare investing,” Chickering said. Alex and Noelle both have scientific Ph.D. backgrounds and thus were “able to resonate with many of the current graduate students about what skills and experiences would be most useful for a career in VC,” Chickering added. 

 

“We are not exposed to how (venture capital) works as graduate students in BME at Brown so understanding the basis of how it works was more important to me,” said Alec McCall, a Corporate Outreach Committee Co-Chair. 

Noelle said she was drawn to the “business side of science” because she wanted to “see how my science would impact other people.” After graduating from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, Noelle volunteered with HIV/AIDs orphans in Malawi, Africa, and then researched novel drug targets for HIV at the Mayo Clinic. She then graduated from Brown with a Ph.D in immunology in 2013, eventually working as a consultant during her time as a postdoctoral student. 

Consulting “springboarded” her interest in business, and Noelle eventually progressed to working at the American Heart Association — helping boost funding for biotechnology ventures — and then joined Pipeline Angels — an angel investing group that solely invests in underrepresented founders. 

Alex was similarly interested in seeing the applications of his scientific work. “Halfway through my Ph.D., I started realizing that I didn’t want to become an academic P.I. (Principal Investigator),” he said. For Alex, the best parts of his Ph.D. program were those where he collaborated with other labs, working across specialties to address issues. He said his Ph.D. took longer than some other students because of all this time spent collaborating — “it took me a while to wrap that up,” he added.

“During my Ph.D. we had some collaboration with some pharma companies,” Alex said. He realized that the pharmaceutical companies would repeat the tests conducted by research labs if they were interested in a product. He wanted to conduct research within a drug development company rather than as an external partner, and decided to pursue a career in the drug development industry.

Even though they didn’t opt to become academics, Alex and Noelle found that the lessons they learned in their graduate programs were essential to becoming venture capitalists. The “skills you gain as a graduate student” transfer well to business, Noelle said. 

“You’re learning how to evaluate science,” Noelle said. “That’s a very transferable skill that you’re going to need in any profession.” She added that applying for research grants and pitching yourself for conferences and presentations teaches students how to “sell your work,” which prepares them for working in the business side of science. 

A lot of biotechnology venture firms prefer that employees have Ph.D degrees so that they can successfully communicate with portfolio companies. For venture capital, “you need to wear a couple of different hats,” Alex said. “You have to be willing to pivot, and move, and do it quickly,” added Noelle. Having a Ph.D. is seen as a “value add” for biotech companies because it shows that a new hire can successfully navigate the scientific aspects of the work, Noelle said.

Working in consulting is also a great way for students to prepare themselves for future careers in venture capital, Noelle and Alex said. “Ultimately, they want to know that you’re just not a lab rat,” said Noelle. Consulting work shows that students with science backgrounds can communicate well and understand the financial side of venture capital. “Consulting offers more of a real-world experience,” said Alex.

Noelle encouraged students to “really utilize the CareerLAB to figure out internships” that can “show the breadth and depth” of their skill sets. CareerLAB, which is now known as the Center for Career Exploration, offers extensive resources for students seeking internships and other job opportunities. 

Many companies working in the biotech sector would happily take “an extra pair of hands for free,” said Alex — and students can even potentially get those unpaid internships funded through the Center for Career Exploration’s SPRINT funding program. 

“I am interested in medical device entrepreneurship after graduating and therefore understanding how VC works is important,” said McCall. The talk showed him that “having the mindset for business and product commercialization is important” to succeed in venture capital — but that there isn’t just one right path toward working in the business side of science.