5. "Starry-Eyed For Start-Ups?"

Are you a researcher thinking about jumping from the academia into start-up land? I did and loved the experience of learning more about myself and my craft. This week I give you some insight into the reality of doing research in start-up culture to help you decide if it's for you.

Disclaimer: if you click on the product links in this blog and buy an item, I may get a commission from Amazon.

My Experience:

In academia, a question that arises often, especially after you complete your PhD, is: “Will you work in Industry?” (‘Industry’ refers to every other workplace type outside of government, hospital or academic research institutes.) This question is common because having an academic research career is becoming increasingly rare, given the yearly government cuts to research funding and the sheer number of talented researchers all vying for funding. Also, Industry is associated with job security and a significant pay increase. (Especially if you have just been on an academic scholarship for 3+ years!) So moving to Industry can also be seen as ‘selling-out’.

My PhD focused on pharmaceutical data, so for me, the industry question largely focused on whether I would work for a pharmaceutical company. As I had been in academia for around 12 years, I was contemplating the ‘Industry’ decision and was offered a job at a start-up as a Consultant, providing data insights to drug companies. I thought this was a serendipitous offer as I could work in Industry to see if it was a good fit, working with a dataset I knew. Win, win!

I was very excited as I started my start-up career in January 2018! I’ve been interested in start-ups since watching ‘The Social Network’ back in 2010. My curiosity has only grown by reading books describing the origin stories of multibillion-dollar companies, from their humble start-up beginnings to industry juggernauts. My favourites include: 'Super Pumped' (Uber's story), ‘That Will Never Work’ (Netflix's story) and the Netflix documentary ‘The Great Hack’ (Cambridge Analytica story).

The aspects of start-up culture that appeal to me include the:

• ‘One team, one dream’ mentality,

• Focus of answering real-world problems with a tangible outcome,

• Innovation stemming from solving new problems,

• Potential to change the world with one idea,

• Fast-paced, and

• Everyone in the trenches together putting their belief, blood, sweat, tears, time and energy into one idea.

In the future, I will write in more detail about the different aspects of working at a start-up and start-up culture. This is an introductory blog giving a high-level overview of the potential positives and negatives of being a researcher in a start-up culture. This list may highlight what to expect if you are entering the start-up workplace, or thinking about leaving academia. This list is an amalgamation of my personal experience as a start-up worker and avid reader of start-up culture.

The Lessons:

1. Each start-up is unique. I have worked at two start-ups: a not-for-profit and for-profit; an app and a service. The role of research in each workplace is different based on its goal and long-term vision.

2. Understand the start-up’s long-term vision and the role of research. If you are on board with the direction, decide whether you want to take the leap or not.

Positives of Doing Research At A Start-Up

• Personal growth. First and foremost working at a start-up is an opportunity for personal growth. You will be completely outside your comfort zone, and everything will seem different. The success of your transition will come down to whether you embrace or fear change. I am purposively trying to embrace this change after 2.5 years of working in startups. I find some days are easier than others.

• Learn a lot. As a researcher I love learning, and every aspect of your new job will entice you to learn, from the new industry-specific knowledge to how a business runs to interpersonal interactions.

• Job security. There is no end date on your employment contract!

• No (or limited) grant writing. You will have a job regardless of your grant success.

• Pay increase. Obviously depends on your financial situation, but I got a pay increase when I started work at both start-ups.

• Free meals and food. Especially when the start-up is small, and on your first day, the company will likely take you out for lunch and provide limited food in the office. They may also have a policy that if you work late, dinner is on them! Just check out the rules on these perks first.

• Fast-paced. Most projects will be for 1-2 days up to a week, anything longer is considered a long project. Once you find the answer to the client’s question, you move onto the next project. No need to spend months labouring over a manuscript.

• Data-drive decisions. The answers from one project may drive future projects, or even the direction of the business.

• Answering real-world questions. You will likely speak to the client who has the question you will answer. You can ask them the reasons why they want to know this answer which help you figure out the best method to solve their question.

• Letting go of your perfectionism. In Industry, you are considered a resource. So, the more time you spend on a project, the more resources it uses which reduces its profitability. Therefore, the time you spend perfecting the answer may be seen as a waste of resources. I found it liberating letting go of the high-level perfectionism required in academia. Instead, you simply write the unknowns as a limitation of your project/interpretation. If you value this level of perfectionism, this may be a negative of working at a start-up.

• Team spirit. Everyone is working towards the same goal with limited competition, ‘one team, one dream’!

• Meritocracy. If you produce quality work that benefits the business you will excel in a start-up, regardless of your background (and in stark contrast to ‘The Academic Hierarchy’ and ‘The Academic Playbook’.)

• Learning from your colleagues. Start-ups are a business so you will work with different types of professionals, including: marketing/sale teams, tech team, business analysts/strategists etc. All will have a unique perspective on the same problem. Listen to how they speak about a problem and a solution to learn what that team values. This will help you design research solutions that meets multiple teams needs.

• Training opportunities. Start-ups are willing to invest in training opportunities if there is a clear business case for the skill, i.e. you need to demonstrate how your proposal will save the business money or reduce costs in the long-term.

• Research authority. If few researchers work at the company you may be seen the authority or voice of research reason. This is a blessing and a curse. If you are asked questions in your field of expertise, dazzle them will your knowledge and explain your viewpoint in a way your audience will understand. If you are asked a question outside your area of expertise, give your opinion, but let them know this is an educated guess and they may want to seek expert advice.

Negatives of Doing Research At A Start-Up

• Personally challenging. It is difficult to change your academic mindset to a start-up mindset. You will go through times when you feel like a fish out of water, as everything will feel new. Hold on! In time you will become more familiar with the start-up culture and feel like it is home.

• Job security/income. If the start-up is quite young, you may actually take a pay cut and have reduced job security as you are working on a proof of concept, there is no guarantee the business will succeed. But with high risk comes high reward, if it does succeed your future earning potential will skyrocket.

• Quick and dirty research. In start-ups, the focus is on getting an answer quickly that is accurate enough, no need for perfection or additional analyses to determine how correct an answer is.

• No other researchers. Depending on the type of start-up, there will likely be few trained researchers so you need to be able to explain why and what you are doing to persons with different technical backgrounds. This will also give you an authoritative reputation as ‘the researcher’, but it can also feel quite lonely as you may have anyone else to bounce ideas off.

• Articulate your business case. If you want training or any additional resources, you need to make a business case. A business case is a logical argument demonstrating how your proposal/request will benefit the company, i.e. how will it save the business money or resources in the future? I find this quite daunting, as a researcher, I am not business-minded, but it is a required skill that I continue to work on.

• Embrace pragmatism, let go of perfectionism. As you will likely not publish any research you do at the start-up, the focus of your work will be profits over scientific merit. If you are uncomfortable giving less precise answers, you will likely find the start-up culture challenging.

• Steep learning curve. In start-ups the common methodology is Agile or Scrum. This philosophy is the antithesis of academic research. Start-ups also use a lot of programs and jargon you have likely never heard of. Just approach all of this new learning like you would learn a new content area. Find out the basics ASAP and build on those; don’t be afraid to ask ‘stupid’ questions; then wing it until it becomes second nature.

• Critiquing your colleagues work. As a researcher, you have been trained to critically analyse work, i.e. pointing out its flaws. Non-researchers may find highlighting the negatives confronting. Be mindful of this and emphasise the merits as well as the flaws of any work you review.

• Difficult to return to academia. The longer you are away from academia, the harder it will be to return to academia (if you wish in the future). As the length of time you work for a start-up, with be the length of the break in your academic track record. This break will make it difficult for you to secure your own funding, as you will be compared to researchers who stayed in academia.

Have you made the jump from academia to start ups? Hav you read any good start-up books? Let me know by leaving a comment or emailing me at AuthenticResearchExperiences@gmail.com.

BB

Photo by Efren Barahona on Unsplash

Related Blogs

'The Academic Hierarchy'

'The Academic Playbook'

I will write a new post every Friday about another aspect of the research world. Please email me to subscribe to my blog. AuthenticResearchExperiences@gmail.com

I am also an avid reader of start-up stories, or research a passionate person has embarked upon across all topics. Click here if you want some new book recommendations.