There aren’t less women in biology—they just ditched postdocs
AnimalBiome is science for pets. This startup is looking at the gut health of your cats and dogs to remedy the chronic conditions that so many of them (and their owners) deal with.
Co-founders Holly Ganz (CEO) and Kari Goodman (Data Scientist) recently sat down to talk about their experience transitioning from academia to entrepreneurship.
What problem are you trying to solve with AnimalBiome?
H: AnimalBiome is creating new diagnostics and therapeutics to treat the nine million cats and dogs living in the US with chronic digestive conditions.
How did you become interested in biotech?
H: We both came from academia where we were studying biology and using genetics and other technological approaches to study biology.
What’s the field of biology like for women right now?
H: In PhD programs, more than 50% of the students are female. But there’s been a lot of talk about the leaky pipeline and the fact that it’s not necessarily translating into those women becoming faculty members. So there are still challenges within academia for women.
Did you have any female mentors when you were starting your business?
H: While we were doing the IndieBio program, there were a number of female entrepreneurs who provided mentorship to us as a new company, and their insights were invaluable.
K: We met some really interesting females in the business world. To us, being in business is fairly new, and so everybody we meet is interesting in some way. I’d say, in my previous science career, because of the fact that there are fewer women in tenure top roles, there are fewer female mentors available.
H: They talk about the leaky pipeline with women going from becoming a PhD to becoming faculty, and it tends to happen during the postdoc period. And I think this is a key area actually for innovation.
Why don’t as many females progress to top roles in academia?
K: There are a variety of reasons, and some of it has to do with hiring practices. At universities, it’s more likely that female academics will be married to male academics and spousal hires can be difficult at colleges. So often you end up with the male leading and the female following, and so I think oftentimes females will choose to just do something else.
H: A lot of these women who choose not to pursue academic jobs, including us, are interested in starting companies and exploring ways to translate their research into useful things in the world.
What can we do to support women in academia and fix the leaky pipeline?
H: A really critical thing for having women advance within academia is for them to receive academic awards, for them to be invited to give prominent talks at conferences, and for them to be included in speaker panels, which historically they have been underrepresented on.
What accomplishment are you most proud of in AnimalBiome?
K: I think the thing that we’re most proud of is we have customers who are thrilled that we’ve made a difference in their pets’ lives. We have this remedy that’s working really well, and we have some customers that claim to be so happy that they’ve cried. It’s just made a life changing difference for some of them, so that is something that I am most proud of.
What was your experience like at IndieBio overall?
H: It was very positive. I think we wouldn’t have started a company if we hadn’t been able to do the IndieBio program. Having access to business mentorship as well as laboratory space was critical for us in our early stages. We feel the SOSV network has been tremendously valuable for us. The annual Skydive founder’s event connected us with potential investors, and we’ve learned skills for how to better sell our products, how to growth hack, how to talk to investors and raise Series A financing, among other things.
K: Having a network, like the cohort we went through the program with — watching them grow and learning from them was also useful.
Tell us about the Purina award!
We recently learned that we were awarded the Petcare Innovation Prize. It’s sponsored by Purina, and the award goes to five companies focused on pets and improving their quality of life. That could be a range of things from toys to healthcare products like AnimalBiome.
You were in the 4th IndieBio cohort. Do you have any words of advice for new companies who are following in your footsteps and joining the accelerator program?
H: I think you have to be a little bit crazy to start a company, but it’s totally worth it, and amazingly exciting every day.
Do you have advice for female entrepreneurs?
H: My advice for female entrepreneurs is to seek out other female entrepreneurs for mentorship. They’re a tremendous resource, and they’ve seen it all.
K: — and they really want to help, and will try and connect you with resources when they can.
What’s next for AnimalBiome?
H: AnimalBiome is still raising our Seed Round, and is looking to grow the business. We are currently increasing our revenue month over month, and growing our team.
“I think you have to be a little bit crazy to start a company, but it’s totally worth it, and amazingly exciting every day.”
This interview was lightly edited.
Connect with AnimalBiome at animalbiome.com. Want to turn your scientific research into a business? Apply to IndieBio!
