Nina Reyes’ Rise from Biochemistry to Biotech Communications
If you’ve ever researched about what impact some of the products that you use on a daily basis have on the environment, you probably know how unhealthy some of them can be. Unfortunately, a lot of these things are a must for living our daily lives, and we can’t imagine how we’d operate without them. However, some companies have put a ton of thought into how they can redesign these products to be environmentally friendly and just as effective. For this blog post, we got the pleasure of interviewing Nina Reyes, one of the founding members and the current director of communications at Checkerspot, a biotech company that develops materials using microalgae to help save our earth.
Nina’s Journey 🦋
Nina followed quite a non-linear path to get to the position she’s in today. She went to school and got her degree in biochemistry and psychology. She initially wanted to become a doctor, but as she went through school and got exposure to the real world, she had second opinions and questioned herself.
After getting the chance to work in a doctor’s office and at a hospital, she realized she couldn’t picture herself walking into the hospital everyday and just loving the work she’d do for the rest of her life.
She found herself back at square one and wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to go into.
“Then I thought I wanted to go into social work because I really love kids so I worked at a shelter for teenage girls who were pregnant or who had kids. The whole experience was just really rough. Leaving I’d cry almost every day. It was just so sad and I wasn’t sure if I could do that everyday without getting hardened.”
Two possible careers that never were — Nina was unsure what to do next. But, it just so happened that she heard a radio segment on companies that turn algae into oil for biofuels. Nina was so fascinated by it. She had an interest for sustainability, especially for finding alternatives and moving away from petroleum/fossil fuels.
“I heard about these fascinating companies doing great science on NPR radio. There was one company in the Bay Area called Solazyme and I knew that’s where I wanted to work. For three months, I looked at their website everyday and there were job openings for Ph.D. and MBA’s but nothing for an entry level position. But I knew that is where I wanted to work. And in March of 2009, I randomly ran into a college friend at a Warriors game and he serendipitously was working there. I told him, ‘I’ve been looking at your company’s website every day for three months. I want to work at your company.’ He got me an interview and that same week, I moved from LA to the Bay Area and started my career in scaling a better source of oil from microalgae.”
This goes to show that finding the job you truly love doesn’t happen in just one straight line or on one simple path — Nina didn’t know she wanted to go into biotechnology or even sustainability. She just randomly fell into it and that’s all just a part of life’s plan.
At Solazyme, she worked her way up from a lab technician to a senior research associate. There were only 35 people when she joined — she was the 36th employee. In a few years, they went up to 350 people and went through an IPO. It was Nina’s first job out of college and she learned and developed so much knowledge about business and working in the real world, which allowed her to develop many valuable skills.
Unfortunately, due numerous things, the company ended up having financial issues and she had to be let go during the second round of layoffs.
Despite this, Nina remembered that everything happens for a good reason, and things began to turn around. Two colleagues from Solazyme started her current company, Checkerspot, and she joined the founding team.
“I really believe in the microalgae platform technology and the positive impact it can have on the world. So when I joined, I was like, okay, what do you want me to do? And they’re like, anything. We didn’t have a lab yet. We didn’t have any funding yet. And, so I just started doing everything that I could. I made our first website. I ran our socials. I figured out lab space costs around the Bay Area so that when we did have funding we could jump into a lab right away. When we got funding, I continued working in the lab and doing communications.”
For five years, she was handling both the responsibilities. At the very beginning, it was dynamic and exciting because it was just a startup and everyone needed to wear a lot of hats. But, after it scaled up, Nina felt like she was doing two full time jobs simultaneously. Nina would come over on the weekends, stay up late to answer emails and do experiments. However, she was passionate about her work and enjoyed every part of it.
“Everything that I’ve learned in science and everything that I’ve learned in the lab would lead me to telling a very authentic, genuine story from the communications and marketing point of the company. I know what the technology does because I’ve done the work for the past 14 years in the lab.”
Today, Nina is both a founding member and the director of communications at Checkerspot.
Lessons Learned 🔑
1. Your network and connections are the most important thing to have. Being a good person will help you out in forging relationships. 🤝
“You can go to the best business schools, but really what matters is how you treat people. Being a good person and genuinely investing time in building friendships and relationships is so important. So if I would look at my career, for example, like the way I got my job at the first company, Solazyme, through a friend from college and how I joined Checkerspot was through my old supervisor at Solazyme. How you treat every person you encounter matters”
2. Don’t assume things will come to you naturally — work hard, build relationships, reach out, and get out there to get what you want. Set goals and be proactive to achieve them. 🏆
“At the beginning of my career, I was just kind of more shy when it came to career conversations. I just like oh, yeah if I work hard then someone will notice but now I am like, okay let’s set career goals. Let me talk to my boss. This is what I want to be in two years. How do I get from A to B? Let’s reverse engineer this..”
3. It’s easy to feel down and like a failure when something doesn’t come easy to you. Remember that it will get better and you just have to work hard! 💎
“Nothing is a failure. Everything is a lesson.”
4. Learn what gives you energy and do that. This will keep you motivated and happy, and help you to balance different aspects of your life. 😊
“I protect my energy levels at all costs. I am naturally super high energy and so I don’t drink caffeine or that will deplete my energy. I really try to do things that give me energy, not things that deplete my energy which means you have to learn what makes you feel alive. What makes you feel like you’re not working — even when it’s hard. ”
Business and Tech Tips 👔
People are right when they say working at a startup is one of the best and most impactful learning experiences.
“I love working at startups because everyone around me works towards the same mission.”
Nina also expressed this idea and shared a few takeaways from working at two startups over the past 14 years.
- The market you go after is crucial 📈
For example, making biofuels are very expensive and it would take a really long time, lots of changes to government subsidies, and a whole paradigm shift for biofuels to become as economically competitive to that of fuels. Choosing high value markets which allow you to be as close to your customers as possibly is really important.
2. Create your own brand and solidify it 💪
This is going to help establish a strong connection with your customers, make them understand the product and get their genuine reactions. This will help you to improve your products, tell a meaningful story and tailor them to the market. At the end of the day, the stronger the brand, the better you can scale your business and create a real impact.
“As a biotechnology company, we make renewable oils that make materials and ingredients. But instead of stopping at the materials or ingredients, we believe that it is our responsibility to show what is possible and de-risk adoption.”
3. Nail the price, performance, and sustainability aspects 🎯
Only if you do this, people will start to take notice of your brand and products. This will help with the spot on delivery of the brand’s purpose: to animate what the products are doing and allow customers to use it to solve the bigger problem for what your business drives for. Customers always prefer cheap prices, enhanced performance and more recently products that are good for Mother Earth. Believe it or not! But, so many people in which a large part are GenZ are more inclined to buy sustainable products because they want to reduce their carbon footprint.
4. People thrive in different work cultures. Start-ups and big companies are very different and you have to know which one will work for you. ⚒️
Startups are a lot messier. It’s definitely a lot harder. There’s no clear cut path. But, to me, that’s the fun and rewarding part- you get to create that. You build this really close knit community where you know everybody and everyone knows you. When you recognize the downsides of a startup and work towards establishing a system in place, you gain a lot of skills that you might not get the opportunity to do at a larger, more established company.
5. Always work on yourself, become self aware and build a high EQ (emotional intelligence) 🧠
This is as important as the school you went to, the degree you have, and the people you know. With a high EQ, you can motivate and inspire teams, diffuse intense situations, quickly adapt to new situations, work with a multitude of personalities across teams and verticals, as well as, knowing when you need to take a step back or take a moment for yourself.
6. For women in business — find you voice and speak up. Do what you need to do to find your voice, and don’t be afraid of sounding rude and jeopardizing your career. It’s important to let people know what you are thinking and feeling. 🔊
“I think that a lot of the time we are afraid to speak up because it might offend somebody or it might hurt our career or it might hurt our jobs. But I think finding your voice and how to speak up is one of the more important things you can do. Being silent about something that you don’t think is correct, will just perpetuate and problems won’t be solved. You just have to get your point across. The more you speak up and realize, hey, that wasn’t so tough or no one fired you, instead your voice was heard, the more you’re going to do it. But if you don’t say anything and you just like to keep it in the back of your head and you’re just thinking like, oh, I wish I said something, I wish I said, like, you know, it festers inside of you.”
Rapid Fire 🔥
- Who’s your biggest role model? Her Mom
“She came over from the Philippines to the US. And I think she just taught me everything growing up. She instilled in me discipline. She instilled in me hard work, how to persevere, how to travel, how to love to travel, just how to be adventurous, how to trust the world, and be good to people who can give you nothing in return. My mom is my biggest role model.”
- What’s your dream job if not at Checkerspot? She has her dream job!
- Do you prefer coffee or tea? Tea
- What’s your go-to comfort food? Soup
- Are you more of an introvert or extrovert? Extrovert
- What’s your favorite type of music? Depends on her mood!
- Would you rather explore space or the depths of the ocean? Space
- What’s the proudest moment in your life? Going back to the Philippines to volunteer in the community
TL;DR ✨
- Sometimes, the road you take to success won’t be the same as everyone else’s: do what feels right for you until you find something that makes you happy!
- Your network and the people you know are crucial to success.
- Work hard and don’t assume things will just come to you.
- Find your voice.
- Only do things that fuel your soul and give you energy.
- Experience gives you knowledge — you won’t know everything there is to know all at once!
