Hiring for Good is a podcast exploring the transformative power of leadership and what happens when the right person takes the job. Thank you for tuning in to this episode with Matt Beaudet, CEO of Araceli Biosciences.
About Matt Beaudet: Matt Beaudet has over twenty-five years of dedicated service in the biotech field, marked by significant roles at Molecular Probes, Life Technologies, and as co-founder and CEO of InVivo Biosystems. Now, as CEO of Araceli, Matt applies his deep expertise to advance biotechnological research and drug development platforms. His leadership is characterized by a pragmatic approach to innovative solutions and a commitment to commercialization that meets real-world needs. Outside the lab, Matt is a mentor to emerging tech startups, sharing his insights and experiences to nurture new talent in the biotech community. Holding a degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Oregon, he is passionate about leveraging science to improve health outcomes. Matt’s leadership style and achievements embody his belief in the power of technology to solve complex health challenges.
Matt Beaudet’s LinkedIn: / mattbeaudet
Hiring For Good Website: https://hiringforgood.net
Podcast on Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
Tanis Morris: Director of Business Development at Acumen Executive Search Email: tanis@acumenexecutivesearch.com
Suzanne Hanifin: President at Acumen Executive Search Email: suzanne@acumenexecutivesearch.com
Acumen Executive Search Website: https://www.acumenexecutivesearch.com/
Acumen Executive Search is the leading certified woman-owned Executive Search and advisory Firm on the West Coast. Acumen sources, attracts, and qualifies world-class executive and management talent for organizations to support them in achieving their organizational goals. Due to their focus and local network, which is both broad and deep, we are able to leverage best practices across a broad range of industries. We employ an equity lens throughout the recruitment process.
Hiring for Good Transcript
0:00 Welcome to another episode of Hiring for Good. With me as usual is my lovely
0:05 co-host Suzanne Hanifan Good morning, Suzanne. Good morning, Tanis. Hi And today
0:10 we’ll be diving into the world of biotech innovation and leadership with a guest who’s dedicated over 25 years to
0:17 advancing scientific research and commercialization. Joining us is Matt Beaudet, a visionary leader with a proven
0:25 track record in the biotech industry from his early days at Molecular Probes and Life Technologies to co-founding and
0:32 leading InVivo Biosystems, Matt has consistently pushed the boundaries of what’s possible in drug discovery and
0:38 genetic research. Now as CEO of Araceli Biosciences, Matt is leveraging
0:44 cutting-edge technology to accelerate biotechnological advancements, ensuring that groundbreaking research moves from
0:50 the lab to real-world impact. Beyond his executive roles, Matt is a dedicated
0:56 mentor to emerging startups, an advocate for practical innovation, and a firm
1:01 believer in the power of technology to solve complex health challenges, Today
1:06 we’ll explore Matt’s journey, his approach to leadership, and his insights into building teams that drive
1:11 meaningful change. Get ready for an inspiring conversation. Welcome to Hiring
1:16 for Good Matt. Oh well, thank you for having me. Yes, it’s our pleasure. Uh, we typically start out by asking our guests
1:24 to tell us just a little bit about your current project, and then you can back up
1:29 and tell us kind of your journey to get where you are today. Yeah So, I’m the CEO
1:35 of Araceli Bioscience, and uh, we make tools, instrumentation, and software that
1:42 help uh big pharma companies speed up their drug discovery process Okay and
1:47 then let’s back up and get to this like tell us the the how did you get through Yeah you know it’s it’s interesting
1:53 Obviously you know I’ve been thinking about this leading up to the this interview Um you know it started in the
1:59 in the ‘9s and you know I’d come fresh out of the University of Oregon and I
2:04 really I was just looking for a job that would uh you know I’d just gotten married and I was just looking for a job
2:10 that would help me for a year or two and I stumbled into a startup that was called uh molecular probes or I
2:17 shouldn’t call it a startup an early stage company Um and it was it was sort of in this like exciting uh growth phase
2:24 where they were doubling the revenue like like really quickly like almost every 18 months Wow And I remember that
2:29 because every 18 months we would have a pizza and ice cream party when we would
2:34 double our revenue That was the that was the reward Um but in the context of of teams and and leadership you know what
2:42 was really interesting about that specific company was that it was uh founded by Dick and Rosaria Hogland So a
2:50 husband and wife team and they had really built up this company one of the first biotech companies in Oregon, in
2:57 Eugene Actually it was first in Junction City and then in Eugene And they they
3:02 they grew it I think like a a mom and pop you know would normally It was very
3:08 people and family focused you know and so everybody who worked there had been there for a long time And I I often joke
3:16 that my position there was um so entry level that it was below the dishwasher
3:23 but that actually speaks more about the dishwasher He was somebody who had worked there for over a decade his
3:29 children had started to work there in different roles and had grown and you know in their own careers Um and that
3:36 was my entry into biotech was this this people focused uh environment and it was
3:42 a it was a big meritocracy that gave me you know when I had a little bit of success it gave me room to have even
3:49 more success and grow and then you know it was it was a really quickly growing and successful company So it got
3:55 acquired uh in 2003 I believe by Invitrogen and Invitrogen was this
4:02 aggressive very aggressive very fast growing even faster than Molecular Probes growing company and so it was
4:09 acquiring you know a couple companies well at times a couple companies a month
4:14 Wow Yeah it was it was crazy So what everything that I thought had been fast and had been um you know this
4:21 meritocracy was like put on steroids inside in vitrogen and it was
4:28 it was just a a playground for for for people for me Um and there was really
4:35 like there was two key differences between molecular probes and in vitrogen
4:41 Um you know one of them was was just that um it was because it was so fast
4:48 growing and I had this boss his name was Jerry Ruth Um and he saw that it was it
4:53 was this wild west sort of environment and that um you know hesitation would
4:59 kill you and being fast acting was was how you could find success And he
5:05 encouraged me to like really lean into that And there was this uh there was this one time where um you know we uh
5:14 needed somebody down in California and he’s like nobody was raising their hand and I said I’ll go and so they sent me
5:21 and it turned out they were looking for a representative for the entire business unit a you know multi-million dollar you
5:29 know hund00 million business unit and I was 26 years old I was relatively low in the
5:37 and Jerry Ruth had really enabled me to go there and just represent all of us
5:43 and the company was growing so quickly that I then became kind of the de facto representative of that business unit for
5:50 this one area Um it was it was super exciting The other part that I really I
5:55 really learned and I learned a lot of this from um a different boss of mine named uh Chokkalingam Palaniappan and
6:02 so he goes by Palani Uh but that was really how to be an entrepreneur You know that was how you know you could you
6:09 could go out and you could um pitch your ideas and find money for your your
6:15 projects and and find success internally mm um and so you know and it really what
6:23 it literally meant was that if your own boss or boss’s boss would not fund your project you could go to some other
6:28 business unit and get money for it which was politically very dangerous but career-wise very lucrative for me Wow
6:36 Yeah And and so and and really at that and that it was during that time at Invivo or sorry at Invitrogen where I
6:42 really started to grow my own team um you know and I had these two great role models Jerry Ruth and Palani that
6:49 were showing me how you enable people as a way to um to to find success for
6:56 yourself and for the company and and so that’s what I I learned a lot about that at in at Invitrogen and I I really tried
7:04 to emulate it later on Um and it was actually you know the company continued to grow until it was no longer that that
7:10 really rich uh dynamic environment it was you know it was approaching you know 10,000 people and it was getting
7:17 acquired by Thermo uh which is one of the largest biotechs in the world and it
7:22 was at that time that I really um was contemplating striking out on my own and
7:28 it was Palani again who had encouraged me to uh you know why don’t you start your own company and so I left and I I I
7:36 started my own company it was called Cellfire I started with uh Shula Jaron and Richard Furkett
7:43 two close friends of mine and the company was just this amazing failure It it like it was it was not just that it
7:50 failed It like it was it just died like in the middle of the street And and it
7:57 was really then that I real it was like a rude awakening that I saw that um you know everything that I had thought that
8:03 you know I’d learned about um entrepreneurship was really entrepreneurship and that it was this
8:09 whole other world of figuring out how to find capital how to form companies how to even find customers how to do all of
8:15 that stuff um when you’re on your own that I just didn’t know how to do And so I I was um I was lamenting this with a
8:23 couple people uh Shula again uh as well as Joe Marushak and Jason Boon about how
8:29 there wasn’t the infrastructure in Oregon to help startups start up And so
8:36 we started a nonprofit to help startups start up So uh the irony here of course
8:42 was that I had no idea how to help startups start up but we started a nonprofit to do it And it it really
8:49 worked We we got these amazing speakers to come in We got successful entrepreneurs to just start hanging out
8:56 there We we even got funding and could hold pitch competitions And you know and
9:01 I saw and and it attracted other companies that were further along than than me and and it really gave me this
9:08 this great ground you know work of like how other people were doing it Um and so
9:13 with that I I met these two professors at the University of Oregon uh Janice Weekes and Sean Lachery and they had
9:19 this great technology and this this beginning of a company but they needed somebody with more of a business and
9:25 biotech background And so I I joined that That company was called Neometrics We later uh rebranded it as Invivo Biosystems
9:32 And and that was that was my like my first real playground of my own
9:40 to to try to translate all those things that I had I had learned at Molecular Probes and InVitrogen um and even at
9:48 Cellfire and try to translate it How do I build that same team You know that both the teams that that we care for
9:56 each other and the teams that are growing and dynamic and aggressive um in
10:01 in my own company Um Yeah No And and it’s really interesting You talked about
10:06 kind of burning and crashing and burning and how we learn so much more when we
10:12 fall down and skin our knee than we get a gold medal Right Yeah Yeah And I bet you’ve have I mean looking back what
10:21 were some of those big learnings like you today you go God we were so naive or we should have done this or
10:28 what was it Yeah You know there’s there’s so many of them
10:36 but you know it’s it’s interesting I say it I say it all the time that I aim for
10:44 70% success Um you know and part of that is
10:49 a little bit that you learn from your failures but also part of it is you know you’ve got to be really leaning forward
10:55 enough that you’re having that you’re failing some of the time to to actually just achieve that that speed yeah that
11:01 you want You know when I think back about some of my biggest failures it’s it’s not um you know I’ve had huge
11:08 projects multi-million dollar projects that have that have failed So where I have burned millions of dollars and I
11:16 I’ve never really looked at those as my big failures because they usually were paired with some other success before
11:22 after So I felt like it was in those in sort of that that math it worked My
11:28 biggest failures actually are always um you the ones that I think about a lot are always about the people you know and
11:35 and I think you know I think you had a question that you you had suggested maybe you’re going to ask me that was
11:41 about you know if you could go back in time Yeah And you know when I read that I immediately knew what what it was Um
11:48 you know there was this this one time where uh very early on when I was a very young manager that uh you know somebody
11:55 who reported to me somebody under me had been working on this project um in amongst a team and in an all employee
12:02 meeting 2-300 people the president got up and thanked the the members of that
12:07 team and he omitted her and I I I didn’t
12:13 I didn’t speak up and I I didn’t correct him and you know and I didn’t stand up
12:19 for her and it’s it’s really her name was Bethany Sutton She was she was
12:24 really an amazing person who has gone on to have great success and I knew what
12:30 was the right thing to do and I I didn’t do it and I didn’t stand up for her and
12:36 you know I think that that’s that’s the thing that’s really stuck with me is events like those that is so it really
12:44 speaks to your heart I think of who you are like the the thing that’s keeping you up at night after all these years
12:50 and I mean it we we will tag Bethany on LinkedIn for this article We will let
12:56 her know that she deserves to be recognized for her work But I mean it’s kind of like um really telling I think
13:02 about probably who you are as a leader that that um your focus is is on the
13:08 human element Um absolutely And it’s interesting because we have these values
13:14 that as a leader um we do operationalize
13:20 those values in our businesses And so here you’ve gone through a name change
13:25 You’re having great success I believe you just received some some additional capital Yeah As as Eric said Oh yes Yeah
13:33 I know And so what are some of these values that you really try to
13:39 incorporate into the business Not just as like these are our company values but
13:45 really operationalizing those Yeah You know it’s uh my two biggest values and
13:51 the ones that I like I interview for and I just tell people this you know when I’m interviewing them is I’m really
13:56 looking for empathy and positivity Um and there’s there’s really two different
14:02 reasons for each No I’m going to interrupt because that’s not common for scientific research and development is
14:09 the empathy That’s interesting Well you know at the end of the day what empathy is is where you’re able to stand in
14:15 somebody else’s shoes and see things from their perspective And you know I
14:20 think especially in the scientific domain um well in the biotech where you’re creating tools for other people
14:28 you’re needing to understand what are your customers looking for you know and
14:33 even in in a regulated environment what’s the FDA like How can I put myself in an auditor’s shoes How can I put
14:40 myself in a customer’s shoes How can I see it from their perspective How they’re going to interpret this or their
14:45 needs or what’s keeping them up at night And science is such a team-based effort
14:51 that also being able to put yourself in the shoes of the person to your right and to your left that you work with
14:57 every day is is really critical to get that high performing team And then the
15:03 positivity is because you know you you’re stuck with these people for a long time So you don’t really want you
15:09 don’t want a downer on the team Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah But and it is actually pretty easy to interview for those
15:15 things too That’s really interesting Actually I I really love the idea of um
15:22 I what you’re saying makes a ton of sense but I love the idea of like kind
15:28 of looking for the the positive scientists that that also can really I I
15:34 I would think honestly um you know when people go into careers
15:39 in the sciences their training is as a scientist So it’s kind of has to be
15:45 endemic to who they are to to be able to like really kind of you know think
15:51 through how others would be feeling And I could see how that would be a very um you know highly highly coveted skill
15:59 as a for your team Um backing up just a tiny bit going you know you talked about
16:06 like what keeps you up at things that that you kind of go back to
16:12 what what were what were the other most formative actual experiences and what
16:18 did they teach you Do you mind just speaking to that Yeah you know um there there’s really been two big
16:26 events that I again I think back on often um with really positive feelings
16:32 that that they were just so just great Um one of them was back god I can’t quite remember the year but a long time
16:39 ago and I was I was bringing this this device to the market I had worked really
16:44 closely with this woman named Jill Hendrickson She and I were um business partners for like decade decade and a
16:50 half a long time And we had we had been working to bring this great device to the market It was it was groundbreaking
16:57 for many reasons Um you know one of them that I loved was just that it was race car red It was just beautiful Um but it
17:05 it we’re bringing it into a blue ocean market There wasn’t that much competition but we knew that this was a
17:10 big opportunity And so we had really been been building up for this launch
17:16 And you know again millions of dollars lots of effort lots of people a big team
17:21 And um we had this great woman named Winland Hu that was doing our marketing And she had done this great job to
17:28 actually build up some some demand before it was even launched And when it launched we almost immediately fell into
17:35 a multi-million dollar back order which is which is exciting It’s like a champagne Yes Yeah
17:42 Um but we also immediately fell into some of those standard things that happen at the first of a launch Uh there
17:50 was there was a hardware problem there was a software problem there was um supply chain issues um there was a storm
17:58 with ice and and stuff things were getting caught in cost customs Um and so
18:04 you know we faced up against this uh my boss again at the time was Palani and
18:11 and he was like you know I don’t know how to fix this but you do so just go do it and we had such a team that was so
18:18 excited by this and emboldened and enabled by this and I think a little bit
18:24 even young enough that we thought that we could actually fix anything um that
18:29 we we went ahead and we did it Um we actually took over the entire lunchroom in the company um for for weeks and
18:37 weeks Uh we set up you know almost around the clock shifts over the weekend through holidays Um really opening boxes,
18:46 fixing issues, updating software, QCing, repackaging, you know adding little notes to the customer, all of that, and shipping
18:52 these out Wow And it became one of no it became the largest launch a successful
18:59 launch in the company’s history And it was all these people these these young people you know Laurel Stone, Adam Zaner,
19:05 Chrissy Rimple, Nancy Annard, Rob Bachelor, you know that had really just put in the the work to make this be a success Um
19:14 and what I really saw was you know it was that that energy of a team that can
19:19 come together and work together and again be positive and empathetic to each other that enabled this dramatic success
19:28 Isn’t it amazing when you are part of a team and see
19:33 what you know everybody can do and it’s so uplifting I you will carry that for
19:42 your entire life because that’s that’s incredible and to be part of that that’s awesome Yeah it really was The the other
19:50 story that I think about um I think about a lot was at the very very
19:55 beginning of the pandemic Um so I had so this was InVivo Biosystems
20:02 and at the very beginning of the pandemic I was or right before the
20:07 pandemic I was raising um an investment round and I you know I had investors
20:12 lined up I was starting to hire um for that that future money that was about to
20:18 come in really ramping up our sales organization I had about 50 employees and then really literally overnight
20:26 everything stopped. Our customers you know they couldn’t get into their labs
20:31 they didn’t need us The ones prog uh projects that were in flight they called
20:36 and paused them all Um the investors canled their investment and you know
20:43 every single adviser I had Were you the CEO at the time I was the CEO Okay Okay Yeah Thanks And so um
20:51 and you know every single adviser I had called me up proactively called me up
20:58 and they said you know fire as many people as you can stomach Oh God You
21:03 know cut as deep as you can Go down to the bone Um and and I really I had a
21:11 great uh chairman of the board at the time Um a good friend uh one of my best adviserss I’ve ever had a guy named Rick
21:18 Miller uh you know a larger than-l life figure And he is he he built up a senior
21:24 care um empire Um but he is so he has such a
21:31 strong belief that the decisions we make can positively impact people and that’s
21:37 how he’s built up his business and it’s how he runs you know his his employees
21:42 under him And I really I went home and I sat with with everything that I’d
21:48 learned from Rick I sat and I thought all the way back to Molecular Probes and how it treated its employees like family
21:55 And I sat with what what did I want to do at this moment And it was really within like 24 hours I I came back and I
22:03 called everybody together and I I said you know I’m going to give everybody a
22:08 haircut So my own salary went to zero My managers under me their salary was cut
22:14 in half The ones under them had a 25% reduction And everybody else retained
22:19 their full salary And I said “We’re not going to fire anybody and this won’t be the only haircut that we do but you know
22:26 I’m going to keep it going with healthcare as long as I can you know cuz at that time like I had no idea whether
22:32 this was a this was a month problem or whether you know people were going to be dying and and this was the end Yeah Um I
22:39 mean not quite that dramatic but it felt like it We didn’t know Yeah I remember
22:45 really kind of being like a deer in the headlights and I don’t you know at that time there was only seven of us and
22:52 going “What am I going to do?” And that frozen
22:58 I have no idea Yeah And I went back to to those these thinking about molecular
23:04 probes and Rick Miller and I thought I thought two things I have a job to do
23:09 Yeah And I have I have a duty to everybody that works for me and at the
23:14 exact same time that I have a duty to the company and to with retain its value
23:20 And our highest value is our people And so that was the decision that I felt was
23:26 going to protect people and retain the value of the company and and it worked
23:32 You know we we did make it through there and we you know we made it through the other side Um you know and like I said
23:39 we retained the value of the company Absolutely And I bet your employees and
23:45 again looking back I can’t believe it’s been you know five years Yeah You know
23:50 when that first shutdown in fact this month five years ago the world shut down
23:56 Yeah And um it’s amazing to think it just seems like so science fiction that
24:04 but um the lost years of our lives No I know like I wish it was a book No Um but
24:10 looking at your teams and your employees do do they understand and recognize the
24:16 the sacrifice And well I want to be I want to be careful there because you
24:22 know this wasn’t a gigantic sacrifice okay you know and this wasn’t this was a
24:28 decision that I felt was the right one for people and for the company you know
24:33 and so you know this definitely was not a a martyr sort of situation I believe
24:39 that it was you know and I was open with the employees you know this is why I’m making these decisions please give me
24:45 your guidance as well um although I will say at that exact moment um because I
24:52 was getting so much advice that I was not believing in that I I did become
24:57 much more narrow in my acceptance of outside advice during that time That’s interesting too How did it go when you
25:04 went back to your advisory board or the investors who were you know telling you
25:09 to It is funny you know I I you know I I have board meetings regular board
25:15 meetings and I made this decision outside of the board and so I came back and I just said you know I I was holding
25:22 emergency board meetings at that time and I just said this is what I’m doing and um you know and everybody everybody
25:28 believed that that was the right decision and so they they got behind me you know and it was there was a lot of
25:34 clarity in that in that those moments Absolutely Yeah So when you look today
25:40 then on building teams we talked about these two key characteristics but how do you go about
25:49 today adding growing Is there a strategy Is there
25:56 um well in the context of teams Yes there is um you know and and actually if
26:02 you go back and like re-evaluate some of these stories in this context one of the big things that I have
26:08 learned over the years was what I said I I’m aiming for 70% you know success and you know lots
26:18 of people believe that means that I dive into risk that I I like risk and the
26:25 truth is is it’s the other way around I’m actually highly risk risk adverse
26:30 but instead I I like to think that I’m strategically risk adverse And what I
26:36 look for in my leadership team is people that are also strategically risk adverse
26:42 And what I mean by that is you know we can all see that if we do an action
26:48 perhaps we’re risking losing a key customer or maybe the R&D project’s
26:53 going to fail or the marketing is going to be a flop or we’re going to spend money and we’re going to waste you know
27:00 some of it Those are all micro risks The big risk that’s really everpresent for a
27:08 startup is that you are going to take too long you will burn your money your
27:14 competitors will get there before you that you will miss the boat That’s the big risk that keeps me
27:21 up at night and keeps my team up at night So I have these two leaders right now um Sean McDonald and Scott Igel And
27:29 they are both on the scale of things conservative fellows um you know they’re
27:35 they they’re very well thought out with what they do and you know and they they really put a lot of planning into all of
27:42 their efforts They also are two of my boldest leaders and I and it’s because I
27:48 really feel like and I learn a lot from them They they um they are that perfect
27:54 like strategic risk aversion We know that if we do nothing or if we take too
27:59 long we will fail Therefore let’s do this quick Let’s try something that
28:05 itself is risky because it decreases the big risk That’s fascinating And I wonder
28:11 I mean it’s probably hard to fully calibrate that Do you have any way to to
28:18 kind of measure or or or make plans or is it just kind of like well we know we need to do it so let’s go And yeah well
28:26 at the end of the day I think it’s that you know this is why I say 70% because if I feel like people are very uh like
28:34 if they’re just foolishly risk tolerant then their failure rate gets to down to 60 or 50% And if they are not um if they
28:43 don’t understand that strategic side of it then their failure rate is is you know 20 you know like they’re
28:51 so that that’s how I calibrate it Yes I actually love this topic of conversation
28:56 I don’t know that we’ve ever had someone articulate this kind of you know impetus
29:01 for movement and you know like talking about risk in this exact way I I really I like the idea that you’re sharing It’s
29:09 it’s very cool Well and and it made me kind of go down the same same line of
29:14 thinking that here you have the same organization for a number of years but
29:19 you’ve had major changes not just a name change but other really big changes And
29:29 again it’s easy to keep doing what we do but talk about some of the those changes
29:35 and what helped you through it Well so I’m actually with a new organization a new company for the last nine months So
29:43 Matt all of this is so interesting I’m wondering if you can talk a little bit about your current project and kind of
29:50 catch it So we’ve kind of gone through you know all of these different learnings and experiences When did you move over to
29:57 Araceli And are you the actual you’re the founder correct Or of Araceli No actually So Araceli is super
30:04 interesting So I I had a great time with Invivo Biosystems and building it up
30:09 over a decade and really you know it was this great founding team with Sean Lachi
30:14 and Janice Weeks and uh quickly joined by Cat McCormack who was my second command for so long Um and that company
30:23 underwent a lot of evolution during that time And the the last evolution that it
30:29 really had to take was um so it was a it was a service company that was helping
30:34 other people uh find and develop drugs or therapeutics And along the way it had
30:40 picked up some potential therapeutic uh leads itself And the next evolution was
30:45 really to focus on those And that’s not something that’s you know a passion of
30:50 mine or even something that I’m that good at And but it is for Cat McCormick And so you know I transitioned the
30:58 company over to being led by her And it was around that time that I met a a a
31:03 guy named Bill Cordaloo And he was the CEO of a company company called Fosion
31:10 which is in the semiconductor space But he had been taking some of his learnings
31:15 in that industry and had done this beginning of a company called Aricelli
31:21 that took all of the that capability the the industrialization the high throughput
31:27 the high speed um very high or low tolerance for um for error and
31:33 translated that to that early stage of drug discovery equipment and that equipment those tools Is something that
31:39 I’ve always been excited by and worked in and that where I was successful at uh
31:44 InVitrogen And so um over the course of uh pretty short amount of time um I was
31:53 surprised that it was a good fit for me and him and I came on and took over that
31:59 company as CEO And and so fairly new but
32:04 I think it’s interesting that you said you know he came from an industry that
32:09 really is about effect efficiencies processes
32:15 How is that adapting into more of the research creative let’s
32:21 figure out a way of doing things It’s we’re right now in the middle of a
32:26 revolution in how drugs are being discovered Now in the farm industry a
32:32 revolution usually takes one to two decades So it’s it it’s been going on
32:38 for a little while and it’s uh it still has a lot of room in front of it but it’s um simplistically called AI driven
32:45 drug discovery But the truth is how do you generate um massive amounts of data
32:53 that has both um both in scale and depth and use something that’s way beyond
32:59 Excel spreadsheets to uh correlate that to clinical trials to other publications
33:05 to chemical structures and come up with unique insights that can find therapeutics that perhaps would never
33:12 have been possible before Um and that’s the revolution that’s going on right now But it requires that scale and that
33:20 process um of of experimentation that can’t really be done with the equipment
33:26 that’s around today And we’re one part of that puzzle of industrializing that
33:32 process you know that’s a little scary to to be honest and and fascinating at
33:38 the same time because a lot of the research is out there and again having
33:45 AI or something saying now there’s a correlation between this and this let’s
33:50 put that together I mean it’s an exciting time and I have a feeling it’s
33:56 going to just like the information like speed up I do want to be cautious here
34:01 that the um All of this AI is meant to find the potential hits right It still
34:09 goes through the same process for safety and efficacy that it always has But you
34:14 know the thing that’s really frustrated me my entire career is how drugs are
34:20 currently developed And you know I don’t want to get into the weeds of it but really what it is is a pharma company
34:26 makes a bet They think if we fix this one thing then we will have a drug and
34:31 that drug will be worth so much money that we can we can uh afford all of this
34:37 work It takes 14 years and to get one success costs a billion dollars but only
34:43 10% of their efforts are successful I think it’s less than it’s like seven
34:49 it’s it’s been increasing over the year-over-year and so you know so it’s it’s depends on how you measure but it’s
34:54 close to 10% now But that means that all those failures the billions that went into failures are
35:02 they they burden the the successes So that means that we can only or they will
35:08 only look for therapeutics for diseases that affect enough people and are severe
35:14 enough that the payoff works And so rare diseases which is a really low bar for
35:20 what a rare disease is So if you know somebody that has a disease but you only know one person that has that disease
35:27 it’s a rare disease And so that one person does not cross the threshold for
35:32 being worthy of getting a therapeutic made for them And so we have to change
35:39 that And you know one of the things that that has driven me forever is that I believe we can change it And I believe
35:45 that we can change it in um a time span so that I can see people’s lives get
35:51 saved because of the work that you know I’ve been a part of and invivo bios
35:56 systems definitely had those successes and you know and I believe Araceli is that next step where we do that even
36:03 faster and so you know right now it’s a little bit of a crazy time in bioscience
36:09 we’re speaking just in the wake of um potential federal funding cuts and other things that are going to really impact
36:16 this ecosystem It’s going to probably turn into even more of a battle to access
36:23 funds to create solutions You’ve just had a win What do
36:29 you think was a differentiator in your message Is is it just is it you know are
36:35 when you speak about increasing the equitable you know
36:41 access to to to therapeutics you know making that more accessible to everybody
36:47 who needs it or something that’s that’s a message that’s like really inspiring if you’re talking about decreasing the
36:53 time that it takes to develop these solutions That’s really inspire what part of you know your solution or your
37:01 message do you think is resonating with investors and and you know what do you
37:07 see for the future Well yeah so you know we’re still early stage you know we have
37:12 a number of customers a number of very big customers but we’re still relatively early stage um and so is that that
37:20 revolution that transition in the overall market So the thing that speaks to our investors right now is that we
37:26 have big customers that are paying half a million dollars to buy some of our equipment um you know at a pop Yeah And
37:33 and so it’s it’s really that traction Yeah I mean that that’s very impressive if you’re early stage to have to have
37:39 those Absolutely So it’s just econom Okay It’s like but but still um well
37:46 it’s good to hear that you’re on sound fiscal ground and you have an inspiring message Absolutely And I was going to
37:54 say you do need to add passion and and make a third one because listening to
37:59 you and seeing the body language you can you can feel the passion that it’s Yeah
38:06 it’s it’s absolutely true It is a very exciting time Again a little on the scary side sometimes but exciting to see
38:13 what the next 10 years will bring Oh yeah Oh yeah So as you know this podcast
38:19 is called Hiring for Good and it’s nuanced to where it means something
38:24 different for everyone What does it mean for you You know it’s interesting One of the
38:32 things that I I really strongly believe is that I’m on my own growth journey Um
38:38 you know I’m not I’m not fully baked you know I’m still I’m still evolving and so
38:44 is everybody else that I hire you know and we’re each in just a different part
38:50 of our trajectory But when I think about hiring for good what I think about is how do you find those matches in in in
38:58 trajectory you know not we’re not in the same place but we’re on the same curve you know and I I’ve talked about this
39:04 before but you know my own view of the of my role in in Araceli my own view of
39:11 Araceli’s role in Oregon and my own view of Oregon’s role in the overall
39:18 economy is that we’re really trying to make these opportunities for people to
39:24 find their own passion and to find career growth but and even personal
39:30 growth um along the way and and I somewhat jokingly say so that they can
39:36 they can find a place that they’re happy enough to stay in that they can go and they can get married and buy a house and
39:45 get a dog and and have children and all along that way they can continue to
39:51 develop and grow here in Oregon I love that No it’s again it’s it’s about
39:58 bigger than you bigger than an individual It’s the community Absolutely
40:05 I cannot thank you enough Matt for joining us today This has been so much
40:10 fun and I’ve learned a lot Yeah Yeah I loved it I knew you would be an amazing guest I was lucky enough to um you know
40:18 first chat with you about a year ago at a bio event and I was just like this is a CEO the world needs to hear from It’s
40:24 a great message Well thank you I’ve really appreciated the the space for introspection So awesome Thank you very
40:31 much Thanks Thanks for joining us today at Hiring for Good If you were inspired by our conversation don’t forget to like
40:38 follow and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts And if you want to learn more about our executive search services
40:44 check us out at www.hiringforgood.net or our company website Acumen Executive Search Thanks
40:52 so much and don’t forget to join us next time for another in-depth conversation about transformational leadership. Until
40:58 then have fun!