Business Development meets Antibody Validation – Entering Biotech as a Young Professional

Business Development meets Antibody Validation – Entering Biotech as a Young Professional

Do you consider working as a business development manager, maybe in a biotech company? In this interview, Gregor Jainta from PEPperPRINT GmbH talks about tasks, responsibilities and important skills as a business developer in a growing company.
Gregor Jainta

What is your background, and where do you work now?
I studied Biotechnology in Cottbus-Senftenberg (BSc) and Regenerative Biology and Medicine in Dresden (MSc). Since mid-2017 I have been working as business development manager at PEPperPRINT in Heidelberg, Germany.

What does PEPperPRINT do?
PEPperPRINT is a young biotech company and has 25 employees. We offer a broad portfolio of both off-the-shelf pre-designed peptide microarrays as well as the possibility to individually design custom-made high-density peptide microarrays. Those arrays can be used by scientist to validate and characterize life science, therapeutic or diagnostic antibodies. Moreover our products can be used to discover novel serum biomarkers to treat or to diagnose auto-immune, infectious or cancer diseases. We offer these microarrays for direct use in the lab, but we also offer a complete analysis service, including performing the experiments, data quantification and, reporting of the results. We have distributors and international sales representatives all over the world, including North- and South America, Asia, and Europe of course.
PEPperPRINT - antibody meets validation

When did you decide to work as a business developer, and how did you get your current position?
I was actually already quite well informed about the different opportunities besides academia when I was studying. I was participated in two different bio student initiatives that aim at informing and connecting life science students with industry. I was volunteering in the local management board of the biotechnology student initiative btS e.V. in Dresden, and I also organized business lectures in the context of an EU-project for “Effective Technology Transfer in Biotechnology”.
As part of my master studies, I worked on my graduation thesis at F. Hoffmann - La Roche as research intern. Although I was working one year in Basel, I never really got into contact with that part of the company because the department for pharma research and early development was quite separate from the marketing and business units. I have used networking opportunities to get in touch with people from other areas to get more insights into different job profiles.
After the internship, I knew quite sure that I wouldn’t stay in academia forever, but it still felt right to continue with a PhD. Especially in life sciences this is a natural decision: Most of the studies at university are very research-focused, and many students feel that this is the way to go.
I started my PhD in Mannheim at Heidelberg University and became member of another bio student society (BioContact e.V.), which organizes career events for life scientists. I was in my second year of the PhD when I was offered this job via a friend from BioContact. I decided to take the opportunity and soon after started as business development manager at PEPperPRINT in Heidelberg.

What are your daily tasks and responsibilities as a business development manager?
Business development is a combination of sales, marketing, project management and strategy planning. The role of a business developer is very diverse and can be very different at different companies I’d say.
However, the focus as a business developer is always to grow and develop further the company, in all aspects regarding sales, marketing, strategy.
In my daily tasks, our customers always come first. This makes me a project-, product and sales manager. I am responsible for acquisition of new clients and for the design of quotes for (potential new) customers. I also support clients in their individual project design using our products. I answer questions about our portfolio, products and possible research solutions. Since most of our customers are scientists, I wouldn’t be able to do this without a background in sciences.
In addition, I am also responsible for marketing campaigns including advertisement, website, newsletter, conferences, corporate design and social media. I support the international sales team, represent the company at international meetings, conferences and road-shows. I am also responsible for entering new markets and strategic competitive pricing. Every day is different for me. I would say I spend about 70% at the office in Heidelberg, and 10% each on (re-)presenting PEPperPRINT at conferences; attending networking events; and visiting clients on-site.

Which skills does a business developer need in a position like yours?
I think as a business developer you need to be self-assertive, but also open to new ideas and solutions. I’d call this a “business attitude”. Strong communication skills are essential: First, I need to make sure to provide the right information at the right time to my colleagues. Next to that, I need to sense the personality of a (new) customer quickly and react to it. Networking skills are useful in any job, together with experiences in an international environment. Since we have so many international clients, English is a must. In my specific role a biomedical science background is also indispensable. Finally, there is nearly always a lot of things going on, so multi-tasking skills are also very useful.

What do you consider the most exciting about your position?
Every customer has a different question or hypothesis to work with. I need to understand their scientific problem or question and provide guidance on how to come to an answer with our product portfolio. If we provide our full service, the customer sends the samples for analysis. The obtained results I communicate to the customer, answer questions and advice on potential follow-up projects.
I like this part a lot: Were we able to answer the question what the customer initially had and were we able to deliver the right product as a solution? I really enjoy this kind of helping and providing support to scientists, and it is every time a feeling of success if we were able to successfully finish a research project.

What was the most difficult for you when you started the job, coming from research?
I needed to get to know all the different products we offer, be able to explain them to the customer and advice on the best strategy. In the meantime, I can tell you everything about in the middle of the night, but in the beginning, I really had a lot to learn.
In addition, even though I would say I have a good self-esteem, I still needed to gain a certain amount of assertiveness and demeanor. I think if you do a PhD and lead your own project for some years, this is something that you learn there. You develop yourself personally in a relatively “safe” environment. I think I underwent the same personal development in my role as business developer, maybe even faster. However, in a company, there is always also a lot of money involved, which makes it a different experience. I was only five weeks in the job when I was sent to the AACC in San Diego, where I had to represent the company to 20,000 visitors! That was very exciting.

What are the greatest challenges for you now, after more than 1.5 years on the job?
I didn’t study specifically biochemistry nor protein sciences, so sometimes I reach my limits in terms of scientific knowledge. Luckily, we have bright minds with a lot of experience in this in our research team, which I can always ask for help.
In addition, some of our customers and clients are senior scientists or managers with many years of experience. When I go to a meeting as a young business developer of not even 30 years and meet these experienced people, I can still sometimes get a little nervous.

What are your plans for the future?
We will get two new people for our business development in the next weeks, and I will be leading the team. In addition, I am planning to start a part-time Master of business administration at the University of Frankfurt. This is an MBA specifically for pharma management, full master studies alongside my work.
This means I will have bi-weekly classes on Friday afternoons/evenings and on Saturdays for 1.5 years. The last six months I will write a master thesis at PEPperPRINT, where I will address a real challenge from our company.
I think it is important to do this step and I am looking forward to the challenge, even though I think it will be an intense time. But I am always eager to develop myself further, and I think it will help me grow both personally and professionally.

We thank Gregor Jainta from PEPperPRINT GmbH for this interview and his insights into his path and current work as business developer!
You can find more information about PEPperPRINT, their peptide platform and products on their website.
PEPperPRINT

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