Your startup can attract top talent with a dream, a promise, and a mission.
However, retaining them? That’s another story.
The Talent War Nobody Warned You About
The Bay Area biotech job market is red hot. As of 2024, California’s life sciences sector has over 330,000 employees and generates over $200 billion in annual revenue (via the California Life Sciences Association).
This means that if you want to stand out from the competition and hire the best, you need to have the resources to keep them. As an early-stage startup founder, you’re trying to recruit top talent to generate data needed to raise the money to build the type of lab to attract top talent. You know you need scientists who are hungry for success, but how do you find them and keep them?
Why Top Scientists Actually Leave
The good news is that you can attract them by providing lab equipment and space. Here’s the kicker: This is also the number one reason that top biotech scientists leave startups.
A 2024 Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) Startup Scientist Survey reveals that 61% of scientists have left a startup due to lack of access to equipment and technology.
The next most common reasons cited include:
- 54% for limited career growth and learning opportunity, and
- 47% due to a lack of scientific community and collaboration.
The number four reason for scientist departures was pay, making it the most common reason.
The Infrastructure Gap: What Your Scientists Actually Need
There’s no getting around it, your startup needs to provide state-of-the-art equipment, lab space, and a thriving ecosystem of colleagues to attract top talent.
World-Class Equipment, Day One
Scientists are inspired by access to the latest technology, and state-of-the-art equipment is the best recruiting tool you could ever hope for. If you have access to equipment that your competitors don’t, you’ll be able to hire employees who want to learn and utilize those cutting edge tools.
But the cost of equipment to make a fully functional lab could take a seven figure sum. And that doesn’t even include the cost of learning to use it correctly. For example, a mass spec might run you $300,000-$500,000. A cell sorter is in the range of $250,000 to $400,000. These are only a couple examples. You might also need BSL-2 space (required for cell therapy), AAV compatible rooms (critical for gene therapy), or a materials characterization space if you’re in the climate tech space.
Once you build your lab and purchase equipment, it’s then up to your team to master it. A flow cytometer, PCR system, bioreactor, confocal microscope, and sequencing platform all require a great deal of know-how and practice before you can rely on them day in and day out.
At BADASS Labs, we have next-generation lab equipment, and the teams that know how to make it shine. You can save a capital expenditure that is usually post-series A and the wait for procurement, and give your team immediate access to a state-of-the-art, fully equipped lab.
24/7 Unrestricted Access
If scientists at your company spend their time after business hours monitoring experiments or running equipment that requires an overnight run, 24/7 lab access will be key to retaining employees. Our Alameda facility is accessible 24/7, and our scientists appreciate being able to come in on weekends to tend to experiments.
A Community That Attracts and Retains
Your team will want to work in an ecosystem that encourages scientific discourse, has plenty of cross-discipline knowledge and opportunities, and fosters collaboration. BADASS Labs is committed to providing a vibrant scientific community that offers endless learning opportunities. Our teams represent companies working in the fields of cell therapy, gene therapy, oncology, AAV manufacturing, biofuels, carbon capture, and battery materials.
The most promising startups have world-class equipment. Attract the best scientists by providing a top-notch research environment, with fully accessible equipment that will take your research to the next level. Learn more about our lab capabilities, or sign up for a tour today.
A Brief History of BADASS Labs
BADASS Labs is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) created with the belief that “kindness should be the key factor for everything.” We are led by six-time biotech entrepreneur, Dr. David Kiewlich, who was named one of IE Magazine’s Top 10 Inspiring Leaders of 2022, and has over 28 years of experience in the world of oncology and cell-based therapies.
We provide top notch services with reasonable flat fee pricing with no IP claim or equity. Our all-inclusive fees provide you with facilities management, equipment maintenance, and EHS compliance so you can focus on what you do best. We are always on the hunt for new and innovative ideas, and we’d love to help bring your startup’s vision to life. Check out our latest expansion into Salt Lake City, or learn more about our company history here.
According to the California Life Sciences Association, the Bay Area’s life sciences industry employed 224,700 people and generated $94.2 billion in sales in 2022. With so many organizations competing for scientists, biotech recruiting requires more than a generous compensation package.
Flat-Fee Pricing That Makes Recruiting Math Work
When a scientist’s dream job can pay $25k more in salary than your startup, BADASS Labs’ low-cost pricing means you can redirect those costs into your team’s salary, equity, and training.
- Zero equity stake
- Zero intellectual property claims
- Flat pricing (no surcharges or hidden fees)
- No upfront startup costs
That fee pays for everything: full service facilities management, instrument and equipment maintenance, and EHS compliance.
You’ll also have unlimited access to all office and wet labs in BADASS Labs’ two facilities in Alameda (and the third, under construction in Salt Lake City). This kind of turnkey setup and 24/7 access to top-of-the-line equipment levels the playing field when it comes to biotech recruiting and gives your early-stage startup a real shot at competing with Big Biotech.
Dr. David Kiewlich is a six-time biotech entrepreneur with more than 28 years’ industry experience, a focus on oncology, and expertise in cell-based therapies and other cellular therapies. Named one of IE Magazine’s Top 10 Inspiring Leaders of 2022, Dr. Kiewlich founded BADASS Labs out of the belief that “kindness should be the key factor for everything” and the desire to build something he would’ve loved to have as a biotech founder. After spending 18 months looking for suitable facilities and constantly losing employees to competitors with better equipment, he created a place for scientists to belong and collaborate, where they can have the same kind of access to world-class tools as they would in big pharma.
The community at BADASS Labs is multidisciplinary. It includes companies working on cell therapy and gene therapy projects, oncology, AAV manufacturing, biofuels, carbon capture, and battery materials. And the results speak for themselves: BADASS Labs companies have raised over $900 million to date. Its companies have an 89% to 95% success rate, as opposed to a mere ~10% for the industry as a whole.
Tour BADASS Labs in Alameda, CA or apply for an interview today.
Recruiting Is Infrastructure
When top postdocs and scientists are choosing their dream job, access to cutting-edge technology and equipment is of prime importance to them. So are salary and equity packages, but when they can choose between a slightly better offer from one company and a worse offer from one with better equipment, it’s the latter that’s more likely to win.
The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) reported in a survey that the top reasons startup scientists leave are:
- Limited space and equipment
- Lack of intellectual community and peer network
- Limited support from the business side
When a scientist has a project in progress, success depends on having access to the lab. That’s why, at BADASS Labs, our members can access the lab at any time: 24/7, 365 days a year. In the right company culture, a scientist is a researcher. In a negative one, she’s an employee.
In many cases, biotech startups are trapped in a loop: they can’t get good data to raise funding until they have adequate facilities, but can’t afford those facilities without more funding. That’s when they turn to shared space or wet lab incubators like BADASS Labs.
Not only will they have access to state-of-the-art equipment, they’ll also become part of a community of scientists that will help to alleviate employee turnover. The interdisciplinary nature of such shared labs creates a natural network among scientists, and fosters collaboration and creativity.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the key considerations for recruiting talent in biotech startups?
In addition to having a great team, you need state-of-the-art equipment and lab infrastructure. BADASS Labs is a Non-Profit 501 (c)(3) company dedicated to providing the best laboratory infrastructure and resources for biotech startups and companies at every stage of their development. At BADASS Labs we don’t own your IP, we don’t own any of the equity.