Co-Founder in Residence, Crop Biotechnology Commercialization Specialist

ABOUT THE ROLE

At DSV we’re looking for future Founders, entrepreneurially minded individuals with industry-specific technical and commercial domain expertise eager to solve urgent unmet challenges through venture building.

You will join DSV’s venture creation programme as a Founder in Residence and work closely with the DSV team, using our methodology, to spin-out a new company. During the programme, you’ll work on all aspects related to venture creation in this opportunity area, including working out the optimal approach to solve for the desired outcome, building a team and building a viable business case. Once the new venture is incorporated with pre-seed investment from DSV, you and your co-founders will own the majority stake in the business and continue receiving support from the DSV team post-spinout.

PROBLEM OVERVIEW

The global population will surge to over 9 billion by 2050, and we will need a 70% increase in food production to adequately feed this future global population [1][2]. Crops are essential to meet this need; 55% of the world's crop calories are consumed directly by humans, and another 36% is used for animal feed [3]. Crop breeding has been a primary driver of food security due to the selection of superior cultivars that meet caloric, nutritional, and productivity metrics. However, the acceleration of climate change threatens cultivar selection efficiency since new biotic and abiotic stresses emerge without warning; thus, there is a critical need to accelerate how we breed for future crops.

Plant breeding and biotechnology technologies have helped alleviate yield losses due to climate change, such as drought and pest resistance. However, even in the era of advanced breeding and precise genetic engineering, these technologies have yet to achieve the full potential of crops because fundamental challenges remain unaddressed. To this end, this opportunity area (OA) seeks to reduce progeny time production by 10X through novel florogenesis technologies.

We seek entrepreneurial scientists eager to create the next generation of crops and technologies to enable food security, fight climate change, and increase profits to producers. The successful candidate will have access to DSV's research and expertise to identify what novel approaches help us achieve the high-level outcome of halving the time necessary to identify commercially viable crop varieties.

References

[1] https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1116437108

[2] https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2020-02/apo-nid274256.pdf

[3] https://www.vox.com/2014/8/21/6053187/cropland-map-food-fuel-animal-feed

OUR APPROACH:

A key bottleneck for crop variety development is the crop's biology, especially the time it takes to reach the reproductive stage. Therefore, strategies to shorten the time it takes to go from seed/cutting to the reproductive stage to evaluate crop traits promising to reach commercial viability solve this problem. While environmental manipulation has been the cornerstone of shortening breeding cycles, we recognize the untapped potential in harnessing florigenetic factors and its great value to the plant breeding industry. We have identified that fast-tracking flowering and gamete production, enabling swift progeny evaluation and market readiness, is a neglected area that has great potential in the plant breeding industry. The commercial co-founder in residence will de-risk the commercial aspect of the venture and develop the strategy for a successful pre- and post-incorporation (pre-seed fundraising) stage in the short-term but also will develop the commercial milestones (in collaboration with the technical team) that need to be met by seed and series A.

Requirements

Position Requirements:

As the Co-founder in residence - Crop Biotechnology Commercialization Specialist, you will spearhead the business strategy and market introduction of pioneering florigenesis technologies, transforming them into scalable solutions that address pressing issues in crop breeding and agriculture. Key requisites include:

1. A graduate degree in Business Administration, Economics, Agribusiness, or a related field, complemented by significant exposure to Life Sciences, Plant Sciences, or Agricultural Technology.
2. Proven record of building and executing go-to-market strategies for agri-biotech products, particularly those involving novel plant breeding technologies and non-genetically modified organism (non-GMO) methods.
3. A track record of successful commercialization within the agricultural sector, including understanding of market adoption dynamics for innovative breeding or crop development techniques.
4. In-depth knowledge of the intricate agricultural value chain and the associated economic, environmental, and social factors crucial to the success of new technologies in this sector.
5. Experience in anticipating and maneuvering through regulatory landscapes and intellectual property considerations relevant to plant-related technologies and innovations.
6. Proven capability in strategic business development, including raising capital, forming key partnerships, and engaging with stakeholder groups from farmers to agribusiness executives and policymakers.
7. Entrepreneurial acumen and previous involvement in venture-scale businesses, with a focus on science-based entrepreneurial ecosystems.
8. An exceptional ability to articulate the value proposition of new technologies to non-specialist audiences, including investors and strategic partners.
9. Well-honed negotiation and influence management skills, underpinned by an analytical mind and the bravery to envision and propose uncharted commercial avenues.
10. Exceptional command of English, with proficiency in additional languages such as Spanish, being advantageous for key markets like tropical agriculture.
11. Flexibility and willingness to engage in travel or relocation, given the venture's potential focus on regions with strategic relevance for tropical and subtropical agriculture, like Costa Rica.

Benefits

OUR OFFER

By joining DSV, you’ll be joining a team of operators who have founded companies and led translation of science at some of the most respected universities, charities, funds and government agencies. 2/3 of the team have founded or led a company at C-suite and 65% have a PhD. Our team dedicate several hours every week to each Founder or founding team to provide tailored guidance, resources and feedback covering every aspect of what it takes to successfully launch a new venture from both the tech and commercial perspectives:

• We provide optimised, purpose-built, proprietary tools, resources and processes to help create high-impact ventures from scratch, using our venture creation methodology. Read more about one of our key tools here.
• We draw on opportunity area specific know-how provided by our network of Partners and Advisors;
• We provide £250k investment governed by our Investment Committee to incorporate the new venture and develop early proof-of-concept data that’s needed to attract high profile non-venture studio VCs. This funding is also key to get grant funding, which most often needs to be matched with private investment;
• We provide guaranteed income of £4,166 per month paid to each Founder in Residence as a consultancy fee until the company is launched and the pre-seed investment is secured;
• You and your co-founders will own a majority equity stake in the company;
• We provide continuous support after post spin-out, including fundraising, commercial partnerships, recruitment and team-building (amongst other things); plus
• There are dozens of Founders currently at DSV across sectors working collaboratively and supporting one another - a unique resource to draw on.

ABOUT DSV

Deep Science Ventures is creating a future in which both humans and the planet can thrive.

We use our unique venture creation process to create, spin-out and invest into science companies, combining available scientific knowledge and founder-type scientists into high-impact ventures.

We operate in 4 sectors: Pharmaceuticals, Climate, Agriculture and Computation, tackling the challenges defining those areas by taking a first principles approach and partnering with leading institutions.