Global Career Spotlight: Jamie Saxon of Inari
CASNR Global
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04/01/2025
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Global Career Spotlight: Jamie Saxon is Senior Director of Sustainability and External Innovation and a member of the Science Leadership Team at Inari. In addition to championing the company’s nature-positive vision, she launched Inari’s technology partnerships strategy and framework, managing due diligence, negotiations and agreement execution for multiple technologies. Prior to her current role, Jamie held other roles within Inari, including Corporate Portfolio Director and Director of Operations. Before joining Inari, Jamie was a fellow at Flagship Pioneering and a postdoctoral fellow at Dana Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School. Jamie holds a PhD in cancer biology from Vanderbilt University and a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology from Princeton University.
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- [00:00:00.000]Thank you everyone so much for being here during our second Global Career Spotlight event of the semester.
- [00:00:07.560]We are delighted to be hosting Jamie Saxon.
- [00:00:11.480]She is the Senior Director of Sustainability and External Innovation and a member of the Science Leadership Team at Inari.
- [00:00:19.600]In addition to championing the company's nature-positive vision,
- [00:00:23.440]she launched Inari's technology partnership strategy and framework,
- [00:00:27.460]managing due diligence, negotiations, and agreement execution for multiple technologies.
- [00:00:32.340]Prior to her current role, Jamie held other roles within Inari,
- [00:00:36.000]including Corporate Portfolio Director and Director of Operations.
- [00:00:39.800]Before joining the company, she was a fellow at Flagship Pioneering
- [00:00:43.740]and a postdoctoral fellow at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute slash Harvard Medical School.
- [00:00:48.760]She holds a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from Vanderbilt University
- [00:00:52.720]and a bachelor's degree in Molecular Biology from Princeton University.
- [00:00:56.660]So we're going to have a really exciting kind of introduction to Inari,
- [00:01:00.960]to Jamie's role within the company and before, including a career pivot
- [00:01:05.720]that I think is a really applicable thing to anyone,
- [00:01:09.860]to understand how folks can change directions, reapply skills in different ways and knowledge.
- [00:01:17.420]And I think it's going to be an exciting opportunity to grow your network.
- [00:01:21.600]So once she finishes up with slides, I would love it if anyone would like to bring their videos on.
- [00:01:26.280]So, Jamie, I'll let you take it away.
- [00:01:27.640]Thank you so much. And thank you for giving me the opportunity to come here.
- [00:01:33.360]Yes, career pivots, I would say, is a theme of my talk today.
- [00:01:39.640]And, you know, something that I think is, you know, maybe not quite as uncommon as many,
- [00:01:51.460]many people think. And so I'm happy to answer questions about how to navigate those,
- [00:01:57.740]happy to answer questions about, you know, the different, excuse me, the different roles that
- [00:02:03.480]I've had, and as well as questions about Anari. So yes, I'll take any of those things at the end.
- [00:02:10.140]First, I was thinking I would tell you a little bit about how I got to Anari,
- [00:02:16.820]then tell you about Anari and the things that we're doing as a company.
- [00:02:21.360]Our technology platform, our products that we're working on,
- [00:02:25.320]and then talk about the different roles that I've had at Anari.
- [00:02:32.040]It's been a very interesting experience being at a startup company.
- [00:02:38.000]I joined when the company was about 30 people.
- [00:02:41.320]And now we're more than 300 people across three sites.
- [00:02:46.580]So I've gotten to see a lot of different things during my time.
- [00:02:51.020]Excuse me, I'm getting over a cold.
- [00:02:53.420]So I'm going to put myself on mute to cough very briefly.
- [00:02:56.580]So I've gotten to see a lot of different things during my time in the company.
- [00:03:04.600]And it's been a very unique experience.
- [00:03:08.340]And I'm happy to talk about that as well.
- [00:03:10.660]So growing up, I grew up in a farm in northeast Mississippi.
- [00:03:19.220]My dad grows corn.
- [00:03:21.000]And also raised beef cattle.
- [00:03:24.460]Now my brother does that when my dad lets him.
- [00:03:31.080]My brother's like a third generation farmer.
- [00:03:33.900]And while I was in high school, I became very interested in biology.
- [00:03:41.100]I got the opportunity to do research while in high school in a lab at Mississippi State University.
- [00:03:50.000]And that kind of set me on a path of pursuing biology.
- [00:03:56.220]So in college, I majored in molecular biology.
- [00:04:01.440]As a senior in college, you got the opportunity to work in a lab.
- [00:04:09.040]And so genetics was something that I was interested in for my coursework.
- [00:04:15.140]And there was a lab that was studying genetics using
- [00:04:19.560]the model organism C. elegans, which is a microscopic nematode.
- [00:04:26.260]And I thought that was a really cool system.
- [00:04:28.540]And so I decided to work in that lab.
- [00:04:32.420]And this is actually a picture from my senior thesis.
- [00:04:35.860]We were looking at a new gene that we had discovered in C. elegans
- [00:04:43.240]and looking at where that gene was turned on.
- [00:04:45.700]And it was turned on in the neurons, which you see here.
- [00:04:49.120]And that was like very cool and very interesting.
- [00:04:52.960]But at the end of the day, I was, I guess at the end of the day,
- [00:05:02.840]it was a gene that, you know, was only in worms.
- [00:05:07.400]And so I was like, for the long term,
- [00:05:10.780]I wanted to be doing something that had more clear relevance
- [00:05:18.680]you know, to have an impact on people.
- [00:05:22.380]So for my PhD, I decided to go something,
- [00:05:28.160]do something that was very relevant to having an impact on people
- [00:05:33.080]and get a PhD in cancer biology.
- [00:05:35.880]I studied lung cancer inflammation using mouse models
- [00:05:41.060]because my thinking also was if I'm going to be doing therapeutics,
- [00:05:47.200]I need to understand how
- [00:05:48.240]mouse models work.
- [00:05:49.360]If any of you are familiar with mouse models,
- [00:05:52.520]it takes a very long time to get results based on that.
- [00:05:59.040]And so I decided I was going to go on and move to do a postdoc
- [00:06:03.420]and move from mouse models to cell systems
- [00:06:06.740]because that's a whole lot faster.
- [00:06:08.360]And also I wanted in my PhD,
- [00:06:11.800]I had been looking at pathways and things like that,
- [00:06:15.000]which is still very far from something that
- [00:06:17.800]can actually impact a patient.
- [00:06:19.620]So also for my postdoc,
- [00:06:21.680]I was getting closer to things that could impact patients
- [00:06:27.660]by looking at therapies.
- [00:06:29.340]But even in my postdoc, I was like,
- [00:06:33.260]this is still very far away from any product
- [00:06:35.920]that would ultimately reach someone and show benefit.
- [00:06:40.820]And so I started to look around
- [00:06:46.280]at what other opportunities,
- [00:06:47.660]could be out there for scientists.
- [00:06:49.860]And I got into a fellowship program
- [00:06:54.200]at Flagship Pioneering.
- [00:06:55.820]And Flagship Pioneering is kind of a unique entity.
- [00:06:59.620]They are, they call themselves a venture creation firm.
- [00:07:04.260]So they have scientists internally
- [00:07:08.000]that do brainstorming on new ideas,
- [00:07:12.660]new areas of science.
- [00:07:14.460]And ultimately they launch
- [00:07:17.640]companies based on ideas
- [00:07:19.940]that come out of those brainstorms.
- [00:07:22.120]So in their fellows program,
- [00:07:25.080]you basically learn their brainstorming process.
- [00:07:30.260]It's a structured innovation process.
- [00:07:33.540]And then you pitch ideas to the partners of the firm.
- [00:07:40.540]And so that was a really,
- [00:07:43.740]it was a very different,
- [00:07:47.620]experience for me,
- [00:07:48.880]kind of a different way of thinking than you learn in traditional scientific
- [00:07:55.040]training.
- [00:07:55.700]And then also kind of layered on top of that,
- [00:07:59.220]you begin to think differently about what creates value.
- [00:08:04.420]And so this was a very,
- [00:08:08.960]a very great learning experience for me.
- [00:08:12.940]But also in that I realized,
- [00:08:17.600]in that kind of environment,
- [00:08:18.820]you're only learning about the very early stages of how a company takes a
- [00:08:25.560]scientific finding and turns it into a product.
- [00:08:28.380]You don't actually get to see that all the way through.
- [00:08:31.580]So I decided that instead of staying at Flagship,
- [00:08:35.880]I would rather join one of their companies.
- [00:08:38.200]And something that's very interesting about Flagship is that they've started
- [00:08:43.540]companies on the therapeutic side of things.
- [00:08:46.400]So one of their,
- [00:08:47.580]most well-known companies is Moderna,
- [00:08:50.120]but they also have started companies on the agriculture side of things.
- [00:08:56.280]And so that was interesting to me because as I said,
- [00:09:01.100]I grew up on a farm and even though I grew up on a farm,
- [00:09:06.380]clearly I had never really thought about innovation in agriculture.
- [00:09:10.380]And so at the end of the fellows program,
- [00:09:14.240]I joined Anari and,
- [00:09:17.560]at that time Anari was about a 30 person company.
- [00:09:22.360]And the majority of the employees were scientists working on the lab in the
- [00:09:27.780]lab.
- [00:09:28.200]But I joined to be on the business side.
- [00:09:32.040]And so now I will tell you a little bit about Anari.
- [00:09:36.480]We were founded in 2016.
- [00:09:39.620]We have raised about $720 million in funding to date.
- [00:09:46.000]We have,
- [00:09:47.540]we have more than 300 employees from a variety of different
- [00:09:52.800]backgrounds,
- [00:09:53.540]including kind of traditional agriculture and plant sciences
- [00:09:58.580]background,
- [00:09:59.300]but also people coming from human therapeutics backgrounds,
- [00:10:03.740]software engineering, data science.
- [00:10:06.980]Our headquarters is in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
- [00:10:11.540]right outside of Boston.
- [00:10:12.960]But we also have a,
- [00:10:15.880]our largest,
- [00:10:17.520]largest site in West Lafayette, Indiana,
- [00:10:19.680]which houses our product development and commercial operations.
- [00:10:23.820]And then also a research site in Ghent, Belgium.
- [00:10:28.060]And so we call ourselves the seed design company.
- [00:10:34.240]Our vision is to be able to make,
- [00:10:36.560]to design any trait in any crop with the goal of making products that
- [00:10:47.500]reduce the environmental effects of agricultural production.
- [00:10:53.960]And so we do this using AI powered predictive design and multiplex gene
- [00:11:01.780]editing to leverage the natural potential of the seed.
- [00:11:06.760]And so this is a very ambitious goal.
- [00:11:13.960]And so that requires us to think a little bit differently.
- [00:11:17.480]Then traditional ways of thinking about crop improvement.
- [00:11:23.620]So we need to move from trying to simplify genetics and focusing on single
- [00:11:30.640]traits to embracing the complexity of plant biology and beginning to look at
- [00:11:36.320]these traits that have multiple genes involved that we can now analyze better
- [00:11:43.520]with newer computational methods.
- [00:11:47.460]And also beginning to work in crops that have more complex genomes.
- [00:11:51.840]We also need to move from reading only, reading genotypes, reading phenotypes
- [00:12:00.720]in the field to now being able to read and write using CRISPR technology.
- [00:12:07.120]And this enables us to increase the speed of our breeding cycles to improve
- [00:12:13.340]the accuracy of our...
- [00:12:17.440]trait discovery and enables us to leverage and create new genetic diversity.
- [00:12:25.560]And then lastly, we need to move from focusing on breeding one variety that
- [00:12:36.240]works moderately well in many environments to breeding varieties that are highly
- [00:12:42.040]adapted to a specific environment.
- [00:12:44.720]And so now the vision...
- [00:12:47.420]The vision is that you would have the best genetics optimized to a specific environment.
- [00:12:52.960]And there are several technological revolutions that are happening right now that enable us
- [00:13:01.720]to have new opportunities for agriculture.
- [00:13:04.440]So in genomics, we can now do sequencing more quickly and easily than ever before.
- [00:13:11.860]With AI and computational tools like
- [00:13:17.400]machine learning and deep learning, we can now analyze these massive data sets in new ways
- [00:13:23.460]that enables us to draw insights that weren't previously possible.
- [00:13:28.040]And with gene editing, we can now make very precise and specific changes to the genome.
- [00:13:35.720]And so, you know, thinking about these tools, we can use them to really embrace the complexity
- [00:13:47.380]of plant biology to enable us to achieve kind of the step change in plant performance.
- [00:13:56.180]And plant biology is very complex. This was something coming from a human therapeutics
- [00:14:05.300]background. When I joined Inari, all of the plant biologists always talked about the complexity,
- [00:14:11.340]how plants are so much more complex than humans. And that was always a very hard,
- [00:14:17.360]hard statement for me. But in certain instances, that is true. And at the genetic level,
- [00:14:23.700]that's definitely true. Many crops have many more genes than plants. Crops like wheat have
- [00:14:31.920]multiple genomes. And so ultimately, to be able to achieve a step change in crop performance,
- [00:14:39.020]we need to be able to map and understand the relationships between specific sequences
- [00:14:47.340]and phenotypes. And then also many of the most valuable traits that have been difficult to
- [00:14:56.580]address through plant breeding are driven by multiple genes. So traits like plant architecture
- [00:15:05.200]and resource use efficiency are dependent on the interactions of, you know, double digit
- [00:15:12.920]numbers of genes. And so ultimately, we need to be
- [00:15:17.320]able to make different changes to multiple genes at the same time to be able to improve
- [00:15:23.840]these traits. And so at Inari, we've built our technology
- [00:15:28.460]platform around, you know, to address these needs. So on the left-hand side, we have AI
- [00:15:40.460]powered predictive design. This is a set of computational tools that allow
- [00:15:47.300]us to understand the biology of the plant
- [00:15:54.040]so that we know what genes to edit, how to edit them,
- [00:16:00.560]and what genetic backgrounds to edit them. And this allows us to build a blueprint for
- [00:16:06.300]our product development. And so we use this to guide our multiplex
- [00:16:11.780]gene editing toolbox. And this allows us to make multiple
- [00:16:17.280]changes at one time, but also different types of changes
- [00:16:22.660]at once. So we can turn genes on and off.
- [00:16:27.280]We can more finely regulate their expression.
- [00:16:30.760]And at the core of what we do, we are driven by a commitment to food
- [00:16:38.500]system sustainability. And this incorporates
- [00:16:42.960]environmental, social, and economic elements.
- [00:16:47.260]And we think it's important to take this kind of holistic systems level
- [00:16:52.680]view because if you're only focusing on
- [00:16:57.640]one thing, you're likely only coming up with a technical
- [00:17:02.560]fix. But by having this systems level view,
- [00:17:08.570]you're more able to identify comprehensive long-term solutions.
- [00:17:14.270]And so right now, the crops that we're working on are corn, soy, and wheat.
- [00:17:21.410]And we are working on traits such as increasing yield, reducing or improving nitrogen use
- [00:17:34.410]efficiency, and improving water use efficiency.
- [00:17:38.350]And we assess the impact of our products across a variety of qualitative and quantitative
- [00:17:46.690]methods.
- [00:17:47.670]And then in terms of how are we bringing our products to market, there are kind of three
- [00:17:58.150]routes that we're using.
- [00:18:00.250]So first, we are selling parent seed, and we partner with independent seed companies
- [00:18:07.550]who then bulk up that parent seed and sell it to the farmer.
- [00:18:13.270]Second, we work with seed companies that have their own genetics and introduce our edits
- [00:18:22.930]into their genetic backgrounds.
- [00:18:25.110]And then we also do broader co-developments where there may be research involved up front
- [00:18:33.410]to identify the specific genes and edits that we want to make.
- [00:18:37.530]And then we introduce those into the partner's lives.
- [00:18:41.450]And all of these leverage the partner's relationship to the farmer.
- [00:18:48.250]So we do not sell to the farmer directly.
- [00:18:51.130]And so now I wanted to talk a little bit about my career at Inari.
- [00:19:00.170]So I mentioned that I joined, the company was about 30 people.
- [00:19:07.510]I joined more on the business side.
- [00:19:11.390]But at that time, I would say the business side was very early stage.
- [00:19:20.670]So I joined in a role that was called project manager.
- [00:19:25.810]And what that meant in reality was that I worked on any project that kind of touched the science,
- [00:19:36.250]but wasn't necessarily.
- [00:19:37.250]Unnecessarily a lab project.
- [00:19:40.490]So I looked at things like when we bring the seed in, how do we like,
- [00:19:48.070]what is our process for onboarding that seed and early analysis from a regulatory perspective on
- [00:19:58.070]different projects that we had going on in the lab.
- [00:20:02.090]From there, we started to decide what crops we were going to use.
- [00:20:07.230]What crops we were going to work in.
- [00:20:08.490]And so I moved into a role called global crop lead,
- [00:20:12.850]where I was kind of managing all of the activities related to a certain crop.
- [00:20:18.170]And, but then the crops that we were working on changed.
- [00:20:26.450]And so then I moved into a different role called project and portfolio manager.
- [00:20:32.810]And so at this time we had hired our,
- [00:20:36.810]our chief science officer and she was working on kind of organizing all of the
- [00:20:45.110]projects that were going on in science.
- [00:20:47.890]And so I worked with our different project teams to help define the objectives
- [00:20:55.110]for their projects, the milestones, the deliverables,
- [00:20:59.110]the timelines, and then set up tracking for us to,
- [00:21:04.990]you know,
- [00:21:06.670]basically be able to have visibility into the progress of our projects and
- [00:21:13.070]understand if there were, you know, roadblocks, challenges,
- [00:21:18.550]things like that.
- [00:21:20.010]And then from there,
- [00:21:23.550]we expanded from one site in Massachusetts to three sites,
- [00:21:31.350]adding on the site in Belgium and the site in Indiana,
- [00:21:35.530]and then also,
- [00:21:36.530]so in Cambridge we moved into a new location.
- [00:21:39.150]And so I moved into a role to kind of manage those transitions to help get
- [00:21:48.450]our site in Indiana up and running to help have some higher level view
- [00:21:56.550]across sites and how things were being done.
- [00:22:00.790]And so that was the director of operations,
- [00:22:06.390]role.
- [00:22:06.790]And then from there I began working with the leadership team who they
- [00:22:14.390]started setting goals at the company level because now you can imagine we
- [00:22:21.230]have multiple sites, we have multiple teams.
- [00:22:24.250]We need to make sure that all of those teams are oriented kind of in the
- [00:22:30.790]same direction.
- [00:22:31.690]And so similar to how I had set up, I had worked with,
- [00:22:36.330]the project leads to set up, you know, objectives, milestones,
- [00:22:40.090]deliverables at the science level.
- [00:22:42.570]In this role,
- [00:22:44.610]I was now doing that at the company level working with our leadership team.
- [00:22:49.290]At this point,
- [00:22:52.750]you have probably noticed that I got pretty far away from the science and I
- [00:22:59.830]was starting to kind of feel that I had become disconnected from a lot of the
- [00:23:06.270]reason that I joined the company to begin with.
- [00:23:10.230]And so I started to kind of look around internally and think about what are
- [00:23:17.110]the things that I enjoy? What are the things, you know,
- [00:23:22.130]that I would in my ideal role, like what would that look like?
- [00:23:27.050]And something that I could see internally is that we were starting to think
- [00:23:31.550]more about opportunities for partnering externally. So working with
- [00:23:36.210]universities, working with other companies.
- [00:23:38.850]And so that was something that was very interesting to me.
- [00:23:44.550]And so I actually pitched the idea for an external innovation role to our
- [00:23:51.590]chief science officer. And she told me, I think that's a great idea.
- [00:23:56.630]I think it's a great time for something like that. Go build it out.
- [00:24:00.710]And so I did. And so in this role, I led technology,
- [00:24:06.150]technology scouting. So that's when you, you know,
- [00:24:10.710]kind of look externally at new emerging technologies that could be a fit with
- [00:24:17.610]things that we're doing internally to either accelerate our work,
- [00:24:22.310]fill gaps, things like that.
- [00:24:25.550]And then Ben, you are kind of the,
- [00:24:31.130]the liaison to help,
- [00:24:36.090]bring those technologies in from helping work with scientists internally to
- [00:24:42.210]establish kind of statements of work.
- [00:24:45.010]How are we going to test the technology?
- [00:24:46.950]How are we going to work with the technology and working with legal to put
- [00:24:52.350]agreements in place to support that?
- [00:24:55.110]And so just kind of shepherding the process to bring new technologies in.
- [00:25:02.990]And so,
- [00:25:06.030]I would say to this point,
- [00:25:09.770]I have been kind of going broad with my experiences,
- [00:25:13.310]trying different things.
- [00:25:14.790]But here I kind of turned and started going deep and really building this
- [00:25:20.130]out.
- [00:25:20.450]So then I was promoted as this began to grow and we began to get more and
- [00:25:27.530]more agreements,
- [00:25:30.450]licensing technologies, collaborating with universities,
- [00:25:35.970]but I guess from personally,
- [00:25:41.170]there's also an element that you may have noticed here that I always need
- [00:25:47.370]something new to kind of keep me interested, interested.
- [00:25:52.110]So after doing this for a while, I was starting to feel like I need something
- [00:25:58.610]else to, to kind of keep me
- [00:26:01.970]fulfilled.
- [00:26:05.910]Kind of learning need.
- [00:26:08.210]And at that time internally,
- [00:26:10.930]a job opened up for leading sustainability.
- [00:26:14.970]And that was very interesting to me because it also kind of,
- [00:26:21.610]it touches a lot of aspects of the business,
- [00:26:25.690]but also still I think fits in with my desire to see science made
- [00:26:35.850]useful because that's super important from a sustainability perspective to
- [00:26:41.430]be able to have good data and good ways to measure impact.
- [00:26:47.850]So I applied internally for the role and got the role and was able to
- [00:26:55.850]kind of expand the role that I have to then cover external innovation and
- [00:27:03.970]sustainability.
- [00:27:05.790]And so one thing that I had here that I just thought could be helpful to
- [00:27:14.110]mention from my experience,
- [00:27:16.910]like some traits that I think enable success at a startup.
- [00:27:21.070]So one being collaboration.
- [00:27:23.750]I think this is important generally in industry.
- [00:27:28.010]Because you are often working in teams with people from different
- [00:27:35.730]backgrounds, different expertise.
- [00:27:37.690]So being able to work with different working styles,
- [00:27:43.110]different expertise,
- [00:27:44.230]and being able to communicate well is super important.
- [00:27:48.650]At a startup in particular, a very early stage startup,
- [00:27:54.150]flexibility, adaptability, and resilience is very important.
- [00:27:58.670]You may have noticed, you know, for me personally,
- [00:28:03.550]things changed a lot, but a lot,
- [00:28:05.670]a lot of those changes were also a reflection of changes
- [00:28:10.890]that were going on in the company.
- [00:28:12.670]So being able to, you know,
- [00:28:17.630]quickly move from one thing to a different thing
- [00:28:21.850]and like being okay letting go
- [00:28:24.210]with that original thing you were working on.
- [00:28:27.890]Then also I would say a learning mindset.
- [00:28:32.270]So things don't always work
- [00:28:35.610]the first time and you're doing a lot of things
- [00:28:38.490]for the first time in a startup company.
- [00:28:40.810]So being able to learn when things don't work
- [00:28:45.350]and carry that forward to make, you know,
- [00:28:50.110]the next go around more successful.
- [00:28:52.210]Also said calculated risk tolerance
- [00:28:56.610]because I mean, there's an inherent riskiness
- [00:29:01.950]to working at a startup.
- [00:29:03.250]And a lot of times you're trying,
- [00:29:05.550]to move quickly.
- [00:29:08.670]And if, yeah.
- [00:29:12.930]And so, yeah, I guess just being okay that,
- [00:29:18.390]you know, not all of,
- [00:29:20.550]not everything is going to work out every time.
- [00:29:23.430]And then also fast pace,
- [00:29:27.010]things move very quickly in a startup
- [00:29:29.330]and then being comfortable with ambiguity
- [00:29:32.810]because it's not always going to be everything
- [00:29:35.490]is not always going to be mapped out for you.
- [00:29:37.930]Because as I said,
- [00:29:39.050]a lot of times you're figuring things out
- [00:29:41.590]for the first time.
- [00:29:42.730]And so, yeah, the last thing I have
- [00:29:47.090]was just kind of, whoops,
- [00:29:48.850]a few words of kind of like my own thoughts
- [00:29:53.790]from my career journey.
- [00:29:56.510]And so, yeah, success is not always a straight line.
- [00:30:02.610]I think you see that in a startup
- [00:30:05.430]because as I said,
- [00:30:07.650]you're doing a lot of things for the first time,
- [00:30:10.390]but that doesn't mean that you're not getting
- [00:30:13.170]to where you want to go.
- [00:30:16.110]It just doesn't look necessarily how you thought it would.
- [00:30:19.550]And I think that's the same
- [00:30:22.490]for a lot of people's career journeys.
- [00:30:26.170]It's not always a straight line.
- [00:30:28.310]You go over here and you try some things
- [00:30:31.510]and then you go over here and you try some things.
- [00:30:35.370]But in the end, that's getting you closer to your goals
- [00:30:41.790]and where you want to go.
- [00:30:42.910]And so I like thinking about this here.
- [00:30:46.410]I don't know if you've seen this before,
- [00:30:48.730]but the career jungle gym versus the career ladder,
- [00:30:52.970]that for a lot of people,
- [00:30:55.470]it doesn't look like one step than the next step.
- [00:30:59.550]You're looking at more broadly
- [00:31:03.870]at ways that you can explore
- [00:31:05.310]and expand your career skill set.
- [00:31:08.870]And sometimes that looks like making a total pivot,
- [00:31:13.190]but in doing that,
- [00:31:15.930]you learn things and you build skills
- [00:31:18.110]that may open up a whole new trajectory
- [00:31:20.990]that you never knew was possible before.
- [00:31:23.890]And so kind of my closing things are,
- [00:31:29.970]I think it's important to always be open to opportunity
- [00:31:33.490]because you never know what it's going to be
- [00:31:35.250]and what it's going to look like.
- [00:31:36.190]That's been one thing for me
- [00:31:38.270]that's been so fun about being at Anari.
- [00:31:40.490]It was very much part of my identity before
- [00:31:45.330]being a cancer biologist.
- [00:31:47.150]And so when I joined an agriculture company,
- [00:31:49.550]my friends were all like,
- [00:31:52.350]but Jamie, I thought you were going to cure cancer.
- [00:31:54.490]And I was like, no, now I'm going to feed the world.
- [00:31:57.930]And so I always say,
- [00:32:01.250]and with all the changes that I've been through at Anari,
- [00:32:05.190]I'm always like, if you had told me six months ago,
- [00:32:10.250]this is what I would be doing,
- [00:32:11.730]I would say you're crazy, but I love it.
- [00:32:14.090]And if I hadn't been open to opportunity,
- [00:32:16.170]I wouldn't have known that.
- [00:32:17.850]And another important thing is learning what you don't like
- [00:32:23.670]is as important as learning what you do like.
- [00:32:26.710]As I mentioned, I got to a certain point
- [00:32:30.170]and I realized I'm very far away from the science.
- [00:32:33.230]And that's something that's important
- [00:32:35.130]for me to be connected to.
- [00:32:37.090]So that helped me to like bring things together
- [00:32:40.970]based on what I liked and what I don't like
- [00:32:45.150]to kind of find a better role for myself.
- [00:32:50.370]And then last, kind of related to the be open to opportunity,
- [00:32:56.070]like think about opportunities strategically
- [00:32:58.650]to kind of build your personal portfolio.
- [00:33:01.610]Like I like to think about kind of skills
- [00:33:05.070]that I would like to build
- [00:33:06.610]and how opportunities could help me build those skills.
- [00:33:11.270]And then we're also hiring.
- [00:33:15.210]So I'm also happy to answer any questions
- [00:33:18.750]about working at Inari, different teams, things like that.
- [00:33:23.970]So yeah, I'm happy to take any questions.
- [00:33:27.950]Huge thanks, Jamie.
- [00:33:33.010]This has just been a fantastic
- [00:33:35.250]presentation and so well thought out
- [00:33:38.990]and really valuable.
- [00:33:39.990]So we really appreciate the time you took
- [00:33:42.610]to put this together.
- [00:33:43.490]I'm really glad that we had a few lucky folks
- [00:33:48.210]who are here in person to ask you specific questions.
- [00:33:51.290]And hopefully we can have more folks,
- [00:33:55.110]quite a lot of folks checking this out after the fact.
- [00:33:58.950]I am actually going to stop the recording
- [00:34:00.930]so our conversation can just be a bit more personal
- [00:34:04.950]and confidential.
- [00:34:06.530]And then folks will be able to see
- [00:34:08.630]all your good information you shared.
- [00:34:10.090]But these folks get to have the kind of specific opportunity
- [00:34:15.330]to discuss with you directly.
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