While BIOMILQ’s mission is nuanced and science is complicated, our approach is simple: empathy first. Promoting the wellbeing of babies, moms, and the planet means living by the golden rule: treat others the way you want to be treated. We take our impact seriously, and that starts in-house.
As we’re expanding our team to advance our mission and R&D, we’re adamant about ensuring that each new breast friend is a good fit. But, that fit isn’t one-sided. Applicants are required to pitch their value to our work. Why shouldn’t we be required to pitch our value to their personal and professional development?
As the old saying goes, you only join a breakthrough mammary biotechnology start-up in North Carolina once #YOJBMBTSUNCO.
When you join BIOMILQ, you sign up for an excessive use of puns, boob art and boob jokes, adding ‘mission-driven’ to your daily vocabulary, first-of-its-kind adventure, and an empathetic approach to employment. According to the team, our daily work environment is collaborative, productive, light-hearted, vibrant, busy, and exciting. The all-hands-on-deck mentality at a start-up pushes us outside of our comfort zones by asking us to explore completely new territory (Kelli, our Chief of Staff, is taking an online lactation biology course to better understand the context of her financial modeling work), and fosters a sense of community since our work is too multidisciplinary to be simply compartmentalized.
Our community stretches far beyond Research Triangle Park, NC: Charlotte’s mom helps us understand the ins and outs of Twitter, Kelli’s husband helped us think through a technical challenge for a computer science role, Leila’s long-time peer helps us structure our Technical Advisory Board to support our strategic imperatives, Charlotte’s dad and his colleague helped Alex find a shortcut in Excel to expedite his search for relevant enzymes, Michelle’s partner helps us think through our engineering strategy — we’re still brainstorming how we can involve Charlotte’s grandma, a retired pharmacist eager to support our mission.
If Grandma Sue were to join us on-site, it would immediately be apparent that BIOMILQ is a start-up.
We don’t have an AV/tech team to help us figure out conference calls. Our Lab Operations Manager is still using a personal cell phone. The CEO and CSO routinely ask for updates on what our pets are up to (Leila’s dog Opal loves to eat entire sticks of butter). Our plans are always evolving as we adapt to research obstacles, chats from advisors, and feedback from parents and clinicians.
And, Grandma Sue would see our CEO and CSO sitting right next to us, embodying BIOMILQ’s values and promoting an empathetic approach to innovation.
We are encouraged to ‘learn in public’ and share our #fails with the team. We feel seen: execs continue to prioritize weekly one-on-one check-ins to get project updates, help with bottlenecks, and ask about week-end plans. As a new teammate, Grandma Sue would be asked about her professional development goals and empowered to roll up her sleeves and take ownership of her work.
BIOMILQ practices what we preach: unlocking human potential requires embracing the messiness that comes with being a human.
Grandma Sue would be empowered with flexibility that would allow her to take care of herself and her family without compromising her career. To promote work-life balance, BIOMILQ has two shutdowns a year where employees are expected to step away from their emails and enjoy some R&R; Grandma Sue would visit her sister in NY or enjoy the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, OR. Refreshed, Grandma Sue would be excited to return to the dynamic work behind making the future of infant feeding fearless, and 100% human.
Until we find the right role for Grandma Sue, we’re looking for scientists to join us who are eager to unlock human potential with breakthrough mammary biotechnology and empathy.
