Co-Founder in Residence, Priming plant resilience for climate risks

• You are highly motivated by unsolved challenges in climate risk mitigation, and driven to challenge the status quo in agriculture.
• You are impact driven, take the initiative, make things happen, and think from a first principles perspective to figure out what’s really needed.
• You have clear entrepreneurial spirit and mindset, demonstrated through impactful innovation, and an ability to work in ambiguous, unstructured but fast-paced, demanding and pressurised environments.
• Collaborative nature, with the ability to work effectively in cross-functional teams.

• Core science depth (PhD or equivalent industry R&D know-how) in plant physiology, crop science, molecular biology, epigenetics, microbiology (or similar), with knowledge breadth across technological areas relevant for priming plant resilience such as:
• Delivery systems for biologicals (e.g. nanoparticle design, encapsulation chemistry, triggered release mechanisms, protectant formulations);
• Developmental regulation & priming (e.g. RNA / peptide-based modulators, epigenetic modification, heat shock pathways, hormone signalling);
• Plant-microbiome engineering (e.g. symbiont characterisation, consortia design, engineered exudate production, host-microbe signalling);
• Accelerated trait development & gene editing (e.g. tissue regeneration protocols, wild relative introgression, precision breeding pipelines);
• Crop environment engineering (e.g. seed/root coating formulations, biodegradable matrices, water management at plant scale).
• Translational execution: e.g. taking traits / actives from discovery to field, managing CRO/CDMO programs, building regulator / investor / customer-ready data packages; and / or partnership development (growers, CROs/CDMOs, suppliers) and scalable IP strategy.
• Cross-functional ownership across: R&D - Product - Regulatory - IP, evidenced by shipped results (trial outcomes, submissions, patents, launches); and / or design of pivotal field trials.
• Venture creation/fundraising; and/or product leadership in agtech / biotech or adjacent areas.

Equivalents considered: deep industry R&D in agtech / biotech or a PhD with applied field work and comparable outcomes.

• Previous Founder experience (in biotech).
• Previous C-suite experience (in biotech).
• Previous fundraising experience (VC).
• Commercial & BD expertise incl. network in agrochem/pesticide development (licensing, partnering, collaborations).
• Strong track record of building and leading successful teams.

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.
• DSV and RenPhil's extensive network incl. leaders of biotech VCs, technical & commercial domain expertise, and wide-ranging  portfolio company capabilities.
• We jointly provide an initial £250k (~$340k / €290k) investment governed by our Investment Committee to incorporate the new venture and develop early proof-of-concept data that is often needed to attract high profile non-venture studio VCs. This funding is also key for obtaining grant funding, which often needs to be matched with private investment.
• You and your co-founder(s) together will own the majority equity stake in the company.
• We provide minimum guaranteed income of £4,166 per month (fixed), paid to each Founder as a consultancy fee until the company is launched and pre-seed investment is secured.
• We provide continuous support post spin-out, including fundraising, commercial partnerships, recruitment and team-building (amongst other things). 
• Other Founders currently at DSV across sectors working collaboratively and supporting one another - a unique resource to draw on.