Name: Lenny Teytelman (he/him)
PhD: Molecular Biology, University of California - Berkeley, 2009
What was your main area of research?
I studied the evolutionary genetics of heterochromatin in yeasts (PhD) and single-cell transcription initiation (postdoc).
What is your current job?
I am the Founder and President of protocols.io and located in Berkeley, CA.
My job involves improving and growing protocols.io. That includes talking to the users (academics and corporations) as well as meeting with the protocols.io team and colleagues at Springer Nature and forming partnerships with funders and publishers.
I love being able to give researchers a tool that helps them in their work. This ultimately accelerates science.
How did you find this position? What were the career steps you took to get to where you are now?
It was my frustration with method development during my postdoc that led me to co-found protocols.io in 2012.
PhD ➡️ postdoc ➡️ protocols.io ➡️ Springer Nature (acquired protocols.io)
Why did you decide to not pursue a career in academia?
It was the toughest decision in the entire protocols.io journey for me. I was hoping to become a professor and for a year tried to make protocols.io happen on the side. Then at the end of my fourth year of postdoc, I realized that it was one or the other, but not both. I could try to succeed at one of them or fail at both. As difficult as the decision was, I don't have any regrets.
Do you have any advice for someone getting their PhD and looking to pursue a career outside of academia?
Yes, I do have advice! Much of it is here: https://www.protocols.io/view/guide-for-supporting-diverse-career-exploration-of-261geooxjl47/v1. It is also a guide we created that you can give to your PI if they are not supportive.