Recently, Corinna sat down with Dana Tennis of RetirementDNA to discuss a wide range of topics – her early days with Invitrogen, her move into executive coaching, and the current state of biotech here in San Diego.

Q1:  Corinna, you’re the co-founder of one of San Diego’s great success stories. Tell us about the company you helped create back in 1987. 

Invitrogen was founded around the idea to create reagent kits and provide them to researchers to help make their discoveries faster and more successful. The first kit was for the construction of cDNA libraries. Many more kits followed, including the most successful TA-Cloning kit for direct cloning of PCR products. It was a finalist in 1991 for the Most Innovative Product Award at UCSD CONNECT.

Q2:  We've heard that Invitrogen had quite the entrepreneurial start-up office! Tell us about your offices.

We started operations by renting a small warehouse space in Sorrento Valley. We built our own lab benches with supplies from a home improvement store. Our desks were made out of old doors that we laid across small file cabinets. The holes from the door knobs were conveniently used to feed computer cables through. It was not very pretty but completely functional. It certainly had a lot of entrepreneurial spirit.

Q3:  What do you remember most about those early days?

Everyone had to roll up their sleeves and wear multiple hats. R&D, product development, quality control, manufacturing, technical service, custom services, inventory, shipping, marketing & sales, advertising, and corporate development had to be done all at the same time and in a hurry. The company sold its first product three months after start-up and became profitable in month six.

Q4:  How was the company funded in the beginning?

With the founders’ own capital investments and sweat equity.

Q5:  How did your life path lead you to San Diego from Düsseldorf, Germany?

I earned my Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Düsseldorf and was determined to do a postdoctoral fellowship in the U.S. to continue my education and training. I found a position in San Diego that I liked and moved here a few days after my thesis defense, carrying only two suit cases. I expected to go back to Germany after two years but quickly changed my mind. A year later, with a green card in my pocket, I got my first job as a scientist in a biotech company. Four years later Invitrogen was founded.

Q6:  How did you make the move into executive coaching with Navica Partners?

Navica Partners was founded in 2001 by Dean Cuplin, the former CEO of MitoKor, a VC backed biotech company that he founded in 1992 to explore mitochondrial disease components in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Type 2 diabetes. Back then, he brought me into the company to run the molecular biology and genomics programs. It was two years ago that I joined him again at Navica. I was intrigued by the firm’s concepts and methods for helping corporate executives and their companies become more successful faster. I wanted to apply my experiences from having been in scientific and corporate leadership positions for nearly 20 years.

Q7:  What is your key focus in working with executives?

Our key focus is to get results by improving an executive’s performance in her or his work environment. We work with individual executives, and with multiple team members on the same executive team. We also help executives and other key contributors work more closely together as a team, often by facilitating pivotal meetings on crucial issues that affect the future of the company.  The focus is on leadership, inclusiveness, consensus building and accountability.

Examples of the type of coaching assignments that we are asked to do include working with executives as they move to a higher level of performance, prepare for an anticipated promotion or join a new organization. The types of meetings we are asked to facilitate include strategic planning processes, board of directors retreats, enterprise assessments where executives take stock of where the company is and where it is going, and the formulation of the company response to external influences.

Q8:  Is it difficult to coach executives?

It is not difficult to coach executives for an experienced coach who is also a former senior executive.  Having shared experiences creates a peer relationship that fosters trust and rapport.  The special bond that this creates, and the enthusiasm of the executive being coached, are the secrets to successful coaching outcomes.

Q9:  We know you’re still involved in biotech. Tell us about one of the key companies you’re excited about.

I am involved with NeuroMark Genomics, the first pharmacogenetics market entry in the field of psychiatry and behavioral medicine. The company is developing genetic testing to identify and treat persons at risk for neuropsychiatric and behavioral disorders. To date, there are no tests to assist with diagnosis of these illnesses. The company is also developing a new class of preventative genetic tests which presymptomatically identify persons at neurological or psychiatric health risk who will benefit from early intervention. NeuroMark is currently marketing the first test of this class, one which identifies individuals at risk for depression and cardiovascular disease as a result of experiencing stressful life events. Further tests under development include genetic risk for anti-social behavior disorder, bipolar disease and dyslexia. Also ready for marketing is an antidepressant drug response test which will address the highest need in neuropsychiatry – predicting the class of drug most effective for treatment of a person with major depression.

Q10:  What is one of the biggest changes you have seen in the biotech and life science industry today compared to the start up days of Invitrogen?

Biotechnology companies have redefined themselves as they have come to an understanding of today’s reality. The pay-off in most cases is no longer technology and the use of technology platforms to understand disease, but rather the development of drugs. The industry has become less high-tech and less entrepreneurial as a reflection of the financial landscape. Investors have become more conservative with short time horizons to market. Many biotech companies have turned into mini-pharmaceutical companies with focus on standard drug discovery processes. A few technology companies have continued to develop in their market niche, turning to a technology-for-service model for modest profits. Reagent, consumables and instrument manufacturers have consolidated their competitive markets through mergers and acquisitions.

Q11:  Would Invitrogen's start-up approach back in 1987 work today?

With truly novel and innovative products and self-funding by the entrepreneurs, yes, I believe that an Invitrogen-like company could get started. It is very uncertain whether such a company could receive outside financing before it was well on its way to being a viable enterprise. It would be crucial to establish a proprietary position for the products in the market place in order to maintain a competitive advantage.

Q12:  What are your thoughts on the state of biotech here in San Diego?

The financial outlook for small biotech is not as robust as it once was. Investors have become reluctant due to inflated valuations and promises that were not delivered. Investors are now looking for drugs in late stage development and for clinical data. In most cases, there is no need to understand the mechanism of how and why a drug works. Biotech has historically been focused on finding the cause of disease and on the development of mechanistic models and molecular mechanism through the application of their technology and intellectual property. Biotech is now moving to create efficacy and safety data in order to take drug candidates to the clinic.

Q13:  What do we need to do to improve speed-to-market for biotech companies?

This is tough since much of the process is dictated by the Food and Drug Administration. Most biotech companies do not have the financial means to take a drug to market or to go beyond Phase 2 clinical trials. They must partner with large pharmaceutical companies late in their drug development and marketing stages. The financial pressure in today’s economy for biotech and big pharma to get a drug to market quickly has inherent risks. We all know about drugs that have been pulled off the market in recent years because of extreme health problems. That’s why the 6th leading cause of death in the U.S. is due to drug side effects.

Q14:  Any thoughts on how biotech companies can better leverage and allocate the money they do raise?

Many things can affect the success or failure of a biotech company. On the research and development side, no more effort should be placed on studying the mechanism of a disease or drugs. This should be accomplished through academic research collaborations. Companies must develop models that reflect the state of disease, show efficacy and safety of the drug in animals, and take the drug to the early clinic. On the business side, the executive management team and the Board of Directors must focus on the overall process of running a functional organization with the right people who make the right decisions and conquer hurdles faster.

Q15:  San Diego has many great places to escape to your thoughts. Where do you go to get away and think?

I like to just put on my sneakers in the evening and go for a walk around the neighborhood. For strategizing and brainstorming sessions, I get together with friends at the Poseidon in Del Mar.

Q16:  When you want to enjoy a quiet dinner in town, where is your favorite place?

The Pacifica Del Mar is one of my favorites.

Q17:  Corinna, it’s time for our classic question. What is the signature Herrnstadt dish to prepare? What wine would accompany your dish and what music selection would be playing in the background?

I don’t cook much, but I can make a delicious cheese fondue, accompanied by a Rombauer Chardonnay and Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, played by Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Wiener Philharmoniker, conducted by Herbert von Karajan.

Thanks, Corinna.