DeciBio Consulting
Visit Website: https://www.decibio.com/
Overview
Introduction
An agile life sciences consultancy that is far into its growth stage, DeciBio offers employees the excitement and challenge of a startup environment merged with the deep content knowledge and ample, hands-on learning opportunities of a much older and larger consulting firm. The scrappy, entrepreneurial spirit of the firm bodes well for candidates who are self-directed, self-motivated, and intellectually curious. DeciBio is truly a “chart-your-own-path” boutique.
Company Stats
Employer Type
Size
Featured Rankings
Vault Consulting 50...
Major Departments/Practice Areas
Precision Medicine...
Major Office Locations
Los Angeles, CA...
Employment Contact
Firsthand Findings
An agile life sciences consultancy that is far into its growth stage, DeciBio offers employees the excitement and challenge of a startup environment merged with the deep content knowledge and ample, hands-on learning opportunities of a much older and larger consulting firm. Entry-level Analysts work on half a dozen projects during their first year and have the opportunity to present their workstreams to C-level executive early on, typically starting on their second project. Insiders describe close-knit and energetic culture where colleagues enthusiastically share ideas and knowledge—for whom it is not uncommon to socialize and bond on weekends. Camping trips and similar excursions with your colleagues seem to have been the norm at DeciBio pre-Covid-19.
The scrapp...
About the Company
DeciBio Consulting is a boutique strategy consulting firm focusing on the life science industry. DeciBio's mission is to provide the strategic insights that accelerate the development, adoption, and accessibility of personalized medicine.
Headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, DeciBio serves clients and customers across the globe, ranging from incubator-stage startups to Fortune 500 life science corporations. DeciBio addresses business solutions that range from market landscape analyses to full commercial strategies, including organic and inorganic growth opportunities (commercial due diligences). DeciBio’s work is typically supported by a mix of primary and secondary research leveraging Dexter, its in-house expert network, and DeciBio Analytics’ proprietary data intelligence products.
DeciBio’s Analyti...
2021 Vault Rankings
Employee Reviews
- “A culture of trust and responsibility where you can grow into an entrepreneurial, strategic expert in the precision medicine space.”
- “Employees truly care for one another and see each other as more than just a colleague. We choose to hang out together over the weekends or take workout classes together after work. We genuinely enjoy each other's company, and I think that's really rare to find at any company!
- "The culture and the opportunity for growth. The firm has a culture of transparency and distributes power across the company - so employees are empowered to contribute to growth. The company will give you the room to take on as much responsibility as you want. DeciBio hits the trifecta. It's given me mastery, autonomy, and purpose."
- “The partners create a truly unique culture where everyone (from intern to partner) is able to contribute and feel heard. Whether it’s what type of projects to work on, long-term vision for the company, or what to order for lunch that day, the company truly operates as a single team committed to helping clients advance the pace of innovation in the precision medicine industry.”
- “Young and energetic firm filled with highly intelligent team members passionate about accelerating the pace of innovation in precision medicine.”
- “Self-starters can go very far here. People looking to have a start-up experience in a stable firm would fit in very well. Anyone who wants exposure to a multifaceted work stream (casework, creating firm content, recruiting, operations) would be very satisfied.”
- “There is nothing I could possibly complain about. If anything is still lacking for me, it would only be so because I had not taken advantage of what is available to me. And, our weekends in Los Angeles are so work-free that they feel like a vacation. If we received anything more, we would not be a professional firm.”
- “Where DeciBio may lack in formality or brand prestige, it more than makes up for in culture and quality of life. For that reason, the firm's retention is well above consulting average…Our team [is very] comfortable with each other, with staff regularly going to art, dance, exercise, cooking, and martial arts classes together after work and taking road trips, ski trips, camping trips, and vacations together on some weekends. Hours are fairly lax and the workload is manageable, with generous and flexible work-from-home policies…Late-night and weekend work is atypical and usually falls more on managers and partners. Travel requirements are light — typically 1-2 days per 6 weeks…”
- “I think you would be hard-pressed to find a consulting firm with a better quality of life. Work-life balance is huge and no one will ever judge you for getting in a workout when you need one or taking a few hours to get a life task done. We barely traveled [pre-Covid-19]…At max, one could travel 3-4 days a month, but usually, it seems like 2 days every other month. If you are proactive with your time off, there is little chance that you won't get it. Management wants to work with you to make sure you are happy and get you what you need if you aren't.”
- “Vacation time is at par with other firms. Employees are definitely encouraged to take it. Work sometimes intrudes on vacation time. The firm is trying to work on that, but there has been minimal improvement over the last year. It doesn't happen often that you have to work on PTO…If you take an extended vacation (i.e., more than 3 days), it's almost always worked into the schedule and you can be completely unplugged. If you are just taking a day off, work sometimes bleeds in.”
- “They encourage the use of vacation time and are very good at respecting the use of it. Exceptions happen when a case gets heavy, but the vast majority of PTO is hands-off when you use it. Colleagues treat it as such too.”
- “One of the best aspects is that achieving work/life balance is a core firm value, and all colleagues are respectful of taking the time each person needs to workout, spend time with family etc. Additionally, the culture of trust allows a degree of autonomy rarely seen in almost any other work setting. On the flip side, the nature of consulting work has on occasion interrupted planned travel or required unbalanced periods of working very late, but that is the nature of the industry and can often be justified when we make a great impression on clients.”
- “Total overall compensation is comparable given the size of our firm but base salary is lower than market at the mid-levels of the firm, associates and managers.”
- “The profit sharing is transparent and generous. We all profit together, so there is genuine alignment of incentives.”
- “The best aspects of the firm’s compensation package include: profit-sharing, early promotion opportunity, conference stipends, education reimbursement, generous paid parental leave for a small firm.”
- “A year ago, the company implemented an amazing parental leave policy: 12 weeks of paid leave plus 8 weeks of unpaid leave, with discontinuous use available. Stacks on top of Pregnancy Disability Leave. Pay at the role / level within the firm is standardized. Dog friendly office is a great perk.”
- “Best [aspects] are the profit share, and equal pay package on entrance to the company. Favorite perk is professional development stipend to attend conferences or pay for online classes.”
- “Best aspect is a generous profit share for all employees. Worst (but still ok) are the medical benefits, which are not as comprehensive as some other firms.”
- “As a small consulting firm, you are given significantly more responsibility at an entry-level position (Analyst) than you would at any other consulting firm. This increased responsibility translates to more rapid growth, and our promotion cycle is faster than most consulting firms.”
- “The firm operates on a credo of lean entrepreneurship and tends to favor self-starters and independent learners / thinkers. One shortcoming of this is that the lack of formalized training creates need for on-the-job training and extra editing / correcting of materials from inexperienced staff that can be frustrating and inefficient. In terms of the challenge of the role and opportunities outside of the role, this credo works well…The firm has supported me in developing [new responsibilities] and decreasing my casework utilization to make time for content development and BD activities. I wish the firm had broader brand recognition, because exit opportunities to other consulting firms can be tough, despite having higher-level experience (e.g., project management) when comparing head-to-head with peer consultants at other firms with higher-familiarity brands.”
- “They put a lot of work into providing mentorship and growth opportunities. This applies to both career progress within the firm, but also helping set you up for your longer term career aspirations.”
- “As a boutique firm, we offer less formal training particularly beyond the first year. With that said, the partners are very involved in consulting casework and provide a lot of hands-on / apprenticeship training to the team. Also everyone in the firm has a Career Mentor (CM) which they meet on a regular basis (typically over a company reimbursed CM lunch) to discuss career development at the firm and in a broader professional sense.”
- “DeciBio offers a rapid growth trajectory, especially for analysts coming from undergrad. DeciBio allows analysts to take on more responsibilities earlier than most consulting firms, like presenting to clients and building slide decks. DeciBio also offers a career mentorship program where each employee is paired with a mentor whom they meet with monthly. There are not well-established exit routes from DeciBio, but the alumni network is growing.”
- “The best aspects of DeciBio’s career development opportunities include: ability to “write your own job description” (given the nature of a small, flexible firm and open-minded partners), access to leading professionals in the life sciences industry (mainly through partner connections, but also through ample conference exposure), an engaged and intellectually curious team that makes managing others both challenging and rewarding. The worst aspects of DeciBio’s career development opportunities include limited formal training (again, given the nature of a small firm, fewer resources deployed here), limited brand awareness outside of tools and diagnostics (but growing), limited international opportunity (limited to California for now).”
- “High focus and sensitivity towards maintaining equality, hiring a diverse workforce (though, socioeconomic background of team members may be less diverse), and promoting men and women equally based on quality of work. Partners go above and beyond to make sure women, in particular, feel accepted and encouraged to rise through the ranks. This is (unfortunately) rare at other consulting or life sciences firms, and even rarer amongst the combination of the two, making DeciBio a special and unique place in this regard.”
- “DeciBio makes concerted efforts to promote diversity and equality. As a relatively small firm which was founded by 3 male partners, maximizing diversity and ensuring equal opportunity has been at the forefront of our HR and personnel strategy since the beginning. Our team represents a diverse mix of ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations. We also work hard to ensure that we maintain a diverse applicant pool and recruiting pipeline. The firm provides forums for discussion about matters of gender and diversity in the workplace. Lastly, compensation is entirely performance driven, and is completely independent of any prejudices or biases.”
- “Even as a small boutique firm we have both Women in Consulting and [LGBTQ individuals] in Consulting employee resource groups. In fact the firm started the Women's in Consulting group when we had about ~15 employees. We continuing challenge ourselves to make sure that the opportunity for professional growth and promotion is based solely on performance not due to other factors.”
- “DeciBio is a transparent company overall - salaries are pretty straightforward and directly contingent on level of title and experience coming in, not based on partiality due to gender, race, age, looks, etc.”
- “Leadership puts a lot of effort and thought into maintaining diversity.”
- “Compensation calculations are a fairly transparent topic that almost everyone in the firm has discussed together.”
- “COVID-19 is currently changing business outlooks across the economy. However, given our niche focus in healthcare, DeciBio has a strong business outlook to weather the economic crisis that looms.”
- “Strong dynamism in uncertain times; conservative, careful financial planning plus exposure to stable sectors and deep content knowledge of those sectors - all of that makes us more stable than our peers. Employee morale is high and company-wide finances are made transparent and discussed frequently during the instability of the coronavirus crisis. I am not concerned about our long-term outlook and I am confident in our leadership to get every single employee through this year and beyond.”
- “Coronavirus may affect our prospects but we are well positioned to continue to take on new work and have continued to kickoff projects during quarantine. Analysts are encouraged to carve their own niche and become thought leaders.”
- “Best: Our firm is continuing to position itself as a leader in strategy consulting for precision medicine. Our brand name continues to grow in that regard which is leading to strong tailwinds on our business. Additionally, we continue to expand our product / service mix into data products and data / analytical consulting services. Worst: Our consulting business really scales with the team capability, which takes time in terms of recruiting and training.”
- “Diversifying business lines, both start-up software products are growing revenues, unbeatable team culture, non-stop laughter. Thanks to our specialization on the precision medicine space, we signed six consulting projects even during the first three weeks of the Safer At Home orders, as the economy collapsed. And, our team is fully allocated. I encourage management to continue to empower employees to take on the initiatives that they are excited about because such initiatives enable us to naturally transform and grow alongside a continuously evolving industry.”
- “The companies we work with (research tools) typically fair better than other companies through recessions and bear markets.”
Getting Hired Here
- “Three-round interview process with two video interviews and a super-day. Ideal candidate embraces the growth mindset and is a savvy logical thinker with life sciences experience and a knack for business development.”
- “Our first round is typical consulting case type questions but then our final round is a case simulation in which candidates are required to synthesize data into a presentation which they present to the firm's leadership team.”
- “Expect at least two case interviews before a final round. Speed may vary based on our needs at the time. E.g., we do not have dedicated recruiters, so everyone pitches in, though some candidates may move from first round to final round remarkably quickly. We have such a low offer rate because we are looking for fellow "DeciBions” who embody a unique combination of traits. They must have, e.g., indestructible positive energy, a proactive "can do" spirit, proactive communication/interpersonal skills, an innate ability to "get it,” a love for the life sciences, a natural aptitude for business and getting things done, the potential to become a thought leader, etc.”
- “There are 2-3 rounds of interviews, with the first two being case interviews and the final round being a half-day case simulation. The ideal candidate demonstrates client-readiness in their presentation, as well as strong critical thinking skills and comfort with ambiguity.”
- “We want above all a candidate who is a smart and interesting person. We seek candidates who have demonstrated deep care for our niche area (healthcare & diagnostics) and are interesting, creative, dynamic whole people. We screen for skills in early stages, and then look for stars who will round out our small team and bring their own something special to our mix.”
- “[We look for people who] are entrepreneurially-minded, are analytically rigorous, are passionate about life sciences, love to learn / are naturally inquisitive, and have personality and strong EQ.”
- “Traditional consulting cases with a focus on the diagnostics and life science sectors. “How would you go about estimating the install base for a new sequencing instrument with [X] characteristics?””
- “Typical case questions are reflective of actual projects that DeciBio conducts in the diagnostics space. They range from market sizing to acquisition strategy to product development strategy.”
- “Other than traditional market sizing and qualitative problem-solving questions, we use an innovative day-long case project as our final-round interview, where applicants come to the office and are given the full morning alone with a laptop and the open internet and a prompt, and must come up with a solution. This interview very accurately tests numerous hard and soft skills and is, in my opinion, a great indicator of applicants' aptitude and preparedness for the job.”
- “How did you prepare for this interview? …What are your favorite companies in the life science space and why?”
- “What are some things you have found particularly interesting in the industry lately? Why? What are some of the biggest challenges you think companies in the life sciences industry are facing today? If you were the CEO of the last company you worked/interned for, what would you do differently? What would your strategy be?”
- “Market sizing, recommendation for cancer types to target for new technology.”
Perks & Benefits
