From PhD to Founder & CEO

As the Founder and CEO of Vertility Health in California, Bonnie leads both the scientific and business development sides of an early-stage biotech startup.

In her role, she:

• Talks with clinicians and couples to better understand patient and market needs

• Collaborates with consultants and conducts experiments directly

• Develops commercialization and R&D strategies

• Raises capital through investors and granting agencies

• Guides the company’s broader vision and growth

Best part of the job:

• Seeing how much impact perseverance can have.

  • Building a company from the ground up is challenging, but Bonnie finds it deeply empowering to push through difficult moments while creating something meaningful that could help others.

Bonnie conceived the idea for Vertility Health after thinking deeply about how couples could better prevent the transmission of genetic conditions.

After months of literature research, developing experimental plans, and securing a provisional patent, she began pitching the concept to investors and eventually secured funding to launch the company.

Key steps in her career journey:

• UCSF/Gladstone PhD Graduate ➡️ Short Postdoc ➡️ First Startup Spinout ➡️ Bioinformatics Work ➡️ Founder & CEO of Vertility Health

Bonnie realized that while she loved science, she did not want to focus exclusively on research.

She thrived most when engaging across multiple domains, combining science, communication, strategy, and business development to build something impactful.

Entrepreneurship was not initially part of her career plan. But after helping another startup spin out of UCSF, she realized that becoming a founder was not only achievable, but incredibly fulfilling.

For some PhDs, leaving academia is not about walking away from science. It is about expanding how science can be used to help people.

1. Find mentors and environments that support diverse career paths.
   If possible, join a lab where previous students have successfully explored careers outside academia. Feeling supported in your career exploration makes a huge difference.

2. Know that science careers extend far beyond the bench.
   Not every scientist wants to pipette forever, and that is completely okay. There are countless science-focused careers that leverage your expertise in different ways.

3. Recognize the deeper skills your PhD builds.
   A PhD develops far more than technical scientific ability. It builds determination, adaptability, and the ability to learn difficult things independently. Those skills are valuable in virtually any path you pursue.

Bonnie’s story is a reminder that science and entrepreneurship are not separate worlds.

A PhD can prepare you not only to generate knowledge, but also to build companies, identify unmet needs, communicate across disciplines, and bring new ideas into the world.

Sometimes the most fulfilling path is the one where you combine your scientific training with entirely new ways of thinking, building, and leading.