Passionate about something? BioCurious can use that!

[Tito Jankowski]

Hi!

At the last community meeting, we announced that I was stepping down from the BioCurious board. I wanted email the announcement out and share some thoughts on why I'm excited about the future of BioCurious.

When we first started we were just a group hanging out in Eri's garage. Today we're a whole community that's leading a change in people's thinking about biotech and curiosity around the world.

I had the pleasure of growing up with BioCurious. I remember John Schloendorn in 2010 gave one of the first meetups on DNA engineering. During his talk, a massive refrigerated centrifuge got turned into a bench to fit more people in the garage. This big fancy machine and its ultimate purpose was as a bench!

The most frequent question I've gotten over the years has been - "What can I do to help BioCurious?"

I used to answer with what I thought BioCurious could use: volunteers, a blog, teachers, a new centrifuge, or money.

But after almost 7 years, I learned what BioCurious can really use. Passionate about something? BioCurious can use that!

It might be a surprise, but I've never done much lab work, at BioCurious or elsewhere. I know how bio works, and that it's powerful, but labwork has never been my thing.

For awhile, marketing and sales was my thing. I had read a stack of books on marketing and sales, greats like Ogilvy and Sugarman explaining why those "paid-programming" TV shows are sooooo enticing.

So I sat down and said "I want to practice this - how can I do it?". These skills weren't relevant for my job at the time. And BioCurious didn't necessarily "need" these skills. But I went ahead an applied what I learned. We had just had our first corporate workshop and I said "oh I could apply my sales and marketing to that". So I did! It was a lot of fun making a website for the workshops, pitching, working with Eri, Maria, Josiah, Thom, Eric, and more. Was that really the right thing for BioCurious? Yes! Because I pursued it with my wholehearted curiosity, it turned into a great thing for BioCurious.

What we've got is a tremendous place that can use your curiosity. If your curiosity is alive then hell yes BioCurious can use it, whether it's focused on biotech, science, twitter, events, or teaching. Maybe you're curious about something that doesn't "fit". The only criteria is that you're curious and passionate about it.

Perhaps this jogs some ideas :)

Pursue your curiosity, expand your curiosity, push your curiosity.

See you at the holiday party tonight!

Cheers and love,

Tito

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Tito Jankowski

Pearl Biotech Owner

BioCurious Co-Founder & Secretary

Let's have lunch!