BioBuilder Career Conversation: Stephen Gunstream Transcript

Natalie Kuldell (00:03):

Hi Stephen. Thank you for joining today. It’s so nice to see you. There’s a lot about you that I want to ask, but maybe we can just start with, your name and where you work and a little bit about what you do.

Stephen Gunstream (00:18):

Sure. You know, my name is Stephen Gunstream. I’m the CEO and president of Teknova. Teknova is a leading provider of cell culture, media, molecular biology reagents, agar plates for the discovery development and commercialization of therapeutics, vaccines and diagnostics. Um, we’ve been around since 1996, we have over 3000 customers, and we’re growing quite a bit recently since we’ve started going into what we call the GMP. So clinical production, so we can make products for making new vaccines, which happened to be a big part right now, as well as new therapies, particularly in cell and gene therapy, where they need smaller volumes, more custom nature. Our business is very different in the fact that we don’t know what people are ordering and we make it on demand. So we can get products. The customers they’d give us the recipes much like you would go into the kitchen and get a recipe. They give us the recipe, we know how to manufacture it to the quality standards we need and get it to the customers in weeks. Many other players in the space, you know, their infrastructure is not set up to do it in weeks. It’s usually months. So, we see ourselves as a key contributor to helping move the science forward.

Natalie Kuldell (01:24):

Yeah, I think moving the science forward with things that you do is just incredible. It really has accelerated the work incredibly and it’s kind of one of those silent hands that moves the machine. Um, but so important and so valuable. I know that we have Teknova materials in our lab and they’re always high quality and exactly what we need and they come very quickly and, you guys are awesome to work with.

Stephen Gunstream (01:51):

That’s good to hear.

Natalie Kuldell (01:54):

I hadn’t realized you guys had been around for so long. Have you been with Teknova the whole time?

Stephen Gunstream (01:59):

No. I’ve only been at Teknova coming on two years, this December. Prior to that, I was a general manager of BD Biosciences or a division of Becton Dickinson, which is all the flow cytometry business and other things there. And before that, I was the chief commercial officer of a company called the IDT or Integrated DNA Technologies, which you probably know as well as one of the leading oligo supplier in the space, which are very important in synthetic bio. And then prior to that, I was at a company called Applied Biosystems, before it became Life Technologies, before it came Thermo. That’s my resume quickly here.

Natalie Kuldell (02:35):

You’ve kind of traced all of biotechnology companies all the way through.

Stephen Gunstream (02:40):

I’ve been at a lot of tools companies. So this idea of how do we support moving things forward has really been my passion.

Natalie Kuldell (02:47):

That’s incredible because I think that when people think about scientific careers, I don’t think that would naturally, or, intuitively come to mind, but it is so important. Science really can’t move forward without the tools to do the science. So, um, very, very cool. Did you always know that you wanted to do science?

Stephen Gunstream (03:08):

Uh, I think I always knew I wanted to do some science. So, actually my grandfather was a professor of biology and anatomy and my father was a physician. My mother was a teacher and so I think I graduated from high school and I was good at, well, I wasn’t good – I didn’t know what engineering was. I was good at math. I was really good at math and I was good in the sciences. And so I ended up going to Northwestern and I signed up for biomedical engineering. It was a new, very new degree at the time. Right. And I thought, look, if I do this, then I can, I like the engineering idea of the math and science, but I thought I would want to be a doctor like my dad. Or like probably many kids do.

Stephen Gunstream (03:58):

And I guess these aren’t kids, but I consider 18 a kid or at least a kid at that time. Um, and then I got to college and my passion was much more on the engineering side of that. And so this combination of science and engineering just really suited me well. And so that’s where I started and ended up, you know, luckily getting a temp position at Applied Biosystems after I moved to San Francisco, right after college, my wife was going to dental school. So, um, I actually didn’t have a job and then a temp job at Applied Biosystems and then sort of did R & D there for a while. And so that’s kinda how I ended up there. Sometimes it just happens. Right?

Natalie Kuldell (04:38):

It sometimes really does. I think that’s exactly right. You’re not the first person I’ve talked to that has said, you know, in high school I liked math, I liked science and somebody said, do engineering. Cause that’s what that is. And most people, I mean, maybe it’s changing now, but certainly in high school, I didn’t know what engineers did or how to get into that field at all.

Stephen Gunstream (04:58):

There’s, at least when I was in high school, there was not an engineering-like class, right. There’s like for the mechanical side, the closest thing, it was like more of the wood shop, which I was not good at. Right. And I was much more on the maybe chemistry, but calculus was like in math, I really enjoyed math, quite a bit.

Natalie Kuldell (05:19):

Math is an interesting point of entry into a lot of the science and engineering and technology fields. And so, I think that when people like math, there is an open door to a lot of other ways to think. And so, you know, making sure that there are good connections to math early on is so important. Now, did you have great math teachers or your just maybe being the son of a teacher and a doctor just brought you into math.

Stephen Gunstream (05:47):

You know, I did have really good teachers. Right. I also did a lot of arts literature type of things as well, but, um, I really just, you know, I did have a great pre-calc and calc teacher and it was not about memorizing. That’s not really what I’m really strong to be honest. It was really understanding like, what does this mean when you do a derivative? Right. And then how does it apply? And I think that combination, you know, I didn’t realize that at the time, I think it took until I got to college, this combination of understanding the math, but then the creative side. How do you apply that creatively to sort of developing and inventing things and solving? I really always liked solving problems and challenges and puzzles and that kind of fit for the engineering side.

Natalie Kuldell (06:34):

Absolutely. Boy, I hope people really hear that and listen to that because it’s really not about just memorizing and packing your brain full of facts and being able to tell people what’s already known. It’s really about problem solving and it is creative. And I hope that we attract people into the field because it is creative and because it’s, uh, you know, problem oriented and you can do great things, right? Like you can actually make a positive difference in the world this way.

Stephen Gunstream (07:06):

Absolutely. And I’ll tell you one piece that stands out in my college now, so this is college. I was in the pre-med classes, the biologies and stuff, and I wasn’t particularly good at it because it was a lot of memorizing for some of that. Right. And, um, this was around the time of the internet starting, which I know whoever’s listening probably doesn’t believe that existed. Uh, but, I remember I did not do very well in biology. And it was like, I remember one of the questions on the test was like, you know, how many years ago was the Paleozoic extinction? And I remember looking at the question and was like, who cares? I can just look it up. There’s not actually using your brain. And so that’s kind of, I mean, there are people that are really good at that stuff and that’s just not me, but I had a lot more passion understanding why things worked and just biology and things like that. And that’s where I really kind of excelled. And particularly once I got into my job in Applied Biosystems and others, right. It’s just sort of like, okay, we can’t solve this problem. And then it was just a real big passion of mine to try and understand why things worked the way they did and see if we can solve it.

Natalie Kuldell (08:15):

That’s so cool. That’s amazing. I, um, sort of have a similar thing. I did not take any biology in college. I was a chemistry major. It’s really about like pushing molecules around and bonds. And I never took any biology until I got to graduate school. Because it was just about stacking your brain full of stuff and being able to repeat back things that I couldn’t really figure out why they were important.

Stephen Gunstream (08:40):

I mean, it’s changed now. I think the internet has changed a lot of that in that sense. And I had to go back to that calculus teacher because you know, you couldn’t use a calculator, right. He would not let you use a calculator. And it was like, prove the formula using integrals for how you find the volume of a sphere. And it’s like, okay, you really have to understand that the purpose of these things. Right. So that’s why I really did enjoy that more than some of the other classes.

Natalie Kuldell (09:11):

Amazing. And do you use your problem solving skills in your day-to-day work? Are you part of a team that puts, you know, problems on the table every day and tries to fix them?

Stephen Gunstream (09:21):

Yeah, we’re trying. I mean, we’re trying to do more things than you can possibly do at the same time. Which is, you know, work to kind of corral what you want to do, but we have lots of challenges every day. Right. And I think, I may be a slightly different type of leader. I am a team player as well, like where I jump in and help solve the problems when they’re particularly urgent, bring the people together – and they all come, you know, my team in particular comes from very diverse backgrounds. Right. And that’s great. They come from some pharmaceutical, some life science tools, some diagnostics from an industry experience. But, but then also different majors, different, you know, places, they grew up – everything. Right. And you put these people in a room and we all have to figure out how to manufacture this product. And that’s where the creativity and other pieces come along the way. So there’s a ton of problem solving every day for me.

Natalie Kuldell (10:15):

That’s great. That’s amazing. So, being a CEO is something that I know a lot of people aspire to. Are there things that you love about your job that you can share or things that people might not know about being a CEO?

Stephen Gunstream (10:31):

Yeah. We should probably talk about love and not like, right. Just so people get the idea because it’s never perfect. And I think a lot of people have this idea that I’m going to find this dream job it’s going to be perfect. There’s always, there’s always tough times, but you have to get into the role where, whether it’s CEO or any other role where the benefits far outweigh the sort of the drab points. Right. And I feel like I’m definitely there now. What people maybe don’t know, like I do on a daily basis. It’s actually a lot of walking around and talking to people and making sure I understand what’s happening in the business. Where are the pain points? How can I help? So I can guide the team.

Stephen Gunstream (11:14):

It’s a lot of personal relationships for me. And, um, I care a ton about the culture of the business and where we’re headed, because I think the culture piece, if everyone has the right attitude, you know, we can accomplish anything because we have the right skill sets here. Right. So just spend a lot more time than you think on the soft skills. Um, it’s not about how do we get this product out all the time. It’s about how do we get these people working together more on their own, right. Uh, how do we develop people to sort of identify the problems and then go solve them themselves? So I spend a lot of time on that. I would also say that, you know, one of the hardest parts is actually developing the team and managing the team and hiring the team, that’s the right team and getting everyone to work together.

Stephen Gunstream (11:58):

Because you have a lot of scientific people, a lot of people with lots of different skillsets and personalities don’t always fit. So how do you work on making that happen? So I do spend a bit of time on there. And so I’d say that the other parts that for me, that are not as enjoyable and they are enjoyable for other people is probably, um, – and hopefully my board is not listening – is new managing up. Right. So managing, making sure they’re aware of what we’re doing. We move and go really quickly here. Right. And I know they talked to me once a quarter or so, and so they can come back in a quarter and we’re in a completely different spot. So I have to set myself up and make sure that we’re keeping everyone up to speed with this happening because it’s an important part of my job. That’s the reality, and I know they’re really valuable. And they need to know what’s happening so they can help when needed. But yeah, I mean, it’s a lot of fun. It’s not, you know, it’s not sitting in an office and having people come give you reports, right. You’re out doing stuff, working with people, finding the biggest problems, um, you know, making sure people are focused on what we want to be focused on and inspiring people. That’s a lot of my job.

Natalie Kuldell (13:08):

That’s amazing. I can see why people would want to be a CEO, like you. I think that’s getting people getting the best work from the people you have is what will lead the organization to thrive and people to be happy, right? Like, you know, people who are working at their best are going to stay longer. They’re going to be creative and work well together. Um, but it doesn’t happen by default. Right. It does take organization and work.

Stephen Gunstream (13:39):

It does. A lot of work. And I would say, just from career advice, there’ll be at some point, you know, people go to school, grad school, go on. Right. And, you know, I became a scientific expert in some of these areas. Where people relied on me to solve these problems. One of the bigger transitions I went through is I’m no longer the best. I’m actually not nearly the best at these things. And having that, you know, I used to feel really valued. I used to get a lot of power and a lot of excitement comes when you resolve the biggest issues or invent the next thing. And now my job is actually to enable them to do that, and that’s a big transition to go through. And sometimes very humbling when you’re like, okay, this person is way better than me. And now I say for my team, I’m recruiting you guys because you’re better than me. You need to recruit people that are better than you. And that’s kind of the way we think about it.

Natalie Kuldell (14:30):

Yeah. That is a great way to think about it. And it makes total sense why Teknova is doing such amazing work and growing so quickly and solving such big problems. Well, I’m very excited to continue to work together and stay in touch. And, boy, thank you for insight into an aspect of a scientific career that I think very few people actually get. So, I really appreciate your honesty and your interesting sharing of everything.