Vault’s Verdict

A boutique-sized consultancy with the feel of a start-up, DeciBio is a growing life sciences consultancy that offers employees the chance to build the career they’re looking for. Whether that’s making a beeline to partner or working up the ranks at a more comfortable pace, insiders love the firm’s choose-your-own adventure career progression and entrepreneurial spirit. 

Even with a hard-charging culture, DeciBio insiders appreciate that they can still build a good quality of life with the firm thanks to its supportive environment, commitment to flexibility, and trust in its employees. They admit their compensation could be higher at the competition, but feel like they make more on a per-hour basis than their peers at other firms because they work reasonable schedules that leave time for friends and family. 

In fact, the only thing that might hold back a consultant with a life sciences background from applying to DeciBio is the firm’s size. Even though the firm has grown steadily and has never had layoffs, its boutique status means it has less back-office support than other options and can limit exit opportunities. That may not matter much, though, as it seems people who join this firm rarely leave.

Employee Reviews

Firm Culture

• “There is a strong focus on leading initiatives and developing professionally and for the firm. DeciBio is very self-driven, which lends itself to a lot of freedom but also comes with an innate pressure to compete against, if nobody else, yourself.”
• “The firm has a very strong sense of community and tries to help load balance when people need flexibility; we also give all employees the option of working a full month remotely; many employees take advantage of this option during the end of year holidays.”
• “There is great flexibility to get the job done at a time that is convenient. Many team members with young families unplug early and plug back in for a couple of hours later in the evening.”
• “We have a strong culture of fitness and health, personally and as a firm. The month of April is dedicated to team-based fitness challenges and healthy living. The firm also runs a charity SoulCycle event!”

Quality of Life

• “The firm has a flexible policy that signifies trust in its employees and promotes work-life-balance. The firm has unlimited PTO, a hybrid office policy, and grants everyone the option to work remotely (from a travel destination) for a month each year. Of the three in-office days each week, the firm caters lunch for two of those days. The firm also freely allows transfers between offices for associates and above”
• “Everyone, including partners and managers, is supportive of a healthy work life balance. It's easy to get time off as long as you give enough notice, and team members are always happy to help take over for each other when needed.”
• “Hours are generally nice but can be demanding on a deliverable, just like anywhere else. There is no mandatory travel (the closest is conference participation), so I enjoy working remotely in areas away from my home office while visiting friends. It's very easy to take time off, though there it can be hard to draw boundaries when case work shifts suddenly and expectations change.”
• “The culture is unbeatable. You’re valued as a person, and it makes the quality of work better in my opinion. Travel is minimal, it’s very easy to take time off, hours are reasonable, and long hours are generally predictable.”

Career Development

• “DeciBio has a clear pathway to promotion and strong lines of communication to support your growth. You have many lines of communication with partners, your career mentor, and managers in order to understand your progression. The initial training is being revamped and is near-constantly being updated.”
• “The firm is a meritocracy. You can make partner like five years straight out of college if you work your butt off. You get great exposure to the industry overall and for exit opportunities, a lot of growth and responsibility, and an amazing culture.”
• “Our firm has various formal and informal career development initiatives. Each employee is assigned a career mentor that can help them navigate career development questions and receives a professional development stipend. Our firm is also a strict meritocracy, with people advancing quickly if they are star performers. However, we do prioritize informal training over formal training.”
• “The best aspects are that the firm is a true meritocracy. People get promoted as soon as they have demonstrated that they can do the job they'll get promoted into, and this can take anywhere between nine to 24 months. You also get to write your own story, and work on consulting, data, or venture capital, based on your interests.”

Compensation

• “The pay is competitive when normalized to the average weekly hours you work compared to other firms. The health insurance coverage, maternity leave, and paternity leave are generous. You get early access to equity, and for managers and above, the firm pays a commission on sales. However, gross pay is not as high as the most competitive firms and bonus decisions are sometimes ambiguous.”
• “Compensation is consistent across levels, with no discrepancies based on gender, race, or other factors. At the junior levels, base salaries are competitive, but as you move up, they become less so. At higher levels, a greater portion of total compensation is performance-based, which can offer significant upside but also introduces more variability.”
• “The compensation is not on par with the highest-end health consulting boutiques, but the salary progression is fairly swift.”
• “We have slightly below-market compensation, but very strong internal progression and the lows are balanced by a favorable work-life balance.”

Community Engagement

• “The company is quite diverse regarding race and gender. The hiring team does a good job of finding individuals from varying backgrounds that contribute well to office culture as well as office diversity. I feel that anyone can be a partner, and we all have access to promotion opportunities.”
• “We incorporate DEI efforts into recruiting. We have a target to have at least the same level of representation (if not more) of underrepresented minorities in our application pool as you’d see for medical school applications. We also have multiple affinity groups, such as Queers in Consulting and Women* in Consulting, that meet monthly to discuss relevant topics to raise to leadership.”
• “The culture of the firm is very warm, open, and accepting of all differences. We make an effort to ensure that everyone feels welcome. Employees are encouraged to form any kind of special interest groups that resonate with them, and the firm provides resources to support that.”
• “The firm has made a concerted effort to improve diversity and equity, particularly through broadening recruitment efforts to include a wider range of schools. While senior leadership, particularly among partners, has historically been male dominated, we are now approaching gender parity at the manager level and above. Women also hold key senior operational and commercial roles.”

Business Outlook

• “Precision medicine is on the rise, and we're well positioned to capitalize on it. But with AI on the horizon, there may be some consolidation. Business may go to the big guy who can leverage AI best. However, we were quick to implement commercially available AI. Our strengths are our entrepreneurial spirit and thirst for innovation, and our willingness to expand into new products and services for our clients.”
• “We have not had to ever implement a single RIF, even in recent times when other firms have, and we have continued to grow both the top and bottom lines in years that were flat for many other firms. We are expanding globally with new offices; adding new, young partners; and growing across all our products, services, and industry verticals.”
• “The firm is well-positioned for continued growth, despite two years of modest progress in a challenging tools and diagnostics market, where many companies have faced losses, consulting budget cuts, and widespread layoffs. Our management has shown agility in navigating these conditions and is expanding into newer verticals, such as digital pathology and cell and gene therapy, which should help drive future growth.”
• “We have lower brand recognition, which is understandable considering thew company's niche area of focus.”

Hiring Process

• “The firm does three rounds of cases and interviews, followed by an in-person behavioral interview where we fly the candidate to HQ. The ideal candidate should be sharp, quick-thinking, ambitious, and personable.”
• “We have a highly selective process with an offer rate below 1 percent. We are looking for candidates with a strong biological science education, a firm understanding of business strategy principles, poise and confidence to put them in front of clients, and interesting personalities to work with on a day-to-day basis.”
• “The process includes a video interview, a phone interview, a half-day virtual case presentation, and partner one-on-ones. The ideal candidate is a self-starter that has a high bar for excellence and rallies people around them to reach that bar.”
• “The ideal candidate is highly analytical and comfortable with both quantitative and qualitative problem solving. They are driven, take initiative, and demonstrate a balance of high IQ and EQ. The firm looks for individuals who remain composed under pressure, communicate effectively, are quick to learn, and possess a strong sense of curiosity and entrepreneurial spirit.”

Interview Questions

• “Estimate the size of the market for liquid biopsies for breast cancer. Evaluate the better private equity firm investment for a life sciences research tools group based on current market conditions, the post-COVID economy, and given sales data.”
• “Company X, a genomics company, is interested in breaking into three new diagnostic markets: postpartum depression, gestational diabetes mellitus, and fetal growth restriction. They are interested in building their own diagnostic or buying an existing one. Which market should they address, and how should they proceed?”
• “Our client, a small venture capital firm, is looking to invest in companies that are developing new antibiotics to help tackle the growing issue of antibiotic resistance, particularly in the context of bloodstream infections. Your goal is to make a recommendation for a $10 million investment.”
• “Give me a 30 second tutorial or introduction to something you learned recently or are passionate about.”