Punit Dhillon, now 33, was previously vice-president of finance at Inovio Pharmaceuticals in San Diego. He was responsible for raising investor capital for the biotech company, which specialized in making products to treat skin cancer.
When it came time to start his own company in 2011, the Vancouver-raised Dhillon was torn: should he start his new company in British Columbia or California? The biotech funding landscape at the time determined his next move.
"I did look at starting it in Vancouver and unfortunately the decision came down to opening doors," said Dhillon. "I have a lot of resources in Vancouver, but I've had to leverage those from San Diego."
Some of the challenges Dhillon faced were raising capital and the adoption of the new technology. (His company, OncoSec Medical, makes an immunotherapy skin cancer treatment.)
But he also made the mistake of hiring a close friend, and a co-founder of OncoSec, as COO of the company. A year later, he made the difficult decision to fire the COO.
"Unfortunately, he was not able to deliver under the responsibilities of that role, and that impacted the company as a whole because we were such a lean company," Dhillon said.
In hindsight, Dhillon thinks he should have spent more time vetting his friend before hiring him. Since then, the company has tightened up its hiring practices, and employment decisions are no longer Dhillon's alone to make.
"As a startup, I kept more flexibility in my hiring decisions because it was just me making that decision," Dhillon said, "but as the company has grown we've had more resources to rely on, so we can make the decision to hire the individuals that fit the company."
On creating a company culture | "I think it's super important to invest in your employees and to have them invested in the company's execution. That's something that took me a while to grasp … It's really developing the culture in the organization so people really understand what we're doing … we have several different health and wellness programs that are reinforcing that they come first. I believe in the philosophy that if you invest in your employees, they will invest in our customers." •
