Madelyn Heart

On finding my way to digital bio

I grew up in Winchester, just outside Boston, MA, with two parents who were environmental lawyers (yes, we recycled quite a bit). For a while I assumed I’d become a lawyer, too. Then I interned at a law firm in college and realized…I should probably keep looking.

Outside environmental law I had roots in the early internet. My grandfather Frank led the team that built the ARPANET. My grandmother was also an early computer programmer (they actually met through programming). A lot of their friends were early computer pioneers. All of which is to say that growing up, it felt like the sky was the limit in terms of what you could build.

When I was figuring out what to study at Bates, my grandfather had a pretty strong opinion. He thought the last century had been about engineering, and the next one would be about biology. Coming from him, that carried some weight. I already liked biology, so I decided to major in it.

The harder part than the actual degree was explaining to the career center that I didn’t want to be a doctor, or immediately get a PhD. I just had this hunch that there must be something interesting to do on the business side of biology. I just didn’t know what it was yet.

On getting scientists to use robots

After college I spent a year teaching biology in Madrid (greatest purchasing power era of my life). Then a recruiter reached out about a sales role at Opentrons, an open source robotics company in New York. They were specifically looking for someone who had studied biology and taught before…which was pretty much me to a T.

There were about 35 employees when I joined. Then COVID hit, demand for automated testing took off, and we grew to more than 800 people in roughly two years (!). Our robots automated pipetting, moving liquid between tubes and plates so labs could prepare samples at scale.

At Opentrons I did a million things. I started out cold calling scientists and eventually worked across account management, customer success, and community. Later, I helped connect people writing open source protocols so different labs could share what they’d built. I’m probably proudest of launching our education program, predicated on my belief that if you teach a new generation of scientists to use robots, they’ll take that experience with them when they go off to work.

On building a biotech community

I have always been drawn to the idea that one person can change the world – and that even extraordinary people need tremendous support to do it. I joined Pillar because I was inspired by the mission to help create more incredible biotech companies and support ambitious scientists bringing their ideas into the world.

Over three years, we built a community of founders, pharmaceutical leaders, and investors through Encode, Founder-Led Biotech, our work in women’s health, and more. I am incredibly proud of what we built and the role it played in advancing founder-led tech bio.

On travel

Travel is a big part of my life and one of my favorite things to learn about from people I meet. My husband and I have been to Mexico 7 times, including Oaxaca and Sayulita. One of my favorite trips was a week driving west from Bilbao through northern Spain while I was teaching in Madrid.

I think the best kind of travel is getting to know a place through the lens of a local; avoiding the tourist traps and actually getting a real sense of the heartbeat and life of a place. If I’m visiting you, I want to go to your favorite places. I’d like to know where you actually spend your time.