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April 6, 2025
When hiring a commercial leader, many Life Sciences companies start here:
“Who knows our product — or something similar?”
It’s understandable. Product experience can build early trust with the team, reduce ramp time, and bring useful market knowledge.
In our language, it reflects a candidate’s “Phenotype” — where they’ve worked, what stage companies they’ve seen, which customers they’ve sold to, and how their resume aligns with your market.
That matters.
But the mistake is stopping there.
A candidate might know the product and speak the lingo — but that doesn’t mean they can:
• Build and lead a commercial team
• Drive cross-functional alignment
• Represent the company with investors or the Board
• Coach and develop others
• Adapt to strategic shifts
These are the leadership traits that determine whether they’ll scale with your company.
We think of them as a candidate’s “Genotype” — the DNA of how they lead, how they respond under pressure, and how they operate within a specific culture.
This isn’t a knock on product experience.
It can absolutely be helpful — especially when time is tight or credibility matters with early customers.
But it should never be a proxy for leadership.
Without assessing for “Genotype,” companies often end up hiring someone who made sense on paper, but couldn’t lead when the context changed.
Here’s how to avoid the Big-Name-Competitor Trap and dig deeper than the resume.
At Alder Brooks, we help Life Sciences CEOs and Investors evaluate both:
✅ The candidate’s “Phenotype” — experience, product knowledge, and industry fit
✅ And their “Genotype” — leadership instincts, behaviors, drivers, and adaptability in your business
Because when you hire based on both — not just what they’ve done, but how they lead — you don’t just fill a role.
You find a leader who can grow with your business.
And it all starts with building a Success Profile before you begin the search.
