From Lab Rat to Data Detective: How This Scientist Turned Sales Into an Art Form.

As a co-founder at Cradle I love getting to know our team members through long conversations that often reveal unexpected paths to their careers in biotech. These discussions, often a mix between calls, Slack messages and in-person conversations, uncover fascinating stories such as Wallis’ story of resilience, curiosity, and determination.

Our conversations bounce between talking about the latest AI tool for automating mundane tasks to protein engineering and sales, often interwoven with Pokemon references and animated Gifs. I sometimes tease Wallis by calling her ‘my favorite stalker’, a nickname she's earned through her methodical approach to sales research. Her response is typically a reference to popular culture, “Gotta Catch Em All!” being her favorite.  

To prepare for this interview I've been making notes about Wallis, and there's this one thing that really defines her: a growth mindset. "I'm always studying on the side," Wallis tells me, and she means it literally. During the pandemic, while working grueling shifts in a COVID diagnostic lab, she completed her MBA by recording lectures and playing them back during her precious few hours of rest. She would lie on the floor, headphones in, absorbing information while partially asleep. "I was trying to study while sleeping," she explains. "You know there have been studies that show that you could learn a language by putting it in the background of when you sleep. So that's what I was doing." 

Her learning methods proved to work really well. She finished her MBA program with some of the highest grades, second only to one other student. This is even more impressive when you learn that she was simultaneously working frontline diagnostic shifts from six in the morning until midnight, processing thousands of COVID samples daily.

Wallis's journey to her current role at the intersection of science and sales began in Belgium, where her early life was marked by limited access to technology and popular culture. A basic Nokia phone shared with her brother, when everyone else was already using smartphones, was her only digital connection to the world. While her peers were watching cartoons and playing video games, she was developing other interests—writing short stories that were ultimately rewarded with various literary prizes.

Her early writing was often already quite philosophical. At sixteen, she wrote about a friend who had died of brain cancer, transforming personal tragedy into a lesson on life's unpredictability and the importance of living fully. "I wrote short stories about very deep subjects," she reflects. "about knowing that you never know when life ends and you should live your life."

While Wallis briefly considered a career as a writer or in the arts, she took a pragmatic view of her options. "I always told myself that I could be a scientist and an artist, but not an artist and a scientist," she explains. "To study science, you need a lab, you can’t do experiments in your bathroom, you actually need to go to university, but to study literature and art, you can do that on your own." This pragmatic wisdom came early to Wallis, who had been managing adult responsibilities since a young age, in an environment where her upbringing was strict.

Her first attempt at medical school in France became a turning point in her early career. Despite excellent grades, she found herself in position 255 when only 250 spots were available - the first time in her life where working harder just wasn't enough to get ahead. "It was extremely frustrating," she says. "I did everything I should have, I had high grades, but there were not enough spots." The system felt designed to break spirits rather than build doctors: ninety-six multiple choice questions in thirty minutes for subjects as critical as pharmacology. "It was testing your ability to read if the question had an S at the end or not," she says. I could sense how she was still frustrated by this. "For me, it was more about testing rapid-fire multiple choice skills than finding people who could truly understand and care for patients holistically.-- The French medical education system seemed to represent everything wrong with how we select our future doctors.”

This setback turned out to change everything. She pivoted to biology. A choice more informed by the love of the subject rather than the prospect of a specific career. 

During university breaks, Wallis worked in diagnostic labs, processing samples for various infectious diseases, a task that often required urgency. "We had certain cases of people that had trouble abroad," she recalls. "We had to diagnose if they perhaps contracted Ebola". She remembers one particularly dramatic day when a helicopter landed in the lab's parking lot, carrying samples that would determine whether organ transplant surgery could proceed. "It's a job where you immediately realize the impact this will have on a life when you read the results," she explains. "When people panic at work now, I'm just like, 'Nobody is dying, guys. Like, literally, we're fine.'"

But it was during the COVID-19 pandemic that the mental challenge of working in the lab reached a peak. While simultaneously pursuing her MBA in Geneva, Wallis found herself processing thousands of PCR samples daily. "Your body can do anything," she reflects. "You were walking 10 kilometers a day in the lab, just handling thousands of samples every day. Mentally however…"

One day, she was called into her manager's office. Her heart sank, assuming she had contaminated a test plate—which would mean retesting 96 patient samples and wasting precious resources during times when the whole world was scrambling for these materials. Instead, she faced something far more sobering: a plate where each test showed high positive results. The PCR curves, which indicate viral load, were all showing extremely high levels of infection.

"When we looked at the data of the patients, their true faces and ages and names, they were all coming from the same nursing home," she recounts. "We had to make the call to the institution. These were high-risk people… in their 80s, isolated from their families, in a time where there were no hospital beds available for the elderly..." Her voice softens as she adds, "I would have preferred that I had made a mistake, that it was a contamination, but it was not. I had done a good job, but the outcome was horrible."

The transition to sales came unexpectedly, as she was approached by Benchling who had noted her background in both biology and business. Initially skeptical, Wallis approached this opportunity like she approaches everything; by doing thorough research. "As a scientist, as most scientists, I was very skeptical about the commercial side. Oh, you're going to join the dark side of sales?" She sought advice from her grandmother, who had successfully run a tobacco shop. Her grandmother's wisdom, albeit maybe a bit ironic considering the wares she herself had sold, provided guidance: "If you love what you sell, you're not going to work a day in your life."

Wallis looked at Benchling’s product from her perspective as a lab scientist. "Coming from the lab, and coming from a lab where we only use Excel to deal with thousands of samples, I was like, 'Science can do a lot better with tools that are adapted to our challenges.'" 

Her approach to sales is just as methodical as her scientific work. When preparing for conferences, she creates what she calls "cheat sheet lists" of people she wants to talk to, complete with their photos. "It allows me to scout them in real life," she explains with a mix of honesty and playful self-awareness.

This hunting metaphor extends to her conference survival strategy as an introvert. She has created a detailed protocol to keep her energy up while traveling around the globe: book hotels as close as possible to the conference center, ensure room service availability for late-night recovery, carry hand sanitizer to prevent the spread of viruses, and pack adaptable clothing for the notoriously volatile conference center air conditioning. 

When preparing to reach out to potential clients, Wallis uses what might seem like extreme investigative techniques, and which earned her her nickname. She meticulously pieces together information from public sources—LinkedIn profiles, conference attendance lists, published papers, company websites—to understand not just what someone does, but what challenges they might be facing where new technologies like Cradle’s AI can help.

Her research isn't about invading privacy—it's about ensuring she only reaches out when she can genuinely help. She hates spam and impersonal messages herself, and would never want to be a spammer. "I never reach out to people for the sake of reaching out," she emphasizes. "If you can help them make their research cooler and help them save lives way sooner, then you can try to connect. In the end, I believe that we can enable a million scientists to make a real dent in global challenges with these technologies that were not available even a year ago, but many people are not aware yet that technology has progressed this much"

When asked if someone ever thought her to be a stalker, she recalled a funny situation. During her time at Benchling, she once needed to follow up on an unsigned contract. Given a phone number the client had initially filled out a long time ago, she called what she assumed was the potential client's office. The connection was bad, but she could make out a man’s voice and assumed this to be a male colleague of her contact. Wallis explained that a contract was waiting to be signed, and if the man could communicate this to her contact at the company. "The man was like, 'Yeah, don't worry, I will tell her to sign it.' And I was like, 'Okay, cool.'" The contract was signed an hour later. The client's email afterward read: "I don't know how, but you got on the phone with my dad, and my dad told me to sign the contract."

Her transition to Cradle began with a LinkedIn message from one of our Co-founders, Elise. Initially, Wallis didn't respond, but her analytical mind was already at work. Just like she does with potential clients, she examined Cradle's website. She calculated our runway based on public funding information and employee count, deducing that we must have either gained significant traction and or raised additional capital despite no public announcement. She also noted the diversity of the team and the presence of women in key positions. “I made a mental note but then my mentor, Sam Partovi (who much later joined as Cradle’s CCO), mentioned Cradle as a company to watch, then I knew I had to talk to Elise.”

While her initial assessment was her business mind doing its usual thing, the decision to join Cradle was anything but. During her onsite interview in Zurich, she ended up in an engaging discussion with our other co-founder, Eli, about the origin of potatoes—a debate that ranged from Belgian fries to historical agricultural developments. "By midday, I was already convinced," she said. “I could tell how smart and passionate everyone was, and feeling a bit out of my depth actually excited me. That's when I knew this was the right place – when you're surrounded by people who challenge you, that's where the real learning happens.”

This comfort with discomfort, this willingness to be the least knowledgeable person in the room, is typical of her growth mindset. "I think it's in uncomfortable situations that you're growing," she explains. "If you keep being in circles where everyone agrees with you, or everyone has the same opinion, you just don’t learn anything new"

While Wallis is quick to embrace new technologies, she knows that being on the cutting edge also means being honest about limitations. What often sets Wallis (and her colleagues) apart is her commitment to scientific honesty – a value also deeply embedded in Cradle's DNA. "Scientists appreciate when you can discuss the technical details," she explains. "When you take the time to explain not just what the technology can do, but also the underlying mechanics of how it works, where the current limitations are, and what we're actively working on improving." Rather than treating AI as a magical black box, she engages with scientists at their level of expertise, whether that's explaining the implications of the technology for their research or even deep diving into the technical architecture and inner workings of the system with the help of one of Cradle’s AI engineers. "If you approach it like, 'Hey, are you interested in learning more? We are very transparent, and explain you the depth of it’ ultimately this builds trust in this technology that is new to everyone"

This emphasis on transparency and continuous learning reflects a deeper philosophy that keeps coming up in our conversation. When I ask about her success in transitioning from science to sales, Wallis is straight to the point: "I don't believe in talent," she tells me, "I believe in hard work." Coming from someone who taught herself to thrive in sales by treating it like a science experiment and who learns business theory while lying on the floor, it's hard to argue with that philosophy.

When we finish our two-hour conversation, I ask her if there is any thought or feeling she would like to share. "I would like to say that I hope to see a lot more women in sales, and I hope to see a lot more diversity in sales."

Her own experience as a woman in sales, particularly in the biotech sector, has shaped this perspective. She sees diversity not just as a moral imperative but as a strategic advantage. "The people that we talk to are at least 50% women, and in general come from all kinds of backgrounds, but sales teams are generally less diverse. If companies would build sales teams that reflect that diversity, we would create a stronger economy, because we could better connect with and understand the people we're actually selling to."

Throughout our conversation, Wallis has emphasized the importance of truly understanding the scientists she works with—their challenges, their aspirations, their working styles. “Sometimes the best way to help people adopt new technology is simply to understand where they're coming from.”

The girl who once shared a basic Nokia with her brother is now an early adopter. Her story suggests that the distance between limitation and possibility might be shorter than we think—it just takes the right combination of curiosity, resilience, and optimism to bridge the gap.