Thriving on the impossible: A trip down Absci Memory Lane
Jul 26, 2023
Chelsea Horrocks on the start-up mentality, cultures of openness, hiring good people, and enjoying the adventure.
Chelsea Horrocks is the Officer Manager at Absci, but she’s a lot more than that. She’s a tie that binds us Unlimiters together: whether you’re an accountant or an AI scientist, everyone knows Chelsea. Her one-of-a-kind blend of warmth and humor is often the first thing that greets newcomers to Absci.
Today, she’s thinking back to her own first day at Absci.
“It was the old downtown Vancouver office in 2019,” she recalls. “It was a Monday, and Absci just got the keys that weekend to expand into a new office area. Before that, the office and the lab were all kind of in the same room.”
When Chelsea walked in, she was greeted with a smile, and someone showed her the place where her desk was going to be. Her first task: setting up her own desk and computer.
“So, I built my office chair, along with a few others because they needed some more, and then I cobbled together my own workstation. It was a funny, memorable first day.”
The startup mentality
Though Chelsea wondered what she had got herself into, she also admits that she loved Absci’s scrappy startup mentality, which persists to this day. There were only about 30 employees back then, and everyone was wearing lots of hats, jumping in to do what needed to be done regardless of their job titles. Chelsea thrived on having lots of different things to do.
“When I started, part of my job was to sit at the front desk and receive guests and phone calls. It was all one big open office, so calling it a front desk is an interesting way of putting it,” she says. From her front desk, Chelsea managed the laboratory’s ordering and inventory of common stock items, as well as shipping and receiving. At other times, she would put on her HR hat and do onboarding and employee engagement.
Another key responsibility: maintaining a well-stocked snack pantry. “Sean, our founder and CEO, was really passionate about that!”
Outside of Absci, Chelsea enjoys spending time outdoors with her family. Shown left: the rainbow trout were biting on Flathead Lake, Montana. Center: Chelsea as chocolatier extraordinaire Willy Wonka at Absci’s big Halloween Party. Right: Chelsea and husband, Justin, peering from behind their ever-growing kids along the Road to the Sun in Glacier National Park.
English major in a science world
A self-described “book nerd”, Chelsea graduated with an English degree before raising two small children in St. Louis. She worked in a marketing role for five years before her family moved to the Portland area. She saw that a small Vancouver biotech startup named Absci was looking for an office coordinator. She applied, interviewed with Sean, and got the job – but she felt a little bit intimidated.
“I was starting at this company where everybody has PhDs, a lot of them went to Ivy League schools, and they’re all into this really high-tech, crazy cool science stuff that I know nothing about,” she says. “It was all very mysterious to me.”
But Chelsea found that everybody was quite kind and open to sharing their knowledge and passion about what they were doing. “Everyone was very down to earth, and I think we’ve maintained that as we’ve grown,” she says. “I’m always pleased to take new employees around our campus and introduce them to their new coworkers because I know that I can count on them to be good representatives of the company.”
Chelsea has thought about how a culture of openness like that can persist over time. “I think it’s just about hiring good people, who in turn recognize and attract other good people to join,” she says. “It builds on itself through outreach and employee referrals, and ultimately people gravitate toward that like-mindedness.”
Give me an impossible challenge
Absci has a mantra: Believe in the impossible. Chelsea is a big believer.
“One of my favorite things is being told something cannot be done. Immediately, I start thinking, ‘But can’t it?’ I’m all about disrupting prior assumptions and challenging the status quo,” Chelsea says, whether it’s meeting a tight deadline, finding creative solutions, or changing established ways of doing things.
One of Chelsea’s personal mantras is taken directly from the 80s comedy, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure: Be excellent to each other and party on. “I honestly believe that taking those words to heart will solve most problems,” she says. “We don’t know what the future will bring, so remember to be kind to yourself and others, and enjoy the adventure while you’re in it, too.”
How is Chelsea enjoying the adventure these days? She loves that Absci is working in uncharted regions of drug discovery.
“It’s really exciting to think about what our work could bring, the unknown fruits of our labor, and how these new drugs could change patients’ lives everywhere,” she says. “The idea we are making these things possible with AI and biology — I think that’s incredible, the changes that are coming. It’s like watching the future.”
