The Surprising Realities Spectroscopists Face in Business

“Pathways in Spectroscopy” explores various career-related topics that spectroscopists would find interesting. Although spectroscopy is considered a niche branch of science, it plays a role in various application areas, such as environmental monitoring, forensics, archaeology, space exploration, and more.

Because of all of these fields, it sometimes can be difficult for spectroscopists to decide which application area to apply their knowledge in. Do they analyze and detect microplastics? Do they go in pharmaceutical analysis and study drug formulations? With all these options open to them, spectroscopists face choice overload when it comes to careers.

Some even decide, upon further reflection, to go into business for themselves.

In this episode of “Pathways in Spectroscopy,” Mercedes Bertotto, who is the Founder of Vibralytics, discusses translating her scientific and spectroscopic knowledge into a marketable business plan and some of the surprising realities she faced when starting her own venture.

Mercedes Bertotto: When it comes to business, I fortunately didn't have to face all those challenges alone. I closely work with my sister Christina, who is a professional in business. She has been working in business for almost 30 years, and she is also my emotional backup. And she really shines in almost every meeting. She can really translate sometimes my scientific ideas into a business value. So, she's always there.

Sometimes, I was not confident enough to, for example, charge a company and say, “Okay, this is the bill you need to pay.” She's very used to the doing that, and so she has helped me really value my work. Also, another thing that I had to face that was very important is to deal with uncertainty. If you have a full-time position, you know that you are going to be paid in the month. That was always the case in my life because I was always working in a full-time position for institutions. And now, dealing with uncertainty is a little bit challenging, but it's okay. Life is always uncertain and that’s always going to be the case.