Pros
Good industry experience for entry level science or engineering associates to gain exposure to industrial biotech then move on. Access to quality scientific instruments and equipment.
Cons
Poor location for collaborations with other local industrial biotech, university, or algae companies. If you're looking for this type of environment, consider companies based in San Diego or San Francisco. Company is very isolated geographically, so if you don't like the culture and still want to contribute technically, be prepared to move. Key is to rent, not buy with this company! They claim to be a "Start-Up", however they have been in this mode going on ~10 years now with no significant product to sell yet. This should tell you, the technology has major issues. After working on biology/engineering efforts for 6 months, I could tell this concept was not going to scale-up cost effectively. The technical staff are all pretty solid, but there has been a bit of brain drain from this place recently, so beware! CEO is very intrusive on engineering meetings and was observed on multiple occasions to verbally berate scientists and engineers at all levels including PhDs. Definitely an awkward company leader who has a record of alienating a lot of people including employees, local and federal government officials- read the local news articles, other algae companies, and potential investors. HR tries to sustain a fun culture for employees, but difficult to keep up employee morale when they leave too.