CFO of Life Science Startup Axogen Shares How Firm Navigated Pandemic’s Health Care Disruptions
UF startup and UF Innovate | Sid Martin Biotech graduate Axogen, a life science company that is developing products for nerve repair, is ramping up hiring for scientists and engineers after navigating through the negative disruptions from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Axogen, which works with hospitals in Tampa and St. Pete, has its second HQ in the Tampa Heights building where it currently occupies two floors, the fifth and the sixth, that overlook the Hillsborough River.
“We have the fourth floor, but we haven’t put employees there. Covid gave us a great opportunity to create a large meeting space. We have this 200-foot screen and we can set up these tables where people can be distanced,” Pete Mariani told the St. Pete Catalyst while describing how his team watched the Stanley Cup boat parade from inside the building.
Axogen was still in the process of building out its space when the pandemic took hold of the region. The firm had been temporarily using a facility in the Tampa Bay Times building while awaiting completion.
Axogen eventually moved into the building last fall; however, when the pandemic ensued, Axogen deployed a hybrid work-from-home policy for its employees in Tampa and at its Alachua campus, which is where the company was founded and has labs.
“When you take a building with three floors that was meant for 350 people, and you only have 70 people at the time, you have the ability to spread out,” Mariani said.
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