Paths to entrepreneurship in the life sciences

A thoughtful article by Shreefal Mehta identifies and describes two types of life science entrepreneurs. The first type, called the "technopreneur", is familiar to most of us. This is a university based scientist who has a potentially marketable idea/product, has it patented, assumes the license from his university, finds collaborators and investors and works to launch the venture. However, this traditional entrepreneurial path is not the exclusive route to life science venture creation. 

Mehta, who is from the Lally School of Management and Technology at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, points out the value of social networks that fuel serendipitous associations that can lead to the development of new businesses via unconventional routes. In other words, it is not always technical savvy that drives bioscience ventures, but sometime it is your chance associations and insights into market needs. Mehta uses several short examples to illustrate alternative paths to venture creation in the life sciences by people he calls, “market perceivers”. 

He concludes that, “A technopreneur might have difficulty in taking on all of the positive aspects of a market perceiver's aptitude, skills and mental processes, just as a market perceiver might find it difficult to evaluate and determine technical milestones, capabilities and limitations.”

Read the full article here.