Today many careers are in flux, or may become so.  We’re often told that such times are an opportunity to “reinvent ourselves”, but how many really do that?  Are you the type who recognizes opportunity and is willing to “take the leap”?  This months podcast and blog is the first of a 3-part series about scientists who successfully took that entrepreneurial leap.  Listen to the podcast to hear from one of the founders of Sagian, a systems integration startup story from the 1990's.  This months blog focuses on a current startup story and advice from one of the principals. 

While completing work on the podcast, The LabMan happened to get put back in touch with a person who describes himself as a "serial entreprenuer", i.e. somone who just can't stay away from starting up companies.  That person is Jim Little.  As a MIT graduate, Jim went to work for Waters Corp. in 1971 and rose to Senior V.P. level, helping to develop and popularize HPLC technology.  He then followed some of his Waters colleagues in 1981 to a small, new endeavor that would focus on an entirely new, unknown market - laboratory robotics.  That was Zymark Corporation, later acquired by / merged with Caliper Life Sciences.  Jim went on to become an officer and eventually President of Cetek Corporation, a young drug discovery company in the Boston area.  Today, Jim has jumped on board yet another technology startup, i2Chem, led by Professor Klavs Jensen of MIT.  Their focus is integrating continuous flow platforms for process chemistry development and production. 

Anyone thinking of "taking the leap" would do well to talk to Jim.  He's a walking fountain of advice about starting and growing young companies.  In this particular conversation, Jim told me how important he thought it was to surround oneself with a good team that covers a variety of skill niches.  In the i2Chem endeavor, in addition to Jensen and Little, are Peter Seeberger, an noted organic chemist and microreactor specialist from the Swiss Federal Institute, Martin Schmidt, Director of the Microsystems Technology Laboratories at MIT, and Joe Caruso, President of the Bantam Group and an advisor, investor, and board member for a number of early stage companies.  Jim feels such a powerful  team is essential to making progress in today's complicated world of technology and finance.  It's not the (less complicated) 1980's anymore!

He shared with me his self-developed "Entreprenuers Creed", based on his many years of experience:

• High Energy-You must have high energy as it’s a difficult path so you must start with high energy to make it through.
• Rejection-You must be able to take rejection and bounce back quickly.
• Focus-Choose your best opportunity and get it completed. Many people start too many projects and all become half done; which has little or no value.
• Internal vs. External-Although you must focus internally to get something done, keep a balance as to what is going on in the marketplace. Things may change and your approach may be obsolete by the time it hits the market
• In Line with the Customer- Always keep in communication with your intended customers to make sure you understand the problem and keep checking. The best is to have people like your customers on your team.
• Build Relationships- Take time to build relationships with your vendors, investors, community, prospective customers. Do this during good times so you have “goodwill” that will take you through tough times. It is very difficult to build a relationship and put out a fire.

There you go - advice from someone who's "taken the leap" a number of times!  Next month we'll have Part 2 of the Sagian Story podcast, and some more blog commentary about technology startups.  If you have similar stories or advice, please comment and share them! 

Until Next Time,

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto