Professor? It’s ‘Academic Entrepreneur’ to You

As we mentioned on Monday in 3 Scientific Products We Need in Lab, this is Global Entrepreneurship Week.  It’s a time to raise awareness for, provide resources to and celebrate the individuals who take the step to start a company and follow a dream.  So academics- it’s time to put on your party hats because like it or not, we’re all in business now.

It’s certainly not uncommon for academics to start an outside company. In fact many of our biotech giants such as Genentech, Amgen and Chiron were founded or co-founded by academics.  But as it turns out, academics – particularly assistant professors – might rightly be called “academic entrepreneurs” without ever stepping outside of the university walls.  We pointed out in LinkedIn for Scientists that nearly half of us pursue a career in which we start our own lab.  That’s right, start our own… quite an entrepreneurial phrase.

Academic Entrepreneurs?

It all starts with a passion.  A passion to cure a disease.  A passion to make a better wheelchair.  Whatever the pursuit, the vast majority of scientists and entrepreneurs are out to change the world in some way.

Consider the career path of an academic (with the corresponding business world analogies):

• Research is not a haphazard process of discovery.  Professors write grant proposals (aka, Business plans) that describe the importance of their work (Their Mission) as well as the specific experiments (Products) that will be pursued.

• To obtain funding for their research, professors must submit grants to a number of agencies (aka, Find an investor) in hopes of being awarded the money.  This process can be slow, painful and full of rejection, but it’s hard to buy a centrifuge or create a product without cash.

• Once the funding comes in, professors must hire students and postdocs to do the work (aka, Hire employees).  A professor realizes it’s more efficient to hire people than to try to do everything alone.  However, PIs and CEOs can only hire as many people as they can pay.

• Once the money comes in, professors must periodically write progress reports detailing the work that’s been done to date.  The funding sources (aka, Shareholders or Investors) must feel that the progress is sufficient before deciding to renew the grant (Reinvest in the company).

• Understanding it takes money to run a lab, professors target grants to fields and agencies that have a better chance of funding (aka, Product development is market driven).  Professors can see the writing on the wall when a project is dead in the water.  A good professor will kill it (Eliminate unprofitable products) and move on.

• If a project yields a new reagent or procedure (aka, Product), professors may file patents and sell or license the reagents to a company that can further develop it and in the process make everyone a little money.

• When funding is tough, professors may need to let go of postdocs and even students (aka, Fire employees).  Even National Academy members aren’t exempt from the reality of making payroll.

• If money runs out and there’s no hope of obtaining more, the lab shuts down (aka, Files for bankruptcy).  Of course, having tenure is a major difference between professors and entrepreneurs, but even tenured professors can lose their labs.  They may get shuffled around to different positions within the university, but their dreams of running a lab at that institution are bankrupt.

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Why it Matters

There are no guarantees in research and like entrepreneurs, academics take big risks in pursuit of their passion – and for this they should be commended.  However, to a large degree the academic environment trains researchers to be… academics.  Recognizing the true entrepreneurial spirit of professors may go a long way towards improving the training we receive and the environment we experience in academics.

Training students to become “academic entrepreneurs” will instill in them the skills necessary to succeed as a professor or to facilitate a transition out of the lab.  UCSF holds an annual “Idea to IPO” class in which grad students and postdocs spend a semester learning to turn an idea into a virtual company- some of which go on to obtain funding and become real (scientifically-related) companies.

In addition to classes, PIs can expand students’ training by involving them in more of the decision-making processes in the lab.  Learning to properly navigate complex situations and to make sound decisions can benefit students tremendously.

We also hope recognizing the similarities between academics and entrepreneurs may help reduce instances of academic bias.  Many PIs feel passionately that they have the best job in the world.  We should all be so lucky to feel that way about our chosen profession.  So who could blame them for wanting their prodigy to experience the same satisfaction?

Unfortunately, this academic enthusiasm occasionally comes at the expense of other careers.  After years of training in the academic environment, it’s not uncommon for students and postdocs to feel that pursuing a career off of the academic path is akin to failure.

It’s not about one career being better than the other- it’s about mutual respect and acknowledging that there are many ways for a scientist to contribute to research, whether in or out of an academic setting.

Academics, like entrepreneurs, should be celebrated this week for their risks, sacrifices and contributions to scientific research.  So be sure to wish your PI, or “academic entrepreneur”, a happy Global Entrepreneurship Week – just be prepared to explain why…

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