Would-be entrepreneurs may not believe such a smooth startup scenario, and even Rathmann sounds a little stunned at the Proof that "a strategy that did everything concurrently worked." To be sure, few first-time scientist entrepreneurs could have pulled off such a coup. But at a time when headlines emphasize impending economic despair -- bank closings, layoffs, and business failures-- the ICOS story does offer hope to science entrepreneurs that the coming decade, recession or no recession, will be a fruitful one.
"On the leading edge of technology there is always opportunity for new ventures, new companies, and newcomers," says Rathmann (see interview, page 13). Indeed, pundits prophesy that the 1990s will be a decade of change and opportunity in the world of high-tech startups. New scientific fields will be ready for commercialization, new funding sources will, of necessity, come to light, and new geographic foci -- fertile alternatives to the ...
