While the views of our sources may differ on certain details, a consensus emerges: Before considering a move from the comparatively warm environment of his or her academic lab into the turbulence of the marketplace, the scientist entrepreneur today must be very well along in the process that transforms a bright idea into a viable, marketable product--much farther along than was necessary even in the recent past. Inspiration, genius, and an astounding new concept are no longer enough, if they ever were.
This is because the once-fertile fields of risk capital--which only a few years ago yielded an abundance of seed money for fledgling high-tech and biotech firms--have largely dried up. Oases of financial support still exist, to be sure, but they are fewer and farther between. The risk takers still are out there in the venture capital community, but the past few years' faltering economy, among other things, has ...
