A Path to Entrepreneurial Education

The Foundations to Entrepreneurship—A Pyramid, But Not a Scheme

The best way to look at an entrepreneurial approach is to view it as a pyramid:

All careers begin with a foundation. From an industrial perspective, the early career experience forms the basis for an entire career. This must be coupled with the education received at a college or university. As one advances through their career through the mid- and senior levels, one gains experience which builds upon their education. During the mid- and senior level, one’s professional network grows, which allows the individual to effectively engage the chemical professional. Capitalizing on this engagement piece is critical to entrepreneurship. However, key to its effectiveness is the educational and experiential foundations from which it is built upon. These are gained in tandem with the career ladder. A question now becomes how to make this process more efficient to promote effective entrepreneurship.

Education

The traditional chemistry curriculum, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, is focused on preparing students for their career as a chemist. This includes the necessary course work for preparing laboratory capable chemists who can secure meaningful employment in an industry or government laboratory or undertake graduate studies. This approach has been successful for many years. As time moves forward and technological advances are occurring at a lightning pace, revisions to this paradigm are beginning to take hold. One is now hearing the term “non-laboratory” positions for chemists; those that may involve only a minimal amount of laboratory work.

There are several widely recognized positions that chemists hold that can be thought of as “non-laboratory.” These include patent law, scientific writing, sales and marketing, and chemical sector business analysis, to mention a few. One area which appears to be lacking is that of chemical entrepreneurship. There are examples of companies being built from the research efforts of faculty members. There are also companies that have been started by those who may have been affected by a downsizing or merger and acquisition. The scenario that is seen much less is a company that was started by an early career chemist, a person with a true entrepreneurial spirit.

Chemical entrepreneurship is a legitimate and viable career option for chemists that needs to be introduced early in the career of a chemist. There are those students who are incredibly skilled and dedicated chemists but have the desire to do something other than strictly laboratory work. They have ideas, see the bigger picture, and see a need in society that can be filled. If students are made aware of this as a viable career option, they can be mentored as to what types of courses, in addition to chemistry, that they need to take. Topics such as business plans, marketing and communications strategies, business operations and management, and avenues for securing capital are all part of what takes ideas from the mind, to the bench, to the market.

Students desiring this type of career path can be directed toward internship and mentoring opportunities that would allow them to explore this firsthand. Certain aspects of the chemistry curriculum could be adapted to allow students to explore entrepreneurship. These are all aspects that can be included in the education of chemists, but they need to know that this is an option earlier in their careers, not later.

The goal here is to design ways of introducing students to chemical entrepreneurship. This can be done by additions to existing curricula, outreach, and mentoring. The material presented will provide the foundation on which the educational aspects can be developed, implemented, and assessed.

Tech Transfer

One way to make the process of entrepreneurial education and experience acquisition more effective is the tech transfer capabilities of an exceptionally large research university. The concept is this: A primary investigator develops novel technology in their research laboratory. This technology is then patented to protect its intellectual property. The tech transfer office at the university has in-house expertise to assist the primary investigator in either utilizing this novel intellectual property to form a start-up company that is affiliated with the university, or otherwise licensing the technology to other companies seeking such a technological application.

One of the limitations of the tech transfer process is that since it is located within the confines of the university setting, its services and expertise are restricted to the specific university community that it serves. Such services are not necessarily open to the public. Furthermore, there is no consistent tech transfer service across universities. Some tech transfer operations are extraordinary, while other universities either do not have the local or in-house expertise to pursue an effective tech transfer office or otherwise establish a tech transfer presence merely to compete with other universities that do. Smaller universities tend to utilize the resources of in-house general counsel as their tech transfer office due to a lack of resources for a fully staffed operation. Other universities establish a tech transfer group to satisfy federal grant requirements upon becoming recipients of such funding. As a result, a hodge-podge of entrepreneurial education at the graduate student, post-doctoral and tenure-tracked professor level results. Furthermore, since this track is limited to the student population, experienced professionals do not have access to such expertise.

Tech transfer processes can be improved two ways:

1. A standardization of tech transfer operations among large universities

2. The establishment of a tech transfer entity—an independent clearing house—to assist mid- and senior-level entrepreneurs with the marketing of novel intellectual property and entrepreneurial set-up

A Proposal for Entrepreneurial Education

We are proposing a three-tiered approach for entrepreneurial education. Any chemist at any level could participate in this endeavor for their own educational purposes. However, the program is geared for graduating doctoral students, finishing post-doctoral associates and experienced professionals who are exploring entrepreneurship as a legitimate and viable career path. The tiers are as follows:

1. A general overview

2. A practice “shark tank” environment with feedback

3. A concierge service where entrepreneurs can find the resources and support that they need to start their own business

Tiers 1 and 2 would serve as milestone workshops, where budding entrepreneurs would determine whether or not they would move forward in entrepreneurship to the next tier. Tier 3 is where the budding entrepreneur has complete ownership and responsibility for their business, and this tier serves as a resource for support as well as a venue for networking.

Conclusion

For too long, entrepreneurship has been underutilized as a legitimate career path. In our ever-changing economy, it is now clear that entrepreneurship as viable career path for a chemist should be re-explored in a clear, stepwise fashion. Our hope is that our proposal allows adventuresome chemists with a passion for science and with an ambitious vision a way to succeed in making their vision a reality.

Comments/feedback are invited and should be sent to Mukund S. Chorghade <mukundchorghade@fas.harvard.edu>.