Finding Business Expertise

When I coach at universities, I sometimes encounter the attitude that it's a lot easier for a technical expert to learn how to be a business person than for someone with an MBA to learn to be a technical expert.  There is some truth in that -

most technical experts get that way only after years of education and experience, including a solid foundation in math and physics while a solid MBA can be achieved in as little as a (very intensive) year and has nowhere near the same level of prerequisites for success.  In fact, many business activities and strategy can be done well by a combination of common sense and real-world experience.  At least I hope so as that's the limit of my business training!  (See the end of this blog entry for more details on that training.)

While the education requirements for technical disciplines are much heavier than for business, be careful about assuming that you can just learn it on the fly.  In fact, if I accomplish just one thing besides helping to develop a really good investor pitch in my coaching, I hope that it is to provide business and technical people with more respect for each other.  Being good at anything isn't easy and very few people have the appropriate mindset and talent to be good at two.  If you are fortunate enough to have both capabilities on your team at an early stage, challenge each other but start from a place of mutual respect.  If you can't respect each other, then look for other teammates sooner rather than later.

All right, let's assume you are a technical expert who wants to start an ICE team and/or company but don't know any business experts and have no real expertise yourself.  There are many resources available, particularly for those of you based in Massachusetts or other entrepreneurial hotbeds.  I would divide them loosely into self-help, nonprofit organizations, business schools, and mentors (this is by no means a complete list as I keep thinking of additional resources while I write):

Self-Help

• Avail yourself of the publicly available references listed in the On-Line and Library Resources sections of this website;
• Visit your school's or city's business library.  Boston has a particularly strong business library, the Kirstein Business Branch of the Boston Public Library with an incredible number of marketing and other tools available fpr free.  Ask for Laura Pattison and tell her I sent you!

Nonprofit Organizations

• The MIT Enterprise Forum (parent organization of the ICE Competition) provides substantial programming for the benefit of entrepreneurs.  In particular, the Start-up Clinics are likely to be of use to you. 
• The Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center offers coaching and programming for entrepreneurs including our Platform program. (Other programs that are focused on a different time of year are the Conference on Clean Energy as well as our Grants program.)  Of particular interest may be a joint entrepreneur bootcamp we offer with the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance called Invention 2 Venture; there will be a one-day I2V offered in association with the ICE Competition, so be sure to attend it if you can.
• There are many other organizations offering services and exposure for entrepreneurs.  The Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation has a nice list of such organizations in Massachusetts so I won't try to replicate it here;
• Your local university, city or region may have a Venture Forum associated with it.  These organizations often provide both coaching and exposure to investors.  For instance, we have the Merrimac Venture Forum in Lowell and the WPI Venture Forum in Worcester.
• Incubators often provide programming and coaching, particularly if you become a member of the incubator (a prize often awarded at the ICE Competition).  In particular, the Applied Technology and Manufacturing Center provides resources for clean energy entrepreneurs.
• The longer I make this list the more people and organization I realize I am leaving out... but I also want to get to the next category.  So if I missed your favorite organization, don't get mad - just add a comment to this blog highlighting your favorite organization!

Business Schools

• Business Schools are a great resource if they support any entrepreneurial programs.  These programs frequently include classes that want real-world cases to study, and will therefore do market research or strategic planning for your new idea for free. 
• If you can't find a class group that wants to take on your company, search for entrepreneur clubs within these same schools.  If nothing else, you may find a student who wants to join your team and brings business expertise with them. 
• A note of caution: it's almost always easy for entrepreneurs to get enthusiastic about their idea; students are expecially prone to falling love with the idea and devising the most elaborate or interesting business cases for them rather than the most direct.  Remember that investors will be much more interested in realistic plans for ROI than those that are inherently cool but not all that focused on today's markets.

Mentors

• If you are accepted as a semifinalist in the ICE Competition, you will be assigned at least one mentor.  Make sure you use this invaluable resource.  Our mentors come from all aspects of the entrepreneur's world: successful entrepreneurs, service providers and investors, among others.  A few words about each:
• Successful entrepreneurs & corporate types: Those who have already built what you want to achieve are perhaps your best mentors for a long-term relationship.  If you can find one (see previous bullet) who has the time and interest to help you, that's a wonderful find.  Note, however, that someone with a big name who can only spend an hour a month or a quarter with you is a lot less valuable to you than someone who can spend quality time with you on a frequent basis even if she is not quite as well known.
• Service Providers: At the MTTC and in the ICE Competition, we work with many service providers to obtain feedback for our entrepreneurs.  Attorneys (IP and corporate), accountants, marketing consultants, business consultants, all have the potential to add considerable value.  It is unusual, at least outside the context of a business plan competition or other special program, to get free mentoring from these individuals since providing such advice is their livelihood.  I would, in fact, recommending paying for less time with a service provider with a great reputation than more time with someone who doesn't really fit the bill when it comes to a service provider.  Particularly where IP issues are concerned, good attorneys are critical.
• Investors: Most investors also have corporate and/or startup experience; either way, all see many, many startup company business plans and know what they like to invest in.  However, finding one with the time and energy to invest in you can be a challenge.  In general, I would recommend getting your intensive mentoring from others mentioned here and leveraging our great investor community via the organizations and programming listed above.  When you are ready for an investment, pick a firm that will bring you both the terms you want and additional substantial value in terms of guidance and networking as a partner in your company.

OK, that should be a long enough list of resources to keep you out of trouble for a little while.  If you have any inspirational or horror stories about obtaining business expertise for your team, why don't you post it in a comment to this blog so we can all benefit? 

As promised at the beginning of this entry, here's a little about my business training: In addition to my PhD in Materials Science & Engineering, I have a total of more than 15 years of experience in the 'real world' before taking my current position at the government-funded Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center.  My positions included Research Scientist at a startup company through several layers of management at different companies culminating in Vice President for New Business Development at a high tech company in Worcester.  I started out completely naive about business concepts and management but was very fortunate to have an exceptional mentor.  Like me, he had a strong technical background but he'd also risen to a high level of management at Intel... and yet was willing to spend two hours with me every Saturday morning for three years while I finished my PhD at Stanford.  I can't recommend strongly enough the value of having a mentor with that kind of commitment!

My next job was at a big Japanese company where I was a low level manager.  I learned to build internal and external teams and do product development.  Then I became a mid-level manager at a large R&D company where I did my best to develop new business opportunities for my group.  I was recruited away from there to be VP New Biz Dev at the Worcester Company, for which my most notable accomplishment was helping to sell this telecomm-based company for a good price in late 2001. 

I learned a lot at each of these positions - though if you want advice from someone who has made herself independently wealthy as a result of her work experience, you will need to look elsewhere.  Be sure she has more than one success under her belt, though!  The lessons from failure are often more evident than those from success and someone who has been lucky once is not going to be as useful to you as someone who has learned some tough lessons before achieving success.  If you find someone who has been successful every time for five times in a row and is available to you, though, go for it!