Feature
Encouraging Entrepreneurs
June 4, 2007
A Q&A with Dr. Sean Mooney of the Indiana Biomedical Entrepreneur Network
Dr. Sean Mooney, assistant professor in the Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics at the IU School of Medicine and member of the Indiana Biomedical Entrepreneur Network.
Sean Mooney, an assistant professor in the Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics at the IU School of Medicine, is on the steering committee of the Indiana Biomedical Entrepreneur Network (IBEN). Dr. Mooney spoke with the IU Life Sciences Initiative about IBEN and what it takes to create a successful startup business in the life sciences.
How did you get involved with IBEN?
While doing a postdoc at Stanford, I helped start an organization called BioE2E [Biotech Entrepreneur to Entrepreneur] in 2001. It was the time of the dot com crash, and a lot of IT people were interested in biotech. So a group of us came together and organized events featuring speakers who were entrepreneurs. We also held business training sessions.
When I came to the IU School of Medicine in 2003, I left BioE2E but was still interested in the entrepreneurial side of biomedical research, and I thought that a lot of what we did in California could apply in Indiana. So I went to the IURTC [Indiana University Research and Technology Corporation] and got some funding to start IBEN. So far, we've held about seven events per year over the past three years.
Say I'm an aspiring biomedical entrepreneur with an idea for a company. How do I go about writing a business plan, getting funding, etc?
First, the most important thing for someone who wants to start a company is understanding how much work it takes. It's not easy, and it's not for everyone. Second, you need to learn about different ways that startups get funding and recruit a team that can take the company where you want it to go. IBEN is here to help people learn about this and to guide them through the startup process.
An important part of starting a company is funding. How can Indiana startups attract more venture capital money?
Actually, venture capital funding is not the only way to start a company. In fact, it may not even be the best way. That said, venture capitalists will go for good ideas no matter where they're from. Having contacts with good venture capitalists is useful. I think that more investments will start happening here as the pool of startups mature.
The bottom line is that if someone has a good idea, a technology that has real potential to start a company, and has assembled a team with the business skills to move things forward, the funding will come. Having the right team in place is really crucial because that helps you have a better understanding of what works and what doesn't from a business standpoint.
How does Indiana rank in terms of entrepreneurial energy?
There's certainly a lot of excitement and energy right now. The number of life sciences researchers in Indianapolis and central Indiana would surprise a lot of people on the coasts. So I'd say that Indiana is on the way up in terms of life sciences startups.
But again, I want to say that there's a lot of risk involved with starting a company. Being an entrepreneur is not for everyone. Not all good ideas or technologies turn into successful companies or products. Like anywhere, we'll only see a small percentage of startups be successful over the long term. But that's a natural part of the economic growth process, and it's great to see that more and more people are interested.
