The Need for Younger Entrepreneurs in the Biotechnology Industry

There has been a plethora of new and young entrepreneurs starting up exciting companies. From Mark Zuckerburg with Facebook through to Evan Spiegal and Bobby Murphy of Snap, these young entrepreneurs saw a vast untapped market and took advantage of it. By applying a new form of passion and leadership this new generation of entrepreneurs has been able to bring new disruptive inventions into the technology field.

This is the type of entrepreneur that the Biotechnology industry lacks. There are stories of people like Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerburg, dropping out of college to fulfill their visions. This would be much harder if they were in the field of biotechnology. Education and industry experience are highly important. With high capital requirements, investors want to put their trust in those knowledgeable of the science of their therapeutics and the necessary trials needed. Therefore, this has led to life science entrepreneurs waiting until later in their life to start their companies; they feel they need to take time to collect their Ph.D., M.B.A, or M.D., then spend more years working to gain the necessary experience to gain the trust of their team, investors, customers, and stakeholders.

This seems counter-productive in an industry that is constantly changing. Medicine is not the same as it was 10 years ago, and it will not be the same 10 years later. Those who have years of experience can provide the age old approach to leadership, but their conservative approach can lead to a lack of new and innovative ideas and approaches to the Biotechnology industry.

This is the strength and need of a biotechnology startup led by a young team. The inexperience, millennial passion, and optimism can give birth to new and exciting companies. The entrepreneur community is great at helping the next generation of entrepreneurs through providing mentorship and advice, while giving the team the room to do what they do best: being disruptive.

Two years ago, our team at EncepHeal was given an opportunity and an important decision. We could take the knowledge we learned through the Neuro Startup Challenge, continue down the traditional path of continuing our education, gaining more experience, then become entrepreneurs. Or, we could be disruptive and create a company that could help millions of people. We chose the latter. We provide a newfound energy, passion, and open thinking that the Biotechnology industry is lacking. We are open to the advice of the previous generation to guide our decisions, but we are able to be disruptive, too.