If only entrepreneurship is like a secret sauce, people would copy the recipe and reapply it each time they need a dose of it in their newly minted business plans. Unfortunately for most would-be entrepreneurs, this is not the case.

 

Two speakers with links with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) -- one of the most renowned research-based universities in America, if not the world -- came close when they shared insights and highlights of the so-called "MIT approach" at a recent forum co-hosted by SMU's Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The community at MIT is known for its entrepreneurship culture – one that has spawned and nurtured thousands of start-ups based on the faculty and students’ research and inventions, many of which received direct funding from the university.

 

Rich Kivel and Howard Califano, if not the typical 'been-there, done-that' types, certainly come close enough.

 

Kivel is currently CEO of TheraGenetics, a London -based company working on commercialisation of diagnostic tests to improve the treatment of disorders such as schizophrenia, depression and Alzheimer's. A serial life science commercialisation veteran, Kivel oversaw the successful acquisition of MolecularWare, an MIT spin-off which he led as CEO from 2001 to 2004. He also serves as the chairman and president of the MIT Enterprise Forum, and also lectures at MIT's Sloan School of Management. 

 

Califano, on the other hand, manages the operation of the SMART (Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research & Technology) Innovation Centre in Singapore. He founded and held senior positions in many companies in the US and Asia, including a stint as Consulting Director of Bio*One Capital Pte Ltd, the biomedical investment arm of Singapore’s Economic Development Board, and interim CEO of several of their portfolio companies. He was also the CEO of Johns Hopkins Singapore and The Johns Hopkins-NUH International Medical Centre.

 

For both the men, a key issue in any informed debate over entrepreneurship is whether it is replicable. In other words, given the same mix of factors, will there be an equal response in terms of number of commercial success? And if not, is the whole project of trying to teach entrepreneurship simply an exercise in despair?

 

Califano noted that though there is no recipe or ‘secret sauce’ as such, there are consistent repeated factors that successful start-ups share.

 

Access to early funding and advice is critical for new entrepreneurs. Kivel noted: “Finding and tapping into the VC (venture capital) and angel investor communities is absolutely critical.”

 

VCs who have invested their money and are keen to see it multiply will see that they continue to engage with the start-up and help see it succeed. To guard their own interests, the typical venture capitalist will not “allow you to fall into a living death situation” since that would threaten their own investment, said Califano.