Potter Stewart would be proud to know that his old adage about pornography keeps finding its way into modern parlance.
This time it was Richard Anders, the founder of MA2 Angels, who used the hoary old saw in talking about determining a good entrepreneur. In short, there’s no science to it, but like the business of sin, you know it when you see it.
Anders was one of the panelists for “Regional Resources for Medtech Entrepreneurs,” a discussion of the dark science of start-ups, investing and the local resources available to business pioneers. The discussion, which also featured Leon Sandler, executive director of the Desphande Center at MIT, Charles Johnson, a partner at Choate, Hall & Stewart, and Steven McCarthy, director of UMass-Lowell’s Medical Device Development Center (M2D2), centered on determining the difference between a good technology and a good business plan.
Most of the panelists, who see a great deal of patents and business plans in their day-to-day routines, said all too often they see brilliant technology with little or no practical value. Therefore, each stressed the importance of vetting ideas. And each said the best way to do that is through a network of advisors with wide industry experience.
Johnson said nothing is more validating than having a guy like John Abele, the co-founder of Boston Scientific, or someone of his ilk on your advisory board. So go find a group of people who have done it before to work with; they can tell you if you’re wasting your time or not.
Sandler and McCarthy, representing the academic contingent, stressed that programs like theirs, which nurture technology, are great resources for principal investigators who need to prove proof-of-concept. They’re also not a bad place to meet some of those heavyweights you need for that advisory board.
