Hammer-Nail Co-Development

This article from Bioentrepreneur (free registration required) identifies two approaches to the typical life sciences start up company. The first is driven by the technopreneur, often a university researcher who forms a company to exploit a favorite technology. The second is driven by the "market perceiver". As the article explains:

"The technopreneur brings an internal approach to the new venture (a technology push), whereas the market perceiver uses an external path (a market pull) to technological entrepreneurship. The former model can be viewed as a hammer hunting for a nail (a technology looking for an appropriate market need), whereas the latter is akin to a nail sticking up. As distinct as these two approaches are, there is clearly some mix of the two that occurs in startup processes, as presented in the case studies here and in other recent studies of this phenomenon6, which can be summed up as 'hammer-nail codevelopment.' For example, in the typical life sciences venture, the technical founders usually bring in outside management (with guidance from venture capitalists and investors) to add market perspective as the new venture starts to grow7.

Most biotech entrepreneurs belong in one of these two groups, each with its own strengths and weaknesses, knowledge of which can be useful when building a business."

The article includes two tables that excellently summarize the venture creation process steps from each perspective, with the strengths and weaknesses of each type of founder and some recommendations and suggestions for improving performance.