Official Alumni Website

By Bryan Czyzewski

The Center for Biotechnology and NYCBio recently launched an Entrepreneurship series in September of 2009 designed by the 2008 Alumni Network Executive Council led by Sean Boykevisch. The series represents an introduction to biotech entrepreneurship and offers the audience an in depth discussion on some of the key aspects of building a bioscience based business.

The first event, held at Stony Brook University Manhattan in NYC, was attended by over fifty individuals from both industry and academia. Audience members were given a birds-eye view of the industry, from research and discovery to development and commercialization by Jeff Yablon, Vice President at Sciformix, and Mark Wilson, President of Initiatives Consulting. Audience members were then given the rare opportunity to learn about what makes a life science entrepreneur from two New York based industry leaders, Larry Green Ph.D., President of Westbury Diagnostics, and Jim Chinitz, CEO of Population Diagnostics. Using the children’s board game Operation, Dr. Green ventured deep into the anatomy of an entrepreneur, where he demonstrated several key attributes of a successful bioscience business person. Mr. Chinitz gave a great overview of his path to launching a product, emphasizing an understanding of technology and funding as being key to success.

Sitting from the sidelines I could really see how energetic and involved the audience members were, and afterwards people mingled at Vig27 a nearby watering hole and continued the deconstruction of bioscience business with light networking and great local  Lager.

Parts II, III, and IV will focus on Intellectual Property, Business Plans, and Seed Level Funding respectively. Check out the meetup for future scheduled events.