Don’t mess with nature – just ride the waves

I’m referring instead to politicians who are seeking, with the best of intentions, to support the biotech sector and impose their own rather rosy view of what companies should look like. Trying to say what a biotech company should be is like trying to get a straight answer from a 10 year old to the question: “Why the hell did you do that?” You’ll get a different response every time, and it’ll be influenced by the least predictable of factors.

Navigating stormy seas

I have seen a number of politicians confuse high-risk, early-stage biotechs with 100-year-old engineering firms that have a Bentley parked outside. The mission of a biotech company is not to develop a firm with hundreds of employees (although that would be a nice side effect) but to deliver the firm’s technology to its destination. A company is a vessel for the precious technology that it holds. A firm is not the deliverable, but rather the small and leaky boat that must navigate a stormy sea. The current destination may not even be the final one. The goal might for example be a transfer to a larger boat, and a captain with a more luxuriant beard.

Too many politicians view a company’s size and age as the deliverable – but why would this be the case? You might keep your company afloat for 20 years, but if you delivered your product to its destination 10 years ago and you are now just bobbing about, then why does it still exist? If your technology is a platform rather than a product, that is a different question, of course – in that case, the technology is the very fabric of the company. But you can only continue to sail your boat if she is watertight, you have a good set of charts and there is a fair wind in your sails.

An eye on the Horizon

And this is where the politicians have to wise up. Don’t throw grant money at a company with your mission to attend its 20th Christmas party. Instead, give it to the company with a mission to celebrate the successful delivery of its cargo to its destination. And don’t worry about what happens to empty boats lost at sea. There are ZERO examples of successful entrepreneurs retiring and doing nothing. Most just end up building new boats, growing bigger beards and heading off on the next voyage.

So target the cargo, not the boat and those sunny shores of Europe’s biotechdreams won’t be far away. Leave the safety of the harbour and see where your voyage takes you.