Question: Regarding product development, how do you decide what to work on, have you had to walk away from an idea that you have been working on for quite some time?
Dr. Wang: We see a lot of problems in the world right now. We cannot solve all of them. It depends on your team members - what can they do? You must be sure that you can do it. Like Grace said, try to address a big market. Part of your business plan should be to size the market opportunity.
Ms. Ueng: I've worked with entrepreneurs that are so passionate about their technology that they work on it for months and years. I caution you to have the wisdom to know when you have to redirect yourself. Some entrepreneurs can be quite stubborn, which is a good trait as times you have to be dogged. But it's a trait that if you have for too long, it may cause your demise.
Have the wisdom to seek counsel from experienced individual(s). As an unbiased outsider, they can look into your situation and counsel you to go down a slightly different path if needed. If you are seeking outside money, investors will require scalability and leveragability so there will be the expected valuation multiple. If you have a service, how can you productize to scale? I worked with one client that had to demonstrate how he would do this in order to gain outside investor money. I encourage you to be dogged, but know when to redirect.
Dr. Fernandes: In our business, things can be difficult a lot of times. In big companies, one of the reasons they don't have new products is they very readily kill them. It is easier not to make a mistake if you don't do anything at all. In big pharma, they currently don't have products because they have killed everything that has a chance.
So in biotech companies, like Grace said, there is a problem that there are some people that keep at a problem year after year for too long and they eventually have to ground the company because they run out of money. So killing fast and killing early is very important if the problem is not solvable. If it is solvable, you have to solve it. How do you get the runway to solve it? In my companies, we have more than one product. So if one is going slowly, there is another that is going well. So our approach to product development is to have a diverse portfolio.
It is important to do what Grace said, kill fast and kill early. You do not want to throw good money after bad.
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