Downturn doesn’t dim entrepreneurial dreams

Nearly one-half of Americans (47 percent) dream of starting their own
business, according to a recent survey by Harris Interactive for
Lawyers.com.

When I ran that figure by
James Geisman, who was
the moderator of last
Wednesday’s MIT
Enterprise Forum of
Cambridge Start-up Clinic,
he was not impressed.

By D.C. Denison, Globe Staff

”When people are asked if
they’d like to start their
own business, they imagine
themselves running an
idealized version of an
already successful
company,” he said. ”It’s
not very realistic.”

But even if many of the respondents to the Harris survey were dreaming, the results
attest to the persistence of the entrepreneurial urge, which thrives in good economic
times and bad. And that’s what propelled me to Wednesday night’s Start-up Clinic:
the desire to spend a few hours in a rare recession-free zone.

The MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge is the founding (and largest) chapter of
an nonprofit international consortium dedicated to starting and growing ”innovative
and technology-oriented companies.” The monthly Start-up Clinics are designed to
give entrepreneurs who are at the start of the fund-raising process the opportunity
to present their business plans to an audience of 60 experts and interested
businesspeople.

The seriousness of the clinic was apparent the moment I entered the MIT Faculty
Club, on the sixth floor of the MIT Sloan School building on Memorial Drive in
Cambridge. Places were set for the 60 attendees, including five ”expert” panelists,
around a large horseshoe-shaped table. The center of this bull ring was reserved
for the presenting entrepreneur; there are two each evening.

Once everyone was seated in front of their salads, Michael Belanger, a cofounder
of local search company Jarg, presented a business plan for a proposed spinoff,
SemanTx Technologies Inc., an ”information intermediary” focused on the life
sciences field.

It was like dinner theater, eating while considering the business plan unfolding on
the screen at the end of the room. But once the 20-minute presentation ended, the
party was over. As Belanger stood stoically in the center of the horseshoe, he was
peppered by questions and challenges from every angle. Although the comments
were courteous and polite, they were direct.

One panelist, for example, said he had just heard ”a technology presentation, not
an investment presentation.

”I judge a presentation by how many dollar signs it contains,” he added. ”I counted
exactly two in your presentation.” Another panelist wanted to know, ”Where’s the
exit strategy?” Still another asked, ”Who are you? You need to explain why you
are the one to lead this company.”

Belanger stood in the center of the bullpen, hands clasped in front of him, passively
absorbing the slings and arrows. (Presenters are not allowed to respond to the
comments, on the theory that they would not learn as much if they are in defensive
mode). Off to the side, an associate was furiously scribbling notes.

Entrepreneurship may be downturn-resistant, but it is not easy.

”That was like a shark tank,” Rainer Frost, a Boston-based consultant, said later.
”I’ve been to similar events in Seattle, and they aren’t as tough. They are more …
congenial.”

When I caught up with Belanger, during a break after his presentation, he did not
seem unnerved by the grilling. ”It gives me a much more detailed road map for my
next presentation,” he said.

After a networking break, the next presenter, Bob Linke, of Genomic Profiling
Systems, made a 20-minute case for a ”rapid testing product for industrial
microbiology.” He was also on the receiving end of a flurry of questions, comments
and suggestions: ”How would this fit into a manufacturing plant?” ”Is this a
revolutionary development or just an incremental improvement?” ”How will you
deal with switching inertia?” ”How much do you really need to get to your first
customer?”

Afterward, Linke, like Belanger before him, was unshaken, even grateful for the
feedback.

”I like getting these comments now, here, instead of hearing them during my one
shot in front of a venture capitalist,” he said, as he stood amid a circle of people
who were talking animatedly, shaking hands and exchanging business cards – a
scene that extended into the lobby, down the elevator and out into the parking lot,
where 20 minutes later two clusters of attendees were still networking in the warm
summer evening.

D.C. Denison can be reached at [email protected].

© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.

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