6 Companies Born During A Downturn
Feb 2 2009

Our Bioscience Director, Jessica Hanover, at the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI) sent out the following link today: 6 Companies Born During Downturns.  You may or may not be surprised at the names on the list (IBM, GE, Procter & Gamble, GM, United Technologies Corp., FedEx) but it just goes to show you that if you focus on the negative, you’ll have a hard time finding the positive reasons to be entrepreneurial right now.

I started to reply to her but decided I’d blog it instead in order to share with all of you.  Here were my initial thoughts.

Starting a company from scratch was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done (2nd only to taking care of little kids).  It almost doesn’t matter if it’s an up time or down time if you are serious about getting your company off the ground.  We started Isochron in an up time but weathered some down times.

There are just some companies and people (when combined in the right space/time) that will make it almost no matter what.  It’s recognizing that elusive pattern that is the holy grail of venture/equity investing. I think we have a few of those at ATI. And just because you recognize it…doesn’t mean it won’t change! But what do I know?  I certainly don’t fit the picture of a stereotypical VC!  Honestly, I think most VCs don’t really know how to see it or look for it.

Maintaining the passion and singular vision to take it through the numerous hurdles is quite a feat.  Anyone can falter on this tough road at any time and therein lies the biggest inherent risk.

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