Editorial 1155—16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20036 (202) 872-4600 or (800) 227-5558 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Bibiana Campos Seijo EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Amanda Yarnell PRODUCTION DIRECTOR: Rachel Sheremeta Pepling SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER: Marvel A. Wills BUSINESS NEW YORK CITY: (212) 608-6306 Michael McCoy, Executive Editor Rick Mullin (Senior Editor), Marc S. Reisch (Senior Correspondent), Alexander H. Tullo (Senior Correspondent), Rachel Eskenazi (Administrative Assistant). BOSTON: Ryan Cross (Assistant Editor). CHICAGO: (917) 710-0924 Lisa M. Jarvis (Senior Correspondent). HONG KONG: 852 9093 8445 Jean-François Tremblay (Senior Correspondent). LONDON: 44 1494 564 316 Alex Scott (Senior Editor). WEST COAST: (315) 825-8566 Melody M. Bomgardner (Senior Editor) POLICY WEST COAST: (925) 519-6681 Jyllian Kemsley, Executive Editor WASHINGTON: Cheryl Hogue (Senior Correspondent) Britt E. Erickson (Senior Editor), Andrea L. Widener (Senior Editor) SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY/EDUCATION WASHINGTON: Lauren K. Wolf, Executive Editor, Deputy Editorial Director Celia Henry Arnaud (Senior Editor), Stuart A. Borman (Senior Correspondent), Matt Davenport (Associate Editor, Multimedia), Emma Hiolski (Contributing Editor), Kerri Jansen (Assistant Editor, Multimedia), Tien M. Nguyen (Assistant Editor), Stephen K. Ritter (Senior Correspondent). BERLIN: 49 30 2123 3740 Sarah Everts (Senior Editor). BOSTON: (973) 922-0175 Bethany Halford (Senior Editor). CHICAGO: (847) 679-1156 Mitch Jacoby (Senior Correspondent). WEST COAST: (626) 765-6767 Michael Torrice (Deputy Executive Editor) JOURNAL NEWS & COMMUNITY (510) 768-7657 Corinna Wu (Senior Editor) (651) 447-6226 Jessica H. Marshall (Associate Editor) ACS NEWS & SPECIAL FEATURES Linda Wang (Senior Editor) EDITORIAL PROJECTS EDITOR: Jessica Morrison AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT EDITOR: Dorea I. Reeser EDITING & PRODUCTION Kimberly R. Bryson, Executive Editor Sabrina J. Ashwell (Assistant Editor), Craig Bettenhausen (Associate Editor), Melissa T. Gilden (Assitant Editor), Taylor C. Hood (Assistant Editor), Manny I. Fox Morone (Associate Editor), Alexandra A. Taylor (Assistant Editor), Jason Trader (Production Specialist) C&EN MEDIA PRODUCTION LAB Robert Bryson, Creative Director, Head of Media Production Lab Tchad K. Blair, Head of UI/UX Design Robin L. Braverman (Senior Art Director), Luis A. Carrillo (Web Production Manager), Ty A. Finocchiaro (Senior Web Associate), Yang H. Ku (Art Director), William A. Ludwig (Art Director), Kay Youn (Art Director) C&EN BRANDLAB Rajendrani Mukhopadhyay, Executive Editor Jeff Lee (Senior Editor), Kirsten Dobson (Marketing Manager), SALES & MARKETING Stephanie Holland, Assistant Director, Advertising Sales & Marketing Natalia Bokhari (Advertising Operations Manager), Sondra Hadden (Senior Marketing Manager), Joyleen SanFeliz Parnell (Advertising Operations Associate), Quyen Pham (Lead Generation Associate), Ed Rather (Recruitment Advertising Product Manager), Shelly E. Savage (Recruitment Advertising Associate) ADVISORY BOARD Deborah Blum, Raychelle Burks, Jinwoo Cheon, Kendrew H. Colton, FrançoisXavier Coudert, Cathleen Crudden, Gautam R. Desiraju, Paula T. Hammond, Matthew Hartings, Christopher Hill, Peter Nagler, Anubhav Saxena, Dan Shine, Michael Sofia, William Tolman, James C. Tung, Jill Venton, Helma Wennemers, Geofrey K. Wyatt, Deqing Zhang Published by the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY Thomas M. Connelly Jr., Executive Director & CEO Brian D. Crawford, President, Publications Division EDITORIAL BOARD: Nicole S. Sampson (Chair), ACS Board of Directors Chair Pat N. Confalone, ACS President Allison A. Campbell, Cynthia J. Burrows, Jerzy Klosin, John Russell, Gary B. Schuster Copyright 2017, American Chemical Society Canadian GST Reg. No. R127571347 Volume 95, Number 44
Entrepreneurship and innovation
E
ntrepreneurship and innovation are two sides of a coin. Where an environment to realize innovations is present, entrepreneurs will seize the opportunity and find a route to get a project done. Contrary to what many believe, the most successful entrepreneurs are not the hardest working but the most innovative: those who see the ability to produce new ideas, provide better solutions, and pioneer new products as part of a continuum. Entrepreneurship and innovation are some of the themes in this week’s C&EN. This is because, among other features, this issue includes our third annual 10 StartUps to Watch list, which comes close on the heels of last issue’s profiles of ACS’s 2017 Heroes of Chemistry. To assemble our 10 Start-Ups to Watch (page 30), our writers and editors pored over the hundreds of nominations that we receive throughout the year to select 10 organizations that demonstrate “both innovative chemistry and the vision to use discoveries to solve important problems.” This year’s young firms are transforming fields as varied as agriculture, drug discovery, renewable products, materials design, and more. With the awareness that many new companies fail within the first three years, we have followed the organizations that made it into the 2016 and 2015 lists and update you on where they are now. Also, don’t forget to nominate for next year’s 10 StartUps to Watch at cenm.ag/startupnom. In last week’s issue, we recognized those who received the Heroes of Chemistry Award earlier this year at the ACS national meeting in Washington, D.C. In contrast with C&EN’s 10 Start-Ups to Watch, Heroes (cenm.ag/heroes2017) acknowledges innovation and entrepreneurship as part of a team within a large organization as well as within a small start-up, so you’ll see individuals and some well-known organizations. These two features reveal the skills and characteristics required for success, whether you are at a company big or small: You need passion and perseverance sufficient to carry you through the innovation
process from the initial invention and the challenge at hand to product refinement and scale-up. Excellent communication and decision-making skills are also crucial. Entrepreneurs will also need to develop the skills to create a business plan, interpret a balance sheet or cash flow statement, and navigate patent applications. And then there is seeking funding from angel investors and venture capitalists. Putting together a team with different experiences, viewpoints, and skills will also be critical. Your friends, family, colleagues, and fellow founders will probably agree that your idea is great and should be turned into a successful business. But we all know that bridging the gap between a good idea and a commercially successful one takes honest people whose expertise goes beyond the science into intellectual property rights, environmental impact, or policy landscape, for example, who can handle risk and ambiguity with optimism and confidence and are driven by the knowledge that they can make a real difference in the world. To encourage innovation in the chemical sciences, we must evaluate the way we educate our professionals so that we provide them with the tools and knowledge to serve as leaders in the innovation economy. We must train them to develop the skills and confidence to create, scale, and deliver solutions to real-world challenges. This issue is a celebration of innovation, for those who dare to dream of seeing their ideas turned into successful products and have the courage to make that happen.
Editor-in-chief @BibianaCampos
Views expressed on this page are those of the author and not necessarily those of ACS.
2
C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | NOVEMBER 6, 2017
