ORIGIN OF THE GUIDE

In January 2000, a post-doctoral fellow in my research laboratory approached me to discuss a technology he had developed. He wanted to start a biotech company. I offered to draft an executive summary and help secure financing. Two weeks later, we had an attorney and a three-month option to exclusively license the key patents from our research institution. We met with venture capitalists, who told us that without an experienced management team the company was not ready for funding. A local biotech company offered to incubate our venture but demanded a majority stake. At the time, this seemed unreasonable, and we stalled as we considered our lack of other options. With obstacles looming ahead, our three-month option expired and the university technology licensing office made it clear that it would no longer consider giving an exclusive license to a startup company.

After that failure, I began to systematically study the entrepreneurial process. I supplemented what I learned from business books by interviewing attorneys, investors, entrepreneurs, and other professionals (see Acknowledgements). Subsequently, I wrote The Entrepreneur's Guide to a Biotech Startup (the "Guide") and published it on Evelexa.com early in 2001.

Shortly thereafter, I was hired as an investment analyst by Richard Aldrich, a seasoned biotech executive who had just left his post as Chief Business Officer of Vertex Pharmaceuticals to start RA Capital Associates. My job was to evaluate a mostly public and some private companies as potential investments for our fund. The last few years have reinforced our belief that the expensive and protracted development cycles of the typical biotech model would not lead to sustainable businesses in the future. Our investments tended to be in biotech companies that operated efficiently and could achieve profitability in the near-term.

Based on my experience at RA Capital, I have revised the Guide several times. Each new edition featured new chapters, many of which were guest authored by experts. This 4^th^ Edition, in particular, is considerably more pragmatic than earlier versions in addressing the challenges facing emerging companies.