Business Development from Research, Entrepreneurship Within Academic Medicine

It is important for me to explain up front that I never intended to start a business. In fact, I had only taken one economics class in college, really just out of curiosity. As an MD/PhD, my plan was relatively simple: I wanted to get the best clinical and scientific training possible so I could do great research to help the patients under my care. While I have always been quite creative with a bent toward improving things, I believed that research satisfied these goals. I never dreamed that I would one day start a company. This is the story of that journey, as told in an abridged version of a business school case study about MiraDx, the company I co-founded. This is not intended to be a roadmap or “how to” for starting a company. Rather, it’s one academician’s somewhat reluctant journey into entrepreneurship, the building of a business based on research and a desire to improve patient care, and the numerous challenges, pivots, and lessons learned along the way.