Caught the startup bug? Bob Langer has some advice
What one of MIT’s most prolific founders wants young entrepreneurs to know
On Feb. 12, MIT hosted the second annual MIT Startup Career Fair. In addition to giving students an opportunity to interact with start-ups, the career fair also signaled a shift in attitude towards start-ups. Students interested in building companies feel as though it is easier than ever to learn the necessary technical infrastructure to launch a start-up. The doors into the start-up world seem to be multiplying — the tougher question is how to navigate the tricky intersection of science and business without losing one’s footing. Even from the lofty platform of an institution like MIT, students trying to start a company still feel as though the effort is a leap of faith.
David H. Koch Institute Professor Robert S. Langer ScD ’74 is no stranger to this leap. Since joining MIT faculty in 1978, Langer has become a pioneer in drug delivery and tissue engineering, produced over 1,000 patents, and founded dozens of companies. As the head of a lab that supports dozens of UROPs each semester, Langer is famously ever-willing to give advice to undergraduates that wish to follow in his footsteps. In this interview, Langer reflects on passion, failure, and the courage required to translate entrepreneurial ideas into lasting impact.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The Tech: In the wake of the second MIT Startup Career Fair, and in the context of MIT’s broader focus on entrepreneurship, when do you think it actually makes sense for a young scientist to choose a start-up over a more traditional path?
Langer: I think that one of the best things about being at a university, whether it’s undergraduate or graduate, is learning fundamentals. I think that’s the most important thing. That being said, getting a taste of things, including entrepreneurship, is good. Entrepreneurship is one of those things I’ve done, but I never did it until I was ten years into being a professor. If I wanted to enable patients to use my research, I learned that if I wasn’t my own champion, nobody else would be. Then I had this passion to do those things. And I think if you find a passion, whatever it is, that’s the important thing.
TT: Do you worry that the excitement around start-ups today encourages premature commercialization of ideas or premature launch of young researchers out of academia?
Langer: I think it’s okay, and it could even be good, but there need to be ways to give people experience and mentorship at whatever stage they’re at. You have to have coaches in sports; if you’re starting a company, you have to have people and structures that can help you, give you advice, and help prevent you from making mistakes. I actually think it’s okay to try and fail — people have failed throughout history. But what would be bad is to try and fail and then feel that because the failure was so painful, you’d never do it again.
TT: That makes me think of the autobiographical piece you wrote last year for Annual Reviews, where you talk about how many of your early ideas were rejected initially. How did you feel when that was happening? And what advice would you give to a young scientist or entrepreneur who feels discouraged early on in their careers?
Langer: I was lucky in the following way: when I was a postdoc, I worked with this man named [Dr.] Judah Folkman, who was a surgeon. He was a visionary guy. Everybody told him his ideas were wrong, but he felt that anything was possible. And what he did ended up leading to drugs [for cancer treatment] that affect millions, even hundreds of millions of people — that was my postdoctoral project. Seeing that helped me. I could see somebody else older than me going through it. And it made me feel well, okay, it happens.
[In terms of advice for students], I’d say it’s good to talk to people, and it’s good to not give up easily. People try and sometimes they fail. But I don’t think it matters how many times you fail; it just matters if you succeed even once. It’s better to ask big questions that can change the world than just do incremental stuff. It may not happen quickly. But it’s better to shoot for really big things, and if you don’t get exactly the top, you’ll still do great. I would give advice like that.
Emmanuel J. Tellez and Daniel Gonzalez contributed to fact checking for this article.