1. Management failure (22 mentions). °æ¿µ½ÇÆÐ
Start-ups are doomed when academics seek to be corporate managers and stay in control too long; management teams lack start-up experience; management fails to accurately project the company¡¯s needs for capital, employees, product development, and technical expertise; or management fails to identify the market opportunity and, therefore, misses it.
2. Failure to raise sufficient capital (15 mentions). ÃæºÐÇÑ ÀÚ±Ý È®º¸ ½ÇÆÐ
Some academic start-ups begin with no capital (¡°zero stage minus one¡±) and cannot overcome this deficit, according to respondents. Others don¡¯t secure follow-on investment rounds because they fail to resolve technical challenges or reach major business plan milestones, encounter a cash flow crisis before they have a chance to succeed, or lose their original VCs to other projects.
3. Innovation does not meet a commercial need (12 mentions). Çõ½ÅÀÌ ½ÃÀå´ÏÁ ¹Ý¿µÇÏÁö ¸øÇÔ
Many start-ups succumb to problems such as ¡°laboratory-push versus market-pull,¡± the entry of a technology into the marketplace too early or late, a ¡°$5 solution for a 25 cent problem,¡± the inability of an innovation to compete with existing products, or the threat of ¡°neat science¡± — when a start-up falls in love with its technology and fails to identify a market need.
5. Cultural factors (6 mentions). ¹®ÈÀû ¿äÀÎ
Start-ups stagnate when the country¡¯s culture devalues risk-taking because there are ¡°no young people with entrepreneurial spirit, no risk money supply, no vibrant IPO market, and no market willing to buy state-of-the-art technological goods,¡± according to one respondent. ¡°In Europe, despite all the EU propaganda of a ¡®single market,¡¯ the reality is that linguistic barriers, geographical trading cultures, and other country-defined factors place severe limitations on the ability of any company to grow beyond the level of a 50-employee company.¡± In many countries, a company¡¯s failure can damage the reputations of a researcher, university, and company managers, according to another respondent, although in the U.S., such failure ¡°is a ¡®badge of honor¡¯¡± that has little negative impact on the principals.
6. Government laws, bureaucracy, and programs (6 mentions). Á¤ºÎ °¢Á¾ ±ÔÁ¦
Start-ups often are handicapped by poor IP protection through national laws, such as constraints on protection of computer software and biotechnology in Europe. In other cases, ¡°government funding programs, such as the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR), actually have a detrimental effect by causing start-ups to be logical extensions of technology-development, not market-pulled technology needs.¡± Legislated entrepreneurship rarely works, as government does not understand the technology commercialization process, one respondent adds.
7. Infighting within the start-up team (6 mentions). â¾÷ÆÀ³»ÀÇ ºÒÈ
Start-ups cannot survive without a common objective among key players: inventor, university, management, investors, and government, according to one respondent. The survey also cites the failure of a university and/or investor to give control of a spinoff to the management team and the ¡°clash of cultures¡± that occurs when start-ups focus solely on technology while investors focus solely on money.
8. Problems with IP (6 mentions). ÁöÀûÀç»ê¹®Á¦
In general, technology needs a clean patent estate to allow a start-up to operate freely, according to participants. ¡°The IPR estate is too weak without issued patents,¡± one respondent notes. ¡°This is a significant challenge as universities cannot afford the expense to ¡®prosecute to completion¡¯ internationally, but investors do not want to invest without allowed claims and start-up companies cannot wait that long without investment. It is a ¡®lose-lose-lose¡¯ situation.¡± In many countries, lack of clarity about IPR ownership also impedes investment.
9. Poor business plan (5 mentions). ÇüÆí¾ø´Â »ç¾÷°èȹ¼
A business plan that ignores critical first steps to survival precludes start-ups from raising capital. ¡°A business plan may have a misdirected focus upon the technology and the IPR, without seeing the market,¡± according to one respondent. ¡°Too many start-ups fail to consider the competition in their business plans, especially competition from market leaders, even when the competition¡¯s product is not as good,¡± another adds.
10. Unrealistic expectations (4 mentions). ºñÇö½ÇÀûÀÎ ±â´ë°¨
¡°The probability of having a blockbuster invention is so low that the chance that any start-up company in America — much less in smaller countries of the world — will be significant is very remote,¡± one respondent says. ¡°The failure rate is too high to warrant a significant number of investments.¡±