Tips in becoming a successful entrepreneur
Interview with Jonathan Seltzer, M.D
By Estee Teo
1) With your capabilities, you would excel in the corporate world, why did you choose to be an entrepreneur?
Thanks for the compliment, (but I’m not so sure I’d excel in the corporate world.) I think the varieties of daily challenges I see as an entrepreneur are a better fit for my personality.
2) What are some of the personal management issues that you see that are a particular challenge for entrepreneurs? How have you overcome these?
Resource allocation—financial, time, personal— has been my biggest challenge. Many colleagues echo this sentiment. I’m not sure you ever overcome these challenges—you just have to live with them. Hopefully I’m lucky and, if I’m not, I learn from your mistakes.
3) What's drives you to do what you do?
As you know, there are enormous needs in healthcare and medical research. I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to obtain a superb education in both medicine and business which will allow me to contribute. I’d like to help make some positive changes and entrepreneurship is a route to do so.
4) How do you find such top-notch people to work for your company? What do you differently in your recruiting, hiring, and training?
First, we’ve learned to take our time to find the right people—even if it seems like we’re in a crisis. Second, we focus on creating a culture of individual responsibility and creativity-- we try to select people who will enjoy that environment. We’re also very quick to realize when we’ve made a hiring mistake. Third, we believe that using performance metrics helps us with continuous learning. And perhaps most importantly, we try to have as many interns from NUS as possible.
5) Bootstrapping or Angel/VC Investing?How did you determine which way to go?
I guess it depends on where you are with your company. When starting ACI, building a reputation of high quality and high ethics was paramount. At that time, I felt I needed to completely focus on building our reputation and did not have the time to focus on the demands investors are entitled to expect. So I decided to take the risk myself. Personally, I have to thank my family for taking the financial setback, but it allowed us to build the business the way we felt it should be built.
Now things are different-- we’ve accomplished a lot with respect to our reputation. Our company is of the size that now I have to focus on financial performance. So just because I decided to bootstrap early on, it doesn’t mean we won’t look for investment as we continue our growth.
6) A lot of people think entrepreneurs are born, not made. What's your take on that?
I think I’ll paraphrase the Bard “"Some are born -some achieve -and some have it thrust upon them!" My Dad is an entrepreneur, but my parents actively discouraged me from going into business on my own. So I’m not sure how I got here.
7) What are some of the skill sets an entrepreneur must have to succeed?
It’s really important to realize what you do well and what you need help with. It’s really tough at the beginning because you have limited resources and you do everything. But as you grow, make sure you slot yourself and your people in the positions where they can be the most successful.
Temperamentally, you need to be enormously flexible, persistent and patient.
8) What advice would you offer to someone who wants to run a business?
First, you have to believe in what you’re doing. Secondly, you have to believe you can always do it better so you have to constantly re-examine your operations, finances, production, etc… Finally, don’t get discouraged, the sun eventually returns after the storm.
9) Do you have any tips for securing seed venture capital funds?
No, I have never been involved with VC.
JONATHAN SELTZER, MD
Dr Jonathan Seltzer, a cardiologist by training, is founder and executive leader of Applied Clinical Intelligence LLC, a clinical research services company founded in June 2001. He is responsible for ensuring scientific integrity in ACI deliverables and processes. He works with business development to ensure accurate scientific content and provides leadership to the organization in production of new and innovative research products and services. His foresight and leadership skill has lead ACI to be a company that is has a strength of 22 full time staff today. He has extensive experience in the biomedical industry and frequently consults with companies producing novel therapeutic products.
Prior to this, the worked at Premier Research Worldwide for 2 years where he developed clinical strategic alliances and served as member of corporate executive committee.
ABOUT ACI - www.a-ci.com
ACI was founded in 2001 to apply the tools of the information age to the changing environment of clinical research—the ultimate knowledge business.
Our team of seasoned clinical and regulatory professionals combines the advantages of extensive clinical development experience with a comprehensive understanding of real-world clinical medicine. All of our employees have at least five years' experience, and our senior management has at least 15 years each. We understand the industry and how regulatory agencies look at data, as well as how to get quality information from the medical community. This enables us to provide our clients with tools that work because they bridge the gap between clinical trials and the healthcare provider community.
ACI's clients include global pharmaceutical companies, top biotech companies, and major CROs.