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Women entrepreneurs need to constantly
demonstrate their competency
and capabilities, Contag says. Although it’s
critical for women entrepreneurs to have
“a differentiated technology and commercialization
strategy and the ability to execute
on a plan, that’s usually not enough. I
do think that women need to have a betterthan-the-average
skill set to receive the
same considerations as men.
“Most investors like to move to their
comfort zone of an experienced management
team whether you are doing a good
job or not,” Contag adds. “It’s not much
different for men, except that they are often
given the benefit of the doubt—something
from which I don’t think women benefit.”
DUKOR ECHOES this point. She believes
there is still a stigma against women scientists
who want to enter into business.
“People don’t seem to doubt that I am a
good scientist, but I think it is still harder
for women to be taken seriously in the
business world.” It appears that men don’t
face the same biases in business, she says.
Still, women entrepreneurs believe that
gender biases are not as prevalent as they
once were. It is “much easier for women to
be taken seriously now than it was 15 years
ago in what has traditionally been a heavily
male industry,” Armour says. “In addition
to having a good number of women working
in our industry today, we also have
the input of women at strategic levels of
decision-making. That’s a really important
difference right now.”
As a result, it’s easier to find role models
who can be a valuable resource for women
entrepreneurs. Armour, for example, feels
“an obligation to mentor other women and
help them avoid some of the things I encountered.”
And Dukor encourages women
to reach out to male and female CEOs,
many of whom are eager to help those who
want to follow in their footsteps.
Although building networks comes
naturally to community-oriented women,
developing and maintaining a business
network is not a skill that we all have,”
Contag says. However, “it is crucial to our
business.” Vercellotti, for
example, has benefited
from being a member of
the American Chemical
Society’s Division of Small
Chemical Businesses.
Building good relationships
with employees is
equally important, Dukor
says. “I’ve learned to be
totally open and honest
with my employees,” sharing
successes and communicating
problems such
as a temporary need for a
delayed payroll, says Dukor,
who adds that she feels accountable
“for the lives of
every employee.”
At the same time, Dukor
says she has always taken
on “responsibility for the
success of every single
customer who has put their
trust in me.” Especially when BioTools was
new, she wanted to make sure that clients
benefited immediately by applying the
company’s technology to their targeted
applications. “Their success became my
success,” she says.
Even as head of a publicly traded company,
Parker admits that she feels the weight
of increased responsibility to employees,
other shareholders, clients, and patients
who take the drugs developed by Targeted
Genetics. “That responsibility can be the
most exhilarating thing in the world or it
can keep you up at night. I find both to be
true, depending on the week,” she says. “I
don’t mind telling people that it tears me up
when we have had to do layoffs here. And
we had a patient death on a clinical trial last
year that turned out to be unrelated to one
BALANCING ACT
As cofounder of an
instrumentation
business, Dukor
is able to manage
work and family
life, which includes
a 5-K run with
her son, Alan, and
daughter, Anna.
of our drugs, but it
was a horrible event
and a very emotional
event for me.”
Other entrepreneurs
are particularly
burdened by their
responsibility to investors—something
that Marrone counts
as “the biggest downside
to founding a business,” she says. “As
soon as you take investors’ money, you
become beholden to them, so it is naïve to
think that you are still calling the shots.”
Still, Marrone says she is happy to be
divorced from the politics and the bureaucracy
associated with a large corporation.
She finds it “freeing” to be able to “really
set a company’s direction and see my ideas
come to fruition more quickly.”
Dukor, too, embraces the flexibility of
owning her own business. “Basically, I can
commercialize anything I want. There is no
boss to shoot down my ideas. So if I have an
idea in the middle of the night, I can come
in the next morning and put people on it
and try it. I really love that.” ■
COURTESY OF RINA DUKOR
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 54 NOVEMBER 3, 2008