Fueling the Engines of Budding Discoveries

Insights from Attending MIT’s Tough Tech Summit 2021

Sipping on some coffee in my local library, I sat anxiously in my chair waiting for human voices to replace the indie standby music flowing through my earbuds. MIT’s Tough Tech Summit was just moments away from beginning, and I couldn’t wait to absorb the wisdom of the various founders and speakers.

While I’ve always been interested in the prospects of science and technology, most of my life so far has been spent in research and development. Curious to learn more about overcoming the gap between knowledge and application, I jumped at this chance to hear about startups and the investment world. From government officials to CEOs of leading tech companies, the speakers at the conference left me mesmerized with their insights and advice, all of which I’ll be sharing in the next few minutes.

Opening Keynote

The opening keynote was delivered by Gina M. Raimondo, who currently serves as the 40th U.S. Secretary of Commerce and was the first female Governor of Rhode Island. She spoke on global competitiveness and the importance of investing in Tough Tech.

Source: The Boston Globe

Key Takeaways:

• Collaboration should occur between public and private sectors. This ensures leaders are on the same page and advancing forward together, and enables more knowledge and expertise to be shared.
• Innovation doesn’t only occur in Silicon Valley, Boston, and NYC. It’s important to invest all around the nation, to create the conditions for success everywhere in supporting the translation of innovation to commercialization.
• We must tap into the totality of people to remain innovative and competitive. If we aren’t doing everything we can to unleash the innovation of women, BIPOC, and other minorities in the field, things will be stagnant.

Fireside Chat

The fireside chat was one of my favourite talks at this conference. It featured Dipender Saluja, the Managing Partner of Capricorn Investment Group.

Source: Flickr

Key Takeaways:

• The intersections of big problems hold the biggest opportunity. There are tons of individuals already working in areas we’ve already heard of, but much fewer work at an intersection of them. Finding that niche will be the differentiating factor.
• Timing is key in effective investment decisions. Success is not intrinsic to the nature of the product or service itself, but also to the market. Therefore, being initially unsuccessful does indicate a lost cause.
• We are not short on capital, but quality entrepreneurs. The reason why we’re so focused on capital however is because quality capital breeds confidence.
• There is no shortage of technical breakthroughs, but a shortage in marrying that with everything else. New ideas are constantly popping up, but we have to make sure they can be applied and are of use to the world.

I resonated a lot with the last point. Participating in a number of hackathons throughout high school, I was always slightly irked by projects that seemed to lack a purpose. I typically like to ask myself the following questions:

• Does it solve a global issue or technical problem that presents a barrier to other discoveries?
• Is it just “cool” or for purposes of simple convenience?
• Would I pay money for this?

Sector Talk

The sector talks gave us a chance to hear from one speaker in an area of choice: climate change, human health, or advanced systems. I attended the track on human health featuring Sangeeta Bhatia, Professor of Health Sciences and Technology & EECS at MIT, who spoke about the importance of taking a multidisciplinary approach to human health innovation.

Source: TED

Key Takeaways:

• Operate in an area of convergence. Similar to Saluja’s words, a niche at the intersection of two areas will create a differentiating factor. Aside from problems, this can also apply to technologies. Leveraging knowledge and power within two technologies will create unfound advantages.
• The largest rate-limiting ingredient is finding executives for your team. At the end of the day, no matter how good the product or service is, the people are the ones behind a company, steering its direction. Finding the right people that are dedicated and aligned on the mission is key to lasting success.
• Academia is rooted in arriving at answers, whereas entrepreneurship is in a constant state of looking for answers. Once you get into the real world, there are no answers at the back of the textbook. You are constantly living in uncertainty, performing your own real-life experiments and betting on the best.

Once again, the last point stuck with me. As a STEM student in school, I always enjoyed subjects where there was an objective answer for a test question. But as I grew up, I began to rediscover the joy and satisfaction in figuring out the answer yourself with your own methods — the inductive approach to life.

Founder Talks

The founder talks brought in three different founders of Tough Tech companies working to solve significant global challenges:

• Parag Mallick, Co-Founder & Chief Scientist, Nautilus Biotechnology; Associate Professor, Stanford University
• Nikhita Singh, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer, Artificial
• Gia Schneider, Co-Founder & CEO, Natel Energy

Parag Mallick, a scientist and a magician! Source: Biodesign Institute — Arizona State University

Key Takeaways:

• Start with a problem that makes you frustrated. That frustration feeds motivation towards doing everything in your power to find a workable solution. If the problem doesn’t make you frustrated, it may not be the most effective allocation of time and resources.
• Openness as a founder to share and ask for advice is key. Doing this creates benefits for everyone involved, unlocking bridges between siloed knowledge and allowing for more innovation and ideas to be spread.
• Observation can yield more value than seeking opinion. Asking good questions in the process of validation can be tough, because both buyers and sellers have their own biases, further complicated through language. Observation, however, may present a more unfiltered approach.
• The excitement of startups lies in being closer to the frontlines of making real change. Scientific discoveries may work to push the boundaries of our knowledge, but startups bridge the gap to application, where you can get closer to seeing the direct impact of your work.

Closing Keynote

The closing keynote was by far the highlight of this conference for me. Despite it being all the way at the end, I sat at the edge of my chair with my eyes glued to the screen to hear from Ginni Rometty, Former Chairman, President, and CEO of IBM. I was especially pulled in by her focus on diversity in tech and tapping into the knowledge that isn’t yet being leveraged or fueled to its full potential.

Source: World Economic Forum

Key Takeaways:

• A propensity to learn is more important than an exact match of skills. With new tech springing up all the time, it becomes nearly impossible to find someone with an exact match of skills. Instead, it’s important to look for quick learners to keep up with a shifting market.
• The keys to selecting a board and advisors are alignment, matching needs and understanding strengths, and technical expertise. Boards don’t stay static — you want a board that can help you grow through different phases, and the key to that is constant alignment.
• Treat relationships as a 2-way street rather than a hierarchy. A network is what you give, not just what you get. When talking to mentors, realize the value you bring and that they can learn from you as well. This creates productive relationships where both parties can grow.
• Look for talent in places that other people don’t look. It’s hard to find diverse talent when all startup founders are looking in the same place, but talent isn’t only found in tech hubs or degrees. You’d be pleasantly surprised with what you can find when you remove those false barriers.

Final Thoughts

Although I didn’t fully understand everything that was mentioned, being fairly new to all the terms and processes in commercialization, I’m incredibly grateful to have gotten the opportunity to attend the Tough Tech Summit. I grasped tons of advice from a broad range of perspectives that both affirmed my own philosophies and opened my eyes to new ways of thinking. As I delve deeper into the startup field with bringing scientific ideas to fruition, I hope to come back to this article and put all these knowledge bombs to good use in the near future.

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