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Academia to Entrepreneur: How and Why to Leave Academia Behind

William Gunn
September 21, 2012

Academia to Entrepreneur: How and Why to Leave Academia Behind

This is the story of my career as I transitioned from academia to biotech to the tech startup Mendeley. The slides are designed mostly just to anchor key concepts from my talk, so they're not as useful without the accompanying audio, but the main points do come across.

William Gunn

September 21, 2012
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  1. Academic to Entrepreneur: Why and how to leave academia behind

    William Gunn, Ph.D. Head of Academic Outreach Mendeley [email protected] twitter: @mrgunn
  2. The advice I got • Good: Pick a stable, well-funded

    lab where people graduate on time • Good: Diversify project risk • Bad: Keep your head down, work hard, and it’ll all work out
  3. The workflow starts with finding research You can also: l

    Add existing EndNote/BibTeX/RIS databases l Sync with other reference management webapps l Use Mendeley Web Importer to add from online databases l Add from the Mendeley Research Catalog http://www.mendeley.com/blog/tipstricks/7-ways-to-add-documents-to-mendeley/
  4. Set up and manage your reference groups Add tags &

    notes and edit document details Library showing all your documents (citation or table view) Filter your papers by authors, keywords, tags, or publications Step 2: Organization in Mendeley Desktop
  5. Citing in Word & Open Office Citation will show up

    based on selected style Cite into Google documents or other editors by copy & paste Generate a bibliography in one click!
  6. ..and aggregates research data in the cloud Mendeley extracts research

    data.. Mendeley helps researchers work smarter
  7. ..helps researchers work smarter ..makes science more collaborative and transparent

    ..is creating the world’s largest open research database Tools of scientific discovery Mendeley..
  8. Network of 1,000 Advisors at the world’s top universities, spreading

    the word at their institutions http://www.mendeley.com/advisors/
  9. 1. Seek advice from the people who can give it

    2. Know Thyself 3. Look Beyond the Surface Lessons
  10. Stay • What do you want to do? • Will

    you find "Flow"? • Realistic impression? • Supportive network? • Are you young?
  11. Go • Frustrated by lack of impact? • Like to

    write? • Want to influence policy? • Are you too charismatic?
  12. 1. Seek advice from the people who can give it

    2. Know Thyself 3. Look Beyond the Surface 4. Do Interesting Things Lessons
  13. In your department • Be a speaker, symposia, conference organizer

    or session chair • Your local Biotech Club • MassBio • Your local Postdoc Association
  14. 1. Seek advice from the people who can give it

    2. Know Thyself 3. Look Beyond the Surface 4. Do Interesting Things 5. Communication is Everything Lessons