THE PERFECT STORM

The Perfect Storm: The Worst of Times

Abstract
It is the worst of times, and yet, the best of times. September 2008 witnessed the fall of the once great investment banks as well as continued economic slowdown. But also in September 2008, some other events quietly took place that did not reach the headlines. Chief among those events was the start of another seven year innovation cycle for the biotechnology market sector. A major biotech innovation cycle started in 2001, with the completion of the sequencing of the human genome. And, the signals are all there signaling that biotech innovation has reached innovation equilibrium, and in need of a major event, such as, inter alia, the collapse of Wall St., to rewind and start another cycle, causing the death of non-profitable biotech companies while breathing life into new biotech startups. This paper makes the case that bioSoftmosis with its new disruptive technology and recombinant strategy for value creation is uniquely positioned to take advantage of this perfect storm.

Introduction
It is the worst of times, and yet the best of times. It is the worst of times because the US is fighting two wars and battling the greatest economic crisis this country has seen since the Great Depression. The economic crisis has several consequences relevant to bioSoftmosis, including the threatened evaporation of credit for hospitals. This credit crunch would have the effect of stalling healthcare industry growth which in turn, is a driver for the biotech industry. Additionally, the stagnation of US innovation by corporate America, and the suffering by businesses industry wide from information overload causing inability to turn that information into knowledge. It is also during these troubled economic times that I am starting a company to commercialize university intellectual property. The vision for the resulting product is to enable researchers to see vast amounts of data and to draw conclusions from that data. For example, What I discovered is that I can use current events, as well as the New York innovation ecosystem 1 to catapult my startup company to success by creating a sustained competitive advantage for it, thereby finding the silver lining in the clouds of the Perfect Storm.

Paper Organization
I interviewed industry and subject matter experts, and incorporated their comments, insights, suggestions, and opinions about the practicality of starting a corporation in the context of the current economic crisis; their comments augment secondary sources cited herein. The analysis is divided into the following three sections. The first section describes the worst of times and ensuing crises. The second section describes the best of times vis a vis the crises and their benefits to bioSoftmosis. The final section offers lessons learned and roadmap for next steps for bioSoftmosis. An Exhibit section is also included which includes pertinent information too lengthy or complex for the main document.

2008 Pamela Grace & bioSoftmosis, Inc. All rights reserved.

THE PERFECT STORM

Primary Research Methodology: Conduct Interviews with Industry Experts

I augmented my secondary research with primary research gathered at conferences, and interviewed many panelists and conferees about what they thought the future would be for startups in light of the Wall Street meltdown, as well as listening to their strategy suggestions. The following list provides a summary of the conferences and the information gathered:
On September 18, I attended the High Performance on Wall St. Conference where I spoke with engineers from Cray about a new desk side high performance computer for our solution; On October 7, I attended the Biotechnology and Pharma: Evolution and Adaptation Conference jointly hosted by the New York Academy of Sciences, the NYU and Columbia University Biotechnology Associations. Attending this globally broadcast conference, were panelists from the FDA, NIH, a successful biotech firm, a financial consultant and a prestigious biotech research journal; On October 16, I attended An Evening with Barrier Therapeutics: Lessons Learned case study hosted by the law firm, Morgan Lewis & Bokius LLP for their biotech clients. On October 31, I attended a seminar at The New York Public Library Science, Industry and Business Library to discuss how to use their federal grant to track how public libraries can help foster entrepreneurship and support small business with the librarys resources, and services during the economic downturn; On November 6, I attended a seminar hosted by Wharton titled Competition Gamesmanship, where I learned sophisticated competitive offensive and defensive strategies to prevail in the war for market share dominance. These lessons learned are used to augment bioSoftmosis strategy for sustained competitive advantage; and On November 13, I participated in a teleconference hosted by the Worlds Best Technologies (WBT) showcase and the Capital Formation Institute cosponsored teleconference where Keith Crandell from Arch Venture Partners and John Adler from Silver Creek Ventures presented their thoughts on how the economic crisis is affecting venture investing, and what technology companies need to know to stand out in a tight V.C. environment.

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Many interviews were conducted to bolster secondary research findings. For example, Eric Koester, a large law firm attorney who drafted and negotiated bioSoftmosis university license agreements, provides this quote from his forthcoming book from CRC Press, to be released Jan, 2009, titled, appropriately, What Every Engineer Should Know About Starting a High Tech Business:

"More people than ever are starting new businesses. And, while there have been periodic slowdowns in funding for new technology businesses and new talent forming new businesses, the long-term trend has been increased availability of human and financial resources over the past twenty-five years."2

2008 Pamela Grace & bioSoftmosis, Inc. All rights reserved.