Leaving the comfort zone: The path to academic entrepreneurship

Academic research is a catalyst for innovation, discovery, and education, but only a few academicians venture into the path from bench to market. We teach students, we train researchers in basic aspects of scientific enterprise, and we are involved in the administration of academic units. Only rarely do academicians become entrepreneurs and those that do so often come from engineering fields. What limits the entrepreneurial spirit of microbiologists? For one, the disparity of the scales often needed to take microbial-based technologies from the bench to the industrial setting. On the other hand, the lack of information, training, and financial support needed to embark into a career path where research and business knowledge go hand to hand. Here I describe my personal journey to leave the comfort zone of basic research and become an entrepreneur and the critical role that academic infrastructure plays in paving the road to success.