4 minutes with… Bill Topp, Manager, Biotechnology Associates

March 30, 2015 |

34f2a15Tell us about your company and it’s role in the Advanced Bioeconomy.

We provide due diligence analyses to the venture capital community of investment opportunities in firms that exploit advanced technologies

Tell us about your role and what you are focused on in the next 12 months.

Most of our work at the present time is coming out of the Middle East. This is a naive market, unused to venture capital and inexperienced in entrepreneurial start-ups.

What do you feel are the most important milestones the industry must achieve in the next 5 years?  

Things won’t really take off in v.c. backed entrepreneurial businesses until we begin to recycle executives/founders who have already been through their first successful new venture.

If you could snap your fingers and change one thing about the Advanced Bioeconomy, what would you change? 

Greater emphasis on WRM/what really matters. Fewer breathless promotions of “low hanging fruit” and more funding and support for the true end products. Think fusion power. The world does not need another groundbreaking/earthshaking ethanol technology. Stop covering ethanol.

Of all the reasons that influenced you to join the Advanced Bioeconomy industry, what single reason stands out for you as still being compelling and important to you?  

An opportunity to sort the good from the bad and the just plain ugly.

Where are you from? 

Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

What was your undergraduate major in college, and where did you attend? Why did you choose that school and that pathway?

Oberlin College, major in Chemistry. I chose Oberlin because they hosted my Explorer Scout Post on a field trip and I liked it, and they accepted me. I majored in Chemistry because it was the only thing in which I could get an A

Who do you consider your mentors – could be personal, business, or just people you have read about and admire. What have you learned from them?

Barbara McClintock. Always question your fundamental assumptions.

What’s the biggest lesson you ever learned during a period of adversity?  

Keep an open mind because the next opportunity may come along from a completely unexpected and unpredictable direction and you’d better be looking for it. If you think you already know what the next opportunity is going to look like, there’s a good chance you’re wrong.

What hobbies do you pursue, away from your work in the industry?

We’re a farm family.

What are 3 books you’d want to have with you, if you were stranded on a desert island

No preference.

What books or articles are on your reading list right now, or you just completed and really enjoyed?  

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Why Did the Chicken Cross the World

What’s your favorite city or place to visit, for a holiday?  

Tucson

Category: Million Minds

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