I’ve been working with a few medical device start-ups for over a year. Today, I started to think about something regarding one of my clients. Who is the entrepreneur? Is it the founder and inventor of the technology? Is it the CEO who is driving the company? Is it the person responsible for day to day operations and project management (that’s me)? Is it the administrative assistant who serves as the glue for the company?
According to the dictionary, the definition of entrepreneur is one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.
So I guess by this definition, all of the above are entrepreneurs. It’s an interesting topic (for me at least) because I think conventional wisdom suggests the inventor is the entrepreneur. Maybe the inventor is assuming the most risk. But I believe the CEO, operations, admin, and just about everyone associated with a start-up exhibits entrepreneurial-ism, or at least should.
Now that I’ve been living in the entrepreneurial world, I’m not sure I could leave.
