A university startup, in the early days, typically has a small team, usually one or more faculty who were involved in the founding of the company and several lead management and business people (President, CEO, CSO, VP Business Development or R&D) who may or may not have been involved in the founding of the company. Given the early stage of the company, team chemistry is paramount for the venture to be successful. Sometimes, however, the chemistry is less than optimal leading to conflicts which can then lead to a more serious problems of stagnation of company growth, splitting up the team, or folding of the company. Let’s examine the elements of the relationships between the scientific founders and the startup management team.
