Contributed by Kayle Riley, Entrepreneurial Leadership Program Cohort 2024-2025, Biomedical Engineering PhD Candidate
Entrepreneurship is one of those words that are used everywhere but have slightly different meanings to different people. For some, it means starting companies. For others, it is about raising capital, pitching, and building teams. For me, entrepreneurship is more straightforward and profound. Entrepreneurship means taking meaningful ideas and bringing them into the world where they can make a difference.
More Than Starting a Company
When I first began exploring entrepreneurship during my PhD, it was mostly about launching startups. But as I continued learning and participated in programs such as the Entrepreneurship Leadership Program (ELP), I realized that it is much more than that. Entrepreneurship is about vision and translation. It is about identifying a need, shaping the idea to meet it, and having the persistence to carry it forward despite uncertainties and doubts. Sometimes, this may lead to a company or result in a new collaboration or approach. However, the common goal is to have an impact.
The Entrepreneurial Mindset
To me, entrepreneurship isn’t just an activity; it’s a mindset. It is curiosity paired with courage. It is the willingness to test assumptions, listen deeply to stakeholders, and keep moving forward when the path isn’t clear. It is being comfortable with iteration: experimenting, failing, pivoting, and refining until the idea is strong enough to stand. As a scientist, I see entrepreneurship in much the same way as I see research. In the lab, we ask questions, design experiments to test, and adapt our approach based on the results. Entrepreneurship applies the same process, but to people, markets, and systems.
Why it Matters to Me
At its core, entrepreneurship matters to me because it involves bringing ideas to life. I don’t want the work of innovators to end as an abstract idea or a paragraph on a page. I want to see their ideas take shape in the world, where they can impact people’s lives, solve global challenges, and influence how our world evolves. Entrepreneurship provides me with the tools and mindset to achieve that and teaches me to connect science with strategy, innovation with practicality, and discovery with impact. So, when I think about what entrepreneurship means to me, it is the discipline of turning vision into impact by creating pathways that move ideas from discovery to those who need them most. That’s what excites me. That’s what motivates me. And that’s why entrepreneurship will continue to guide my career long after I finish my PhD.