What Skills Do Entrepreneurs Have to Learn Quickly After Starting Their Business?

In this “Pathways in Spectroscopy” episode, Mercedes Bertotto, who is the Founder of Vibralytics, talks about the necessary skills spectroscopists need when starting their own business, and what challenges they will need to face head-on during this process.

Mercedes Bertotto: Some of my skills are related to research, taking the time to understand the problem, to read the literature, to know exactly the state of the art, and to know what's possible and what can be developed. All of the skills related to the research and to critical thinking about the problem in depth is something that I really like to do, and I take the time to do it. Also, adaptability. I have been working with many different application samples, different objectives, different time frames, and different deadlines. Some were private, some were public. I have been working with customers, but I have worked also in government and in research. This adaptability is my strong suit.

I am also transparent. I say exactly what customers can we exactly what I can do and what I cannot do. I tell them candidly what is feasible, what can be explored, and what is out of reach. I like to be very clear and also be clear about the time it would take to achieve a specific goal. I think that transparency is something that also creates trust and a long-term relationship with people.

A challenge for me [and other business owners] is setting boundaries, especially if it is related to my intellectual property. In science, we are often very used to share everything very openly, to share exactly what I think and to really tell people what I was doing and how I was doing it. Sometimes, when it comes to business, your intellectual property should be protected. And in the beginning, I was sharing the solution before there was a contract signing, so I was doing the work before anything happened. So that is something that I really need to learn, and I am still learning how to how to protect it better, and also have to value my time better because sometimes I use many more hours for projects compared to what I am compensated for. So learning how to value my time is something that I am working on throughout this process.