You May Have to Build Your Own Desk, But It's Worth It

At Discovering Biology in a Digital World, Sandra Porter blogs about the excitement, adventure, and stomach-churning nerves that go along with starting a new company. Her startup aims "to develop instructional materials that help students and researchers use biological data," she writes, noting that a principal concern is getting people to pay for these materials. "It is unsettling to put my work and creative efforts at the mercy of the markets," she says. "Especially when I have no data to tell me if my business plan will work and I do know that I'm trying to serve a market that always claims to be short of money and might not understand what I'm trying to do."