The Architecture of Innovation

4

Getting Venturesome

IF ONLY MOST companies were like Facebook—or at least the version we see in the movie The Social Network. Then they would find helpful venture capitalists competing to give them dollars, along with knowledgeable angel investors like Peter Thiel. But alas, for almost all high-growth firms, financing is a challenge even when things go well.

Consider, for instance, Suniva, a solar company spun out from Georgia Tech in 2006.¹ Despite having a novel single-crystal silicon solar cell technology, an exclusive license to almost forty patents and applications from the university, and the leadership of a world-class engineering professor, raising financing has been an ongoing challenge for the firm. This reflects the fact that, throughout ...