This month, we’re highlighting MJ Durkin, Director of New Jersey Innovation Institute’s Entrepreneurship Division! We discussed MJ’s background and experience, as well as the work being done by the Entrepreneurship Division to provide resources to and accelerate startups.
Q. Thanks for sitting down with me today, MJ! You joined NJII just 5 months ago, how has your experience been settling into your role? What’s surprised you the most about the organization?
A. It’s been pretty seamless. I worked with NJII pretty closely in my previous position, so I was familiar with the organization and a few of the people who worked here, including Mike [Van Ter Sluis] the VP of Entrepreneurship here at NJII. There’s been a lot of change since the last time I worked with NJII closely; but it feels seamless for starting a new job. Everyone’s been really nice in terms of sharing what they know, showing me the ropes, onboarding, etc.
As far as what’s surprised me, just how many initiatives NJII works on. Both the breadth and depth of the programs that we have, and the things that we try to tackle as an organization, is not something I was aware of, even given the fact that I worked with them previously. I’d really only worked with the Entrepreneurship Division. I knew that other divisions existed, but I didn’t see what they did. So, for example I had no idea the Healthcare Division ran the New Jersey Health Information Network (NJHIN). I had no idea COMET existed. I didn’t even know the Learning & Development Initiative (LDI) was also a division. That’s been surprising in a good way.
Q. I’d love to hear a bit about some of your prior roles, and what led you to NJII.
A. Before NJII, I worked at HAX, which is a part of SOSV. HAX hands-on venture capital, focused on hard-tech. In that role, I helped set up their US headquarters here in Newark through a partnership with the NJ Economic Development Administration (EDA). In that position I was the Director of Operations and Partnerships, so I worked very closely with similar organizations including NJII.
Q. Did you always have an interest in Entrepreneurship?
A. Yes, but it’s a bit of a change from how I spent the first part of my career, at least from the outside looking in. I started my career at Google, and I spent about 8 years running their internal mental health and wellness programs. It was a really cool job and opportunity, but very different from what I do now. That was a People Operations position specifically focused on employee mental health and wellbeing. In that position I was able to work with several health startups, and I specifically worked pretty closely with the Google Ventures Team on a few projects. So that exposed me to the world of startups and investing and piqued my curiosity. When I left Google, I worked at a behavioral health startup (and worked on my own startup), and then I found the opportunity at HAX.
Q. What lessons and skills can you take from your previous roles that apply to your current role?
A. It’s totally different from the outside, but in terms of the skills it’s pretty transferable. My position at Google was very much an “innovation arm”, to use shared language, of their HR team. So, a lot of my job there was defining problems, evaluating different interventions, trying to and the path to implement those interventions, and then restarting the entire process each year. Through that lens, I was working with startups and evaluating whether or not they’d be able to solve the problems we had as a company. So, those types of skills in terms of understanding what the problems are at a deep level, defining specific things that can help solve a problem, and evaluating different solutions, are pretty transferable to what I’m doing now.
The other element of that previous position was a lot of ecosystem building, which is a lot of what I did at HAX as well as in my current position. Building up the startup community here at NJII, in Newark, and New Jersey more broadly.
Q. Do you consider yourself an entrepreneur? What qualities and factors do you think make someone ‘entrepreneurial?’ What traits do you believe make for a “good entrepreneur”?
A. I would consider myself more of an “intrapreneur” than an entrepreneur, although I have started a company in the past. After Google I started a company with a former colleague; it was not successful, and I think that’s part of being an entrepreneur, being open to taking risks and being open to failure. Being able to move forward with that failure is a unique characteristic of entrepreneurs, as are bias towards action and collaboration. I think people sometimes don’t allow themselves to become entrepreneurs or think of themselves as entrepreneurs, because they have one image of what an entrepreneur is. While there are characteristics that are common amongst entrepreneurs, anybody can be an entrepreneur. There’s always a certain element of luck in terms of who you get to work with, the timing, the market, etc.
The two things I would add that make great entrepreneurs are the passion and drive of moving your idea forward no matter what, and coachability. Drive is not necessarily ‘persistence’, which can often be negative if you’re going down the wrong tree. But it’s the drive to figure out different paths. If one way’s not working, you can become creative and figure out a different path forward. If you didn’t have that entrepreneurial mindset, you might give up. The second piece is coachability in terms of accepting feedback and adjusting your behavior and strategy. This ability to accept and act upon feedback is pretty universal in terms of the successful entrepreneurs I’ve seen.
Q. Can you describe some of the work you’re currently doing to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses and brands?
A. So, the Entrepreneurship Division has three main ways to support entrepreneurs: an Incubator, Acceleration Services, and the Venture Studio. My position is the director of entrepreneurship; which means I work across all the division’s programs. A key program I’m working on is the New Jersey Innovation Fellows (NJIF) Program that we work very closely with the NJEDA as well as Rowan University’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. I personally work very closely with five of those companies in the first cohort of the NJIF on their business plans and monthly mentorship sessions, to make sure they have the resources they need to continue making progress. A second piece is an incubator space here at the Profeta Center, providing resources for the founders and startups who are using space in this building. A couple initiatives we’re working on is additional hiring support to leverage the talent pool right across the street at NJIT, as well as networking events in addition to the Open Coffee Club event which is open to anyone in the broader New Jersey startup ecosystem. So, we’re thinking through what other events we can add to make this space a hub for startup activity. The third piece on my plate is supporting the NJII VentureStudio. Figuring out the processes in terms of evaluating companies, having a robust pipeline of companies to look at, meeting with NJIT professors to understand what the research is, collaborating with the undergraduate research center as well.
Q. Are there any entrepreneur stories that really stand-out or inspire you? It could be a well-known example or maybe someone you know personally.
A. Even to take the first step forward turning an idea into reality is something I really admire about people, because it requires a lot of courage and the ability to accept failure is the most likely outcome, and you still decide to take action. Most of the time it’s not just about making money, most entrepreneurs are trying to solve bigger problems for the world, and that’s something I really admire about all the entrepreneurs I get to work with.
Q. In terms of AI, how are emerging technologies affecting young entrepreneurs as they now have new tools to take advantage of?
A. In terms of the entrepreneurs I work with, almost all of them have been helped by AI in terms of ability to develop and work faster and more efficiently. The only downside I see is that almost everybody is trying to include AI in their product, and not everybody has to. It’s logical to use that momentum to further your idea, but it’s a potential distraction for companies that are trying to shove it into their business plan when it doesn’t really make sense. But on the whole, especially when leveraged properly, it’s a tool for entrepreneurs like it is for anyone else. And having Tom Villani as an advisor from our AI/ML division has been an outstanding resource for entrepreneurs to try and pick his brain and figure out how AI can be a tool and not a deterrent.
Q. In your current role, how are you leveraging the relationship between NJIT and NJII, and do you find yourself working with any of NJII’s other divisions?
A. Good question. We work closely with the Office of Undergraduate Research as well as the Center for Translational Research to work with students and faculty on evaluating the commercial applications of their research. We’re also starting to work more with their career development teams on developing the talent pool at NJIT. Also, the Intellectual Property and Technological Licensing Office is another close partner of ours.
As far as other NJII divisions, the marketing team has been a very close partner of ours! We recently submitted a grant in partnership with the Defense Division which is exciting, and we continue to work on other projects with them. Healthcare has been a great partner as well, especially towards industry connections and some Venture Studio ideas.
Q. In one word (or as few as possible), how would you describe your experience at NJII?
A. Exciting! At NJII, what I feel like I’m doing is building new programs and resources to support the entrepreneurship ecosystem, and that’s what I like to do.