WHEN I STARTED OUT AS A SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY JOURNALIST in 1995, Google and Facebook didn’t exist, the human genome hadn’t yet been fully sequenced and phones were for talking to other people. I couldn’t know that I was about to witness (and help chronicle) two-plus decades of astonishing technological change, much of it driven by venture-backed startups in software, mobility, the Internet and biotech.
As a side effect of my work, I developed a belief that most world-changing innovations come from small, early stage companies. I rarely wrote about giants like IBM or GE or GM; once corporations grow too old or too big, it seemed to me, they become timid and territorial. The exception that proved the rule was Apple. In many ways the iPhone is this century’s signature innovation, and it did come from a big company. But I dismissed that as a special case attributable to an autocratic genius (Steve Jobs) whose style for creating disruptive products was to assemble small ‘skunk-works’ innovation teams inside the company.
I didn’t have cause to question my pro-start-up bias until 2021. That’s when a Boston-based firm called invited me to (founded in 1923), the (1932), (an amalgam of several chemical and pharmaceutical companies with histories stretching back to the 19th century) and Apple (1976). All four companies remain leaders in their markets even after decades in business; all endured periods of crisis and emerged stronger. I ended up calling them ‘persistent innovators.’
