After three startups of his own, Charlie Hipwood moved to the other side of the table. At MassVentures, he helps first-time founders turn Massachusetts research into companies that can stand on their own.

For more than a decade, the Bionos founder has turned laboratory methods into a commercial answer to extravagant claims - test the ingredient, test the finished product, and let the evidence speak.

Before he built a brain-analysis company with his scientist brother, Heungyeol Lee worked in accounting, advertising and telecom. His unlikely route became the point: make difficult science legible, useful and human.