New York City has made great strides in building an ecosystem for information technology startups, but it's still early days for Gotham's aspirations to do the same in the hard sciences. The entity charged with fostering the development of a stronger entrepreneurial ecosystem in bioscience, engineering, cleantech and material science is NYC Tech Connect, a public-private partnership funded by the New York City Investment Fund, the Partnership for New York City and the New York City Council. One of the organization's first moves was to establish the position of entrepreneur in residence for New York City and to fill it with Melinda Thomas, an entrepreneur who has been involved in three life science startups on the West Coast. Venture capitalists are among the people she's trying to reach. "Drug development takes a very long time," says Thomas in this video interview with The Deal magazine. "Venture capital is all about reducing risk, so if you can move a product further along the pipeline so there's less risk, then they're more able to invest." To accomplish this, Thomas is helping entrepreneurs find other sources of funding, including government grants, angel investors and family foundations. Her goal is to assist the formation of a handful of hard science startups in New York, in hopes that the founders will have a "cascading effect" on other entrepreneurs and scientists in the city. For an in-depth look at New York's efforts to support information technology startups, see The Deal magazine's feature, "Mecca on the Hudson?," and accompanying videos. - Mary Kathleen Flynn