September 28, 2006
Entrepreneur series to show interested faculty how it’s done
Attention, would-be faculty entrepreneurs: Here’s your chance to learn everything you ever wanted to know about how to take your idea or invention to market. And it’s free.
“From Invention to Start-Up” is a series of ten 90-minute seminars produced by the Applied Physics Laboratory and the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The series has broad support from across campus, including the College of Engineering, the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Law, the Business School, the College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences and UW Tech Transfer. Although the talks will focus on high-tech startups, much of the information will be applicable to anyone interested in exploring the idea of starting a company.
All seminars will begin at 3:30 on Tuesday afternoons in 175 Johnson. The complete calendar is available at http://inventiontostartup.washington.edu.
“What we’ve heard as we’ve met people across campus is that they want solid advice on start-ups,” says Connie Bourassa-Shaw, director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Last year, Ellen Lettvin, assistant director of APL, created the first seminar series on the commercialization of high-tech ideas. This year she and Bourassa-Shaw have partnered on presenting a systematic approach that will lead potential entrepreneurs from ideas into the marketplace.
Bourassa-Shaw and Lettvin feel the series is timely because of recent changes in state law that have made it easier for faculty to have an equity interest in a private company. “But in looking around the country, I’ve found that no university is offering entrepreneurship training for faculty,” Bourassa-Shaw says. “So this is really an experiment to assess and respond to faculty interest.”
“We know there are some basic researchers who are not interested in entrepreneurship at all,” says Lettvin. “And some individuals are already very involved in technology transfer. We’re hoping these presentations will appeal to that group that has some ideas, some potential inventions, but has not yet committed to a particular course of action. These seminars will give those people enough information to take the next step. We’ll explore issues such as how faculty can manage the seemingly conflicting goals of preserving intellectual property and publishing their findings.”
In addition to live presentations, the seminar Web site will have records of all the seminars, including video segments, and lists of resource materials.
Through the seminar presentations, those attending will learn that there is more than one pathway to building a successful company. Some may get help from venture capitalists, others may find an “angel investor,” while still others will have neither and the founders will grow the organization themselves through what entrepreneurs call “bootstrapping.”
Some faculty may realize that they can’t or won’t start a company by themselves, in which case they can avail themselves of one of the student teams in the Business School that form specifically to help start businesses. “The students are smart and motivated, and they’re drawn from majors across the campus,” says Bourassa-Shaw. “In the past, these students have managed to create some really interesting start-ups.”
Lettvin points out that some of the skills that will be discussed in the seminars are applicable well beyond business start-ups. “The skills we’ll be talking about are similar to those required for navigating the landscape of research funding,” she says. “A successful researcher needs to figure out the niche in which he or she should apply for grants to satisfy particular demands from funding agencies. This is similar to the kinds of skills needed to identify the market niche for a product.” So the world of start-ups may not be as foreign as some might think.
Although there is no required reading for the seminars, the structure of the series is based upon High-Tech Start-Up by John L. Nesheim, and reading the book is recommended. Speakers who are already confirmed include Jeremy Jaech, who founded Visio and Trumba; John Cook, technology writer for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer; Susannah Malarkey of the Technology Alliance; John Mulligan of Blue Heron Biotechnology; Gerald McMorrow of Diagnostic Ultrasound; Craig Wilson of Wilson Sonsini; Gary Kindness of Christensen O’Connor Johnson Kindness; Janis Machala of Paladin Partners; Don Ferrel of SeaTec and BigScreen; Karen Hedine of Micronics; Ralph Derrickson of OnSiteDocs; Peter Buchthal of Performance Technologies and OnWire; Alan Nelson of Visiongate; Pierre Mourad of UW and Second Act Partners; Chris Somogyi of Somogyi Ventures; Sue Preston of Davis Wright Tremaine; Lucinda Stewart of OVP Venture Partners; and Ben Black of Maveron.
Another series of seminars is being planned for this winter. Still to be scheduled are “resource nights,” where those who provide services to entrepreneurs will come to discuss how they might help in company formation.
The seminar series is made possible by generous support from the Washington Research Foundation and from the law firms of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati and Christensen O’Connor Johnson Kindness.
