Finding ways to systematically spot winning – and losing – innovations at the early stages can accelerate the development of new start-ups and dramatically increase their success rate in the market. Investing in the wrong ventures can be very costly for both the incubator and the inventor – in lost time, resources and funds.
But discovering commercial value can be difficult, especially with science and technology inventors who have passion and deep knowledge about their idea but little business experience. To address this gap, organizations are adding a “pre-incubation” stage to evaluate whether new ideas are ready to be developed, expand their capacity to accelerate those innovations with the most commercial potential, and prepare founders to engage with industry and investors.
In this webinar, panelists will share how they have implemented pre-incubation programs in three different environments:
Innovation Park at Penn State: Challenge new entrepreneurs to assess the value of their IP through the filter of industry and customers using a systematic methodology and self-paced tools.
West Texas A&M Enterprise Center, “Idea Village”: Combine commercialization clinics for early stage inventors with “commercial readiness” screening tools to increase the flow of viable ideas and create a sustainable incubation model.
Purdue Research Foundation, “LaunchBox”: Coach post-doc entrepreneurs to scope the opportunity for their innovations and perfect their pitch to industry partners, investors and potential customers.
ABOUT THE PRESENTERS:
Dan Leri, Director, Innovation Park, Pennsylvania State University
Mr. Leri is currently the Director of the Innovation Park Office at Penn State University. He is responsible for directing all aspects of Park operation, including negotiations with developers, marketing, and facilitating collaborative partnerships between Park tenants and the University. Tenants in the Park represent a variety of industry sectors including material science, electronics, information technology and the life sciences. Innovation Park is also home to the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, the Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County and one of two Penn State related business incubators.
In addition, Dan is responsible for assisting in the commercialization of Penn State technologies and support of the University’s existing research and technology transfer activities – including the Office of Technology Management and the Ben Franklin Technology Center. He assists faculty, staff, and students in commercializing knowledge through the creation of start up companies. He provides a university interface with multiple sources of early stage capital, such as seed funding programs, angel investors, venture capital funds, etc. and assists the new ventures by identifying mentors and management team members to accelerate company growth.
Mr. Leri was previously the Director of New Business for the Ben Franklin Technology Center of Central and Northern PA. His responsibilities included advising and counseling existing and new companies on business plans, projects and new ventures; soliciting colleges and universities to become involved in Center projects; preparing proposals for funding opportunities; establishing working relationships among the business and educational communities; counseling county or regional industrial development corporations in the areas of business funding and attracting new businesses to the area.
Prior to coming to Penn State University in 1987, Mr. Leri had several years of private sector experience in business start-ups, financial management, labor agreement negotiation, compensation plan development and administration, and workforce training and development.
David Terry, Executive Director, West Texas A&M University Enterprise Center
David Terry is co-founder and executive director of the West Texas A&M University Enterprise Network, a business incubation network serving the Texas Panhandle region. David has been an active member of NBIA since 2001. He has served on the NBIA Board of Directors for the past four years, now serving as 1st Vice President and Member of the Executive Committee. David is a certified coach through Coach University and the So what? who cares? why you?® commercialization system. He is a sought after speaker and trainer, training for NBIA in many capacities since 2004
Tim Peoples, Director, Purdue Research Park Entrepreneurship Academy
Tim Peoples is Director of the Purdue Technology Centers and Director of the Purdue Research Park Entrepreneurship Academy, is charged with helping the research park’s early-stage companies to generate new business growth by creating vital links between product research and commercial application. Peoples served as an assistant professor at the University of Arizona from 1978 to 1982, followed by a vice president of research position at startup company GENOCO Industries. During his 18-year career with American Cyanamid Co., Peoples worked in product development, traveled internationally and was stationed for five years in Rio de Janeiro. In 2001 Peoples served as a biotechnology consultant, working with Brazilian government officials, academicians and private startups. From 2001 to 2005 he worked as director of R&D and director of regulatory affairs for Nutra-Park, a startup developing University of Wisconsin technology.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR:
Wendy Kennedy, CEO, wendykennedy.com
Wendy Kennedy is the CEO of wendykennedy.com and creator of the So what? who cares? why you?® commercialization methodology. Wendy has spent more than 20 years working with start-ups, research labs, innovation centers, university commercialization offices, entrepreneurship and incubation centers, and others on the commercialization of ideas. Driven by her passion for igniting technology ideas into commercial successes, she has developed unique tools and approaches to help commercialization professionals bridge the gap between brilliant discoveries and the commercial value those ideas represent.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR ATTENDEES:
WEBINAR DURATION: Each session is a 60-minute webinar with 30-40 minutes of presentation and 20-30 minutes of Q&A.
COST:Free, but registration required by clicking on the Register button above. Your registration is valid for all webinars in this series
HOW TO PARTICIPATE?: This webinar is online. You need a computer with web access for the visual/audio. You may also dial-in using the audio-only telephone number. The call in details and instructions on how to join the webinar will be sent to you via email after you register. Once registered to the webinar you will receive a reminder email 24 hours before the start of the webinar with instructions on how to join.
QUESTIONS TO SPEAKERS: Q&A is conducted by a chat box to the speakers.
WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE IN THE WEBINAR?:National and international media, federal and state government officials, venture capitalists, angel investors, Global 1000 companies, industry representatives, university officials, entrepreneurs, tech transfer professionals, students, and university faculty and staff
SLIDES AND VIDEO: The slide presentations and video recording will be available on this page. If you are unable to join the live webinar, you may view the recorded video that will be posted within 24 hours after the scheduled webinar ends.
2012 Webinars
