Research Commercialization Academy (BETA 0.01)

View the list of nominated companies

Universities can nominate their best university startups that are likely to be of interest to the Global 1000, angel investors, SBIR program managers and major venture capital firms.

We invite companies in all fields, including but not limited to:

• Chemical/Materials
• Electronics
• Energy
• Environmental
• Healthcare/Biotech
• Industrial
• Information Technology
• Manufacturing
• Media/Communications
• Software/Services

Companies nominated should have a reasonable business path that includes one of the following outcomes in the next 3-5 years:

• Cash-flow positive and self-sustaining, or
• Exit to Global 1000 company for at least 10-50 million dollars, or
• Entering VC funding track (e.g. with the expectation of at least a 100 million to a billion dollar valuation in an additional 5-7 years)

If you are a university and would like to nominate your startups to present in the Virtual Showcase, please click on this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ussnomination . The deadline for submitting nominations is on September 21, 2012.

A. Target Company Guidelines

Companies need to be nominated by their university. Either the university can contact the company to participate or the company can contact the university, but the university needs to be the nominating source for the USS.

Along with potential billion dollar companies for venture capital funding (the home-runs), this is the only major venue for research-intensive companies targeting Global 1000 strategic partnerships in the range of $10-50 million (the i.e., the vast majority of university startups). These innovative companies based on federally funded university research are an important part of the Open Innovation ecosystem and have limited opportunities to showcase themselves to the Global 1000 otherwise.

Ideally, companies nominated for the USS need to be:

• Formed prior to nomination
• Received previous financial funding of between $15,000 to $50,000
• The funding received can be direct funding from a university (e.g., university accelerator, university venture fund, or proof-of-concept funding) or indirectly from outside investors (e.g., angels, i-Corp, SBIR, business plan competitions, awards, crowdfunding, or state funding).
• Be ready for at least $100,000 to $500,000 follow-on funding from Global 1000 companies, angels, SBIR programs or VCs.

B. Benefits to Participating Companies

The benefits to the university startup are three-fold:

1. Exposure to Global 1000 companies, angel investors, SBIR program managers and venture capitalist for investment or strategic relationship

2. Next round of financial support

3. Scored feedback in critical areas from Global 1000 companies, angel investors, SBIR program managers and venture capitalist

C. What the Company Needs to Prepare

The company needs to have a business plan that is reduced to a 5-minute live online webinar presentation (i.e. Powerpoint) by the CEO or other senior executive.

Each weekly webinar will consist of a 3-hour online webinar with 15 companies.

Each company has 10 minutes online for:

• 5 minute company slide presentation by the CEO or a Senior Executive;
• 2 minute Question and Answer session; and
• 3 minutes of scoring by volunteers from Global 1000 companies, angels, SBIR program managers and VC firms 

The top companies from the virtual showcases will be invited to the conference for in-person presentations.

All presenting companies will be invited to the conference for meetings with Global 1000 companies, angels, SBIR program managers and VC firms.

Companies may submit full business plans that will be made available online to view by potential investors after the virtual showcases.

D. Who will do the Investor Scoring?

The scorers rating the companies in the University Startups Showcase will be from:

• Global 1000 companies
• Angel investors
• SBIR program managers
• Professional venture capital firms

E. Scoring of the Company's Online Presentation

The scoring of the company will done online be on range of 1 to 5 in the following categories:

• Company management team
• Market penetration
• Product/s
• Intellectual property

The in-person presentation will consist of a 2-3 hour conference showcase with 10 companies on Friday afternoon, March 22, 2013 at the 7th Annual University Startups Conference in Washington, DC, each given:

• 5 minute company slide presentation
• 5 minute Q&A
• In-person meetings in designated meeting areas

Participating companies in the Virtual Showcases that do not make the top 10 have the option of coming to the conference to meet the scoring investors and other investors attending the conference.

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