Five Princeton panelists describe the commercialization of university technology
by Bob Monsour § November 30, 2008
The Keller Center continus its partnership with the Jumpstart New Jersey Angel Network, a private, member-led group that makes "angel" investments in early-stage technology companies in the Mid-Atlantic region—to share knowledge on technology entrepreneurship. Through the partnership, distinguished business leaders are invited to speak to the Princeton and local business communities. The lectures and forums are tailored to help an audience of new, potential, and seasoned entrepreneurs create and nurture new ventures. Events are followed by a reception where students, faculty, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and angel investors meet informally to discuss ideas and exchange knowledge and advice.
by Bob Monsour § November 30, 2008
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A five member panel, moderated by Professor Ed Zschau, discussed various perspectives on what it takes to bring university research to the marketplace on November 19th in the Friend Center Auditorium. The panel session was the first event of the year in the Princeton-Jumpstart Lecture Series on Technology Entrepreneurship, a partnership between Princeton University and the Jumpstart New Jersey Angel Network.
The panel featured five members of the Princeton University community:
by Hilary Parker § February 14, 2008
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The ability to innovate is not a skill limited to an elite few -- it is something everyone can learn to do, entrepreneur and executive Curtis Carlson told a Princeton audience Feb. 13.
More important, it is something more people must do if our society is to prosper and become sustainable, said Carlson, who is president and chief executive of SRI, an independent, non-profit research institute.
"The good news is that we live in a world of abundance, not scarcity," he said, speaking not of material things, but human ability. "There are no limits to ideas and creativity in the knowledge age."
Carlson's talk, "The Journey from Invention to Innovation," was the first of two events in this year's Princeton-Jumpstart Lecture Series on Technology Entrepreneurship.
Innovation can come in many forms, he said, from the classic disposable razor blade to a revolutionary approach for the manufacturing and distribution of computers. It is not limited to the technical disciplines or the corporate realm and can come from artists and nurses, or chefs and professors, he added.
"Innovation is the creation and delivery of new customer value in the marketplace," he explained. "An invention is not innovation. Creativity is not innovation. Clever ideas are not innovation. Until someone uses the idea, it's just another interesting idea."
Before assuming his current position at SRI Carlson spent more than two decades with Sarnoff Corporation, a wholly owned SRI subsidiary. During his time as head of ventures and licensing at Sarnoff, he helped start more than ten companies. The achievements of two teams he started and led at Sarnoff garnered Emmy Awards for the company for the creation of high-definition television and a system that measures broadcast image quality.
Carlson, the co-author of "Innovation: The Five Discipline for Creating What Customers Want," called for a dramatic change in the U.S. approach to innovation if the country is to remain competitive with the rest of the world.
For example, he said, the government must recognize that most vibrant part of the American economy is in the small companies, which are often subjected to bureaucracy and barriers that limit their success.
Additionally, he said corporations must create and institutionalize innovation systems. While some companies do have such processes in place, including Toyota, it is not often found in today's corporate climate.
"It is a rare, rare company that has a thoughtful innovation process," Carlson said.
Similarly, Carlson described a "brutal educational reality" in which U.S. students are not being taught what they need to know about innovation. Instead, people are often taught to believe that innovation is all about creativity and risk-taking, which Carlson said is simply wrong.
"Entrepreneurs aren't risk-takers, they're risk-mitigators," he said.
For the country to succeed, Carlson said there is a need for a systematic practice of innovation that is focused on customer value. The goal is to create organizations that become better and better at creating value by addressing unmet customer needs.
"Innovation must become a discipline, a science and an art that can be taught, applied and improved," he said.
by Bob Monsour § October 17, 2007
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Eleven high-tech entrepreneurs gave of themselves for more than two hours Oct. 16 at Princeton's Friend Center for Engineering Education, sharing stories and answering questions about how they founded and grew their organizations into successful enterprises with dozens of students, faculty and community members.
The Meet the Entrepreneurs event, co-sponsored by the Center for Innovation in Engineering Education and the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials, was inspired by Greg Olsen, Princeton's Entrepreneur-in-Residence.
"I think it's a great way for students, faculty, and other aspiring entrepreneurs to learn from people who have built and grown successful organizations from scratch," said Olsen.
Princeton's student entrepreneurship club was well represented at the event, meeting entrepreneurs and getting ideas for the business plan competition they are planning for later this year.
"I met some really wonderful people who gave me some great ideas for making the club more effective and for making our upcoming competition a success," said Bethani Massey, a member of the Princeton class of 2010.
The Center for Innovation in Engineering Education, as one aspect of its mission, is working to expose students to entrepreneurship in a variety of ways.
"Building on the popular 'High-Tech Entrepreneurship' course taught by professor Ed Zschau, and with Greg Olsen's presence as Entrepreneur-in-Residence, events like this allow students to engage directly with successful entrepreneurs and learn from their experiences," said Sharad Malik, director of the center.
In addition to this event, the center is sponsoring a series of five workshops, titled "Harnessing the Power of Entrepreneurship." The theme of the series is the application of entrepreneurial approaches to areas other than starting companies: government, higher education, non-profit organizations, large corporations and regional economic development. The next event in the series will be held Oct. 18 in Bowen Hall Auditorium. The workshops are free and open to the public.
by Hilary Parker § May 11, 2007
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When entrepreneur Ken Kay started his first business, he didn't have a proven product. He didn't have any customers. But he did have an undeniable passion, which he shared in a May 8 panel discussion at Princeton.
Jumpstart members Bill Martin, Ken Kay, and Mario Casabona. Photo by Steven M. Schultz
"I felt excited," said Kay, who ultimately sold the business to Microsoft Great Plains and now chairs the Jumpstart New Jersey Angel Network of private investors. "I had control over my own destiny. If you're considering being an entrepreneur, you have to have a similar passion. For you, there's no other choice - you have to do this."
Kay shared his story and offered advice to audience members at the event, "From Founders to Funders: Nurturing the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs," which was sponsored by Princeton's Center for Innovation in Engineering Education and Jumpstart. He was joined on the panel by fellow Jumpstart members Bill Martin, the co-founder of the Raging Bull online finance community, and Mario Casabona, who developed anti-jamming technology for GPS systems that was bought by Honeywell in 2004.
Engineering professor and serial entrepreneur Ed Zschau '61, who has taught the University's popular "High-Tech Entrepreneurship" course for 19 semesters, moderated the conversation. In his introduction, he emphasized that many things must be "right" - including the situation, the people, the plan, the community and the resources -- if a start-up business is to be a success.
Through comic anecdotes (Casabona initially intended to develop jamming technology for GPS, until he learned it was illegal - hence his subsequent anti-jam product) and tales of taken and missed opportunities, the panelists confirmed Zschau's point. But their varied approaches to vastly different markets demonstrated that there are many right ways to launch a winning business.
Despite their diverse backgrounds, the panelists' careers paths do share some parallels. All of them worked at large corporations before venturing out on their own - Kay at Squibb Corporation (now Bristol-Myers Squibb), Casabona at the Raytheon Company and Martin at Goldman Sachs - which gave them business experience and taught them what works and what doesn't. And, after selling their businesses, all became angel investors to provide capital to early-stage companies.
Angel investing is a new and growing method to finance start-ups, which, in contrast to the more firmly established venture capital funding, often takes a more flexible approach to setting targets for financial returns. The panelists cautioned that most -- but not all -- angel investors lose money.
"There are a million things that can go wrong" when investing in unproven ideas and products, Martin said. In an attempt to avoid many of these pitfalls, he advised would-be investors to stick to industries and markets that they know well when deciding which companies to fund.
When Zschau opened the discussion to the audience, the panelists were met by a barrage of questions from students, alumni and members of the local business community. The inquiries ranged from a request for the best book to read about entrepreneurship (there isn't one, the panelists concurred) to a query about the merits of pursuing venture capital funding versus "bootstrapping it."
While Kay, Casabona and Martin couldn't offer the audience members a sure-fire way to start a venture that captures the attention of angel investors and takes the economy by storm, they encouraged attendees to follow their dreams as early as possible. Though it may be easier to make the necessary sacrifices to start a company while relatively young, it's never too late to launch a great idea, Kay added.
by Bob Monsour § May 7, 2007
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Twelve entrepreneurial ideas competed for the attention of five judges in the first ever Startup Spotlight. The event, run by students, showcased student ideas from across the campus. After all was said and done, the judges awarded top honors to Rethos, a web-based business that fosters social entrepreneurship, and the brainchild of Alexander Salzman '07. Second and third place honors were awarded to EcoVolve, presented by Jason Aramburu '07, and Greekr, presented by Eric Keller GS, respectively.
The winner receives entry into the DFJ East Coast Venture Challenge, a business plan competition open to students at all the Ivy League schools, NYU, and Carnegie Mellon University. Teams will compete at Columbia Business School on Monday, May 21st for $250,000 in seed stage funding. Second and third place winners in the Startup Spotlight are eligible for selection as wild card entries into the event.
The event, inspired by the Innovation Forum held earlier in the year, was conceived, developed, and produced by Joseph Perla '09 just 23 days earlier, an entrepreneurial endeavor in itself. In his opening remarks at the event, Perla described part of his motivation. "When I first came up with the idea for the Startup Spotlight, I had asked a few people for their thoughts. Most of them said that there wasn't enough time. That made me even more determined to make it happen."
The format for the event was a series of 4-minute pitches, performed on a stage in McCormick 101. "Pitchers" were not allowed to use powerpoint slides, putting all the pressure on the presenter's ability to convince the judges of the feasibility of their idea.
(left to right) Tom Vander Schaaff (Edison Venture Fund), Bill Bridgers (Zon Capital Partners), Eric Keller GS (Greekr, 3rd place), John Parker (Rho Ventures), Jason Aramburu '07 (EcoVolve, 2nd place), Ken Kay (Jumpstart NJ Angel Network), Alexander Salzman '07 (Rethos, 1st place), Joe Falkenstein (NJTC Venture Fund). Photo by Steven M. Schultz
The panel of five judges, four venture capitalists and an angel investor, were impressed with the range and talent of the group. "For a group of mostly undergraduate students, I was quite impressed with the depth of their ideas and their ability to communicate them effectively to us", said Ken Kay, chair of the Jumpstart New Jersey Angel Network.
The complete list of participants and the names of their companies follows (in the order of presentation):
by Teresa Riordan § March 5, 2007
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The second annual Innovation Forum at the School of Engineering and Applied Science Feb. 27 showcased emerging technology ranging from a novel laser eye surgery technique to a new way to improve security on the Internet.
Photo at right: Craig Arnold, who presented research on tunable low-cost adaptive optics, talks with John Ritter, director of the University's Office of Technology Licensing (right), and Sharad Malik, director of the Center for Innovation in Engineering Education (center). Photo by Frank Wojciechowski
Eleven University researchers each delivered a three-minute "pitch" to a near-capacity crowd of investors, students and community members. After the formal presentations, researchers discussed their innovations at a reception, where posters explaining the research were displayed.
"It's all about cross-pollination," said Bill Martin of JumpStart New Jersey, a local angel investor network that invested $4 million last year in early stage entrepreneurial endeavors. The Innovation Forum was co-sponsored by JumpStart, Princeton's School of Engineering and the University's Office of Technology Licensing.
"I have seen an enormous growth in these types of activities at the University," said John Ritter, director of the Office of Technology Licensing. Ritter said that every year his office receives from 85 to 100 disclosures of inventions from University researchers and executes from 15 to 25 licensing agreements.
Some of the presenters included:
Szymon Suckewer, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, who presented a new way to correct near-sightedness using an ultra-short pulse laser. Suckewer said that the technique was an improvement over Lasik surgery because it offers more precise, less-invasive cutting.
David Wood, assistant professor of chemical engineering, who presented research on effective screening systems for the discovery of compounds that bind to hormone receptors and thus may help identify treatments for diseases such as breast cancer or pinpoint environmental toxins.
Craig Arnold, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, who discussed a new adaptive optic element. "It is simple, low-cost and has advantages over existing technologies in piezoelectrics," said Arnold.
Douglas Adamson, a researcher at the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials (PRISM), who presented research supported by a grant from Hallibruton Energy Services on a new, more efficient way to create polymersomes - tiny polymer balloons that have a wide range of commercial uses, from drug delivery to cosmetics.
Sudhakar Govindavajhala, a postdoctoral researcher in the department of computer sciences who as part of MulVAL Technologies is applying automated logic analysis tools to identify vulnerabilities in computer networks. In 2006 MulVAL, established by Andrew Appel, professor of computer science, was one of nine University projects to receive a New Jersey Council of Science and Technology "gap funding" grant. "Our mission is to change network security from being reactive to being proactive," Govindavajhala said. "The point of MulVAL is to discover security holes before they become a problem."
The Innovation Forum is part of EntrepreneurshipWeek USA. For a full list of presenters, you can download the series of 1-page overviews (pdf).
by Hilary Parker § October 26, 2006
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American entrepreneurs and venture capitalists should cast their eyes toward India, Princeton graduates Randolph Altschuler '93 and Sumir Chadha '93 said in a panel discussion Oct. 25.
Altschuler, co-founder of the outsourcing company Office Tiger, and Chadha, senior managing director of Sequoia Capital India, painted a picture of the Indian economic landscape that was optimistic, but tempered with the realism of hard experience.
"It's almost like every sector is booming," Chadha said, though he warned of pitfalls hidden in the "huge amount of economic optimism" that has taken India by storm.
The event, "Creating New Ventures in India: Experiences, Opportunities and Challenges," was part of a Technology Entrepreneurship Series co-sponsored by Princeton's Center for Innovation in Engineering Education and the Jumpstart New Jersey Angel Network. It was moderated by engineering professor Ed Zschau '61, who teaches the University's popular high-tech entrepreneurship course.
Former roommates at Princeton, and later classmates at Harvard Business School, Altschuler and Chadha shared similar thoughts on business in India, despite having taken different approaches to the market. Altschuler, who majored in German literature, co-founded Office Tiger in 2000 with classmates Joseph Sigelman and Ravi Srinivasan. Chadha, a computer science major, plunged into the country that same year as a venture capitalist.
The forward-thinkers were some of the first to realize the possibilities in outsourcing to India, but their successes did not always come easily.
"The infrastructure in India is still pretty poor," Altschuler said. "But you can build your own infrastructure much easier [now than six years ago]."
Both Office Tiger and Sequoia are battling high rates of turnover among employees, and dealing with the Indian government is a challenge, the panelists said. Furthermore, labor and real estate costs have skyrocketed in Bangalore, Delhi and Bombay, leading many companies to set up shop in smaller and less-developed cities.
These challenges notwithstanding, Altschuler and Chadha said that taking advantage of the business opportunities in India - from coffee shops to accounting services to software design - will help, rather than hurt, individual companies and the U.S. economy as a whole.
"I actually think it is going to make us much stronger," Chadha said. "It creates new markets and new opportunities as the Indian markets develop."
Improved telecommunications also are extending business opportunities to many other parts of the globe, including rural parts of the United States, said Altschuler.
The entrepreneurship series will continue early next year, date to be announced, with an Innovation Forum where Princeton scientists and engineers will present research with commercial potential to an audience of students, entrepreneurs and investors.