VentureLab bridges gap between research and commercialization

The pathway from laboratory innovation to the commercial market at Tech has been paved smoother by an ambitious venture called VentureLab, which celebrates its fourth birthday this week.

It offers a variety of services to faculty and students that help them commercialize their research.

"We at VentureLab look to marry the innovation and knowledge that lives inside a professor's head with an experienced entrepreneur and some money," said Stephen Fleming, Chief Commercialization Officer of VentureLab.

"Nine times out of ten, the Professor is missing one or two important things . One is a management team consisting of experienced entrepreneurs, and the other the initial funding needed to start the company," Fleming said.

Over the years, VentureLab has developed a wide network of investors and entrepreneurs who get involved in the start-up companies they help.

"The experienced entrepreneurs come from our network. Almost everybody here has done something like this before, so they know a lot of entrepreneurs. Those in turn know others, and the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon takes over," Fleming said.

Upcoming ventures are funded either through the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) which grants money to small companies in their formative stages or through market institutions that provide seed funding.

"We are the channel through which a company can apply for that money," Fleming said.

"We know a lot of investors like venture capital investors, angel investors, high net-worth individuals and other private firms."

"Rather than going in cold, we prepare these companies and introduce them to such people."

"We help them put together a business plan that differentiates a 'product' from a 'company', which is what investors like to see."

Technological skills do not necessarily translate into managerial expertise.

"While there are exceptions, innovators often find that being a Chief Scientist or Chief Technology Officer is a better role as compared to being the CEO," Fleming said.

"The CEO often has to deal with issues like negotiating the lease of a building, ensure taxes are filed on time and that the company complies with equal opportunity guidelines. If you're a brilliant researcher, that's not a very good use of your time."

VentureLab helps hire management or trained professionals to run day-to-day operations at these companies.

Dr. Madhavan Swaminathan, a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), worked with VentureLab while floating his company, Jacket Micro Devices (JMD).

JMD specializes in radio-frequency passive components.

"The nice thing about Tech is that you have access to something like VentureLab. As faculty members, we are very good at developing technologies, and have some idea about the business side," Swaminathan said.

"But ultimately we need help to figure out how to present this technology to potential investors, and how to develop a business plan around it. That's where VentureLab comes in."

"Ultimately, one of the VentureLab Fellows became our CEO. It has been very useful to us."

"If you are in a university environment, most investors are not interested in talking to you since they either don't know much about your technology, or feel that most faculty don't understand the business side of things."

"VentureLab helps bridge that gap. You can now talk to investors in a language they understand."

On the route to his second start-up, Swaminathan continues to be associated closely with VentureLab.

Orthonics, Inc., an Atlanta start-up company developing new biomaterials for spinal disc repair and regeneration is yet another VentureLab graduate.

Its technology is based on research from the laboratory of Dr. Barbara Boyan, the Price Gilbert, Jr. Chair in Tissue Engineering at the Coluter Department of Biomedical Engineering.

"VentureLab has been a partner in the development of Orthonics from the outset," said Boyan.

"The CEO of Orthonics, Dr. Steve Kennedy, was a VentureLab Fellow. This made it possible for us to set up without having to raise money first just to pay the CEO. It also freed me up to do the science."

"I've done it without a formal VentureLab and ATDC (Advanced Technology Development Center) and now I've done it with. It's a whole lot better with."

According to Boyan, attracting funding without such support is almost impossible and companies are best run and managed by professionals and not necessarily innovators. "VentureLab is a great way of gaining a foothold in the venture capital market and a good exposure to how things are done," said Amit Bavisi, a Ph.D. student in Electrial Engineering and an innovator in the making.

Start-ups give you something "beyond money," he said and added that he would approach such an organization should he ever decide to float a company.

"Tech owns a bit of equity in each of these companies. As they continue to grow, some may decide to go public or get acquired. That equity is then worth a lot more than it originally was," Fleming said.

Benefits are split between the professors, the Institute and others involved, but ultimately Tech as an ecosystem makes money," he said.

Recent economic trends have hit many companies hard but VentureLab continues to flourish.

"The bust in the dot-com and telecom sectors served as a good wake-up call to many investors that not all companies are successful and not all investments make money."

"While we output into that ecosystem, our input is the innovation at Tech. If you look at the number of grants, their dollar value or the corporate partners we have had, that has been steadily rising upward," he said.

"We have done pretty well in the last four years. We have about ten graduates that have raised about $38 million between them. These companies are coming along. They are selling their products and hiring new people."

"While I wouldn't say that they would not have emerged without VentureLab, I would like to think they are moving in the right direction faster and stronger because of us."

"Our vision for the future is that every cell phone would have a JMD device in it. Things are looking good -the economy is improving, and JMD is trying to work with some very large companies in our area, who would be using our devices," Swaminathan said.

"There's nothing as satisfying as building a company from the groundand I'd like to see other graduates become entrepreneurs. That being said, there is a lot to be learnt by working in a big company," Fleming said.

"While there's no one right answer for everybody, one should consider spending some time in a start-up for the experience."

There are lots of different ways to make money but very few ways to be happy, and one of the ways to be happy is to have a job you love."

"Being involved in a start-up is something that is very exciting. You influence a lot of decisions on a day to day basis," Swaminathan said.

"Commercialization is the ultimate test for any technology I would encourage all students to come up with new ideas that would lead to commercialization."

"There's nothing like transferring everything you learn into a product."