How the University of Utah Turns Academic Research Into Successful Startups

One Utah company, F2 Solutions, deploys computer-based diagnostics to pinpoint whether fainting-spell victims need treatment due to cardiovascular or neurological problems. Another, Wastewater Compliance Systems, has created the Poogloo, a mini-igloo that cleans up toxic wastewater in open lagoons so it can be properly discharged into nearby streams and waterways.

These two enterprises are among the 109 companies established since the University of Utah launched its extremely successful Tech Ventures program six years ago. In 2009, the last year for which statistics are available, Tech Ventures was responsible for indirectly creating 15,767 jobs, $754 million in personal income, and $76 million in tax revenue.

Today, the University of Utah ranks first in the U.S. in terms of creating startups based upon campus research, according to the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM). Last year, it launched 19 spinoffs, topping, among others, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Caltech.

“I wouldn’t say we cultivate a spirit of entrepreneurialism here so much as we unleash it,” says Jack Brittain, vice president for technology venture development at the university and head of Tech Ventures. “Ultimately, we seek to find a way for our good research ideas to take flight and benefit society.”

We recently spoke to Brittain to about how the University of Utah has developed such a successful program. Here are four essential qualities:

Cultivate young research talent. About 60 student interns are involved with Tech Ventures. They play a key role in researching the market prospects for faculty members’ inventions. There is no charted research path for the students, so curiosity, intuition, and determination are needed. Students directly involved with the commercialization efforts are not accepted into Tech Ventures based upon their application alone. “In fact, we have a significant donor who does not allow us to consider GPAs or SAT scores in evaluating students,” Brittain says. “So we interview them to get a sense of their passion and persistence. We give them a real-world problem with limited information, and ask them, ‘How would you go about researching the information you’d need to solve it?’ ”

Provide a roadmap for professors. Faculty members come up with nearly all the ideas that emerge as a business, and about 270 instructors are involved with Tech Ventures. Before the program was launched in 2005, there was no established path to take a faculty member’s concept and turn it into a business, which meant many viable ideas died within the pages of an academic paper. To avoid this, Tech Ventures provides $300,000 per year in research assistance and grants. Tech Ventures has a total of 33 full-time employees, six of whom work with faculty and management teams to commercialize the ideas, Brittain says. “This [research assistance and funding] gives them a clear way to transform their research into tangible companies. Faculty members are inherently entrepreneurial. They just don’t know how to actually do it. We show them how.”

Develop and nurture industry partnerships. Tech Ventures seeks to hatch an idea, take it from concept to invention, and then turn it over to a group of business leaders who will oversee the company. Long after the hand-off, Tech Ventures stays in close contact with companies to help them grow and succeed. It also has three full-time staff members–a former CEO of an energy-exploration company, a lawyer supporting business-development needs, and a third with a doctorate in microbiology–who serve as prime liaisons for the companies.

Collaboration, especially through social media, is key. Utah recently joined the Pacific-12 conference, and soon will be playing basketball, football, and other sports against heavyweights such as the universities of Arizona and Oregon, UCLA, and USC. On a lark, Brittain sought to find out how many collaborative relationships the Tech Ventures community maintains with those other 11 universities. The number was 288.

“I was shocked at the volume,” Brittain says. “But, then again, it’s not so stunning in today’s age. We’re fully involved and interactive with people at other schools through blogs, Facebook, and texting.”

It’s reached the point where social media is the primary form of communications and collaboration–and e-mail, especially for students, seems as dated as the rotary phone. “When we need to reach these students, we contact them much more quickly via social media, and I maintain three closed research groups [on valuation research, commercialization and disclosure scoring] on Facebook,” says Brittain. “If we ask students for their email address, they just say, ‘That’s how I talk to my grandparents.’ ”

 

Dennis McCafferty is a Washington, D.C.-based technology writer.