Amazing Energy at Women Innovators Conference

What happens when you combine 2 amazing speakers, 10 fascinating panelists and 171 participants at a women-focused event about Innovating for Impact? An explosion of energy and excitement.

 

On election day, MIN-Corps hosted the first annual Women Innovators Conference. 171 (more than 95% female) STEM business professionals, academics and students gathered for a professional development summit designed to connect the dots between their ideas and making a positive, significant impact.

Our keynote address was by Alison Brown, president and CEO of the Science Museum of Minnesota, who shared her own ground-breaking professional journey and lessons that would apply to women starting out in their careers.

We had three breakout sessions, where panelists shared their stories and candid advice:
From Idea to Impact: How panelists moved their innovations to the market.
Forging Your Own Path: How panelists advanced their careers in the context of their personal relationships and families.
Making Your Mark: Accomplished leaders who discussed what it takes to advance in often male-dominated STEM settings.

 

Our closing speaker was Cindy Kent, President & General Manager, 3M Infection Prevention Division, a dynamic speaker who motivated the audience to get past the negative statistics and pursue high-impact STEM and/or business careers.

Next steps? More women participating in MIN-Corps innovation commercialization programs, more STEM women continuing to make connections on their own, even more women at next year’s conference!

TRY NSF-I-CORPS!

I‘ve just finished the three day kick-off of NSF I-Corps with the team from Sironix Renewables, a group spinning out from the University of Minnesota Chemical Engineering Department. They have a technology they think can revolutionize many formulas where a surfactant - think key ingredient in soap – is used. The kick-off was an intense and invigorating experience designed to replicate the pressure in a start-up  - where time and other resources are short and finding the correct product-market fit is a key first step to survival.  Here are some of the key highlights from this first step in our journey:

GET OUT OF THE BUILDING!

The program emphasizes talking face to face with people who you think will play some key role in the best market segment for your product, an activity called customer discovery.  Over the next seven weeks, we have to talk to 100 such folks!  We were in the heart of L.A. for our particular cohort and Sironix is thinking they might have a particularly valuable role to play in agricultural markets.  We had to drive to California farm country to even start discussions with our target interviewees. This burned up most of the allotted time to meet our goals (13 interviews in 12 hours). In my view, the extra time pressure made our team creative, efficient and surprisingly, made the people we were interviewing all the more willing to help us. Our talk with Brian at Tri-Cal in Oxnord, California (pictured below), capped our three days. With 15 minutes notice, off a referral from our previous stop, he gave us one and a half hours of his time – well past “quitting time” - and was a rich source of industry knowledge. It was a giant accomplishment we would have never believed we could achieve two days earlier…revealing “real world facts” that we would never have thought about on our own.

Sironix Renewables I-Corps team with Brian from Tri-Cal (left)

GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE!

There were teams in our cohort that did well and some that didn’t do so well.  I would observe “not doing well” correlated highly with conducting interviews with other academics.  Academic markets tend to be distorted with subsidized $’s, other supports (access to people, buildings, and equipment) and restrictions that rarely repeat from site to site. They don’t really represent a market for most products - at least one that is repeatable or sizable.  If you’re constantly surrounding yourself with other academics and asking them if your idea has much potential, good luck.  You’re likely getting a falsely optimistic answer.  With rare exception, your idea needs the support of the world outside of academia to survive as a sustainable company and to deliver the benefits of your innovation to a significant population.

ASK YOUR CUSTOMERS ABOUT “PROBLEMS”

I was extremely proud of the young entrepreneurs on our team that were conducting our interviews. They were told to only ask about problems that the potential customers were having  - to listen, listen, and listen some more - to get a full and data-rich descriptions of the problem.  Never sell – or even reveal - your idea! When you’re validating product-market fit, you want to hear the problem your solution solves without giving the customer any clue about the answer you want to hear!  Our team let Brian talk about many things that built a picture of his industry, though diverging quite a bit from our main concern. Then, one hour and fifteen minutes into our visit, he said the key words we were waiting to hear. He described exactly the problem our team thinks they can solve and who cared about it.

I-CORPS IS AN EXTRAORDINARY OPPORTUNITY!

Before I sign off, I want to say what an extraordinary opportunity I-Corps is for young researchers. Even if you don’t think commercialization is in your future. Trying to run your idea through this program will change the way you think…in a way that I believe will increase the value of research to our society.  Sure you can work on a scientifically interesting topic that may or may not have any relevance to society in your lifetime, get accolades from your peers, and then what?  Impact, in theory, can happen well past your time on earth, but such late “home runs” are exceedingly rare.  I’d rather see a bunch of base hits that impact society now! I-Corps can help increase the probability of these hits. If that sounds good to you, or if you recognize that tightening the link between research and near term benefits to society is increasingly important to granting agencies, TRY I-Corps!

I know there will be more to share as we continue our seven week journey. Check back. I’ll keep you posted on our big developments. 

To pursue NSF I-Corps further, contact: Carla Pavone, pavo0003@umn.edu

Women Innovators Conference Nov 8

November 8, 2016 https://mincorps.umn.edu/women-innovators-conference

Innovating for Impact 12:30 pm – 6:00 pm
Tuesday, November 8
McNamara Alumni Center
https://mincorps.umn.edu/women-innovators-conference

The Women Innovators Conference is a professional development summit designed to help female innovators connect the dots between their ideas and making a positive, significant impact. This event will inspire, inform and connect women graduate students, faculty and business professionals in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine to strengthen and extend the diverse talent pool of women innovators in the Twin Cities. We are focusing on women, because they are under-represented in STEMM innovation, but men are welcome to attend.

The half-day program will:

• Inspire: Highly accomplished women innovators and leaders will share their perspectives on what it takes to develop, encourage and support women innovators to achieve real-world impact. 
• Inform: What does it take to get from here to there? During the breakout sessions, panelists will share their personal stories and advice. 
• Connect: Networking opportunities will be provided during breaks and a reception. In addition, we’ll be using networking software that makes it easy for participants to find and communicate with each other both during and after the conference. 

Agenda:

1. Keynote Address: Alison Brown, President & CEO, Science Museum of Minnesota 
2. Breakouts: 

• From Idea to Impact: Panelists will trace the paths their innovations took to become reality – steps and roles in the commercialization process. 
• Forging Your Own Path: Panelists will review the twists and turns of their careers – trade-offs to consider, lessons learned. 
• Making Your Mark: Panelists will share what they are doing today to address the world’s grand challenges – as academic, business or nonprofit leaders. 

3. Closing Address: Cindy Kent, President & General Manager, 3M Infection Prevention Division 
4. Reception and Innovators Showcase 

Register at: https://mincorps.umn.edu/women-innovators-conference

Opportunity to See Howard Leonhardt, Med Tech Entrepreneur

During Twin Cities Startup Week, we're excited to host med tech entrepreneur (and renaissance man) Howard Leonhardt, who will speak at the University of Minnesota at noon on Friday September 23. He will share his story as well as his perspectives on opportunities in medical technology as well as entrepreneurship in general. For more information and to register: https://howardleonardt.eventbrite.com

Some of Howard's current roles include:

• Founder, Chairman and CEO of Leonhardt Ventures, a venture creation lab focused on developing regenerative medtech inventions and regenerative economy startups
• Executive Chairman and CEO of BioLeonhardt, developer and manufacturer of the world's first implantable, programmable, re-fillable stem cell pumps + electrical stimulators for organ regeneration
• Founder and Executive Chairman of Cal-X Crowdfund Connect, which helps startups build crowdfunding campaigns 
• Founder, Chairman and CEO of the California Stock Xchange, which aspires to be the first conscious capitalism stock exchange 
• Founder, Chairman and CEO of Cal-X Stars Business Accelerator 
• Owner and CEO of Leonhardt Vineyards 
• Founder, Chairman and CTO of BioPace, a developer of a biological pacemaker made of living cells designed to obsolete electronic battery powered steel can steel lead pacemakers 
• Board Advisor to University of Southern California Center for Technology and Innovation in Pediatrics (CTIP)

MIN-Corps Fall 2016 Programs

 

Each semester, MIN-Corps offers a full suite of programs on technology commercialization and starting up science-based ventures.  All events will take place on the UMN campus – see specifics in the registration links.

Medical Tech Commercialization Value Proposition Design Workshops Sep 14, Sep 28, Oct 5, Oct 12 1-4pm

Four hands-on sessions cover the following:  value proposition design, customer discovery, pathway to commercialization, market assessment, focusing on diagnostics, therapeutics, devices and health IT.

Register at: http://learning.umn.edu/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do?method=load&courseId=1593532

Technology Commercialization Bootcamp Oct 4 10am-4pm

A six-hour overview of early-stage commercialization concepts, including value proposition design and customer discovery, as well as intellectual property considerations.

Register at: http://learning.umn.edu/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do?method=load&courseId=5277347

Innovation Value Proposition Design Workshops Oct 18, Nov 1, Nov 15, Nov 29 1-4 pm

For researchers in any discipline.  Four hands-on sessions: value proposition design, customer discovery, pathway to commercialization, market assessment.

Register at: http://learning.umn.edu/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do?method=load&courseId=5277181

Emerging Opportunities Forums

·        Howard Leonhardt Sep 23 Noon-1:30 pm

Perspectives from a very successful and quite eclectic medical technology entrepreneur.

Register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/startup-week-howard-leonhardt-tickets-26309955786

·        Intellectual Property Oct 18 4-6 pm

Attorneys specializing in IP will give an overview and especially address legal issues relevant to tech-based and science-based businesses.

Register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/min-corps-intellectual-property-seminar-tickets-27075570761

·        Funding a Startup Nov 15 4-6 pm

A panel of experts will address the variety of options for securing seed funding and early-stage capital.

Register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/funding-a-startup-tickets-27078740241

Strategy Clinics

Monthly sessions for current and future science and tech-based entrepreneurs to share a meal, hear from experts, and seek advice.

·        Negotiation Basics Sep 28 5-7pm

Register at: http://learning.umn.edu/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do?method=load&courseId=5304729

·        Building a Startup Team Oct 26 5-7 pm

Register at: http://learning.umn.edu/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do?method=load&courseId=5304863

·        Constructing Startup Financials Nov 20 5-7 pm

Register at: http://learning.umn.edu/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do?method=load&courseId=5304871

Congratulations to FOUR Minnesota Cup Division Winners with MIN-Corps Connections

Last week, the Minnesota Cup, the largest state-wide venture competition in the U.S., announced its 2016 division winners.  Of the eight divisions, four of the winners participated in or mentored MIN-Corps programs!

Asiya - Social Division 
A sport and active wear brand using performance fabrics and modest sportswear designs to level the playing field for Muslim females everywhere.
Program: Spring 2016 STARTUP course (which focuses on customer discovery and development)
Student: Jamie Glover is a UMN MBA student who teamed with Fatimah Hussein, a social worker who works with the Minnesota Somali community.

Berd Spokes - General Division 
Bicycle spokes manufactured from braided plastic filament that are stronger, lighter and more durable than conventional metal spokes. These benefits are also application to additional markets under exploration.
Program:  Spring 2016 STARTUP course 
Student: Charlie Spanjers is a UMN post-doc in Chemical and Materials Science who also happens to be an avid bicycle racer.  

Minnealloy Magnetics - Student Division 
A breakthrough soft magnet material that can reduce the size and weight of electrical transformers while increasing efficiency.  Multiple potential applications ranging from small electronics to electric vehicles.
Program: I-Corps Energy and Transportation program at the NextEnergy Center in Detroit
Student: Md Mehedi is a UMN PhD student in Chemical and Materials Science.

StemoniX - Life Science/Health IT Division
A suite of new stem-cell technologies that are setting a new economic paradigm to meet the demands of drug discovery and personalized medicine. StemoniX grows, differentiates, and prints organ cells from skin cells, in a way that makes them biologically accurate, to better predict their toxicity and improve efficacy.
Program:  CEO Ping Weh has been a mentor to our STARTUP course.  Before starting StemoniX, the cofounders spent almost a year doing customer discovery to tailor their value proposition to customer needs.

Congratulations, and best of luck in the MN Cup finals on September 22 during Twin Cities Startup Week!

"Flyover country" no more...In 5 years, the Midwest will have more startups than Silicon Valley

If you believe in the potent talent, work ethic and distinctive capabilities of the Midwest...you've got to read this article.

As a Venture Development Executive at the UMN Office for Technology Commercialization, I'm personally exposed to many inspirational Midwest entrepreneurs and one of the key missing elements to unleashing their full potential is the mobilization of early stage capital in the Midwest. It's great to see outside money recognizing this opportunity. This should inspire more activity in our local investor base as well.

MN Cup finalist Minnealloy Magnetics aims to shake things up in the energy market

Last week, Minnealloy Magnetics advanced to the final round of the Minnesota Cup and now faces just two other teams to win the student division. The startup team, led by U of M Materials Engineering PhD candidate Md A Mehedi, has developed a novel material that will reduce the size and weight while increasing the efficiency of transformers and inductors used in power converters. The technology comes out of the electrical engineering lab of Jianping Wang, who has co-founded various other startup spin-outs from technology developed at the U of M. Last fall, Mehedi participated in an I-Corps program at the University of Michigan last spring in which he focused on honing the value proposition and customer discovery for his technology.  Mehedi entered the MN Cup as a first step in taking this revolutionary technology to market.

We sat down with Mehedi to discuss his experience commercializing his materials science research to drastically increase electrical efficiency. Here's what he had to say:

How did you decide that you wanted to commercialize your technology through a start-up as opposed to simply presenting a research paper or licensing the technology to another company?

Professor Wang, the head of the lab where this technology was developed, has a history of commercializing his discoveries. This past spring, I decided to attend the energy and transportation-focused I-Corps program at NextEnergy in Detroit, Michigan with the full support of Professor Wang. The things I learned through the I-Corps program helped me confirm our inclination that a startup is the right business model for Minnealloy Magnetics.

What are some of the key takeaways from your participation in the I-Corps program?

I came into the program thinking that our technology would be best utilized in smaller electrical devices such as laptop and cellphone chargers. However, through the customer discovery process, I quickly found that this industry is largely concentrated in Asia and is very competitive on price. The manufacturers are able to produce the chargers and ship them around the world at a much lower price point than we would be able to compete with. We spoke with American manufacturers and distributors of these products to understand how our technology may be employed in a different context. Based on this, we pivoted our business model to focus on implementing our materials into larger electrical apparatuses that would be far too expensive to outsource and ship from overseas. For example, we are talking with electrical vehicle manufacturers about employing our technology into a smaller, lightweight and more efficient battery charging system to be used in their cars.

Overall, I went into the program thinking like an engineer and came out thinking like a business person. I quickly realized that I had to redirect the focus of my pitch from the technology itself to the industry in which it will exist.

What's the next step for Minnealloy Magnetics?

We hope to take full advantage of the resources from the MN Cup and use any funding we may receive to develop our first fully functional prototype. After this is developed, we will use the prototype in our application for grants for about a year as we continue to refine our business model and translate our research into easily digestible business terminology. Once we have some promising client leads, we will begin to ask for additional external funding to scale up our business.

Micrometer Genomics develops new microbiome measurement method, wins Mayo Clinic's Walleye Tank

After receiving a Translational Product Development Fund (TPDF) grant last year, the Micrometer Genomics team has been hard at work gearing up for their imminent launch. With the medical world's growing interest in microbiome composition as an indicator of wellbeing, their prospects for the future are looking good. 

So what exactly is a microbiome and why is it such a hot topic right now? Antibiotics are increasingly throwing off the natural balance of "gut bacteria" in humans. Whether the cause is antibiotics usage or dietary or something else, an imbalanced gut biome has been shown to cause a range of severe diseases. If we can accurately determine a person's microbiome composition, we have a better chance of identifying if that person is at risk for certain diseases and can work proactively to restore his or her microbiome to a balanced state.

The issue with this is that the current methodology for determining microbiome composition is highly inaccurate. A team within the University of Minnesota's Genomics Center (UMGC) composed of Kenny Beckman (Director), Daryl Gohl (R&D Lead), with help from Dan Knights (Prof. Computer Science & Biotech Inst.) recognized this problem and worked together to address it. The Micrometer Genomics team developed a much more reliable method for determining the actual composition of human microbiomes, allowing for more consistently effective treatment.

After developing the technology, the team participated in the Medical Technology Value Proposition Design Workshops through MIN-Corps and MN-REACH this past spring. Through customer discovery, the team was able to hone their positioning and identify a viable business model.  Shortly after completing these workshops, the Micrometer Genomics team presented their venture at Founder's Day, an event held by the Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship at the Carlson School of Management.  At this event, founders of new ventures developed in courses across the University of Minnesota discuss their entrepreneurial journey. The presentations ranged from toy airplane launchers to backpacks developed for autistic children, but the Micrometer Genomics team stood out to a local entrepreneur and investor in the audience who has been advising the team ever since.

The Micrometer Genomics team then entered the Walleye Tank pitch competition held at the Mayo Clinic Rochester Campus last June, and won! In the spirit of "Shark Tank", the popular TV series in which aspiring entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to a panel of successful business moguls, the Walleye Tank competition focuses on Minnesota-based life science businesses looking for investors. Watch Micrometer Genomics' winning pitch below:

6 Steps to a Successful University Spin-Out

The University of Minnesota just celebrated its 100th start-up spin-out  in ten years. Since its formation in 2006, the Venture Center at the Office for Technology Commercialization has focused on producing successful startups. In fact, the University of Minnesota was recently ranked fifth in the nation for technology commercialization initiatives by Nature Biotech.

We sat down with Dale Nugent, a Venture Development Executive at the Office for Technology Commercialization’s (OTC) Venture Center to get some insight into their process for developing successful start-ups out of the university. He outlined for us the “University Start-up Pipeline” and discussed how start-ups go from idea to reality. There are 6 stages of the pipeline, and the rate of flow between these stages is a good indicator of start-up’s potential for success; if there isn’t momentum, it’s usually a sign of a deeper problem. However, if the start-up follows these steps and pivots when the flow slows down, it is likely to add to the group of 100 start-up spin-out successes.

1. Seek and document new ideas

Start thinking with an entrepreneurial mindset. As you research and innovate, take the time to assess the contexts in which your findings might be marketable.Think about unmet needs in your field. Note your most surprising results. These are hallmarks of valuable innovations. Make a point of writing down your entrepreneurial ideas and schedule in some time to review your notes and bounce ideas off of your colleagues. When you do this, be careful not to reveal any secrets that might be patentable. Often you can talk about the benefits of your new idea without specifying how it does it.  If you think you’re really onto something, you need to think about protecting your idea. University researchers can contact OTC’s for help with this. If you think you’re onto something, go with it!

2. Evaluate commercial potential and IP position

Now you’ve got an innovative idea and want to move forward. It’s at this stage where you must evaluate whether or not this idea will sell. This is where many researchers get hung up because although their findings may be groundbreaking, it doesn’t always mean their idea is commercially viable or protectable. Here are some tools to help you decide if your idea has commercial potential:

3. Develop market analysis & financial analysis

The next step is to find the business model that makes the most sense for your technology. Oftentimes, licensing the technology to an established company with resources and infrastructure allows the technology to enter the market more quickly. However, with more disruptive technologies, a startup model can be a better route to prove acceptance for a technology so that the commercial potential is clear. Check out these market and financial analysis tools to help you determine your technology’s market potential:

BOTTLENECK!
As focus is redirected from the invention to the business plan in stages 2, 3 and 4 many innovators slow down in their flow between stages. As a researcher, you must thoroughly assess your own skills, experience and capacity for new work to decide if you are the right person to continue spearheading the commercialization effort. If not, think about adding another person to the team to develop the business relationships and provide the executive leadership necessary for success. The Venture Center will encourage innovators to be realistic about their involvement early on in the pipeline stages. Unless a researcher intends to leave the University to work at their start-up full-time, it is highly recommended that they look for an individual who can partner with them, lead the business, and drive progress on business (versus technical) tasks.

4. Develop business plan and presentation

A compelling speaker and “face” of an organization is key for this step. You need to get people excited about your idea by communicating a clear value proposition that puts your innovation above competitors. You must also have a coherent strategy for bringing the technology to market. Here is a powerpoint with a couple of tips for writing a business plan and related documents to communicate what your company will do.

5. Negotiate business and legal terms

When you’ve reached this phase, the goals of your start-up are clear, now you need “freedom to operate” using the intellectual property the company will revolve utilize. Know that this process takes time. Even for experienced business people, a technology license agreement has “a lot of moving parts”. The Venture Center at OTC exists to help start-ups get through this process smoothly as possible. You will also want to have a good business lawyer and other outside advisors helping you at this stage.

6. Execute license to start-up

When the negotiation is complete, the final step is to sign the licensing agreement for a newly formed start-up to use the developed technology. The startup then acts as a separate, wholly-owned entity that can fund itself through equity, grants, loans, etc. as it enters a new phase of growth.