Tag: Words from the Trenches

Each year OTT helps launch high-quality start-up companies based on discoveries made by Emory faculty or staff. Over the past few months, OTT set out to interview a selection of the entrepreneurs and VCs we have worked with and pick their brains about what it takes to make a successful startup venture. To visit Part 1: here To visit Part 2: here To visit Part 3: here To visit Part 4: here To visit Part 5: here To visit Part 6: here What key items do you feel contribute to a successful startup? Stephen Snowdy (CEO; Venture Advisory Board Member at Emory University): In medical science startups, it is critical to have the best people possible analyzing and vetting the technology, the best people possible building the opportunity into a fundable story, and the best people possible selling the opportunity to funding sources; in other words, human capital is just as important as all of the science and medical business issues and is one of the most difficult resources to build. Extreme capital efficiency is also critical in the early stages owing to the dearth of early-stage funding that is available. Objectivity around decision-making is absolutely key. When and how

Each year OTT helps launch high-quality start-up companies based on discoveries made by Emory faculty or staff. Over the past few months, OTT set out to interview a selection of the entrepreneurs and VCs we have worked with and pick their brains about what it takes to make a successful startup venture. To visit Part 1: here To visit Part 2: here To visit Part 3: here To visit Part 4: here To visit Part 5: here What do you see as the biggest changes over the past decade for start-ups? Stephen Snowdy (CEO; Venture Advisory Board Member at Emory University): The biggest change over the past decade is the dramatic decline in funding that is available for early-stage startups. The traditional way to fund innovation was that the government subsidized research and discovery through grants, venture capitalists invested in further risk reduction at the startup level, and ultimately passed the risk off to either the public markets or to large corporations. Government funding for research and funding available for venture capital have dropped to levels not seen in decades. In addition, on a macro-level, the traditional venture capital model has not been a successful financial model, so it is

Each year OTT helps launch high-quality start-up companies based on discoveries made by Emory faculty or staff. Over the past few months, OTT set out to interview a selection of the entrepreneurs and VCs we have worked with and pick their brains about what it takes to make a successful startup venture. To visit Part 1: here To visit Part 2: here To visit Part 3: here To visit Part 4: here How did you go about building a team? Michael Lee (Chairman & CEO of the Emory start-up Syntermed): Assuming you’ve made the correct/best hire, understanding every team members’ personal and professional goals and aspirations within the context of the company’s corporate goals with an executive commitment to make sure these are fulfilled. Hire slowly, fire quickly. How did you know which technology is a good opportunity for starting a company? Stephen Snowdy (CEO; Venture Advisory Board Member at Emory University): I look for technologies that have the potential to materially change clinical outcomes for patients or that will significantly reduce the cost of healthcare. Also important are the quality of the data, strong international patent positioning, attractiveness in the financial markets (fundability), the height of the regulatory hurdles,

Each year OTT helps launch a number of startup companies based around discoveries made by Emory faculty or staff.  In most of those cases the faculty member remains at the university as a researcher or clinician while he or she simultaneously serves in some type of advisory role for the company. In some instances however faculty leave the university environment to strike out into the exciting world of startups. In this piece we talk to former Emory professor Harriet Robinson, PhD, who is now the Chief Science Officer at GeoVax, an Emory startup developing HIV vaccines based on previous work from her lab. Before you created the HIV vaccine technology, had you ever given much thought to the commercialization of university discoveries? Yes, I had previously wanted to commercialize a different vaccine technology that I discovered while at another university. At that time it was not possible due to state restrictions that limited the ability of faculty to license their own findings from the university. Those limitations stemmed from legislation created to curb legislators from awarding contracts to themselves or relatives. What made you decide to follow the technology to a startup company rather than stay in academic research at

Each year OTT helps launch high-quality start-up companies based on discoveries made by Emory faculty or staff. Over the past few months, OTT set out to interview a selection of the entrepreneurs and VCs we have worked with and pick their brains about what it takes to make a successful startup venture. To visit Part 1: here To visit Part 2: here To visit Part 3: here How has OTT contributed to the success of your start-up? Michael Lee (Chairman & CEO of the Emory start-up Syntermed): By understanding that success does not end with the execution of an agreement, but rather that the execution of an agreement can produce success. Also through ancillary marketing and PR awareness that only the Emory brand and reach can command. Terence Walts (President & CEO of two Emory start-ups, Transfusion & Transplantation Technologies (“3Ti”) and Cambium Medical Technologies): By continuing to be very supportive and patient as well as continuing to serve as an extraordinarily important “co-partner and valued stakeholder” in these ventures. I continue to view OTT as an important part of our team. OTT is also excellent in getting the word out to the local entrepreneurial community on emerging Emory technologies,

Each year OTT helps launch high-quality start-up companies based on discoveries made by Emory faculty or staff. Over the past few months, OTT set out to interview a selection of the entrepreneurs and VCs we have worked with and pick their brains about what it takes to make a successful startup venture. To visit Part 1: here To visit Part 2: here What was your biggest fear/apprehension going into starting your first company? Ed Cannon (President & CEO of the Emory start-up NovAb): Thirty years ago, when I started, the only “rule” was “there are no rules,” which allowed us to make up the rules as needed. My biggest fear and anxiety then was recruiting talented scientists as I knew the technology was well-developed and the commercial opportunities were obvious. My business partner’s biggest fear on the other hand was obtaining adequate financing for the company. We were fortunate on both counts as Boston was, and continues to be, overflowing with scientific and technical talent. Local venture groups were likewise flush with cash from successes and looking for the next “Big Thing.” In fact Boston, like the Bay Area, was rich with all of the infrastructure needed to support the

Each year OTT helps launch high-quality start-up companies based on discoveries made by Emory faculty or staff. Over the past few months, OTT set out to interview a selection of the entrepreneurs and VCs we have worked with and pick their brains about what it takes to make a successful startup venture. To visit Part 1: here What do you recommend/what is a piece of advice for someone looking to start a company? Daniel White (President & CEO of the joint Emory/Georgia Tech start-up Clearside Biomedical): Take an honest assessment of who you are. What are the things that may hold you back. 1) Is it experience? (Investors will want someone who has done this before). 2) Does the intellectual property stand alone or are you only solving an incremental problem? 3) Are you requiring too much money to reach success? 4) Do you have enough and the right human capital supporting the project? (I have seen many a company fail because the president is too stingy with stock to bring in the right talent to get the job done.) As I look back at my career as an entrepreneur, there are four characteristics that I believe separate the people who

Each year OTT helps launch high-quality start-up companies based on discoveries made by Emory faculty or staff. Over the past few months, OTT set out to interview a selection of the entrepreneurs and VCs we have worked with and pick their brains about what it takes to make a successful startup venture. What got you thinking about becoming an entrepreneur and starting/joining a start-up? Terence Walts (President & CEO of two Emory startups, Transfusion & Transplantation Technologies (“3Ti”) and Cambium Medical Technologies): I headed the department of New Business Development at CIBA Vision until 1998. During that time, I did due diligence on a very early stage start-up concerning refractive surgery in which CIBA ultimately invested $6 million. I got so excited about this start-up, its potential, and the opportunity to help create and build something new that for my last three years at CIBA, I got an agreement to vacate my business development responsibilities and work full-time with the management team of this start-up with plans to join them full-time after 1998. I took this risk because I believed in the technology, the founders, and the opportunity–and believed that my personal business development and market focus skills had uncovered