Innovation & Commercialization
Discussion will focus on two topics: (1) the operational aspects of a venture (e.g., key resources, processes, paths to market), particularly as those aspects operate within the broad Business Model, and (2) the question of growth, particularly in terms of the “Why” behind any effort to grow a venture.
Our objective for this session is to discuss the various facets of a startup venture by way of the “buttons” that often get pushed during a startup pitch. Importantly, while a great pitch does not equal a great startup, a great startup has often been able to hit each of these buttons in a compelling way.
Bob Creeden, Managing Director of the Seed Fund and New Ventures for the UVA Licensing and Venture Group, will lead a discussion of the funding landscape for the commercialization of science.
Acumen and Embrace: Investor rubrics and social impact.
In this discussion, dive into the challenges that emerge in the world of venture capital (in general) and impact investing (more specifically).
Our discussion will center upon Zipcar in its early days, as the founders worked to reckon the various components of a business model for the venture—in particular the value proposition and the possible size of the market.
:: ASSIGNED READING/VIEWING ::
Case Study – Zipcar: Refining the Business Model
Estimating the number of people or entities who might benefit from any innovation is the sort of exercise ultimately designed for understanding how we make sense of markets and impact than for perfectly calculating the size of the market and our potential impact.
Dr. David S. Wilkes, Dean of the UVA School of Medicine, will join us for a conversation on his experience commercializing research from his lab to form ImmuneWorks.
Any innovation ultimately creates impact, impact which has value—whether measured in pure dollars or other terms. Yet, pricing truly novel innovations can be difficult as there might be no direct comparables in the market.
Michael Straightiff, Managing Director of the UVA Licensing and Ventures Group, will join us again to provide background on patents while leading us through the winding twists and turns of patent landscape search.