Yesterday's post on Georgia Tech registered a record number of comments for this blog. It's gratifying. I thought y'all had forgotten me. (Picture of Lance Weatherby from Startuplounge.)
It also got me to thinking. How would I change things if I were in charge (not that I am asking for the job).
It seems to me there are two forces at work here — research and entrepreneurship. The two do not always go hand-in-hand. It's much like my writing about technology. Were I to join a business or organization outside writing, even as its head, I would no longer be writing, I'd be in business. I long ago made the choice to remain a writer.
The same is true for many researchers. The impulse to research, to seek truth and hold little pieces of it in your hand, is not the entrepreneurial impulse. Entrepreneurs are special people, dedicated to building companies that work and make money.
How to marry them?
What Stanford did, in creating what we now call Silicon Valley, was unique, a product of its time. As books like Bill & Dave attest, it came out of a Depression, a War, and a generation that could turn science into engineering, and engineering into products, growing into the really big money while staying true to a public trust.
Maybe we're about to have that Depression. I don't know. I do know our young people are doing great things, that the forces which built Silicon Valley still live.
Just not all in silicon.
Instead it's in using the products of the Silicon Valley revolution — the chips and networks we're using now — to solve even deeper problems that the future will be driven. Instead of Germans and Japanese, we face direct threats to the survival of our species, and a genetic revolution that will transform us in this century. (God I wish I were 17 again.)
Georgia's tech effort, sadly, is based mostly in the north-south arc of Peachtree Road and Georgia 400. It is old tech, shaped mainly by old geezers my own age, whose great stories have mostly been written.
That needs to change. How?
Horizontally. The ATDC can no longer be as closely linked to Georgia Tech as it is. Important research is now being done on a broad front. In Atlanta alone Emory and Georgia State are becoming as vital as Tech is. Every research institution in Georgia should have its own ATDC advocate, a sort of "block captain" who can funnel ideas and people to the Center, and who even has authority to lend their own support.- Vertically. My alma mater, Rice University, has done great work with its annual Business Plan contest. Don't copy it, but drive it down. Why not have a contest judging the business plans of high school students? With scholarships as prizes? Take a page from Dean Kamen and organize the effort through "business clubs" dedicated to coming up with honing one great idea, every year?
- Publicly. Who outside the industry knows what the ATDC is? What it does? No one. Use the block captains and high school clubs to drive the public message of ATDC home. We're looking for great ideas, and great entrepreneurs. It's the ATDC's mission to create them.
- Nationally. Georgia's universities spend millions of dollars each year recruiting star athletes to campus. Scientists and business minds make a lot more money. The state needs to build its recruitment effort, both among the nation's high schools and its colleges, so the best minds of their generation come here. You're already offering the scholarships — make sure those assets go to the right people.
Where will the money come from? Existing budgets, mainly. The research institutions that join ATDC could kick in enough to get a more robust effort going. Contests are easy to do, and the requisite scholarship funds are already in many schools' budgets. Once all schools are invested in ATDC, they will help bang the publicity drum. And all the successful entrepreneurs now in the city would love to be asked to help find their successors.
This is not a plan that takes a lot of money. It mainly takes a recognition that renewal is necessary, that expansion is possible, and that complacency is always the enemy of business growth.
Horizontally
A thoughtful and useful list. What you may not realize is that much of what you suggest under “Horizontally” is already in place through the VentureLab program, which taps into resources from the Georgia Research Alliance.
Each of the six research universities in Georgia (GT, UGA, Ga State, Emory, the Medical College of Georgia, and Clark-Atlanta) has one or more “commercialization catalysts” on payroll; I’m proud to manage the team at Georgia Tech. We perform triage on the inventions at our schools, identify candidates for startups/spinouts, write business plans, recruit management teams, and contribute seed funding as a mix of grants, debt, and equity. That seed funding is primarily through legislative appropriations, managed through the GRA, and it’s helped to launch about four dozen local companies over the last decade or so. Some of them (CardioMEMS, Suniva) are becoming recognizable names in Atlanta; some are still nascent.
Once a VentureLab company is launched — from any of these schools, not just Georgia Tech — it’s eligible to apply to ATDC for further incubation.
Could we be doing more of this? And could Georgia be doing more of the things on your list? Absolutely. Why don’t we see more?
To quote Robert Heinlein: “The answer to any question starting, ‘Why don’t they–‘ is almost always, ‘Money.'”
Horizontally
A thoughtful and useful list. What you may not realize is that much of what you suggest under “Horizontally” is already in place through the VentureLab program, which taps into resources from the Georgia Research Alliance.
Each of the six research universities in Georgia (GT, UGA, Ga State, Emory, the Medical College of Georgia, and Clark-Atlanta) has one or more “commercialization catalysts” on payroll; I’m proud to manage the team at Georgia Tech. We perform triage on the inventions at our schools, identify candidates for startups/spinouts, write business plans, recruit management teams, and contribute seed funding as a mix of grants, debt, and equity. That seed funding is primarily through legislative appropriations, managed through the GRA, and it’s helped to launch about four dozen local companies over the last decade or so. Some of them (CardioMEMS, Suniva) are becoming recognizable names in Atlanta; some are still nascent.
Once a VentureLab company is launched — from any of these schools, not just Georgia Tech — it’s eligible to apply to ATDC for further incubation.
Could we be doing more of this? And could Georgia be doing more of the things on your list? Absolutely. Why don’t we see more?
To quote Robert Heinlein: “The answer to any question starting, ‘Why don’t they–‘ is almost always, ‘Money.'”
Why so hung up on ATDC? Why do incubators have to be related to educational institutions at all?
The problem with incubators attached to educational institutions is that educational institutions are also slow, risk averse and insular- all three of which are TOXIC in business. You need to be fast, tolerant of risk and aggressively open. I just don’t see a very successful incubator coming out of an educational institution. (I’m not sure I’d qualify ATDC as “very successful”- maybe not a failure, but not truly successful)
Really, we need people in the business community to step up with major funding for seed funds and incubators. Almost every alumni in Atlanta has been essentially silent once they’ve collected their millions. That has to stop. Buying sports teams doesn’t count.
Aside from Lance, has ANYONE come out of Mindspring and done anything for the Atlanta entrepreneurial community? What about ISS? JBoss? Anyone else?
I see this as a cultural issue more than anything else. In SV, the “thing to do” once you get your millions is to either become an angel or to become an LP in a VC fund. We need to create a culture of “giving back” in order to fix this problem long term.
Why so hung up on ATDC? Why do incubators have to be related to educational institutions at all?
The problem with incubators attached to educational institutions is that educational institutions are also slow, risk averse and insular- all three of which are TOXIC in business. You need to be fast, tolerant of risk and aggressively open. I just don’t see a very successful incubator coming out of an educational institution. (I’m not sure I’d qualify ATDC as “very successful”- maybe not a failure, but not truly successful)
Really, we need people in the business community to step up with major funding for seed funds and incubators. Almost every alumni in Atlanta has been essentially silent once they’ve collected their millions. That has to stop. Buying sports teams doesn’t count.
Aside from Lance, has ANYONE come out of Mindspring and done anything for the Atlanta entrepreneurial community? What about ISS? JBoss? Anyone else?
I see this as a cultural issue more than anything else. In SV, the “thing to do” once you get your millions is to either become an angel or to become an LP in a VC fund. We need to create a culture of “giving back” in order to fix this problem long term.
Mike McQuary the former president of MindSpring & Earthlink has done his share of deals. If nothing else they are eclectic. http://ellismcqstanley.com/deals.html
And Tom Noonan of ISS fame has pretty much single handedly done the seed financing for the InfoSec cluster in Atlanta. I bet he has funded more then 20 deals. http://bit.ly/TomsDeals
Mike McQuary the former president of MindSpring & Earthlink has done his share of deals. If nothing else they are eclectic. http://ellismcqstanley.com/deals.html
And Tom Noonan of ISS fame has pretty much single handedly done the seed financing for the InfoSec cluster in Atlanta. I bet he has funded more then 20 deals. http://bit.ly/TomsDeals
Why have a tech development “funnel” connected to existing institutions at all? Silicon Valley didn’t – they invented things etc. Oh, I know it makes matters a lot easier. It also places official gatekeepers between the idea kids and the resources. Sure, venture capitalists, backers, etc, also stand between the kids and the resources, but it’s the difference between “let’s see who’ll back it” and “let’s see if They will back it.” Same idea as the notion that everything must be run through the Department of Your Idea in Washington before it can go anywhere. Think bottleneck.
Why have a tech development “funnel” connected to existing institutions at all? Silicon Valley didn’t – they invented things etc. Oh, I know it makes matters a lot easier. It also places official gatekeepers between the idea kids and the resources. Sure, venture capitalists, backers, etc, also stand between the kids and the resources, but it’s the difference between “let’s see who’ll back it” and “let’s see if They will back it.” Same idea as the notion that everything must be run through the Department of Your Idea in Washington before it can go anywhere. Think bottleneck.
“Georgia’s Tech effort…is old tech, shaped mainly by old geezers…”
Here are a few of ATDC’s current companies:
•Axion develops neural interfacing technology to monitor and manipulate human cells and tissue
•Biofisica is developing solutions for the wound care market by pursuing bio-natural technologies which activate the current of healing.
•Celtaxsys is developing biotechnology that modulates the body’s response to inflammation.
•Vivonetics creates molecular biology tools for drug discovery.
•NanoMist delivers nano-sized droplets, particles and mists for fire suppression, hospital sterilization, and food sanitation.
•AerovectRx is an aerosol therapeutic company providing unit-dose customizable and scalable delivery solutions using the air we breathe as the gateway for better living.
•VT Silicon is developing intelligent high performance RF and microwave products for existing and emerging wireless markets.
Is this old technology?
“Georgia’s Tech effort…is old tech, shaped mainly by old geezers…”
Here are a few of ATDC’s current companies:
•Axion develops neural interfacing technology to monitor and manipulate human cells and tissue
•Biofisica is developing solutions for the wound care market by pursuing bio-natural technologies which activate the current of healing.
•Celtaxsys is developing biotechnology that modulates the body’s response to inflammation.
•Vivonetics creates molecular biology tools for drug discovery.
•NanoMist delivers nano-sized droplets, particles and mists for fire suppression, hospital sterilization, and food sanitation.
•AerovectRx is an aerosol therapeutic company providing unit-dose customizable and scalable delivery solutions using the air we breathe as the gateway for better living.
•VT Silicon is developing intelligent high performance RF and microwave products for existing and emerging wireless markets.
Is this old technology?