Seven years ago, Global Velocity’s data security technology was an interesting invention in Washington University’s Advanced Research Lab. Now it’s the basis of a company with 17 employees, $21 million in funding from investors, and the beginnings of a commercial customer base. The path that Global Velocity has taken from university lab to growing company is not a well-worn one in St. Louis. For various reasons, ranging from a lack of funding sources to a conservative, risk-averse local culture, university-linked start-ups have been relatively rare here. It’s certainly not for a lack of inventiveness. When research universities are ranked by federal grants received or discoveries made, Washington-U often makes the top 10.
When it comes to transforming those discoveries into revenue-producing businesses, though, the university falls to the middle of the pack. In a 2006 study by the Milken Institute, Washington-U was No. 8 on a measure of basic biotechnology research but No. 66 on a measure of technology transfer and commercialization. Although Bradley Castanho, the university’s assistant vice chancellor for research, has the job of improving the latter score, creating companies isn’t something the school can do on its own. “It’s a push-pull exercise,” Castanho says. “You have to have somebody who’s an entrepreneur who sees the value of the technology and sees how it could become a viable business…. Our role is to put it in the hands of people who can be successful.”
The university has trained almost 50 faculty members in the basics of starting a business. Its Bear Cub Fund makes development grants of $25,000 to $50,000. A partnership with the BioGenerator, a privately funded technology development organization, gives biotech companies some mentoring and the opportunity for additional money. Castanho adds, however, that the community still needs to pull technology out of the university. He says the biggest difference between Washington University and an institution like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — No. 1 on Milken’s index — isn’t culture. Rather, it’s that MIT is surrounded by VCs and businesspeople who compete to spot lucrative opportunities. “From a community point of view, you need entrepreneurs, you need capital, and you need facilities to have a successful start-up,” Castanho says. “Some of those things are probably more challenging in a region like St. Louis that’s still coming up the learning curve.”
Source: STLtoday.com