2005 History - Building Business in Colorado...
1378_ 4/19/2013 - 8/29/2005- HISTORY and perspective from 2005! We will transport you back to 2005 - eight years ago to listen to interviews and see tons of photos from 2005 business events. Just click on the Listen/Subject link and we can take you back. You will see the 100s of photos that are not found on other websites. Let us know what you think email radio@w3w3.com.
LISTEN TO: Phil Weiser, Merc Mercure, Chris Johnson, Stan Feld... Keywords: Stan Feld, M.D., Healthcare system, Merc Mercure, photonics, Chris Johnson, VoIP, Phil Weiser, political environment changes, Silicon Flatirons Center, University of Colorado, Law School
Tom Smerdon, success in marketing new ideas 1364_ 3/13/13 -
From a business person's point of view, the Technology Transfer Office is one of the most important things that the university provides, for business, individual professors and students, with everything from awards and recognition but most importantly really helping them along when they come up with an idea. Larry is with Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President of the University of Colorado Technology Transfer Office in Boulder. Tom said, "There are a couple of the things I'd like to bring to the listeners attention. One, which we're really excited about, is the recent acquisition of a CU startup. F5 Networks has acquired LineRate Systems, a Colorado startup that’s developing technologies around what’s called software define networking. F5 noted that the networking technologies will help bring superior service agility, application intelligence, and programmability to software defined data centers. The thing that is exciting about this is, not only was this a startup basically out of Computer Sciences and Electrical Engineering here on the CU Boulder campus, but the company was also an early recipient of the Proof-of-Concept investment from the Tech Transfer Office. This was the first money into the company which really helped it acquire some critical equipment early on and facilitated the development of the technology that was later further developed in its Louisville office and ultimately the subject of the sale to F5. This is one of the success stories for Tech Transfer and we're really excited for the company and the founders. A couple of events that are coming up; we are doing our Tech Transfer Awards a little differently this year. Previously there had been a single awards event covering the system campuses held in Denver. This year we're going to have campus focused events, so we have the Boulder Awards event which is scheduled for April 1st. This is in conjunction with the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship. The program, Entrepreneurship Under the Microscope, is an evening event with a keynote speaker and we will be awarding the Inventor of the Year, New Inventor of the Year, and Company of the Year during a fun networking event with CU-Boulder faculty and students, and members of the Boulder entrepreneurial community. We have the second awards event planned... there's more...
RELATED LINKS:
CU Technology Transfer Office ||
CU TTO Channel ||
TTO Blog ||
LineRate Systems || KEYWORDS: Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President, Tech Transfer Office,
University of Colorado, Technology Transfer, LineRate Systems, F5, Awards, bytes=4401426
LISTEN TO: Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President. Tech Transfer, University of Colorado
Tom Smerdon First to Invent Rule under the America Invents Act 1360_ 3/6/13 -
Larry is in Boulder with Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President of University of Colorado Technology Transfer Office. "There are several interesting events that we're keeping an eye on. One is the upcoming implementation of 'The First to Invent Rule under the America Invents Act. This goes into effect on March the 16th. So this has required us to look at some of the provisional applications that are pending and accelerate the filing of the U.S. Utility Applications. We've been doing that as well as setting up some informational and outreach efforts to inform the faculty of this change. One of the exciting legislative initiatives that Tom and his team are keeping an eye on is the Advanced Industries Acceleration Act. This was recently introduced in the House as HB1001 and basically it would expand the current Bioscience Discovery and Evaluation Grant Program [the BDEG] which currently provides for state grant funding / proof-of-concept funding for bioscience technologies as well as grants for early stage bioscience companies. It would expand that to six other advanced industries in Colorado. These are advanced manufacturing, aerospace, electronics, cleantech energy and natural resources, infrastructure engineering and information technology. While we make some changes to the basic BDEG funding, the basic structure is preserved. So there would continue to be proof-of-concept grants that would go to research institutions - that definition has been expanded somewhat, but it would include the state research institutions, University of Colorado. It would also provide some company matching grant funding, although the match would now be one dollar from the state to two dollars from the company and it will also provide infrastructure funding as is currently provided under the BDEG program. There are some caps on those funding amounts but in the case of proposals that would involve more than one advanced industry, those caps are removed. But again, it's pending and we'll have to see what the final legislation looks like. we've been working closely with the Office of Economic Development and International Trade on some related advanced... there's more...
RELATED LINKS:
CU Technology Transfer Office ||
CU TTO Channel ||
TTO Blog ||
CID4 ||
CBSA ||
KEYWORDS: Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President, Tech Transfer Office,
University of Colorado, Technology Transfer, The First to Invent Rule America Invents Act., Biotech Technologies, Bio Science Discovery,
Office of Economic Development and International Trade, Bioscience Discovery and Evaluation Grant Program - bytes=5151245
LISTEN TO: Tom Smerdon, Interim Assoc. Vice President, Tech Transfer Office, University of Colorado
Rick Duke & Kevin Smith, Venture Capital Money 1349_ 2/13/13 -
Part 2: As the companies we work with learn, the models sometimes change and new knowledge generates new directions. What we've learned working on the CID4 model is that there are great technologies in the state of Colorado. There are incredible entrepreneurs trying to get those technologies out. The one thing we are short of, as many people are, is investment capital. If we had more investment capital to put to work through CID4 we would, but we are limited. So we branched out and created a class of client that we work with. Which would be a company that takes advantage of our consulting service, for no charge as well as some of the programs we run as opposed to getting direct capital investment that we talked about earlier. Those programs include office hour programs which we conduct at both Boulder and Fitzsimmons, where individuals can come in an have one-on-one consultations with subject matter experts. We also do a lot of work on business plan development and make introductions to potential financing sources. In our view, the model that CID4 started with trying to provide active hands-on management, now we're continuing to expand on that, but also not invest but providing guidance. Rick Duke is very active in helping to raise finances, but there's a lot of confusion about what venture capitalists are doing today and what they're not. Dr. Duke said, "Venture capital changed dramatically around 2008-09 and I think there was an expectation it was going to come back in a relatively short period of time. And I think it surprised all of us when we haven't seen the return of venture capital at the level that it was in the late 90s and early 2000 period. Most notably for Colorado, at least in the life sciences area, we don't see much in the way of that initial lead VC firm that we had and enjoyed during that early 2000 period. That has really forced us to go out to the coast to look for venture capital money for our client companies. Or, actually to look at some of the angel investors and angel investor groups that have been forming recently here in Colorado.." .Listen for much more...
RELATED LINKS:
CID4 ||
CU Technology Transfer Office ||
CBSA ||
CU TTO Channel ||
TTO Blog ||
KEYWORDS: Rick Duke, Kevin Smith, CID4, Colorado Institute for Drug, Device and
Diagnostic Development, Colorado Life Science Industry, Bioscience Discovery Evaluation Grant program, CU Technology Transfer Office,
Proof of Concept > bytes=8753217
LISTEN TO: Richard Duke & Kevin Smith, CID4
Rick Duke & Kevin Smith, CID4 Investing
Supporting the Colorado Life Science Industry... 1346_ 2/7/13 -
Larry sat down to get an update from Kevin Smith, President & CEO and Richard (Rick) Duke, Ph.D., Founder & CSO - CID4 [Colorado Institute for Drug, Device and Diagnostic Development] a 501-C3 non-profit organization, launched back in 2009 with a mission to support the growth of the Colorado Life Science Industry both in terms of numbers of companies and numbers of jobs. Kevin explained, "Over the period of time since we started operations we work with companies, both to invest in and provide active management, to help guide them through the valley of death, when they're running out of cash but before they can actually access larger amounts of investment capital. So far we've invested in six companies - put $2 million to work. Those companies have created 65 direct jobs and they've attracted $20 million in investment capital into their businesses and used to grow their businesses here in Colorado." Rick said, "I think what sets us apart from other types of organizations like this is that we provide active management to our portfolio companies or project companies for that matter." A lot of that technology is early spin outs out of the University of Colorado or other research institutions where you've got a faculty member who is an entrepreneur and inventor, but doesn't necessarily have the experience in starting a company, or managing the operations, or developing a business plan, or product development plan. This is where CID4 often takes a fairly active role. Getting the company off the ground. Initiating operations and literally pitching the company to both angel investors and venture capital investors - with the goal of graduating them, raising a significant amount of capital to where they can now move out on their own." It's important to understand that CID4 is a not-for-profit company and what that means is the money that they invest in a portfolio company, if there is a return on that investment, rather than that traditionally being shared with the management of the venture capital firm, in fact, in our situation, that money goes back into technology development. This is unique from a number of... Listen for more...
RELATED LINKS:
CID4 ||
CU Technology Transfer Office ||
CBSA ||
CU TTO Channel ||
TTO Blog ||
KEYWORDS: Rick Duke, Kevin Smith, CID4, Colorado Institute for Drug, Device and Diagnostic
Development, Colorado Life Science Industry, Investments, CU Technology Transfer Office, bytes=5738060
LISTEN TO: Richard Duke & Kevin Smith Colorado Institute for Drug, Device and Diagnostic
Development
Funding biotech technologies with matching funds for startup companies 1333_ 1/11/13 -
We're back with Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President of the University of Colorado Technology Transfer Office in Boulder. We are starting the new year with a look at some metrics for the past year as well as a look at the coming year. The Tech Transfer Office covers the entire Colorado University system, with campuses in Boulder, downtown Denver, the Anschutz Medical Campus and the Colorado Springs campus. The bulk of the research dollars are going into the Boulder as well as the medical campus and most of the inventions are going to be coming out of that research from those campuses. But there is still a significant amount of research going on in Colorado Springs and some in downtown Denver in terms of funded research. Tom said, "Last year we had 226 invention disclosures on a system wide basis. That was down from the year before, but still a very healthy number. Applications were a little above last year, we filed 261 applications and executed 47 option license agreements [in line with and greater than past years] but we'd certainly like to get that number up as well as the number of exclusive licenses which tend to be the real revenue generators. Last year we had 32 of those. In terms of startups, , there were ten spun out of the university system - split pretty evenly between Boulder and Denver with a couple out of Colorado Springs." This has been very steady, over the past 8 or 9 years, they've averaged about 10-11 each year. Tom is very pleased to tell us, "Most of those companies...listen for more ...
RELATED LINKS:
CU Technology Transfer Office ||
CU TTO Channel ||
TTO Blog ||
Proof of Concept Programs ||
The Start-up Process ||
KEYWORDS: Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President, Tech Transfer Office, University of Colorado, Technology Transfer, Invention Disclosures, Start-ups, Funding, Biotech Technologies, Bio Science Discovery, Evaluation Grant Program
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LISTEN TO: Tom Smerdon, IA VP, TTO University of Colorado
Looking at industry alliances and collaboration 1324_ 12/13/12 - When we last spoke with Tom Smerdon he was manager/director of Licensing & New Business Development; today he is Interim Associate Vice President, University of Colorado Technology Transfer Office. In his humble way, Tom tells us, "In the wake of Dave Allen's departure, I inherited Dave's position here." Although they've not filled his former position, so Tom's a busy man, still doing a little bit of what he used to do. But mostly Tom is doing the AVP job and thoroughly enjoying it. We asked him to tell us about his new position... "Basically it's more of a management position. Tech Transfer Office is a system office. So we cover the Boulder Campus, Anschutz Medical Campus, Downtown Denver as well as the Colorado Springs Campus. and we have a satellite Tech Transfer Office in connection with Anschutz Medical campus as well as the main office here which includes the administrative staff. We have close to 20 full time employees. And in addition to the case managers, the professionals that work on evaluating technologies, working with perspective licensees and helping to do the deals as well as managing the patenting process, we have a very top notch administrative staff that handles marketing and communication. Lindsay Lennox, Kathe Zaslow, working on a number of service agreements, materials transfer agreements, confidentiality agreements, different collaboration agreements. Last year we completed over 800 of those types of service and related agreements that are technically licensed to draw options." Tom talked about the great job other team members are doing. Larry asked, "What's going on now?" Tom replied, "Well, we're trying to maintain our performance of the past. Last year we received a little over 225 invention disclosures. So we're continuing to work on the challenges that are evaluating technologies that are disclosed to the office and then getting them licensed. Beyond that one of the initiatives we've been working on to work with the campuses to pursue ways of promotion industry alliances. There is a concern that the level of federal funding, which last year on a system basis, was $815 Million in total funding support, most..." There's more, listen now... RELATED LINKS: CU Technology Transfer Office || CU TTO Channel || TTO Blog || CUTTO General Administrative Office || KEYWORDS: Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President, Tech Transfer Office,
University of Colorado, Technology Transfer, Lindsay Lennox, Kathe Zaslow, Tara Dressler, Rick Silva, Kate Tallman, CU TTO >
bytes=6271376 LISTEN TO: Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President Tech Transfer Office, University of Colorado
The strength starts with the research enterprise 1271_ 9/5/12 -
We're bidding a fond farewell to Dr. David Allen, the Tech Transfer Guru at the University of Colorado. Over the last decade, we've watched Dave Allen lead the CU Tech Transfer Office to soaring heights. He's brought a great team together and feels confident that he's leaving his post in very capable hands. "It's difficult to leave Colorado. Colorado's a great place. I've had a wonderful time here in the last ten years." But he feels it's important to him to be in a position to provide the most value to another major research university - Arizona University. He'll be in the president's office, reporting to the president, part of the cabinet and that is important in that the University of Arizona is making a major commitment for technology commercialization. Dave will be the executive director of the overarching organization called, Tech Launch Arizona, within the Tech Launch is their Tech Transfer Office, an outstanding research park and a business incubator associated with that. They have some very good entrepreneurship programs. They have a business / industry liaison program which is like a front door to the university for people who want to access the university and its resources. But it's bitter sweet, Dave leaves behind a lot of friends, a lot of good memories - "But, I have one more in me and this is where I've chosen to do it", said Dave. "I think I'm lucky this time, like I was when I came here. I have all the support, resources and a good environment." When Dr. Allen came to CU Larry said, "I wonder what this guy is going to do. And over these numbers of years, the team you've built, the successes that have occurred, the impact on the university as well as the community and the state as a whole has been fabulous and Arizona is really lucky." We also talked with Dave about CU's strengths. Dr. Allen recognized Lindsay Lennox, Marketing Assistant Director, for the great job she's been doing for years and said she has helped place CU TTO right below the University of California - and that's a much bigger university system than Colorado. "We've become a place that helps define the practice of technology transfer in American universities." One of David’s key team members, Tom Smerdon has been named interim leader of CU TTO. Listen for more…
Related Links:
CU Technology Transfer Office ||
TTO Blog ||
CU TTO Channel ||
CU TTO Awards ||
Tech Transfer Performance Metric 2011-12 ||
TTO Strategic Plan ||
Colorado to Arizona ||
Keywords: David Allen, University of Colorado, Technology Transfer, Inventions, Tom Smerdon, Lindsay Lennox, Arizona, Energy, Bio Medical, Clean Tech, Annual Report, Decade, Discovery Evaluation, Grant Program, Royalty Stream,
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LISTEN TO: Dr. David Allen - Farewell
Keep at it, eventually there will be a turn around 1240_ 7/12/12 - Story: Originally published 01/31/11...check out their progress now... ARCA Biopharma, Inc. is a Colorado-based biopharmaceutical company developing genetically-targeted therapies for heart failure and other cardiovascular diseases. Larry interviewed Michael R. Bristow, MD, Ph.D. CEO & Chief Science and Medical Officer of ARCA at the CU Technology Transfer Office Awards banquet. Dr. Bristow has been a favorite interview for w3w3® for years. Larry asked him, "Michael what are the biggest changes you've seen in this last year in your industry?" He re[lied, "It's been a couple of tough years, but I think things are starting to turn around and basically the atmospherics have gotten a lot better. Just coming off a JP Morgan meeting, it was, I thought, a completely different tone this year." Dr. Bristow had some interesting insights about funding. "Well, it's sort of like financing of real estate was back in the early 80s when interest rates were 20% - you've got to do creative financing. So, all kinds of vehicles have been used through this period. ARCA biopharma, for instance did a reverse merger, bought a company that was NASDAQ listed, that had a bunch of cash - that proved to be a good move. So people have gotten through this one way or another, but we need to get back to traditional sources of funding." Larry asked, "Is there any particular advice to people in your arena?" Spoken like a true leader he replied, "Yes, don't give up. I mean, tenacity, keep at it, eventually there will be a turn around. Now when things aren't going too well may be the best opportunity there is in terms of acquiring assets. Think ahead. Think positive." Dr. Bristow joined ARCA as one of ARCA’s founders in September 2004, and has served as Chairman and Chief Science and Medical Officer of ARCA until he was appointed to his current position of Chief Executive Officer in July 2009. Dr. Bristow is a Professor of Medicine and the former Head of Cardiology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, where he has been since October 1991. Dr. Bristow was one of the founders of Myogen, Inc. He is also a guy who lives his talk…listen for more… ARCA biopharma || CU Technology Transfer Office || CU TTO Channel || TTO Blog || CU TTO Awards || Award Photos || Keywords: Michael Bristow, ARCA biopharma, CU Technology Transfer Office, Biotech, Cardiology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, University of Colorado Cardiovascular Institute, bytes=2927702 LISTEN TO Michael Bristow, MD at TTO Awards
Keep at it, eventually there will be a turn around 1240_ 7/12/12 - Story: Originally published 01/31/11...check out their progress now... ARCA Biopharma, Inc. is a Colorado-based biopharmaceutical company developing genetically-targeted therapies for heart failure and other cardiovascular diseases. Larry interviewed Michael R. Bristow, MD, Ph.D. CEO & Chief Science and Medical Officer of ARCA at the CU Technology Transfer Office Awards banquet. Dr. Bristow has been a favorite interview for w3w3® for years. Larry asked him, "Michael what are the biggest changes you've seen in this last year in your industry?" He re[lied, "It's been a couple of tough years, but I think things are starting to turn around and basically the atmospherics have gotten a lot better. Just coming off a JP Morgan meeting, it was, I thought, a completely different tone this year." Dr. Bristow had some interesting insights about funding. "Well, it's sort of like financing of real estate was back in the early 80s when interest rates were 20% - you've got to do creative financing. So, all kinds of vehicles have been used through this period. ARCA biopharma, for instance did a reverse merger, bought a company that was NASDAQ listed, that had a bunch of cash - that proved to be a good move. So people have gotten through this one way or another, but we need to get back to traditional sources of funding." Larry asked, "Is there any particular advice to people in your arena?" Spoken like a true leader he replied, "Yes, don't give up. I mean, tenacity, keep at it, eventually there will be a turn around. Now when things aren't going too well may be the best opportunity there is in terms of acquiring assets. Think ahead. Think positive." Dr. Bristow joined ARCA as one of ARCA’s founders in September 2004, and has served as Chairman and Chief Science and Medical Officer of ARCA until he was appointed to his current position of Chief Executive Officer in July 2009. Dr. Bristow is a Professor of Medicine and the former Head of Cardiology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, where he has been since October 1991. Dr. Bristow was one of the founders of Myogen, Inc. He is also a guy who lives his talk…listen for more… ARCA biopharma || CU Technology Transfer Office || CU TTO Channel || TTO Blog || CU TTO Awards || Award Photos || Keywords: Michael Bristow, ARCA biopharma, CU Technology Transfer Office, Biotech, Cardiology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, University of Colorado Cardiovascular Institute, bytes=2927702 LISTEN TO Michael Bristow, MD at TTO Awards
