Hey Bountiful,

Happy New Year! Sharing a few podcasts and opportunities we have in the can that maybe you haven't heard yet. Also, if you're not following us on Twitter or LinkedIn, please do. We jobs and other opportunities including some recent applications to become a Founder in Residence at Marble. Hear Benjamin Tincq talk about this project when it was in its infancy.

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Latest Podcast Episodes

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Episode 18: Trevor Best

Trevor Best is the CEO and Co-Founder of Syzygy Plasmonics, a startup pioneering a new type of chemical reactor driven by light rather than heat, enabling the potential for dramatically more efficient chemical manufacturing. Trevor and his co-founder, Dr. Suman Khatiwada, commercialized this novel photochemical tech out of Rice University. Trevor covers how he and Suman gained experience evaluating R&D while workign together at Baker Hughes, the methodology they developed to assess new technologies he calls TMI - technology / market / impact - and how to poke holes and find the big hairy problem that's going to kill your business. He covers everything from the very beginning - how they started reading journal publications looking for interesting technologies to commercialize, through their engagement with the inventors at Rice and their process in negotiating a license with the tech transfer office (TTO). Trevor goes into his past startups and why the failed and lessons learned. This convo is rife with good advice for grad-students and entrepreneurs looking to commercialize and I found it personally inspiring. With the right work ethic and the will/stamina to see things through, getting an impactful deeptech invention out of the lab and commercialized is achievable. Enjoy!

Episode 19: Alex Reed

Alex is the co-founder and President of Fluence Analytics, a technology startup that provides real-time analytics solutions for the optimization of manufacturing and R&D processes. His vision and leadership took the Tulane University spin-out from patented laboratory concepts to a company delivering innovative hardware and software solutions for process monitoring and optimization to chemical and biopharmaceutical manufacturers.

I love this story because Alex, without a technical background and technology commercialization experience, was able to build this company from the ground up to where Alex is now a named inventor on several of their patents, he has led the company in raising millions of dollars, hiring dozens of employees, and is selling multiple products into different verticals around the world. He discusses everything he learned via "trial by fire" including bringing in the right expertise and mentorship, best practices in team building, working with tech transfer offices, customer development, and how to fund the early operations and R&D of a deeptech startup. Alex's journey definitely has the power to inspire more people to commercialize deeptech research. Enjoy!

Episode 20: Yaron Daniely

Yaron Daniely is a Partner & Head of aMoon Alpha and an investment leader at aMoon Velocity, an early stage investment fund that pursues dis-ruptive, cutting-edge technologies with the potential to accelerate cure. This is a fast-paced, high energy discussion from someone who has seen all sides of the ecosystem, from PhD researcher and post-doc, to entrepreneur and public company CEO, to the world of tech transfer at a top university, and who is now bridging all of the gaps in between as an investor at a fund with more than $1B AUM.

We get into how he developed an interest in translational research, taking that to industry, developing curricula for scientists to learn about business, and how he helped to transform the tech transfer industry, including filling the proof of concept funding gap. He goes into how to identify what technologies and investigators have the highest chance of creating commercial success, how to incentivize tech transfer employees and increase the volume of licensing deals they do, and how to attract high-caliber entrepreneurs to join commercialization spinouts.

Listen on Spotify, Apple, Youtube and everywhwere else.

Opportunities

The EnergyTech University Prize (UP)

Sponsored by DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions, this prize is awarding $370K to collegiate students who successfully identify a promising energy technology, assess its market potential, and create a business plan for commercialization. If you or a student you know would be a good fit for EnergyTech UP, encourage them to explore possible energy technologies from the DOE national labs and register a team by January 26, 2023. More info here.

TEX-E Prize

The TEX-E Prize is a startup competition for Texas students who are developing innovative technologies and business models to advance the energy transition and address climate change. Applicants must include at least one team member who is an actively enrolled student at a university located in Texas. Winners will receive a total of $50K in cash prizes to advance their ventures. Apply here.

DOE Emerging Tech Studio Entrepreneur Application

The DOE Emerging Tech Studio, powered by FedTech, draws entrepreneurs who will investigate and build new ventures around technologies drawn from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories, that includes the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Apply for the 2023 cohort here.

And that's all for now folks. Here's to a prosperous 2023 for people and planet. Thanks everyone, speak soon. -Max

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