Based on Limited Experience Many many exceptions

Lot of evidence to suggest Academic research can lead to significant commercial value creation Academic technology transfer is hard

Academic Research => Companies Small Sample from Stanford 3

Small Sample from Other Places

Why is technology transfer from academia so hard?

Many Reasons… Lot of university research not relevant Developers of technology not motivated enough to participate What if technology is right and people are motivated?

Value Creation for a Successful Company Value Time of Tech Transfer Univ Focuses on Tussle with University Tech Office Univ wants a fraction of the final value o Breaks everything Entrepreneurs o Don’t have much capital o Want to conserve equity So cannot please university Tech developers more important than the exclusive license

Value Creation for a Successful Company Value Time of Tech Transfer Tussle with Technology Developers Developers want too much equity given their creation represents most of the value ignoring o Risks o Future developments needed Investors and managers o Want to conserve equity Only couple of developers are key - identifying them critical

Stanford has good track record … 9

Stanford’s Approach?

Stanford Approach Tech office “metrics of success” Licensing revenue is not one of them but Successful technology transfer Tech office is a partner Wanting to help faculty and students as opposed to adversarial negotiator

But then how does Stanford benefit from Tech Transfer?

Final Takeaways Academic research can lead to significant commercial value creation Successful tech transfer from academia requires Identification of technology that is relevant Persuading developers to be part of tech transfer o with reasonable expectations Change in universities’ tech office approach o Metrics of success: not licensing revenue but actual tech transfer o Open source is also forcing this change