Term: Fall 2023

Date: October 3rd, 2023

Time: 12:00pm - 1:00pm

Location: Online Only

Instructor: Mark Mondry

Presented By: Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation (OVPRI)

Description:

Course will meet on the above date, but will remain open for two weeks after for information and the recorded session.

Welcome to our fourth session of LAUNCH Startup Labs.  This is going to be another session full of information and discussion and will move fast.

In this session, we discuss two topics every entrepreneur is interested in: How do I formally create a company, and where's the money? 

The actual mechanics of starting a new company is relatively easy to understand but there are choices that need to be made.  In our session, we will introduce the different legal structures available and the general differences. Selecting which is best for any particular opportunity depends on many factors and there is no single best answer for all new ventures.  Startup founder teams are encouraged to learn about the choices available, the differences between states, and seek out legal advice applicable you your specific circumstances.  Avoid the temptation to follow over simplistic recommendations you may find on the internet.

Funding is equally complex.  As we have discussed in prior Startup Lab sessions, attracting funding is a competitive activity.  In some ways, it may feel similar to the submission and R&R process for scholarly articles or the research grant proposal process.  So many submissions, so few selected.  We will introduce public and private forms of commercialization funding and help you see how they relate to each other.

Formation and funding are connected.  There is no simple multi-step process that, if followed, assures that a technology from your research emerges as a funding new venture.  Success starts from our second Lab session - validating the commercial opportunity. 

Remember our definition of a startup (a temporary organization  . . . ).  Startups operate in conditions of high uncertainty.  Early stage investors and public commercialization funds do too, but the burden is on the startup to attract that funding!