not under the demands of shareholders.
Rather, it is often neutral and can enable
even typically competitive organizations to
collaborate for the greater good of society.
While governments are not expected to
over-regulate, their ambiguous guidelines
can sometimes lead to fragmentation if
the industry does not reach consensus, as
evidenced by the lack of interoperability in
the healthcare segment. If the government
actively engages industry, then further
fragmentation would be avoided and the
associated longer term problems likely
minimized.
What can and how can we help
entrepreneurs to aid the process to
success?
To support the entrepreneurial process,
federal laboratories are encouraged to focus
on some new approaches, namely:
• Increase visibility of their capabilities and
ensure innovations are readily available
• Provide clearer guidance on what the
laboratories can provide and, equally
important, what they cannot provide
• Host a series of technology focused
workshops to raise awareness of available
programs and opportunities
• Award grants to entrepreneurs to support
their programs
• Create more opportunities for innovation
bridges, so that challenges are solved
together from the onset
Supporting entrepreneurs to quickly
achieve a “Yes/Go” or “No/Go” pitch to
future investment is critical. For example,
Entrepreneurs themselves fall into distinct
groups as determined by their efforts.
Entrepreneurs focus on target-market fit
and sustainable advantages of their products
to attract investors. They need exclusivity
yet have limited funds for licensing. For
many start-ups, future equity is their only
currency, so they need financial resources to
help solve the problem.
What can well-established
companies do to improve
interaction, integration and
chances of success?
Investing time with the federal
laboratories to learn more about ongoing
research activities and outputs is one way
to improve outcomes. Most research results
are complex and are “works in progress.”
While it is relatively rare to find a nearly
commercially-ready technology solution
in the laboratories, the laboratories have
deep expertise and capabilities and can help
companies quickly solve complex challenges.
Additionally, there is the need to resist the
urge to negotiate the terms and conditions
of collaboration agreements with federal
laboratories. Most laboratories can quickly
implement standard agreements, yet must seek
multiple levels of federal approval for non-
standard agreements, significantly increasing
the time required to put an agreement in place.
Furthermore, federal laws and policies limit
the extent to which partnering agreements
can be substantively changed, so that lengthy
negotiations rarely result in significant changes
in agreement terms.
Defining success at the stages of discovery,
development, deployment and distribution
are key to having projects reach positive
outcomes. Without this expectation setting,
project timing will be misaligned and it
will be challenging to realign the stage-appropriate support to achieve real business
value.
Again, the three conditions associated
with barriers to success apply—namely,
alignment of mission, resource needs and
time to market, together with company
exclusivity. However, where a start-up
may be heavily dependent on IP as a
sustainable competitive advantage, large
companies have other factors contributing
to that competitive advantage, for example,
brand, supply chain, scale, and channels.
Large corporations will tend to “engineer”
around patents in their commercialization
process. Acquisition of IP will occur through
licensing if it is core and foundational, and
they cannot overcome the barrier. They
will also only buy/license IP in times of
disruption or transition. Generally, this
outcome is achieved by acquiring a start-up
that has commercialized a proven product
market fit. In effect, established corporations
are looking for products, not research, when
they need technology.
How can the VC communities
and start-ups take advantage of
outcomes from federally funded
programs?
Interactions between venture capital
(VC) communities and start-ups present
several areas for improvement. For
example, enabling them to interface and
work routinely with universities and other
programs would increase their familiarity
and comfort level with federally funded
initiatives. However, it is also important
to note that writing a successful grant
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