You are cordially invited to join Opus Faveo Partners, Christian Blackwell and David Overton, on October 5th at 10:30 am CDT / 15:30 GMT for our October webinar on “Strategic Fundraising”. Raising money is one of a founder’s most important jobs, and often one of the most frustrating. Traditional fundraising tends to take a lot of time […]
You are cordially invited to join Opus Faveo Partners, John Dupree and Jim Stewart, on August 24th at 10:30 am CDT / 15:30 GMT for our August webinar “Entropy: How to Avoid the Invisible Start-up Killer”. There are lots of reasons why start-ups and spin-outs die, but one you don’t often hear discussed is “running out of […]
You are cordially invited to join Opus Faveo Partners, John Dupree and Christian Blackwell, on June 29th at 10:30 AM for our June webinar “From Survive to Thrive: Early Stage Venture Development”. See how investor proficiency at opportunity assessment must be combined with true venture development in order to build robustly viable new enterprises. Understand […]
You are cordially invited to join Opus Faveo Partners John Dupree and Christian Blackwell on June 29th at 10:30 AM for our June webinar “Incubate, Accelerate, or Obfuscate?” What is early stage venture development? Find out how a new venture development model can increase odds for success and bring hard-to-find resources and talent to founders […]
How are university spin-outs and other start-ups valued by investors and venture capital firms? On what basis is a price set for the equity an investor receives? Is there some secret formula? Is it a science, an art, or a little bit of both? And why is it so important for university technology officers to […]
What is it that really drives university researchers to want to start a tech based company? What challenges do they face and how do they overcome them? How hard is it to raise funds? What resources are available? What has surprised them about the process? How could their university be more supportive? In this month’s […]
One of the biggest concerns for founders and investors in university spin-outs is finding and attracting experienced managers. This is particularly difficult at the very early stages of a new venture. Where do you look for talent? What sort of skills are most important to the success of a new company? How does a new […]
With all the news and commentary around the huge amounts of venture capital being invested in new companies and the massive valuations for some technology start-ups, one might think that seed financing for university spin-outs should be quick and easy. It isn’t. Funding a university technology spin-out takes considerable planning, work, and time. But knowing […]
Most universities have star researchers whose unique technology platforms deserve serious consideration as a university spin-out. But creating new companies is so difficult, uncertain and complex that often universities either attempt to license derivative patents to an established company or simply allow opportunities to languish instead of exploiting the entrepreneurial opportunities that the technology platform […]
Why is it, with all the attention being paid on campuses to entrepreneurial activity the success of university tech spin-outs is so small and difficult to achieve? Colleges across North America have initiated incubators, accelerators, mentor programs, entrepreneurial classes, business case competitions, venture funds and on and on. Yet for all the impact these programs […]