The Path to Commercialization
Venture Partners at CU Boulder provides a clear path to commercialization, offering resources and guidance to bring research discoveries to market.
Venture Partners at CU Boulder is here to help researchers atthe 鶹Ƶ, Colorado Springs and Denver (except CU Denver biosciences investigators, who should work with) on the path to commercializing their discoveries and bringing them to market to drive impact. Explore this map to impact, where each stage represents carefully selected and designed resources to help researchers succeed. Not every venture or discovery will complete every stage or in the same order as depicted, so the Venture Partners team is here to guide innovators toward success.
Explore the Path to Commercialization
STEP 1
Step 1: Disclose an Innovation
The adventure starts here! To begin working with Venture Partners, researchers, inventorsand creatorsmust disclose their innovations to the university. Shortly after disclosing, a member of the Venture Partners team meets with them to discuss their invention, available resources and how to bring their technology to market.
STEP 2
Step 2: Intellectual Property
To bring innovationsto the world through commercialization, it can be essential to create market exclusivity. This happensthrough securing intellectual property (IP). IP is a key asset for partnering your innovation with industry or building your own startup company, often in the form of patents and copyrights. Your Venture Partners licensing manager will discuss an IP strategy with you.
STEP 3
Step 3: Product-Market Fit
To commercialize an invention, whether partnering with a company or launching a new company,product-market fit is essential. Technical advances alone are insufficient for commercial viability and success—there must be compelling market fit and need.
Venture Partnersis a leader of the Nation Science Foundation's I-CorpsTM Hub: West Region, helpinginnovators across the West establish and test a strong product-market fit.
Venture Partners fosters a network of industry mentors ready to support new innovators on their path to success.
STEP 4
Step 4: Translation Funding
Funding is needed to develop an innovation for commercialization.This step in the journey comes afterfunding for basic research and beforeprivate investment, where further advancement is too translational for research funding and the innovation is not yet ready for risk-adverse corporate or venture capital investment. To support this need, Venture Partners offers various support programs for grant funding, pitch competitions and other opportunities.
Step 5: Choose a Commercialization Strategy
Innovations can be commercialized through one of two paths: licensing the intellectual property (IP) to an industry or partner or starting a new company (a startup) to bring the innovation to market. Venture Partners is a team of experienced industry leaders that can help choose the path to success for innovations.
Path A: Licensing and Industry Partnership
STEP 1
Licensing
A license is a long-term partnership that aligns the university’s and business partner’s shared interests in commercializing an innovation.Venture Partners benchmarks our licenses nationally to ensure our license deal structures are business-friendly and below market average. Innovators themselves will not hold a role with an industry partner—different from the path of starting a company—but they will share in any licensing revenue received by the university.
STEP 2
Industry Outreach
Questions?
Path B: Start a Company
STEP 1
Accelerators
Accelerators are an excellent and highly recommended way to go all-in and rapidly progress a startup to meet major developmental milestones for a company.
Venture Partners runs theAscentDeep Tech Accelerator, a free deep tech accelerator specifically designed for research-based startups coming out of the university trying to enter established industries.
Explore other local accelerators, including:
STEP 2
Pitch Competitions
There are almost boundless opportunities for a new company to launch and gain market traction throughcompetition. Not only can a startup win cash prizes, but competitions are also excellent ways to refine acompany’s pitch, meet mentors and connect to new team members, prospective partners and investors.
STEP 3
Non-Dilutive Funding
“Non-dilutive” funding means that shareholder equity is not reduced. In other words, the funder does not take a piece of the newcompany. There are several sources of non-dilutive funding specifically geared toward startups, including:
- Grants from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade,
- Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grants awarded by federal agencies.
Venture Partners' Center for Translational Research can help with applying for these grants and exploring other non-dilutive funding opportunities.
STEP 4
Startup Licensing
Startups obtain proprietary access to university-developed and owned IP through licensing agreements. Venture Partners has developed an investor-validated and startup-friendly set of licensing terms. Licensing with EASE® isa pre-negotiated deal structure that makes securing a license fast while positioning your startup for success. CU permits inventors to hold an equity interest in their startup while also receiving a share of any licensing revenue the university receives from the startup.
STEP 5
Investment
Most university startups require private investment to build their business and commercialize their licensed innovations. To help with connections to investors, Venture Partners leads Destination Startup, showcasingthe top early-stage university spinouts to a national investor audience. Startups can also pitch for an investment by the Buff Venture Fund, an independent venture capital firm that invests in startups from the CU Boulder community.