ANN ARBOR ? Last year, Michael Crowley, an MBA student at the University Of Michigan Ross School Of Business, took a unique class where he worked closely with professors seeking to commercialize technologies they had developed not only at the U-M, but also Michigan State and Wayne State universities.
Crowley also rubbed elbows with scientists, both from academia and private business, who wanted to learn how to write business and marketing plans they could show to potential investors. The goal of Finance 629, Internships in Commercializing University Research, is to create new life sciences companies that generate gold collar jobs in Michigan.
The academic experiment worked for Crowley. At the class, he met Gary Smith, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the U-M Medical School and director of the Assisted Reproductive Technologies Laboratory, and Shuichi Takayama, assistant professor of biomedical engineering and macromolecular science and engineering. The two researchers developed an in vitro fertilization device platform that closely mimics the human reproductive system. With Crowley?s business expertise, the three men started Incept Biosystems, which has the potential to revolutionize how cell researchers and clinicians grow and analyze cell tissues, increasing the success rate of conception.
?The class gave us a great forum on how to spend the necessary time to do research,? Crowley said. ?And for those students that aren?t looking to become entrepreneurs, at least they now know how it is done,? Crowley said.
Finance 629 has the backing of the U.S. Department of Labor, Michigan Research Institute, and the U-M?s Center for Venture Capital and Private Equity Finance, headed by David Brophy, the creator of the annual Michigan Venture Capital Symposium. Brophy’s Finance 629 course has become the prerequisite for anyone seeking to win up to $100,000 in pre-seed capital from The Frankel Commercialization Fellows program announced in October by the U-M.To read the Frankel story, click on MITechNews.Com
?The objective of the class is to identify and evaluate the different market opportunities that may exist for the technology developed in this research and to come up with a commercialization plan rather than a business plan at the end,?? Brophy said. ?At the end of the class this year, we?ll have 15 projects presented to a panel of Venture Capitalists, whose charge will be to critique the work done and give feedback on what still needs to be done. They?ll also identify which projects may be fundable.?
Brophy said half of the 50 students in this year?s class, the second year it has been offered, are undergrads. Some are MBA students. But he?s trying to broaden the talent pool to include more students, professors and mentors from the U-M Medical School, Engineering School as well as Sciences majors.
Ken Nesbit, Executive Director, U-M Tech Transfer, said the class has been a great educational experience that also lets students get more involved in commercializing bleeding edge technology developed by professors and other scientists in Michigan.
?It really works best with trained mentors working with the students,?? Nesbit said. ?We hope the class fosters better connections for these students. Instead of a full time job in the summer, the get this experience through a class. They work on projects part time during the school year. We think there is some synergy with Brophy?s class and working with us at Tech Transfer.?
The class also has achieved some major milestones, including :
Three term sheets, three job offers and shifting the attitudes of 69 percent of students taking the class towards careers in technology ;
The course will be the keystone of a newly designed 2-year MBA curriculum for students wishing to be involved with high-tech entrepreneurism and technology commercialization ;
The course will be a pre-requisite for a new student run fund to invest in early seed stage technologies and ideas;
Commercialization plans will be presented to an investor panel at a half-day symposium and the winner, or most investable idea presented, will win a trip to Monaco to present at a business plan competition in Europe.
