ANN ARBOR ? The University of Michigan added another piece to its technology commercialization program this week when it announced the Frankel Commercialization Fellows, which could pay student teams of entrepreneurs, researchers and scientists up to $100,000 in pre seed capital to get their dream companies ready for angel investors.
The Frankel Commercialization Fellows program ? named for U-M alumnus Stanley Frankel who made his money in real estate – is run by the Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, which also manages the Wolverine Venture Fund.
?Large organizations, particularly universities, conducting research have a vast, untapped potential for venture creation,? said Timothy Faley, Ph.D., managing director of University of Michigan?s Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies. ?Michigan is continuing to innovate by formalizing a process that will give university research a better shot at making it to the next stage toward commercialization. Researchers benefit by having students with the business and entrepreneurial acumen to move their inventions to the next stage, while MBAs are placed on the front lines of real, tangible research.?
?We want to create a pipeline with U-M Tech Transfer to take companies from seed, to full funding, to exit,?? Faley said. ?The idea behind the Frankel Fellowships is students or professors have an idea for a business, but no investors will touch it until the financial risks are mitigated. By giving these projects initial funding of $20,000 to $50,000, we can mitigate some of those risks and make them ready for angel investors.?
Thomas Porter, Zell Lurie Institute Executive in Residence and managing director of the Frankel Fellows Program, said the biggest challenge of the research commercialization process is in the early stages, trying to determine if an idea in the lab has real promise.
The Frankel Fellows Program is aimed at identifying the most promising ideas in our university community and boosting their potential for later investment,? he said.
Frankel Fellows work will be guided by a University of Michigan alumni advisory board and other members of the business community experienced in early stage technology commercialization processes and company formation. Participating students are also required to take a prerequisite course to better understand the research process and assess technology opportunities.
Stanley Frankel heads Frankel Associates, a privately held commercial real estate development and management company founded by his father. They are the owners and developers of office buildings, apartments, hotels, townhouse complexes, a golf course and retail establishments. Frankel received an A.B. in economics from the University of Michigan in 1963 and an MBA from its business school in 1964. He has served on the Business School?s Development Advisory Board and its National Campaign Committee and currently is a member of its Visiting Committee.
