Pre Seed Workshop

PSW is a systematic approach to investigate very early stage ideas; assessing their potential as the foundation of a start-up business, licensing opportunity, or new product within an existing business. At the core is a unique, collaborative, hands-on workshop. Teams are created around a central technology, product or business idea and typically include a technology champion, a legal advisor, an industry expert, an MBA student and an experienced entrepreneur.

In the Workshop, the teams address fundamental questions that must be considered before starting up a company in a series of nine break-out sessions related to the technology, the market, the competition, the business potential, etc. Participants create an overall presentation of their idea and deliver it to a panel of experts. The expert panel then provides feedback on the merit of the opportunity.

The idea teams complete two, intense one-day sessions separated by one week of "homework".

For a complete background please go to the PreSeed Workshop website: http://www.psw-ny.com/

Upcoming Regional Pre Seed Workshops:

ROCHESTER November 12, 13, and 20
Contact: Rami Katz

2010- to be held in Ithaca, NY. on April 1, 2, and 9. Fill out the application at http://www.psw-ny.com/application.php and return to biotech@cornell.edu . The first applicants will be considered for the competitive slots at no charge.

Overview

Two and a half days separated by a week of "thickening" http://www.psw-ny.com/about.php

Cornell has a long history of working with campus inventors to commercialize technology and start new companies. However, there is a growing "pre-seed" gap for inventions coming from universities into the marketplace.

Desen Zheng, from the Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y., talks about his research to other members of his team in one of the Pre-Seed Workshop breakout sessions.

Cornell has participated in a program entitled the "Pre-Seed Workshop" put together by management and venture consultants to address the very needs of pre-seed ideas.

The Pre-seed Workshop (PSW) is a systematic approach to help researchers evaluate the commercialization potential of an invention and provide essential information from the venture capital and business community for launching a start-up company. Read what participants are saying: http://www.psw-ny.com/testimonials.php

PSW was designed to take a raw idea from a university lab or other source and investigate its marketplace viability using a preliminary commercialization plan developed in the workshop. Additionally, PSW includes hands-on activities to help researchers decide if the idea should move forward as a start-up company, and tests the start-up fortitude of the researchers themselves.

The Workshop is ideally designed for teams who have already attended CCTEC Bootcamp but at a stage before companies have sales revenues or have attracted significant venture capital.

Results to Date (at Cornell):

We have held six workshops at Cornell (Ithaca and Geneva) to date.

• Thirty technology teams have participated:

FONT size=2>o 15/30 based on Cornell owned technology

o 17/30 have resulted in start-up companies that have received outside funding and/or are generating revenue from sales (almost half of these start-ups are based on Cornell owned technologies 8/17)

o 10/30 have resulted in potential start-up companies that are being organized and looking for funding (60% of these are based on Cornell owned technologies 6/10)

o 3/30 resulted in decisions not to go forward with commercialization at this time (one of these 3 was based on Cornell owned technology)

• Local PSW are organized and administered by the Institute for Biotechnology and Life Science Technologies through the NYS Center for Life Science Enterprise
• JGSM students participate for credit on independent study.
• University co-sponsors include CCMR, CCTEC, EShip@Cornell, NYSAES, JohnsonSchool
• External Sponsors include NYSERDA, AM&T, High Tech Rochester, Hobart & William Smith Colleges (Geneva workshops), NYSTAR, the law firm Jaeckle, Fleischman & Mugel, LLP
• PSW was developed by Mark Wilson of Initiatives Consulting and Judy Albers of JJA Consulting (see http://www.psw-ny.com/team.php)
• Coaches and team members actually contribute their time to this Workshop and the average workshop will involve these professionals and grad students for at least 650 hours of in-kind assistance

The Pre Seed Process

Idea Team

Sample Schedule

Information: http://www.psw-ny.com/

Susi Varvayanis-Host City Coordinator

Ithaca-Geneva area

Ph: 607.254.6541

Fax: 607.254.6379

email

Locally coordinated by Cornell's NYSTAR Center for Life Science Enterprise.

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