Overview

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 adopted 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.

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 activities to help researchers decide if the idea should move forward as a start-up company and test the start-up fortitude of the researchers themselves.

Results to Date as of December 2007:

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  -        Have held six workshops at Cornell (Ithaca and Geneva) to date. 

  -        Thirty technology teams have participated: 

  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 (8/17 Cornell owned technologies)

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

  o      3/30 resulted in decisions not to go forward with commercialization at this time (1/3 Cornell owned technology)

  -        JGSM students participate for credit on independent study.

  -        PSW are organized and administered by the Institute for Biotechnology and Life Science Technologies through the NYS Center for Life Science Enterprise

  -        University co-sponsors include CCMR, CCTEC, EShip@Cornell, NYSAES, Johnson School

  -        External Sponsors include NYSERDA, AM&T, High Tech Rochester, Hobart & Williams 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.

  -        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:     

John Trachtenberg, Director, Business Development

Center for Life Science Enterprise

Ph: 607.254.4877

Fax: 607.254.6379

jt387@cornell.edu

Coordinated by Cornell's NYSTAR Center for Life Science Enterprise.