Upon spinning-off 13 companies from Columbia University in FY 2009, we at the Venture Lab realized that we’d now eclipsed the century mark with over 100 spinoff companies historically. We were also heartened by the fact that over 30 of these had been venture-backed at some point in their life-cycle, over 20 had either been sold or gone public and among them they had created in excess of 1500 jobs and raised over $1 Billion in venture capital.

It’s a testament to all the great work being carried out by the faculty and grad students in the 7,000 plus labs at the University, by the business school’s entrepreneurship center and by the talented entrepreneurs and investors who stepped up to take fledgling ideas and transform them into commercial ventures.

It’s also just a snapshot of the emerging behemoth of university entrepreneurship being loosed upon campuses around the country.

(Above find just a few of Columbia University’s portfolio companies)

For Part Sixteen in in this Series, click here

Dave Lerner

September 19, 2009

Notable News: "Read All About It"

Dave Lerner

September 19, 2009

WSJ: "Jim Breyer & Tim Draper at Odds on VC Outlook"

Chris Morris (VentureBeat): "Is the Tech Boom Over for Entrepreneurs?"

Anthony Ha (VentureBeat): "New VC Marc Andreessen Joins HP Board"

Venture Hype: "How Successful Angels Invest"

Larry Cheng: "The Most Expensive Commercial Real Estate in the World is A Place for Computers Not People"

Dave Lerner

September 16, 2009

Google Acquires University Spin-off ReCAPTCHA

Dave Lerner

September 16, 2009

This is part of my Series on University Entrepreneurship.

Another success story in the annals of university spin-offs hit the wires today.

Hearty congrats to MacArthur Genius Luis von Ahn and his colleagues at Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science. Their spin-off company, ReCaptcha was acquired today by Google. You can find Google’s announcement here and additional information here.

The company came up with a clever and effective variation on traditional CAPTCHAs by using words scanned from old books and archives that computers find difficult to read. In fact, more than 100,000 sites are currently using this technology. Google will go beyond this initial application however and intends to use the technology to greatly improve some of its own text and archival scanning projects, including Google Books.

For Part Fifteen in in this Series, click here

Dave Lerner

September 8, 2009

Series on Entrepreneurial Culture

The “X” Factor in Business

Dave Lerner

September 8, 2009

Series on Entrepreneurial Culture

This is part of my Series on Entrepreneurial Culture.

Much as it has with most other sectors, the economic downturn has taken its toll on the early-stage ecosystem. Many angels have curled up into fetal position for a while, a good number of VC funds are simply running on fumes and lots of startups are having a difficult time getting traction and are consequently running out of operating capital. By necessity people keep up appearances but plenty of old hands out there know what the deal is. There’s no getting around it- it’s just been tough.

I won't descend into cliché by expounding upon the inevitable “silver-lining” or the “positives” in all this. I will simply say that I have observed that a by-product of these trying times has been a sense of clarity imposing itself almost everywhere. Everything has become very basic in that so many early-stage companies are simply fighting to survive and to get through all this. Entrepreneurs are in hard-core bootstrap mode, the universities and the city are pitching-in trying to do their part, and the local entrepreneurship communities are congregating and banding together like they never have before. There’s something absolutely special going on in this city and I’ve been heartened by it. In my work as an entrepreneur in the university space and as an angel I have the privilege of meeting and working with dozens of entrepreneurial teams each year and the camaraderie and enthusiasm so many of them possess in the face of all this is inspiring.

There’s something else that has been reinforced to me in all this. It’s what I call the “X Factor” in business. When someone in a university lab for example, makes a shocking scientific breakthrough in an area with a large commercial market- it is as if there were never such a thing as a recession. The sun suddenly emerges in full force and the dark skies are a distant memory. Investors and entrepreneurs get on planes, trains and automobiles from near and far and converge in full force- money is suddenly plentiful, the absence of a management team is a mere detail and the future is unlimited. The somber story-line I’ve painted in the paragraphs above (and that the media repeats ad-nauseum) is suddenly rendered meaningless. When Vinod Khosla decides to raise a couple of new clean tech funds, again, the mainstream narrative is eviscerated and he raises over one billion dollars with a wave of his hand. Similarly, when the likes of an Andreessen feels it’s his turn, a cool $300 million plus materializes for his new fund.

My message in all this? Simply that nothing is as it seems. That the “new story” can be written at any time, by anyone, regardless of the conventional mainstream narrative or the state of the economy. If you’ve got a me-too company or an incremental improvement on a product that already exists, or if you’re not fully committed to the venture- well, it’s a safe bet that convention will apply. But if you’ve got something magnificent, something bold and clever and possibly disruptive, well then… you may yourself be that “X-Factor” and if so, anything is possible.

For Part Fourteen in in this Series, click here

Dave Lerner

September 4, 2009

Notable News: "Read All About It"

Dave Lerner

September 4, 2009

Chris Dixon: “VC’s Care About the Upside Case Not the Mean”

VentureBeat "Cleantech Due For a Comeback?"

WSJ: "Twitter is Worth $_________."

Alan Patricof (NYTIMES): “Stopping Startups”

Wenger: “Does Your Startup Have the Right DNA?”

VC Deal Lawyer: “Let’s Talk Angel Investors”

Dave Lerner

August 30, 2009

Notable News: "Read All About It"

Dave Lerner

August 30, 2009

     Caine Moss (VentureBeat): "Seed is the New Series A For VC's"

3)   Aaron Hoos (Venture Hype): "Not a One Trick Pony Angel Investor"

4)   Fred Wilson: "The Biggest Loser Can Be the Biggest Winner”

5)   Camille Ricketts (VentureBeat): "Green Energy Sector Sees Record Patents"

Dave Lerner

August 25, 2009

University Spinoffs: A Stunning Track-Record of Success

Dave Lerner

August 25, 2009

This is part of my Series on University Entrepreneurship.

Recently I met an entrepreneur at a function who, upon learning that I ran the Venture Lab at Columbia University asked me why he should pay any attention to the university space at all- telling me that he had never heard of any successful university spinoff companies. I responded by saying that I wasn’t surprised and that this view is actually a common misconception. I went on to point out that companies with household names such as Google, Lycos, Genentech, Gatorade, Hewlett Packard, Polaroid and others were all formed around university intellectual property. He was definitely shocked to hear this and we subsequently had a pleasant discussion about the Bayh-Dole Act, the spinoff process, and essentially the whole fascinating landscape of university entrepreneurship.

I have conversations like this so often that I thought I’d share a few statistics about university spinoffs to which I can refer entrepreneurs and investors in the future.

Over 400 university startups are created each year based on federally funded R&D.
Google, Netscape, Genentech, Hewlett Packard, Polaroid, Lycos, Sun Microsystems, Silicon Graphics, Chiron, Amgen, Regeneron and Cisco Systems are all examples of university startups.
68% of university startups created between 1980 to 2000 remained in business in 2001, while non-university based startups experienced a 90% failure rate during that same time period
1/3 of SBIRs reported involvement with a university including scenarios where either the founder was a former academic, university faculty were consultants, universities were subcontractors, or graduate students were employed
8 percent of all university startups go public, in comparison to a "going public rate" of only 0.07 percent for other U.S. enterprises - a 114x difference
By way of example, as of FY 2009, Columbia University has spun-off over 100 companies historically, over twenty of which have either been acquired or gone public, over 30 of which have been venture-backed at some point in their life-cycle, leading to the creation of in excess of 1500 new jobs.

(Sources: NCET2 and Columbia Technology Ventures)

For Part Twelve in this Series, click here

Dave Lerner

August 20, 2009

Notable News: "Read All About It"

Dave Lerner

August 20, 2009

1) Stuart Ellman (RRE): "Respect"

2) WSJ: "IBM Drills Further Into Brazil's Tech Start-Up Scene"

3) VentureBeat: "First Andreesen-Horowitz Investment"

4) Jeff Nolan: "The PR Agency of Satan"

5) Larry Cheng: "Leave Something on the Table"

Dave Lerner

August 17, 2009

5 Steps to Take If You Cannot Raise Any Capital for Your Startup

Dave Lerner

August 17, 2009

This is part of my Series on Venture Capital.

In a recent webinar I addressed the topic of raising capital and launching startups during an economic downturn. Previously, I published this post dispelling certain myths about raising capital. One matter I did not address in either of these, however, is perhaps the starkest reality entrepreneurs must face in times such as these. It is the reality that very few newly launched startups will actually be able to raise any seed capital whatsoever.

Until significant traction is achieved in a new venture, funding from angels or VC’s alike is simply more of a scarcity than it normally is. Now is truly a time for friends and family money, but this too is difficult to come by for many these days.

So if you find yourself in such a situation and yet are determined to launch your startup, what should you do? Here are some steps you can take:

1) First forget about paying rent. Find a free cubicle at a friend’s office, work out of a lounge or your home, or try to get accepted into a local incubator program.

2) Employees? Forget it. Hire some unpaid interns, give a talented developer some equity with a vesting schedule based on milestones and make do for now.

3) As for basic startup needs such as conference calling, file exchange services, online databases, blogging tools, analytics, bandwidth, etc., most of these services can be obtained for free and/or on the cheap. Just check out services such as google docs, amazon web services, drop.io, freeconferencecall, dabble, crazyegg and many others.

4) Lawyers? Forget it. Usually there is no need for a lawyer at this point. Instead, find an experienced mentor and read my post about this topic here.

5) Everything else? Do it all yourself but constantly attend local entrepreneurship events and mix with fellow bootstrappers for moral support so as to constantly exchange information and ideas. Put yourself out there, get "in-the-know", help others and you will find that people will want to help you as well.

If you think this is tough, you’re absolutely right- so read about Bill Powell building an entire golf course from scratch or about Jeff Bezos’ earliest days at Amazon for inspiration.

The bottom line is this: It's all on you right now. Welcome this challenge, be incredibly resourceful and make it happen.

Dave Lerner

August 12, 2009

Notable News: "Read All About It"

Dave Lerner

August 12, 2009

Startup Pro: Startups: Start with a Problem, Not an Idea

WSJ: "Benchmark Capital Keeps the Returns Coming"

Mark Peter Davis: "Don't Bootstrap Your Company to Death"

Lightspeed Venture Partners: "What is the Difference Between a Good Product and a Good Company?"

PC World: "Venture Funding Still Scarce"

Dave Lerner

August 9, 2009

Series on Entrepreneurial Culture

Profiles in Entrepreneurial Courage: The Story of Bill Powell

Dave Lerner

August 9, 2009

Series on Entrepreneurial Culture

This is part of my Series on Entrepreneurial Culture.

I was really inspired by an article I read in this weekend’s NY Times penned by Larry Dorman. It’s about a gentleman by the name of Bill Powell, a veteran of WWII, a great-grandson of Alabama slaves, and a man who endured enormous indignities and discrimination but nonetheless persevered in achieving his entrepreneurial dream. His particular ambition was to design, build and run his own golf course.

Upon his return from the war no bank deigned to give him a loan and he was essentially denied the rights accorded to him in the G.I. Bill. Unbowed, he managed to scrape together some seed money for his venture, borrowing from his own brother and from two black physicians. He then proceeded to handle the rest on his own and slowly and steadily built a golf course from scratch. He finished with the front nine in 1948. After earning the means to buy some more land, he completed the back nine thirty years later- in 1978.

Today his Clearview Golf Club of East Canton, Ohio is on the National Register of Historic Places and Mr. Powell, who is now 92 years old, will shortly be receiving the PGA’s Distinguished Service Award.

I write quite a lot about entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial culture and you can find my various posts on this subject here. These two passages below, however, said it all to me and embody somehow what being an entrepreneur is all about:

“He did much of the heavy work himself, clearing brush, pulling out fence posts and hauling away stones in a wheelbarrow. He seeded the fairways by hand, sometimes helped by Marcella, who died in June 1996 after 56 years of marriage.”

“He and my mother planted most of the trees you see there bordering the first hole,” she [his daughter] said. “When you think about what he was able to accomplish here, with everything that was arrayed against him, it really is quite amazing.”

For Part 6 of this Series, click here.

Dave Lerner

August 8, 2009

Welcome to my blog...

Dave Lerner

August 8, 2009

This is a place where I examine the world of start-ups, early-stage entrepreneurship, angel investing and venture capital. I also welcome you to explore the fascinating world of university entrepreneurship with me.

For more about me, here is the link to my About Me Page. Thanks for dropping by.

Dave Lerner

August 5, 2009

Notable Posts: "Read All About It"

Dave Lerner

August 5, 2009

1) VentureHype: "If Passion Was Marketable..."

2) Mark Peter Davis: "How to Identify Jerk VCs"

3) BusinessWeek: "What do Venture Capitalists Want?"

4) WSJ: "About as Close as VC comes to a Ponzi Scheme"

5) Daniel Cohen: "The $1bn VC Panel Question"

6) BostonVC: "Saying No When It's the Team"

7) Entrepreneur: "5 Steps to a Successful Niche Business"

8) Dintz: "US CTO Chopra 'Yes, White House Tech Sucks"

Dave Lerner

July 30, 2009

Links

Dave Lerner

July 30, 2009

Columbia University STV Venture Lab

Columbia Venture Community

New York Tech Meetup

Lang Entrepreneurship Center

Dave Lerner

July 29, 2009

Angel Investing, Capital, Entrepreneurship, Raising Capital, Start-Ups, Technology, Technorati Tags, University Spin-Offs, VC, Venture Capital, Web/Tech, Weblogs

Raising Capital and Launching Startups in Uncertain Times

Dave Lerner

July 29, 2009

Angel Investing, Capital, Entrepreneurship, Raising Capital, Start-Ups, Technology, Technorati Tags, University Spin-Offs, VC, Venture Capital, Web/Tech, Weblogs

This is part of my Series on Venture Capital.

A few weeks ago I authored a post describing five common myths about raising capital. In this webinar organized by the National Council for Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer, I am joined by colleagues of mine from the venture, angel and legal community to specifically address the challenges of raising capital and launching new companies in a difficult economic environment. The webinar's agenda also includes the following specific sub-topics:

How recent market developments are affecting tech transfer offices and startups.
Emerging trends in the angel investment market.
Emerging trends in the venture investment market.
Changes in legal terms of startup transactions.
Positioning startups for funding and operational success.

In my remarks I specifically address how the economic downturn has affected university start-ups/spin-offs and what steps university venture labs can take in light of such conditions. I welcome your insights as always.

Dave Lerner

July 28, 2009

Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Series on Entrepreneurial Culture, Start-Ups, Technology, Technorati Tags, VC, Web/Tech, Weblogs

Jeff Bezos: Extraordinary Entrepreneur

Dave Lerner

July 28, 2009

Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Series on Entrepreneurial Culture, Start-Ups, Technology, Technorati Tags, VC, Web/Tech, Weblogs

This is part of my Series on Entrepreneurial Culture.

If you’d like to hear an amazing entrepreneur talk about what he’s learned about over the past fifteen years, definitely listen to Jeff Bezos in this video below. You’ll also hear why he’s so excited about his recent acquisition of Zappos. For those who don’t have time to watch it in its entirety his major points were:

Be relentlessly focused on your customers

Be ready to invent on behalf of your customers

Be ready to think long term and ignore the noise

Zappos is a remarkable company and is obsessed with its customers

Remember, it’s always Day One!!

It’s easy to look at the behemoth that Amazon has become today and forget that all of this started with a tiny team working out of Jeff’s house. He is a true visionary.

Dave Lerner

July 26, 2009

University Entrepreneurship

Dave Lerner

July 26, 2009

*Note:

I have broken this category down into three sections below.

I) The first is all about the student entrepreneurship and how to "win" as a student entrepreneur.

II) The second section is about university entrepreneurship more generally, including faculty spinoffs.

III) The third is a list of Grants and Business Plan Competitions for Student Entrepreneurs (AKA: Free Money!)

Series on Student Entrepreneurship:

I) WHAT STUDENT ENTREPRENEURS NEED TO DO TO SUCCEED

Series:

My TEDx Talk on Student Entrepreneurship: "Why Wait 'Til You Graduate?"

What Every Student Entrepreneur Needs to Know to Succeed (1) Just Win, Baby

What Every Student Entrepreneur Needs to Know to Succeed (2) Get Connected!

What Every Student Entrepreneur Needs to Know to Succeed (3) Know Something!

What Every Student Entrepreneur Needs to Know to Succeed (4) Social Media

What Every Student Entrepreneur Needs to Know to Succeed (5) Finding a Mentor

What Every Student Entrepreneur Needs to Know to Succeed (6) Relationships w/ Investors

What Every Student Entrepreneur Needs to Know to Succeed (7) Grants & Competitions

*Background Reading:

The Coming Entrepreneurial Tidal Wave: University Entrepreneurship 2.0

A New Breed of University Entrepreneur Arrives on Campus

Why and How Universities Should Embrace Startup Culture

II) UNIVERSITY ENTREPRENEURSHIP & SPINOFFS

University Spin-Offs (1): The Vaunted Gates Creak Open and Entrepreneurs Peer Inside

University Spin-Offs (2): A Quick Primer

University Spin-Offs (3): Suffering From Entrepreneur's Block?

University Spin-Offs (4): Professor as CEO?

University Spin-Offs (5): Angels in Our Midst?

University Spin-Offs (6): Amazing Historical IPO Rate

Should There be Profit in Knowledge? A Century of American Debate

Deal Terms for University Spin-Offs

University Spin-Offs: Bridging the Cultural Divide

Cultivating a University's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: A Master Class

University Spinoffs: A Stunning Track-Record of Success