A panel of thought leaders spanning academia and industry discusses the path forward for tech transfer at the Digital Forum 2.0
They say the sequel is never as good as the original, but this was clearly not the case for the Digital Forum 2.0 which featured a second university roundtable made up of experts from academia and industry to discuss the impact of covid-19 on the future of work.
The panel, hosted by GUV editor Thierry Heles, included Karin Immergluck, executive director of Stanford University’s Office of Technology Licensing; Ilonka Jankovich, founding partner of venture capital fund Taptrove Ventures; Riam Kanso, founder and chief executive of Conception X, which helps PhD candidates launch companies; Kirsten Leute, partner, university relations, at investment firm Osage University Partners; Helen McBreen, investment director at investment firm Atlantic Bridge; Lesley Millar-Nicholson, director of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Technology Licensing Office; and Shobha Parthasarathi, vice-president, external innovation and new ventures, at incubator Xontogeny.
Kanso noted that many PhD candidates working on deep tech projects were less interested in pursuing a corporate career path anyway and that Conception X was “trying to show the wider spectrum of what a venture career can do for you.” This did not mean following preconceived notions and abandoning their thesis, but rather illustrating that “you do not have to be under existential threat to build a company”.
Millar-Nicholson agreed, stating that “postdocs are typically looking for an alternative – covid or not – to going into the academic environment. In fact, we have seen that for years.” The challenge, she observed, lay in the funding: “Crunchbase published a study recently that in some areas, globally, they had seen an increase in later-stage funding which would be a problem for early-stage funding.”
Leute, who nodded at Millar-Nicholson’s statement, picked up the thread: “It depends on the sector you are talking about. Early on in the pandemic we were seeing people retrench back, but since then the life sciences funding community has been very active. Whereas the tech area for us seems still not quite as active.
“Obviously we are dealing with a pandemic, so people are looking for life science solutions in general. But it is not just pandemic solutions that are being funded. It is also therapeutics or diagnostic medical devices that are being funded.
“Are we going to see an increase or decrease in startups? For us, so far, it seems mixed.
Immergluck chipped in: “At Stanford, our numbers are pretty flat compared to the last couple of years. We are seeing more in the life sciences sector, as Leute said, and of course the funding is much easier in the life sciences sector as well.”
McBreen, too, shared a similar experience: “There is very strong short-term pipeline that has maintained itself throughout the pandemic. What worries me a little bit more is in a couple of years time if we do not come out of this in a way that allows innovators to come together.
She explained: “You need those highlycollaborative, face-to-face environments to get these things off the ground. Those coffee shops in the innovation centers around campuses become very important places.”
Jankovich, who helps manage human resources firm Randstad’s Innovation Fund, acknowledged that graduate recruitment would look different simply because there were fewer jobs and hundreds would apply for each job – a development that was “really worrisome”. Nevertheless, she showed herself optimistic: “People will start thinking in a very different way. It will trigger this generation, which is coming out of university, to do things differently and start different businesses. The pandemic will not last forever and I am very hopeful that a lot of new, very interesting ventures will be started as a result of this.”
Parthasarathi remarked that a combination of factors were at play, such as the fact that students had role models and that “the current generation is a lot more open to risk than some of the previous generations were”. She provided the example of one of biopharmaceutical company Juno Therapeutics’ co-foudners who, when he started finding success with his venture, realised that within a year several of his students had also launched startups.
Parthasarathi added: “There is definitely a domino and snowball effect that is taking place and I see that all over the US.”
– Disclaimer: some quotes have been edited for clarity.