Commercializing Technology with SBIR

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The Relay Race of Commercializing Technology with SBIR $$

Relay Race of Commercializing

428_ Maturing of the SBIR Program Means Big Changes: $2.2 Billion at Stake

The good news is that successful commercialization from those receiving SBIR funds (non dilutive to the receiver and are grants that don't need to be paid back) are working. The challenge is the rules have changed over the past 25 years and for the better, at least for those who adopt to the way 'the game' is now played. Russ Farmer, Executive Director of SBIR Colorado and President and Founder of PBC, Inc. explains these new innovative strategies and shares some of the local SBIR funded success stories. They include Coherent Technologies, Myogen, and Powercycle. Russ shares the some innovative ideas that are revolutionizing the entire SBIR and commercialization process. It's Powerful, Proven and People Oriented. After all, who doesn't want a piece of the $2.2 Billion available to small companies and inventors for their great ideas? 1/21/08 Related Links: PBC, Inc. || Looking for Money || Source of Info || Podcast Directory ||| Keywords: Russ Farmer, PBC, SBIR, STTR, Financial Cluster, Small Business Innovative Research, Grants > Bytes: 22348594

Contents:
Russ Farmer, PBC, Inc.
Paul Grimmer, Eltron Research & Development
Jeff Richardson, Living Systems

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Looking for Money Channel
PBC, Inc.
SBIR Colorado

Paul Grimmer,
President, Eltron Research and Development 462_ Commercialization of Innovative Ideas - Far Reaching and Profitable
Eltron Research & Development is one of the largest SBIR companies in the country. Paul Grimmer came out of big business; he worked for Conoco and Conoco Phillips for almost 30 years, and never dealt with SBIR, because it’s for small businesses. About 2 ½ years ago Paul and his wife bought Eltron Research. “Eltron had developed over 100 technologies that we thought had commercial value”, Paul said. But the focus was, ‘let’s get the next project’, not taking the one you finished and going to the market place with it. The big challenge is, there are very few projects ready to go to market after completing a phase two SBIR program ($850K). Some of them may require ½ million, a million, some may require a hundred million dollars, but the key is, there’s no more money from the feds. You’re too early for the VCs, less for the angels who generally don’t understand a lot of the technologies. So, how do we get all this, or at least a significant fraction of these technologies to market? This is really what the SBIR program is all about, to help the small businesses get a jump start in getting their innovations to the market. Classically most SBIR companies are focused on science and maybe to a lesser degree engineering. So, we’ve added engineers, business developers, and of course all this costs money outside of SBIR. So that’s a challenge, just getting the right skill sets in there to help analyze and develop things, and so forth. So how do you bridge that gap? Well, we’ve elected to go down two routes, one (longer term) is to find larger companies in the industry that have deeper pockets that might be interested in forming a new product line or enhancing a product that they’ve got. You work a deal with them and in return for them funding additional development they retain the rights to your technology. Some of that can take a long time. The other thing we’ve done, since I’m not interested in giving away huge chunks of our technology, at least until we get them into the market place, has been to do some things so that we can continue the development ourselves.
Related Links: Eltron Research & Development || SBIR Sources of Info || Looking for Money || w3w3® Blog || Keywords: Paul Grimmer, Eltron, Research, Development, SBIR, Research, Commercialization, Innovative, Grants 3/24/08 - Bytes: 25745766

466_ Moving From an Innovative Idea to Commercialization
Have you ever wondered how you could get money for a high-risk innovative idea. Jeff Richardson, President of Living Systems explains how. Learn how small technology companies can access substantial funding from the federal government. This is the funding that can pay for high-risk R&D. Jeff explains that the processes are clear, complete, and fair. But it is also highly competitive, scientifically rigorous, and extremely time-consuming. However, the process forces you to think through your technology and its commercial potential...the latter is a requirement of the SBIR program. Because of the competitiveness and long time frames, companies pursuing SBIR funds are advised to have a “ladder” of proposals in the pipeline. Jeff answers these questions about the federal grant program, Small Business Innovative Research program (SBIR). Why is your company interested in SBIR money? How do you apply for SBIR funding? How is the SBIR funding working out (Both the Pros & the Cons)? Where does it all lead? Jeff shares a number of tips that could help you and your innovative company get a federal grant...it's money you don't have to pay back.
Related Links: Living Systems || NIH Grants || SBIR Colorado || Looking for Money || BYTES: 23521387 - 3/31/08 KEYORDS: Jeff Richardson, Living Systems, SBIR, Small Business Innovative Research, Commercialize, Innovation, R&D