Interview offers insight into effectively pairing inventors, entrepreneursA newly formed manufacturer of silicon-based solar cells spun out of the Georgia Institute of Technology recently announced a hefty $50 million financing, and also scored some flattering coverage in the local paper. The coverage included a Q&A with the technology’s inventor and the company’s CEO that offers lessons for university start-up managers. The company, called Suniva, is developing solar cells that operate at about 18% efficiency, roughly 50% better than current technology. With plans to boost that above 20%, the firm also expects to produce the cells cheaply — about $1 per watt — using established manufacturing techniques. The new cash infusion will be used to build a highly automated production facility in Atlanta, where Suniva is headquartered. The paper-thin cells, about the size of a CD case, will be marketed to manufacturers for installation in large solar panels. More instructive for tech transfer professionals than the start-up’s latest financing, however, was the Atlanta Journal-Constitution interview with CEO John Baumstark and inventor Ajeet Rohatgi, who is also Suniva’s chief technology officer. Here are a few excerpts:

Question: What did you know about business before you started this company?
Rohatgi: Very little. That’s the reason I never started. I knew business but not the business of starting a company. I have been a professor all of my life, an engineer.
Question: Mr. Baumstark, what concerns did you have about starting a business with an academic who might want to do things certain ways after 30 years of working at it?
Baumstark: The first thing for me — was Ajeet somebody I could work with? … I found out we have a similar value structure. … Winning is very important to me. And Ajeet is very competitive and wants to win from a technical level. … We both see the impact this business can have not just making our investors money, but it can have a real impact on the world. That was something that was important to me. I haven’t done that in any other company.
Question: What are the biggest disagreements the two of you have had?
Baumstark: We haven’t had many disagreements. Honestly. Question: There must be something.
Baumstark: I haven’t stepped into research and told him how to run research. And he hasn’t tried to tell me how to run the business, either. Maybe that’s why things have worked out.
Question: Did you two discuss how to talk with potential investors?
Rohatgi: One of things I’m criticized for is that sometimes I am more conservative than I need to be. … I don’t want to oversell something, but I’m also learning in this world you cannot be on the other side because you are underselling.
Question: Mr. Rohatgi, what surprised you most about starting a business?
Rohatgi: The speed with which things happen. I could not have imagined the company could raise $50 million within a few months. … The financial part of this world is very surprising to me — how much money is out there to be invested in good ideas.

Go to: VentureBeat and Atlanta Journal Constitution

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