Writing on the blog sponsored by the Rockstar Group, a U.K.-based entrepreneurial consulting firm, social media strategist Laura Hillman describes “10 commandments” to secure angel investment:

1. “Better the devil you know.” Prove your in-depth knowledge of your own business and that of your primary competitors by presenting potential investors with a comprehensive business plan a week before your pitch meeting. Include a description of your business, financial projections for the current and next two fiscal years, and background on your management team, short- and long-term business objectives, key products and services, target market, competitors, and main suppliers. The business plan also should touch on your marketing and sales strategies and your long-term exit plan. “Writing a detailed business plan requires succinct writing skills, clarity of style, and in-depth knowledge of your marketplace,” Hillman writes.

2. Protect your brilliant idea. If your business comprises an original idea or design, protect it to prevent competitors from replicating it. Clearly outline any patents, trademarks, and other proprietary measures that are pending or in place. Create a prototype of your product design and organize beta tests.

3. Put your money where your mouth is. Show potential angel investors how you’ve invested your own money in the business to demonstrate that you are “serious, passionate, and believe that the business will be successful,” Hillman says.

4. Know your angels. Research potential investors to learn the types of industries and companies they target, how much they typically invest, and what type of return they seek. Approach angels that have invested in businesses with a similar size, turnover, and risk profile as yours.

5. Know your numbers. Understand your company’s current financial position and provide realistic forecasts for the next several years. “Take a calculator with you,” Hillman says. “There is no shame in saying you always carry a calculator so there is absolutely no room for error.”

6. Be a master negotiator. Go into the pitch meeting knowing your bottom line. How much of your business are you willing to give away in return for the investment you seek?

7. Have the patience of a saint and the persistence of a true entrepreneur. You may be lucky and find an angel investor during your first pitch, but the process is more likely to take three to six months. Be tenacious yet humble, confident yet selfless.

8. Leverage your network. If an angel likes your idea but not your market niche, ask about other investors with different investment criteria who may be interested. Ask your mentors about individuals in their networks who may consider taking a stake in your business. “Leverage your mentors’ little black book,” Hillman advises.

9. Heed all good advice. After every pitch, ask the investor for feedback. Even if the pitch is successful, you could learn to improve your technique, which could stand you in good stead when you pitch to another potential investor.

10. Seek all the help you can get. Pitching to angel investors is one of an entrepreneur’s most important — and daunting — activities. Work with outside experts to prepare your business for private investment and to locate angels who will be receptive to your pitch.

Source: Rockstar Group

Posted September 1st, 2010 under Tech Transfer. [ Comments: none ]

Athens, OH-based E3 Technologies, LLC, will develop an Ohio University invention called the GreenBox to clean commercial and agricultural wastewater and produce hydrogen energy — a technology described as “pee power.” Founded by Gerardine Botte, PhD, professor of biomolecular and chemical engineering at Ohio U and inventor of the technology, E3 recently licensed a suite of electrochemical devices and technologies developed by Botte to commercialize for the green energy market.

Through a patented low-energy electrolysis process, the GreenBox converts ammonia and urea in wastewater to hydrogen, nitrogen, and pure water. The electric current in the device creates an electrochemical reaction that oxidizes urea and converts it into carbon dioxide, which is then sequestered in the electrolyte material in the machine. The box also produces hydrogen energy. “It’s a synergistic technology,” explains company CEO Kent Shields. “By reducing emissions, you also get a free, clean source of energy.” The technology could help a variety of industries — from the military and agriculture to wastewater treatment operations and commercial construction companies — to deal with the disposal of ammonia, which the Environmental Protection Agency considers a serious environmental toxin. Urea electrolysis also could be used to produce ammonia for selective catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxide emissions, Shields says.

In the meantime, Ohio U officials have even bigger hopes pinned on drug development spinoff Interthyr Corp. as their next commercial blockbuster, following on the heels of Diagnostic Hybrids — a maker of test kits for viral infections and thyroid diseases that was sold in January for $130 million to San Diego-based Quidel Corp. After investing $1 million in Diagnostic Hybrids, the university’s take from the sale was a hefty $35 million.

Interthyr has already started to generate some cash for the university — $20,000 last year — thanks to a test for the thyroid disorder Graves’ disease. The company’s still-unnamed investigational drug for inflammatory autoimmune disorders works by blocking signals from a Toll-like receptor that initiate an autoimmune response in cells. Principal investigator Leonard D. Kohn, MD, hopes to file for an investigational new drug application by the end of 2011, which would allow Interthyr to begin testing the drug in humans with the goal of getting it on the market around 2015.

Sources: Power Online and MedCity News

Posted September 1st, 2010 under Tech Transfer. [ Comments: none ]

With tightening public research budgets, global economic turmoil, and a declining appetite for risk among early-stage investors, now more than ever it’s critical for TTOs to sharpen their strategies for securing research dollars, using creative tenacity and key best practices to establish both internal funding mechanism and tactics for attracting outside investments. That’s why we developed The 2010 IP Funding Bundle, featuring a library of 6 strategy-filled programs with 9 hours of top-notch advice, practical ideas, and how-to guidance from industry experts on securing the funding your IP needs to move toward commercialization. The library consists of six critically acclaimed programs that are now being offered for one heavily discounted price that saves more than $750 off the regular individual price.

Take a look at the individual titles included in the library:

• Escaping the Valley of Death: Overcome the Funding Gap for Early-Stage University IP
• Launch Your Own VC! Create Your Own Funding Vehicle For University Technologies
• VCs and Angels speak to TTOs: ‘Here’s what we want to see — and what we don’t’
• The Perfect Elevator Pitch: Sell Your IP in 3 Minutes or Less!
• Start-up Best Practices: Funding Options and Opportunities
• Start-up Best Practices: Pitching Techniques To Get The Funding You Need

For complete details and to order, CLICK HERE.

Posted September 1st, 2010 under Audioconferences, Tech Transfer. [ Comments: none ]

Scotland’s Edinburgh Napier University has filed a patent on a biofuel manufactured from byproducts of distilling whisky and plans to spin out a company to commercialize the technology. The process was developed over the last two years at Napier’s Biofuel Research Centre with financial backing from Scottish Enterprise’s proof of concept fund.

Research findings indicate that biobutanol provides 30% more output power than ethanol and can be used in existing cars without modification. The fuel is made from the two main byproducts of whisky production: pot ale, which is the liquid from the copper stills, and draff, or the spent grains. Scotland’s £4 billion whisky industry generates 1,600 million liters of pot ale and 187,000 tons of draff every year. “This is a more environmentally sustainable option and potentially offers new revenue on the back of one Scotland’s biggest industries,” says Martin Tangney, director of the Biofuel Research Centre.

Source: Science Business

Posted September 1st, 2010 under Tech Transfer. [ Comments: none ]

Euclid, OH-based MesoCoat, Inc., a venture-backed nanotechnology materials science company, has acquired exclusive commercial rights to a high-density infrared surface modification technology IP portfolio from UT-Battelle, LLC. The breakthrough surface engineering technology was developed over the last decade at the infrared processing center in the industrial materials division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The technology enables the application of coatings and cladding materials at rates that are one to two orders of magnitude faster, and with better quality, than alternate processes such as laser or weld cladding or furnace processing.

The high-density infrared technology enables large areas to be clad rapidly with wear- or corrosion-resistant metal or cermet coatings. The technology allows metallurgical bonding of metal and ceramic coatings to be applied rapidly and at low cost to large areas that are difficult to reach, such as ship decks, building supports, reactor vessels, bridges, and pipes. Additional benefits include the reduced use of natural resources, potential energy conservation, and less reliance on environmentally damaging substances such as chromate primers to protect large structures.

A second ORNL technology that extends the life of light-emitting diode (LED) lamps has been licensed to LED North America of Oak Ridge, TN. The exclusive license covers a graphite foam technology developed by James W. Klett, PhD, a researcher in ORNL’s Materials Science and Technology Division. LED North America plans to use the graphite foam to passively cool components in LED lamps, which are increasingly sought for applications such as street and parking garage lighting.

Cooling LED lamps is critical to increasing their efficiency, considering that each 10-degree decrease in temperature can double the life of the lighting components. Using graphite foam to manage the heat of LEDs more efficiently could help extend the lamp’s lifespan and lower its price, making the lamps more attractive to a broader consumer base. In addition, graphite foam’s high thermal conductivity, low weight, and easy machinability give the material greater design flexibility and make it a lighter and more efficient cooling option. “While this technology will reduce temperatures and increase the life of the LED lighting systems, what it will really do is save municipalities millions of dollars every year in replacement fixture costs [and] maintenance,” Klett says.

Sources: Nanowerk and Nano Patents and Innovations

Posted September 1st, 2010 under Tech Transfer. [ Comments: none ]

Scientists at Harvard University have fashioned nanowires into a type of V-shaped transistor small enough to probe the interior of cells. The device, described in Science, is smaller than many viruses and about 1/100^th the width of the probes currently used to take cellular measurements. The technology represents a marked improvement over bulkier probes, which can damage cells upon insertion and reduce the accuracy or reliability of data. “Our use of these nanoscale field-effect transistors, or nanoFETs, represents the first totally new approach to intracellular studies in decades [and] the first measurement of the inside of a cell with a semiconductor device,” says senior author Charles M. Lieber, PhD, professor of chemistry at Harvard.

Lieber and colleagues say nanoFETs could be used to measure ion flux or electrical signals in cells — particularly neurons. The devices also could be fitted with receptors or ligands to probe for the presence of individual biochemicals within a cell. Aside from their size, two features allow for easy insertion of nanoFETs into cells. First, Lieber and colleagues found that by coating the structures with a phospholipid bilayer — the material found in cell membranes — the devices are easily pulled into a cell via membrane fusion, the same process used to engulf viruses and bacteria. Secondly, introducing triangular “stereocenters” — essentially, fixed 120-degree joints — into nanowires in the proper orientation creates a single V-shaped 60-degree angle, enabling the construction of a two-pronged nanoFET with a sensor at the tip of the V. The two arms then can be connected to wires to create a current through the nanoscale transistor.

Source: Biology News Net

Posted September 1st, 2010 under Tech Transfer. [ Comments: none ]

2Market Information Inc., publisher of Tech Transfer E-News, has scheduled three practical distance learning seminars for September, each one filled with how-to guidance in a critical area for tech transfer and IP professionals. Here’s the September line-up – for more information, click on any of the individual titles:

• TTOs: Fast-Track Your Innovations — Wednesday, September 15, 2010
• Get Your Student Body on the Innovation Team — Thursday, September 23, 2010
• Best Practice Mentorships and Executive-In-Residence Programs — Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Posted September 1st, 2010 under Audioconferences, Tech Transfer. [ Comments: none ]

Researchers at Ohio State University have demonstrated a plastic computer memory device that uses the spin of electrons to read and write data. An alternative to traditional microelectronics, so-called “spintronics” could store more data in less space, process data faster, and consume less power. The prototype plastic spintronic device created by Arthur J. Epstein, PhD, distinguished university professor of physics and chemistry and director of the Institute for Magnetic and Electronic Polymers, and colleagues is described in Nature Materials.

At this point, the device is little more than a thin strip of dark blue organic-based magnet layered with a metallic ferromagnet and connected to two electrical leads. Still, the researchers successfully recorded data on it and retrieved the data by controlling the spins of the electrons with a magnetic field. Moving electrons through circuit boards creates heat, and cooling them requires a lot of energy, so chipmakers are limited in how closely they can pack circuits together to avoid overheating. Flipping the spin of an electron requires less energy and produces hardly any heat, Epstein explains, so spintronic devices could run on smaller batteries, resulting in lighter battery packs for soldiers in the field and individuals commuting to business meetings. The patented technology should transfer easily to industry, adds postdoctoral researcher Jung-Woo Yoo. “Any place that makes computer chips could do this,” he says. “Plus, in this case, we made the device at room temperature, and the process is very eco-friendly.”

Source:  PhysOrg.com

Posted September 1st, 2010 under Tech Transfer. [ Comments: none ]

A research consortium led by Pennsylvania State University has secured up to $129 million in federal funding to develop an energy innovation hub at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. The group garnered the highly competitive grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. Three other federal agencies contributed about $7 million, and Pennsylvania kicked in $30 million. Over the next five years, the federal grant will fund research into energy-efficient building designs and efforts to cut pollution in the construction, maintenance, and management of buildings, with a particular emphasis on retrofitting older buildings. “It’s really a technological game changer,” says Henry C. Foley, PhD, Penn State’s vice president for research and dean of the graduate school, who will lead a team that includes researchers from Princeton, Rutgers, the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel, and other institutions.

The Navy Yard “is perfect as a test bed,” adds John Grady, executive vice president of the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp., which manages the Navy Yard for the City of Philadelphia. The Navy Yard’s inventory of 200 buildings provides a complete and diverse set of “lab rats,” including a mixture of old and new factories, offices, warehouses, and research facilities. Eventually, residences will be added to the mix. The Navy Yard also has its own unregulated power grid, enabling researchers to experiment on the relationship between buildings and the power grid without affecting the city’s power system. Because buildings account for nearly 40% of U.S. energy consumption and carbon emissions, research from the project could lead to reduced energy use, less pollution, and more jobs in the building-efficiency industry, according to officials.

Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer

Posted September 1st, 2010 under Tech Transfer. [ Comments: none ]

Keith Strassner, director of the Office of Technology and Economic Development at the Missouri University of Science and Technology (MST) in Rolla, MO, has seen too many promising innovations come to nothing because inventors don’t have the resources to develop their ideas to a marketable point. Even if potential licensees or investors show an interest in the IP, they inevitably ask for additional data or a prototype. And that’s where the roadblock commonly referred to as the Valley of Death begins. “There is really not much funding out there for researchers to take something beyond the basic stage before you get to the big money — the angel money and other sorts of funding to really start a company,” says Strassner. “We looked at this need from the marketplace, and thought we have to figure out a way over this.”

The solution that Strassner and his colleagues at MST came up with is the Technology Acceleration Program or TAP, a process whereby the university is earmarking a portion of its earnings from patents into proof-of-concept funding, designed to get some of the most promising IP further developed. “We decided that it was a good use of the funds to put them back into researchers’ hands and let them do a little bit more work to make their inventions more attractive to the market,” says Strassner.

In its first year, MST is targeting about 22% of the school’s licensing income to fund the TAP effort, but researchers have to apply for the funds just as they would seek other types of grant funding, says Strassner. “We set up some very basic criteria so that in order to be eligible for the grants, you [must] have disclosed the technology to the technology transfer office, and the TTO has to have proceeded with a patent filing so that the only projects we are investing in are projects we have already [decided] are valuable,” he explains. “We aren’t going to invest [the royalty dollars] in basic research. It has to be building on something.” A detailed article on the TAP initiative appears in the August issue of Technology Transfer Tactics. To subscribe and access the full article, plus three years of archived best practices, CLICK HERE.

Posted September 1st, 2010 under Tech Transfer. [ Comments: none ]

In a step toward more efficient, smaller, and higher-definition display screens, a University of Michigan professor has developed a color filter made of nano-thin sheets of metal with precisely spaced gratings. Sliced into metal-dielectric-metal stacks, the gratings act as resonators that trap and transmit light of a particular color, or wavelength, explains Jay Guo, PhD, associate professor in the department of electrical engineering and computer science. A dielectric is a material that does not conduct electricity. “Simply by changing the space between the slits, we can generate different colors,” Guo says. A paper on the research is published in Nature Communications.

Conventional liquid crystal displays (LCD) contain two layers of polarizers, a color filter sheet, and two layers of electrode-laced glass in addition to the liquid crystal layer, so only about 5% of their back-light travels through them and reaches our eyes, Guo says. Chemical colorants for red, green, and blue pixel components must be patterned in different regions on the screen in separate steps. Guo’s color filter acts as a polarizer simultaneously, eliminating the need for additional polarizer layers. Because the new displays contain fewer layers, they would be simpler to manufacture, according to Guo. The university is pursuing patent protection for the innovation and is seeking commercialization partners to help bring the technology to market.

Source: Science Blog

Posted September 1st, 2010 under Tech Transfer. [ Comments: none ]

Amid his duties as a hospital CEO, Thomas N. Hansen, MD, of Seattle Children’s Hospital has invented what could be a disruptive idea for saving the lives of vulnerable newborn babies. A neonatologist by training, Hansen is leading a team that’s developed a prototype called the Hansen ventilator using simple technology that could sell for a fraction of the cost of existing life-support machines and be far easier to use.

Today’s ventilators use continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) to keep a continuous flow of oxygen through the lungs of infants using tubes inserted into the nostrils. Pressure is maintained on the exhalation end of the tube by sticking it in water. When an infant breathes out, he or she sends a stream of bubbles that are a sign of small pressure vibrations transmitted back into the lungs. The Hansen ventilator transmits higher pressure and lower frequency vibrations than the conventional systems to make sure there’s always sufficient pressure to prevent the lungs from collapsing, Hansen explains.

The Children’s team tinkered with a variety of settings to keep the pressure from falling to zero. Eventually, they hit upon a formula that creates just the right balance of pressure to keep the lungs open without pushing them too hard or flooding them with too much oxygen. The device has two simple dials — not a confusing bunch of bells and whistles like standard machines — so that medical staffers could easily adjust the breathing rate. The machine can get its oxygen from a standard industrial tank and be assembled with commodity parts. Hansen estimates the ventilator could be manufactured for $500, compared to conventional ventilators that cost $30,000 to $40,000. The Children’s team has published findings from a rabbit study in Pediatric Research and is preparing the ventilator for clinical trials in India.

Source: Xconomy

Posted September 1st, 2010 under Tech Transfer. [ Comments: none ]

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