December 01, 2022
Back in October of last year while talking to two senior administrators at OU’s College of Medicine, I was walking them through what I wanted to be doing on the venture development front. Out of the blue I declared, “I’m tired of talking about what I want to do…so why don’t we just DO something? Why don’t I solicit our researchers and offer to take then through an ideation and strategy building process for those wanting to see their innovations commercialized?” And thus, Innovation Pathway was quickly born and put into the hands of our first cohort of researchers.
Back in October of last year while talking to two senior administrators at OU’s College of Medicine, I was walking them through what I wanted to be doing on the venture development front. Out of the blue I declared, “I’m tired of talking about what I want to do…so why don’t we just DO something? Why don’t I solicit our researchers and offer to take then through an ideation and strategy building process for those wanting to see their innovations commercialized?” And thus, Innovation Pathway was quickly born and put into the hands of our first cohort of researchers.
Us lawyers, we get a bad rap. Of course, this sentiment is not completely unfounded—as with any profession, there are good and bad people, both personality-wise and professionally. However, it never ceases to amaze me of folks’ overwhelming negative reactions pertaining to attorneys. Perhaps it is the popular, stereotypical portrayal of attorneys being nothing more than money-hungry, cold, calculated automatons bent on nothing less than personal gain and complete submission of the counterparty. While some attorneys undoubtedly fit this mold, I am here to tell you that not all of us attorneys are cut from that cloth and at the end of the day, I am on your side and here to help!
I don’t believe I’m breaking any news here, but starting any business is hard! Starting a business around a new, unproven, first of its kind, disruptive technology that either doesn’t have a market equivalent or asks customers to change their status quo is even more challenging. Doing so as a first-time entrepreneur coming out of a university, well you get the picture. But over the last ten years that I have been involved in the Technology Transfer space, universities across the country have made truly phenomenal progress in the resources and programs made available to support these fledgling startups as they prepare to leave the nest.
