Entrepreneurship Essentials session at SACNAS
For several years I have organized the Entrepreneurship Professional Development session at the annual SACNAS conference — which has become the largest gathering of underrepresented scientists in the United States. The session describes how to mitigate hurdles that many academic scientists will encounter when developing an idea and how to move those ideas into the market place. Panelists provide tools and resources for recognizing one’s skill sets to start a company and valuable insights towards identifying customers and capital. The audience is primarily comprised of underrepresented scientists, exhibitors and partners while the panelists also come from diverse ethnic background and training. There is nothing else like it in the country!
PAST SESSIONS:
2018 SACNAS Conference — San Antonio Tx Convention Center — Entrepreneurship Essentials: Energizing Academic Startups Through Government Grants
Navigating and securing the highly competitive Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) non-dilutional grants offered by the NIH and NSF can make or break an early-stage company’s success. Too often researchers are unaware of the preparation time line, specific requirements and best “storytelling” strategies to secure these innovation funds. This interactive and informational session is specifically designed to raise funding awareness, help potential applicants mitigate pitfalls and describe resources that raise the chances of securing an SBIR or STTR, and describe useful innovation programs such as the I Corps. Panelists will include NIH SBIR program staff to describe the program and lend insight to the application process. As an added value, specific resources will also be discussed on how to access jobs in the Energy sector through the innovation economy.
2018 Panelist:
Carlos Gutierrez, MBA/M.S. US Department of Energy, Business Program Manager
Luis Martinez, Ph.D. Director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Trinity University, San Antonio, TX.
Asis Lopez is an NSF IGERT Fellow and previous SACNAS Board Member
2017 SACNAS Conference — Salt Lake City Convention Center — Entrepreneurship Essentials: Design Thinking for Scientist
Why is Design Thinking rapidly becoming known as the ‘Scientific Method 2.0’? Find out as session participants will learn how to identify critical problems through multi-disciplinary and creative approaches, and, develop practical solutions through innovative thinking which can improve scientific research, its societal benefit and business ideation. This event is once again kindly sponsored by VentureWell.
For decades, scientists have applied the scientific method to test a hypothesis in a controlled manner. However, much of what is being taught in the classroom and a controlled laboratory setting rarely transfers into the real world, much less an innovative enterprise. Through ‘design thinking’, scientists acquire the practice of challenging assumptions, identifying unmet societal needs using human creativity, apply multi-disciplinary approaches, and clearly communicating ideas and solutions which can have an immediate impact on experimental design and business ideation. The goals of this session will be to 1) educate the primarily academic audience on design thinking and 2) create greater opportunity awareness in innovation and entrepreneurship, and more specifically, through VentureWell’s programming for scientists and engineers. This unique mindset of design thinking for scientists can act as a catalyst towards institutional change, open additional opportunities in multiple career paths, and act as a foundation for entrepreneurship.
2017 Panelists:
- Dorn Carranza, Ph.D/M.B.A. — Senior Program Officer for Venture Development and Entrepreneurship at VentureWell
- Luis Martinez, Ph.D — Director-Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Trinity University
2016 SACNAS CONFERENCE — Long Beach Convention Center — Entrepreneurship Essentials I: From Academia to Creating Your Own Company
Panelists from Academia will explain their personal career path in how they became involved with the start up world and lend professional and personal insight into what is required for a successful start up venture.
- Jordan Despanie B.S. — Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder S-aima Biopharmaceutics and University of Southern California Graduate Student
- Ray Rodriguez, Ph.D — Professor of Molecular & Cellular Biology and Executive Director of the Global HealthShare Initiative at University of California Davis
- Barbara Alcaraz Silva, Ph.D — Silicon Valley Entrepreneur and Venture Consulting
Entrepreneurship Essentials II: Securing Government Grants for Start ups
Panelists will lend insight and strategies on securing non-dilutive NSF and NIH “start up” grants for early-stage companies and academic innovators. Programs will also be discussed for testing out your scientific idea towards commercialization and market entry.
- Christie A. Canaria, Ph.D — Program Staff at National Cancer Institute NIH SBIR Development Center
- Jesus Soriano, M.D/Ph.D/M.B.A. — Program Director at the National Science Foundation
- Chinonye Nnakwe, Ph.D — AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow serving the National Science Foundation
- Dorn Carranza, Ph.D/M.B.A. — Senior Program Officer for Venture Development and Entrepreneurship at VentureWell
- Luis Martinez, Ph.D — Director-Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Trinity University
2015 SACNAS CONFERENCE — Washington, D.C. Entrepreneurship Essentials: From Academia to Creating Your Own Company
Panelists will explain their personal career path in how they became involved with the start up world and lend professional and personal insight into what is required for a successful start up venture.
- Antonio Ulloa, Ph.D — Founder of Neural Bytes, LLC
- Marga Gual Soler, Ph.D — Project Director at the Center for Science Diplomacy at the American Association for the Advancement of Science
- Dorn Carranza, Ph.D/M.B.A. — Senior Program Officer for Venture Development and Entrepreneurship at VentureWell
2014 SACNAS CONFERENCE — Los Angeles, CA Entrepreneurship Essentials — From Concept to Commercialization
Panelists will explain their personal career path in how they became involved with the start up world and lend professional and personal insight into what is required for a successful start up venture. They will also discuss why more scientists should consider an entrepreneurial career and identifying funding sources and accelerator programs right for you.
- J.Mark Hattendorf, M.B.A/C.P.A — Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer and/or Audit Committee Chair for a number of public and private companies, currently CEO & Founder of Hattendorf & Associates
- Luis Martinez, Ph.D — Director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas
- Thomas Lipkin, Ph.D — Head of New Ventures, University of California Los Angeles Office of Intellectual Property
2013 SACNAS CONFERENCE — San Antonio, TX Entrepreneurship in Engineering and IT: The Nuts and Bytes of a Start up
The featured speakers in this panel are local entrepreneurs who have engineering or IT backgrounds and are also applying their scientific training and business models to impact bioscience, biofuels and cybersecurity on a national scale. The goals of the session are to educate the audience on how to apply engineering, computational and mathematical skills to develop a company and the type of team members required for business growth.
- Luz Cristal Glangchai, Ph.D — Founder/CEO of VentureLab
- Dawn Roberson, Ph.D — Co-founder and President of AL Phahelix Biometrics, Inc.
- Ms. Janie Gonzalez — Chief Executive Officer of Webhead
Entrepreneurship in Academia: Concept, Capital, Commercialization
Panelists will explain a path for idea inception in academia towards global patent protection, and the means towards technology funding and commercialization. Each speaker is an expert in their own field and will lend candid insight as to why most start ups fail and only a few succeed.
- Claude Longoria, M.B.A. — Assistant Director New Venture Development at the South Texas Technology Management University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio (previously)
- Clyde Phelix, Ph.D — Chairman of the Board for AL Phahelix Biometrics, Inc. and Professor of Anatomy & Neurobiology at the University of Texas San Antonio
- Randy Goldsmith, Ph.D — Angel Investor; President and CEO of The Texas Technology Development Center (T3DC) in San Antonio (previously)
2012 SACNAS CONFERENCE — Seattle, WA — Entrepreneurship 10101101: How to Start Your Own Company and Why
Are you interested in starting a company? Did you know it could be accomplished in 54-hours, in academia, and by leveraging networks? This highly anticipated session consists of experts from industry, StartupWeekend.org, and the Kauffman Foundation who will provide unique insight and discuss programs that advance innovation and entrepreneurship
- Franck Nouyrigat, M.Sc — Start Up Weekend, co-founder
- Dominique Pahud B.S./M.B.A. — Kauffman Foundation, Director (previously)
- Lydia Villa-Komaroff, Ph.D — Cytonome/ST, Chief Scientific Officer (previously)
