Tips from a legend!
After a great weekend of wandering the streets of Boston and doing (more than) a little Christmas shopping, I had my long awaited meeting with Lita Nelsen: a legend in the world of tech transfer. She headed the Tech Transfer Office (TTO) of MIT for over 30 years. She ‘is’ MIT! We met at the CIC office downtown Boston. And where she started off quietly, she soon became fired up sharing her thoughts and lessons. And I was in for a surprise!
Where I thought I would hear a story on the importance of business development within the university or the importance of entrepreneurship in education, I heard a story on universities setting strict rules to protect academic integrity. The Tech Transfer Office should focus on good patents, but even more on high academic standards. “In science the primary currency is fame. And fortune follows fame.” she quoted her friend David Botstein. That is the reason MIT would never ask scientist to postpone publication for patenting reasons. They would however educate the scientist on the importance of patenting and would do everything they could to patent and publish simultaneously.
But Lita Nelsen also admitted that ‘her’ TTO could only be so strictly focused on academic integrity and licensing because there was a solid support system in place to help entrepreneurs with mentoring, accelerating etc. It was just organized in such a way that it was outside the university.
According to Lita you always have to ask yourself the question: who is starting this company? The inventor or the university? And according to Lita, universities should not be starting companies! But universities should do everything in their power to let the inventor start a company. So therefor licenses should be quick and easy. With a very low percentage in equity or loyalty for the university (single digits!). And universities should never sell their patents. Only license them. And only rarely exclusively. Since you want to stay in control and make sure the patent is used to make impact, not ‘sat on’. So TTO’s set the rules to stay in control, but not by ‘owning’ the company. Because remember: who is starting this company? The inventor, not the university.
When Lita talks, it sounds easy. But it also sounds right. Universities should not start businesses. Inventors should. With a great support system around them. But with a TTO that watches out for the universities fame.
This speech from Lita threw me off for a minute. But then it made sense. If you arrange for syndicated deals, mentoring, venture building outside the university, the university itself can focus on setting the boundaries within commercialization occurs. And Lita did stress that academic fame can very well be followed by fortune. And that is nothing to be ashamed about. On the contrary. Academics should be proud of their success. Both academically and financially. Research show that there is a positive correlation between academic standing and spin out succes. MIT is proving it can be done every day.
