Banff Venture Forum

Last week, I had a chance to attend the Banff Venture Forum in Banff, Alberta.  This conference gives young technology companies the opportunity to present to early-stage investors.  The conference was well attended by Angel investor groups, university commercialization groups, as well as venture capital firms.  I also sat on a panel presentation which discussed commercialization strategies for innovations coming out of university labs.  Many feel that there is not enough early-stage private funding in the market to support the commercialization of university research.  Very often, universities spend significant provincial and federal government grants on years worth of research to develop new technologies.  This research is funded based on its academic merit as determined by the University and government professionals.    As this research "graduates" from the university lab and begins its search for outside investment, it far too frequently fails to gain private investor support.  Some investors complain that the innovations are too niche focused, while others argue that they see little market value or customer demand for the proposed solutions.  Regardless of the issue, the fact remains that universities are struggling with the commercialization process.

Rather than starting more government programs or funding more reports to assess this issue, perhaps we need a radical new way to jump start this commercialization process.  My suggestion would be to have universities partner with private investors much earlier in their process to determine which research to fund.  Venture investors have a strong understanding about industry dynamics and market needs.  They also have the ability to support emerging technologies with their venture dollars.  Why not partner these investors with the university groups to priortize university research focus?  Wouldn't it be better to understand which research is most relevant to market needs and which innovations will best be able to get external financing support? Perhaps government research dollars could be spent answering the investor's questions and concerns regarding commercialization viability? It seems to me that this would be a much more market-focused approach to funding technology research.  This way, Investors would also get a first chance to fund new and exciting innovations. By involving more partners and priortitizing their research dollars, perhaps universities can help build greater momentum for their innovations.