Andrew Eder, Knoxville News Sentinel
April 04, 2007
Two-day Oak Ridge conference offers a look at the region's entrepreneurial assets
A two-day conference at Oak Ridge National Laboratory offered an eye-opening look at some assets the region has for developing technology businesses. "I think people were very surprised at the depth and breadth of the entrepreneurial talent of students from across the South," said Joy Fisher, managing director of Nano Nexus 2007.
"I think that the VCs (venture capitalists) we had there were also surprised at the capabilities of the lab and the desire to commercialize technologies - and the success of companies that have been formed as a result."
Nano Nexus featured a business plan competition for college graduate students, a showcase for companies to present their business plans to venture capitalists, and a forum with speakers from research firms, government and industry.
Sponsored by Technology 2020, the Innovation Valley Technology Council and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the conference drew about 230 attendees.
The event focused on nanotechnology, which deals with the control of matter at a tiny scale. The field has applications in numerous industries, including health care, energy and information technology.
"It (Nano Nexus) is a great mechanism for innovation, particularly since it's focused on a specific sector," said Ralph Taylor-Smith, a general partner with Princeton, N.J.-based fund Battelle Ventures.
Taylor-Smith, along with four other visiting and two local venture fund managers, heard presentations from companies Wednesday, including biotechnology firms Protein Discovery of Knoxville and NanoTek in nearby Louisville.
The visiting venture capitalists spent Tuesday judging the college competition, dubbed Idea to Product, in which four teams from the University of Tennessee competed.
The $25,000 grand prize went to a team from the University of Texas, which presented a commercialization plan for a drug delivery system.
The event also was a chance to showcase the capabilities of ORNL. Sharon Robinson, manager of the lab's industrial technologies program, talked in an interview about ORNL's NanoApplications Center, an initiative to help industrial partners move from science to commerce.
Robinson said the lab has done applied development for several years, but only recently put a name to its program.
"We're trying to have a single point of contact for people to get information," Robinson said.
The center, which draws on several ORNL facilities, helps industrial partners address issues such as manufacturing nanomaterials in bulk and incorporating them into devices. Robinson said ORNL has worked with nano coatings for materials, superconducting wires, solar panels and "superhydrophobic" materials, which repel water.
At a closing lunch Wednesday, the five visiting venture capitalists offered some thoughts during a panel discussion.
Among other things, they told attendees that entrepreneurs have a responsibility to complete due diligence on potential investors, that they invest in only 1 percent to 3 percent of the business plans they see, and that venture capital works because of inefficiencies in the marketplace.
"The world doesn't need more venture capitalists," said Doug Jamison of New York-based Harris & Harris Group Inc., "the world needs more entrepreneurs."