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Corporate Collision featured a panel discussion followed by a networking reception and an opportunity to meet startups. Speakers include (from left to right) Matthew Marrone, Colleen Wright, Kanab Setia, and Wayne Bradley.
Last week, industry leaders gathered at the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation to discover, connect and collaborate with the nation’s top startup companies.
“The Polsky Center has a very long track record of innovation,” Sameer Mayekar, associate vice president and managing director of the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, said at the beginning of the Deep Tech Ventures Corporate Collision event. . “We are a powerhouse of innovation and entrepreneurship, and Deep Tech Ventures is really all about translation.”
The event, sponsored by McAndrews, Held & Malloy, featured startups participating in various accelerators at the Polsky Center. These programs (Resurgence, Transform, and Duality) address clean energy, data science and AI, and quantum, respectively.
Polsky Deep Tech Ventures leverages cutting-edge research in the sciences at the University of Chicago, strong national lab affiliations, and partnership with the top-ranked Booth School of Business to provide sector-specific expertise to help startups around the world reduce their technology costs. Market risk in positioning innovations to have real-world impact.
>> Register now for the Deep Tech Venture Summit on June 18, 2024
“We are building an ecosystem at the University of Chicago, and our partners are what keep the engine running,” said Dan Sachs, executive director of Polsky Deep Tech Ventures. This includes partnerships between startups participating in the accelerator program and companies from various industries.
In line with this, the event featured both presentations by 15 corporate partners who share their innovation needs and challenges, and pitches by 16 startups from across the deep tech venture portfolio.
A panel discussion moderated by Matthew Malone, an intellectual property attorney at McAndrews Held & Malloy, discussed how to create fair structures that foster collaboration between businesses and startups for sustainable innovation. was also considered.
At the beginning of the conversation, Marrone emphasized the importance of strong IP and pointed out that sharing too much without that security could lead to problems down the road.
What do you look for in a partner?, “It’s all about the intersection of values, finding the intersection of your goals and the company you’re partnering with,” said Colleen Wright, vice president of corporate strategy at Constellation. The energy company works with startups in a variety of ways, from direct investments to partnering on pilot projects.
From a startup perspective, qBraid CEO Kanav Setia advised other founders in the audience to think about what a potential partner would gain from a particular relationship. [a partnership]”
Setia, a participant in Duality’s first cohort, specifically commented on the value of networking as part of the offer to join an ecosystem accelerator.
“Duality is one of the first accelerators in the world to focus solely on quantum technologies. And that’s very important,” Setia said. “Why? Because that means VCs looking at quantum industries will find Duality, and they will find us.”
Setia also pointed to the value of the events these networks provide. “You get to come here and talk to a lot of people,” he said of joining Corporate Collision. “Keep building these conversations and relationships. “Eventually, all these things you didn’t realize you were doing will change exponentially. [return]”
In his capacity as a patent attorney at McAndrews, Held & Malloy, Wayne Bradley pointed out that partnerships include many contracts. “You want to protect yourself from the worst-case scenario and prepare for the best-case scenario,” he says.
“We want to know if you have a disability that prevents you from talking to other people,” Bradley explained as an example. “It’s both about considering what’s going to befall you and seeing if you can have success in both areas.” [qualitative and quantitative] sense. “
