Biotech startup companies need a pipeline of business development services. In our Incubator Program the process often flows through the following stages and services:
1. A UF life science technology with commercial potential is identified. If the researcher decides to start a company, the Incubator director (who is also the director of the Office of Technology Licensing--OTL) and staff meet with the researcher to discuss business support services.
2. OTL posts a Company Opportunity Sheet on its Web page for licensable technologies.
3. UF TechAlert, a free, Web-based email service, automatically alerts subscribers to the new Company Opportunity Sheet, bringing it to the attention of investors and entrepreneurs.
4. We aggressively scout for investors and entrepreneurs to match with promising technologies or recent startups. They meet with OTL and scientists, view company presentations (more than 65 last year), and tour the Incubator. We include incubator companies needing professional management in this process. Given the complexity of running biotech companies, helping them recruit experienced bio-business management is the single most important business assistance we can provide.
5. Sometimes funding is available to pay entrepreneurs to write business plans to further assess the feasibility of commercializing a technology. The funding comes from TechConnect, a $245,000 EDA/UF program that the Incubator also supports.
6. Providing facilities is a significant achievement in biotech. Our highly functional 40,000 SF Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator opened in 1995. The labs are equipped with fume hoods and biosafety cabinets. We have common labs housing $1M of shared equipment, conference rooms, offices, an attached 6000 SF small animal facility, climate-controlled greenhouse and an 80 litre pilot-scale fermentation facility. This is not a luxury. To achieve our commercialization goal we must help startups advance the science and business to interest outside leadership and investors.
7. Client companies receive one-year terms with renewal contingent on progress. A highly qualified regional Biotech Advisory Committee (BAC) with four biotech VC’s, four biotech entrepreneurs and four faculty with industry experience assesses company needs and provides guidance at the time of admission and at the annual review of each company. A business plan, presentation, financial information is required on each occasion. The BAC also provides guidance to Incubator management.
8. We also deliver business development support though inter-company mentoring (easiest in a single focus incubator like ours), monthly networking lunches and a self-initiated CEO support group. The Incubator Manager meets bi-monthly with CEOs. We steer companies to service providers with biotech expertise and also use them in business seminars.