Did your new innovation get its start in a university lab? If so, you’re in good company. A recent Kauffman Foundation study found that new innovations and the startup companies formed to commercialize them are increasingly launching in university labs.

 

While these lab-born startups eventually resemble their more traditional peers, they experience different potential conflicts that can make or break the company’s chances of success, according to the report From Lab Bench to Innovation:

 

  • Although institutional policies may prohibit faculty from entering into business relationships with current students, it sometimes happens. Students who form companies and launch ventures before graduation expose themselves to the potential for a serious conflict. Different personal goals as well as mismatched expectations about roles and ownership interests can lead to particularly difficult situations.

  • These so-called nascent academic entrepreneurs may enter and leave business plan competitions with very different expectations for the path to be taken than their other team members. Typical technology-based ventures may be able to move directly to a typical startup, while academic ventures likely will find themselves first spending years to finish creating the science before they can begin using it.

Recently Published

Top Picks

Key Takeaway: Wellness culture, which claims to provide happiness and meaning, has been criticized for its superficial focus on superficial aspects like candles and juice cleanses. Psychological research suggests that long-term wellbeing comes from a committed pursuit of both pleasure and meaning. Martin Seligman’s Perma model, which breaks wellbeing into five pillars: positive emotions, engagement, […]
Key Takeaway: Quantum computing, which uses entanglement to represent information, has the potential to revolutionize everyday life. However, the development of quantum computers has been slow due to the need to demonstrate an advantage over classical computers. Only a few notable quantum algorithms have been developed, such as the BB84 protocol and Shor’s algorithm, which […]
Key Takeaway: China’s leaders have declared a GDP growth target of 5% in 2024, despite facing economic problems and a property crisis. The country’s rapid economic growth has been attributed to market incentives, cheap labor, infrastructure investment, exports, and foreign direct investment. However, none of these drivers are working effectively. The government’s determination to deflate […]
Key Takeaway: Neuralink, founded by Elon Musk, aims to implant a brain-computer interface (BCI) in people’s brains, allowing them to control computers or phones by thought alone. This technology holds the promise of alleviating human suffering and allowing people with disabilities to regain lost capacities. However, the long-term aspirations of Neuralink include the ability to […]

Trending

I highly recommend reading the McKinsey Global Institute’s new report, “Reskilling China: Transforming The World’s Largest Workforce Into Lifelong Learners”, which focuses on the country’s biggest employment challenge, re-training its workforce and the adoption of practices such as lifelong learning to address the growing digital transformation of its productive fabric. How to transform the country […]

Join our Newsletter

Get our monthly recap with the latest news, articles and resources.

Login

Welcome to Empirics

We are glad you have decided to join our mission of gathering the collective knowledge of Asia!
Join Empirics