Monthly Archives: June 2010
Business Process Patents: They’ll Know Them When They See Them
Anyone familiar with the Supreme Court’s obscenity cases has to have at least a modest sense of déjà vu after perusing the Court’s decision in the Bilski case this week. In a (in)famous obscenity case, a justice, trying to make … Continue reading
Tech Transfer: Why Private Profit is Good Public Policy
An article in Biofuels Digest (see http://biofuelsdigest.com/blog2/2009/09/03/tech-transfer-tragedy-%e2%80%94-does-university-research-produce-roi/) reports that in a presumably recent year the University of California system recorded royalties of $52.5 million on University research spending of almost $3 billion. The number – as a bunch of others … Continue reading
Grant Money: When “Free” is not “Free”
In a down VC market, in the heart of flyover country, it is perhaps inevitable that the lure of free money – SBIR grants, stimulus funds, etc. – would be compelling for Wisconsin’s life sciences entrepreneurs. And if “free” meant, … Continue reading
The McChrystal Mess: A Teaching Moment for Entrepreneurs
I like General McChrystal: having read the Rolling Stone article, I like him more than I did yesterday. A tough, no nonsense guy who I happen to agree with on many points. That said, how could any general officer in … Continue reading
Director Compensation for Startups
One issue that comes up fairly early for most start-ups – certainly by the time of the first outside funding if not before – is how members of the Board of Directors should be compensated. Every situation is unique, but … Continue reading
Global Warming: A Skeptic’s Thoughts
These days, being a skeptic of the global warming story is tough. Expressing doubts about the standard climate change horror story (and, if it’s true, it really is a horror story) is akin to saying, say, that the President … Continue reading
High-Tech Wisconsin: Biotech Sizzles, but IT has the Steak
With one of the nation’s biggest and best life sciences research institutions – UW-Madison, of course – it’s not surprising that Wisconsin’s life sciences entrepreneurs have captured the bulk of the attention from inside and outside the state in terms … Continue reading
Good Team: Wrong Sport
Most deals don’t work. That’s not surprising. And, of course, hindsight is 20-20; i.e. it’s usually pretty easy to say a deal was bound to fail after it has failed. Still, there are patterns of failure that seem to recur … Continue reading
Cultural Observations: MKE vs. MAD
Great conference for entrepreneurs last week in Milwaukee. A nice compliment to the fall early stage conference in Madison. One thing was strikingly different about the MKE event, though: the plethora of dark suits on in MKE vs. the more … Continue reading
Angel Investors: Not So Fast
One of the advanatages of working with angel groups is that they can move faster than institutional venture firms. From my own experience as an angel, one of the best investments I ever made was based on a one hour … Continue reading
