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Home > Resources > Entrepreneurs

Resources for Entrepreneurs

Why a Start-up Company

Forming a start-up business (a new business entity) provides an option to licensing IP (Intellectual Property) to an established business. In some cases the breadth and opportunity of the technology makes a new business start-up an attractive choice for the technology. For other cases, a start-up may be the only way to further develop the technical and commercial opportunity. In all cases, the new start-up must make a compelling case to investors, inventors, business partners and the University that it can attract funding and resources to achieve sustainable success. The University of Michigan actively promotes the use of start-up companies as a valuable tech transfer option to get our technology and its benefits to market.

Considerations for a Start-up

A few key factors when considering a start-up company are:

• development risk (often large companies in established industries are unwilling to take the risk)
• development costs versus investment return (can the investors obtain their needed rates of return)
• potential for multiple products or services from the same technology (few companies survive on one product alone)
• sufficiently large competitive advantage and target market
• potential revenues sufficient to sustain and grow a company

UM Tech Transfer can help evaluate these and other factors.

Benefits of Start-ups

Start-ups have the potential to produce significant opportunities for the inventor(s), the University, and the surrounding community. Given the right set of circumstances, start-ups can:

• bring a technology to market more quickly
• create jobs within the local community and region
• increase the value of a technology to outside partner companies
• diversify the financial return risk with an equity stake in the business (the University can benefit from the business success of more than just their own technology)
• aid University research and faculty retention

How can an Entrepreneur or Investor get Involved

UM Tech Transfer actively seeks the assistance of experienced entrepreneurs and investors for our projects. We value the assistance, often pro-bono, from entrepreneurs and investors who can provide specific technology, industry and/or market knowledge. This assistance can range from answering simple questions to tackling more complex issues to providing longer term mentorship to the inventor and project team. Although our funding is quite limited, UM Tech Transfer does retain consultants for specialized assistance. Please contact UM Tech Transfer at 734.763.0614 for more information.