The right relationship
Brazeal and Derakhshani credit Rush with being an entrepreneur with vision to see the future of the technology and being willing to invest in the idea to bring it into the marketplace.
“If you want to have amazing new technologies, they don’t happen overnight and they don’t come out of thin air. Somebody must have had the courage and faith and the vision to go to the seemingly pie-in-the-sky academic research … grab it and then perform on it,” Derakhshani says. “That’s what Toby is and what makes him unique.”
As the conjunctiva scanner makes its path out of the lab and into the hands of consumers, Derakhshani stays involved. A critical component of a successful match between idea and entrepreneur is a good relationship between the researcher and the entrepreneur.
“That’s probably one of the more challenging things we have to do to ensure that we can establish a good relationship between the faculty member and the entrepreneur,” says James G. Baxendale, director of W2B. “There’s not a right or wrong, it’s just is there a trust there and can they work together to advance technology?”
Derakhshani and Rush agreed that a good relationship is critical. Horror stories of researchers who struggle to work with entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs who can’t work with researchers abound. But they managed to put those issues aside and find common ground in their passion for the product and helping it reach the marketplace.
“Our relationship is great,” Rush says. “Reza is very good at the technology, and we have a mutual trust of each other in our areas of expertise.”
The university helped establish a foundation for their relationship, both through connecting the right people with the right idea at the right time and by smoothing some of the rocky road of licensing that makes many entrepreneurs cautious to work with universities.
“Working with researchers can be challenging for companies,” Brazeal says. “And working with licensing people can be very challenging as well.”
This is where Brazeal was able to pave the way, Fields says. He recognized they were working with a start-up and worked with Rush to set up a contract that was beneficial to the university but also allowed Rush to get started and find additional funding.
“Universities have a reputation of being inflexible, because there’s a lot of red tape,” Brazeal says. “We did some new things, including a pre-negotiated license to get the funding in. There were a lot of things that we did that were different, and part of it was that Toby was such a good person to work with. The other thing was that we were really committed to getting this technology out.”
The future in sight
Once you connect an entrepreneur with a piece of research, a couple things can happen: One is you make a startup out of it, such as EyeVerify.
“Generally, they’re going to work with the technology transfer office to get the licensing and do all the things that need to happen from that perspective,” Meyers says. “And they’ll work with us to get resources to build the business, whether it’s funding for the particular business or business development support that includes everything from how to set up your accounts to how to manage people, how to hire, all of that kind of stuff.”
W2B also connects companies to resources in the university to help with research. The university receives a contract from a company to do research, and this sometimes includes a contract to build out a proof of concept.
“It’s connecting entrepreneurs to technology, but it’s also a way of connecting the researchers to the community,” Meyers says.
Once a match is made, the work doesn’t end. In the case of EyeVerify, Rush funded additional research he needed at the university, bringing more money and keeping the relationship thriving — garnering second looks.
Last year, EyeVerify was named a Silicon Prairie Award Winner. It was also won the 2013 “Get in the Ring: The Investment Battle International” competition, beating eight other finalists from across the globe to win up to $1 million euros in funding.
“In the next year we expect to be deployed broadly in commercial applications,” Rush says. “In the next five years we expect to be a dominant biometric modality used throughout the world.”
The Innovation Center also has plans for growth, with goals to make more connections and create more start-up opportunities to match technology and researchers with area business leaders that build the economic ecosystem.
“We’re continuing to make connections and match people together,” Fields says. “At that same time the CEO Bullpen continues to grow. We’re always pushing out ideas and technology out to see if there’s interest, and people in the group also say what they’re looking for.”
With 21 research partners, 230+ business development partners and more than 180 tech match people, the Innovation Center has created a massive network. And it comes together in a central point between W2B and the Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC). W2B provides ongoing support and continues relationships with companies and researchers to help them thrive. And the SBTDC and KCSourceLink provide ongoing small business development to help businesses grow.
“It’s a big, massive network,” Meyers says. “But that’s what it takes to get enough technologies and the right people.”