The acquisition price was nearly $125 million
1419_ 8/12/13 -
A decade ago, John Giacomoni was working as a professional research assistant in the Software Engineering Research Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder when the group took on a problem they couldn’t afford to solve. The affordable solution he envisioned as a CU-Boulder research assistant became a reality with the help of former CU-Boulder Assistant Professor Manish Vachharajani. Convincing others would turn out to be the real problem. "Funding agencies and investors, except for a handful of Boulder angels, universally said, ‘No way; no how. You guys are crazy,’" Giacomoni remembered. The work finally began to pay off in late 2009, when LineRate got its first angel investor, a Boulder local, whose interest attracted other angel investors. Ultimately, they raised $575,000 in angel financing for the company, allowing Giacomoni and Vachharajani to hire seasoned networking developer Mark Terrel, create a production-ready product, and recruit experienced startup leader Steve Georgis to serve as chief executive officer, which in turn, attracted a second round of funding totaling $4.75 million. The pair went on to co-found a company based on the technology, LineRate Systems, which they sold earlier this year to F5 Networks. The acquisition price — nearly $125 million according to filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission — was the largest exit of a networking infrastructure company in the Boulder area in years. "John and Manish were incredibly persistent in going after their vision," CU-Boulder’s Tallman said. "They met with dozens of...Listen for more...
RELATED LINKS:
LineRate Systems ||
F5 Networks ||
CU Technology Transfer Office ||
CU TTO Channel ||
TTO Blog ||
CU TTO ||
Software Channel ||
KEYWORDS: John Giacomoni, Manish Vachharajani, LineRate Systems, F5 Networks,
Software, Alexander L. Wolf, Research Funding, Angel Investors, CU Technology Transfer, CUTTO, bytes=13770817
LISTEN TO: John Giacomoni & Manish Vachharajani
Tom Smerdon, success in marketing new ideas
1364_ 3/11/13 -
From a business person's point of view, the Technology Transfer Office is one of the most important things that the university provides, for business, individual professors and students, with everything from awards and recognition but most importantly really helping them along when they come up with an idea. Larry is with Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President of the University of Colorado Technology Transfer Office in Boulder. Tom said, "There are a couple of the things I'd like to bring to the listeners attention. One, which we're really excited about, is the recent acquisition of a CU startup. F5 Networks has acquired LineRate Systems, a Colorado startup that’s developing technologies around what’s called software define networking. F5 noted that the networking technologies will help bring superior service agility, application intelligence, and programmability to software defined data centers. The thing that is exciting about this is, not only was this a startup basically out of Computer Sciences and Electrical Engineering here on the CU Boulder campus, but the company was also an early recipient of the Proof-of-Concept investment from the Tech Transfer Office. This was the first money into the company which really helped it acquire some critical equipment early on and facilitated the development of the technology that was later further developed in its Louisville office and ultimately the subject of the sale to F5. This is one of the success stories for Tech Transfer and we're really excited for the company and the founders. A couple of events that are coming up; we are doing our Tech Transfer Awards a little differently this year. Previously there had been a single awards event covering the system campuses held in Denver. This year we're going to have campus focused events, so we have the Boulder Awards event which is scheduled for April 1st. This is in conjunction with the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship. The program, Entrepreneurship Under the Microscope, is an evening event with a keynote speaker and we will be awarding the Inventor of the Year, New Inventor of the Year, and Company of the Year during a fun networking event with CU-Boulder faculty and students, and members of the Boulder entrepreneurial community. We have the second awards event planned... there's more...
RELATED LINKS:
CU Technology Transfer Office ||
CU TTO Channel ||
TTO Blog ||
LineRate Systems ||
TTO Blog ||
KEYWORDS: Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President, Tech Transfer Office,
University of Colorado, Technology Transfer, LineRate Systems, F5, Awards, bytes=4401426
LISTEN TO: Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President. Tech Transfer, University of Colorado
Tom Smerdon First to Invent Rule
under the America Invents Act
1360_ 3/4/13 -
Larry is in Boulder with Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President of University of Colorado Technology Transfer Office. "There are several interesting events that we're keeping an eye on. One is the upcoming implementation of 'The First to Invent Rule under the America Invents Act. This goes into effect on March the 16th. So this has required us to look at some of the provisional applications that are pending and accelerate the filing of the U.S. Utility Applications. We've been doing that as well as setting up some informational and outreach efforts to inform the faculty of this change. One of the exciting legislative initiatives that Tom and his team are keeping an eye on is the Advanced Industries Acceleration Act. This was recently introduced in the House as HB1001 and basically it would expand the current Bioscience Discovery and Evaluation Grant Program [the BDEG] which currently provides for state grant funding / proof-of-concept funding for bioscience technologies as well as grants for early stage bioscience companies. It would expand that to six other advanced industries in Colorado. These are advanced manufacturing, aerospace, electronics, cleantech energy and natural resources, infrastructure engineering and information technology. While we make some changes to the basic BDEG funding, the basic structure is preserved. So there would continue to be proof-of-concept grants that would go to research institutions - that definition has been expanded somewhat, but it would include the state research institutions, University of Colorado. It would also provide some company matching grant funding, although the match would now be one dollar from the state to two dollars from the company and it will also provide infrastructure funding as is currently provided under the BDEG program. There are some caps on those funding amounts but in the case of proposals that would involve more than one advanced industry, those caps are removed. But again, it's pending and we'll have to see what the final legislation looks like. we've been working closely with the Office of Economic Development and International Trade on some related advanced... there's more...
RELATED LINKS:
CU Technology Transfer Office ||
CU TTO Channel ||
TTO Blog ||
CID4 ||
CBSA ||
KEYWORDS: Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President, Tech Transfer Office,
University of Colorado, Technology Transfer, The First to Invent Rule America Invents Act., Biotech Technologies, Bio Science Discovery,
Office of Economic Development and International Trade, Bioscience Discovery and Evaluation Grant Program - bytes=5151245
LISTEN TO: Tom Smerdon, Interim Assoc. Vice President, Tech Transfer Office, University of Colorado
Funding biotech technologies with matching funds for startup companies 1333_ 1/7/13 - We're back with Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President of the University of Colorado Technology Transfer Office in Boulder. We are starting the new year with a look at some metrics for the past year as well as a look at the coming year. The Tech Transfer Office covers the entire Colorado University system, with campuses in Boulder, downtown Denver, the Anschutz Medical Campus and the Colorado Springs campus. The bulk of the research dollars are going into the Boulder as well as the medical campus and most of the inventions are going to be coming out of that research from those campuses. But there is still a significant amount of research going on in Colorado Springs and some in downtown Denver in terms of funded research. Tom said, "Last year we had 226 invention disclosures on a system wide basis. That was down from the year before, but still a very healthy number. Applications were a little above last year, we filed 261 applications and executed 47 option license agreements [in line with and greater than past years] but we'd certainly like to get that number up as well as the number of exclusive licenses which tend to be the real revenue generators. Last year we had 32 of those. In terms of startups, , there were ten spun out of the university system - split pretty evenly between Boulder and Denver with a couple out of Colorado Springs." This has been very steady, over the past 8 or 9 years, they've averaged about 10-11 each year. Tom is very pleased to tell us, "Most of those companies...listen for more ... RELATED LINKS: CU Technology Transfer Office || CU TTO Channel || TTO Blog || Proof of Concept Programs || The Start-up Process || KEYWORDS: Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President, Tech Transfer Office, University of Colorado, Technology Transfer, Invention Disclosures, Start-ups, Funding, Biotech Technologies, Bio Science Discovery, Evaluation Grant Program
BYTES=6922974 LISTEN TO: Tom Smerdon, IA VP, TTO University of Colorado
It can mean new business models around healthcare
1480_ 12/16/13 -
We are back with Kate Tallman, Interim Associate Vice President of Technology Transfer Office, University of Colorado. Now at the system level for the first time, Kate tells us she has a great opportunity to understand what's going on at CU Denver and the medical campus in particular. It's very interesting to learn about healthcare innovations and all the research they have going on there. It's a new area, but an old area for Kate. She started her career doing financial analysis of hospitals and healthcare. So, she says, "I'm coming full circle now in seeing the business of healthcare. There was a wonderful conference put on by Silicon Flatirons Center called, 'The Future of Healthcare Innovation'." Kate said "investors are now getting very interested in healthcare services. This can mean a lot of things. It can mean new business models around healthcare. Providers can optimize the care they deliver to patients. A lot of information technology was patient's data - all of these areas are becoming increasingly valuable as we move into the era of healthcare reform. As this gets implemented healthcare systems are going to need to demonstrate that they can deliver quality outcomes for patients. This is an untapped opportunity because..." listen for more...
RELATED LINKS:
CU Technology Transfer Office ||
CU TTO Channel ||
TTO Blog ||
CU TTO ||
Blog ||
KEYWORDS: Kate Tallman, Technology Transfer Office, University of Colorado, TTO, Health
Care, Industry Research Funding, Innovation, Commercialization, Industry Relationships, bytes=4781351
LISTEN TO: Kate Tallman, Interim Associate Vice President, Technology Transfer Office, University of Colorado
Federal grants are just getting more and more competitive
1471_ 12/2/13 -
We are speaking with Kate Tallman the Interim Associate Vice President of Technology Transfer Office, University of Colorado. There's been a lot happening and we're checking in with Kate for an update. Kate took on this role July 1st when Tom Smerdon moved to Texas. Tom had focused on how the TTO could serve the Universities desire to increase industry research funding and how we all work together on that. Now Kate's taken up that cause and there have been initiatives at the president's level as well as the Boulder Campus level to increase interactions with industry and so, Kate said, "Our office needs to adapt our practices to support that. It used to be when you thought of commercialization and industry at the University of Colorado, you thought of the Technology Transfer Office. But now, innovation, commercialization and industry relationships are the highest priorities at the highest levels. So things are really changing quickly and... listen for more...
RELATED LINKS: CU Technology Transfer Office ||
CU TTO Channel ||
TTO Blog ||
CU TTO ||
Podcast Directory ||
KEYWORDS: Kate Tallman, Technology Transfer Office, University of Colorado, TTO,
Industry Research Funding, Innovation, Commercialization, Industry Relationships, > bytes=9750468
LISTEN TO: Kate Tallman, Interim Associate Vice President, Technology Transfer Office, University of Colorado
Treatment and prevention of brain damage
1402_ 7/1/13 -
Here's another win with CUTTO. Dr. Kim Heidenreich, Professor of Pharmacology and Neuroscience at the University of Colorado-School of Medicine, in collaboration with Dr. Greg Miknis and the team at the Colorado Center for Drug Discovery (C2D2) at CSU, have made great strides in developing novel therapies for the treatment and prevention of brain damage caused by traumatic brain injury (TBI). In 2007, Kim’s lab discovered that a very potent inflammatory mediator, normally not found in the central nervous system, is present in the brain after TBI. Kim discovered that if this inflammatory mediator is blocked, secondary injury to the brain and the deleterious effects of TBI can be prevented. Together, Kim and Greg have developed a novel series of compounds that can inhibit this inflammatory molecule. The project is now moving toward advanced pre clinical studies that if successful will bring the program one step closer to a clinically approved drug, benefiting victims of this growing unmet medical need. When Larry interviewed Kim and Greg which was arranged by Matt Pink, Licensing Manager for the Colorado University Tech Transfer Office many interesting and valuable points were discussed. You will learn about the incidence of TBI and concussion as well as appreciate why TBI is a major public health problem. This interview will hopefully provide HOPE for listeners who have experienced a TBI or health providers for TBI patients. There is increased nonfederal funding for TBI (GE and NFL gifts) that is focused on diagnosis of TBI via blood bio markers or neural imaging. This is great but we also need more funding for developing TBI treatments ...Listen for more...
RELATED LINKS:
CU Technology Transfer Office ||
Traumatic Brain Injury ||
CU TTO Channel ||
TTO Blog ||
Colorado Center for Drug Discovery (C2D2) ||
Kim Heidenreich, PhD ||
Mastering Change ||
KEYWORDS:Kim Heidenreich, Greg Miknis, Neuroscience, University of Colorado-School
of Medicine, Colorado Center for Drug Discovery, C2D2, CSU, Traumatic Brain Injury, Inflammatory Mediator, CUTTO, > bytes=6579412
LISTEN TO: Kim Heidenreich, PhD and Greg Miknis, PhD
Rick Duke & Kevin Smith, Venture Capital Money 1349_ 2/11/13 - Part 2: As the companies we work with learn, the models sometimes change and new knowledge generates new directions. What we've learned working on the CID4 model is that there are great technologies in the state of Colorado. There are incredible entrepreneurs trying to get those technologies out. The one thing we are short of, as many people are, is investment capital. If we had more investment capital to put to work through CID4 we would, but we are limited. So we branched out and created a class of client that we work with. Which would be a company that takes advantage of our consulting service, for no charge as well as some of the programs we run as opposed to getting direct capital investment that we talked about earlier. Those programs include office hour programs which we conduct at both Boulder and Fitzsimmons, where individuals can come in an have one-on-one consultations with subject matter experts. We also do a lot of work on business plan development and make introductions to potential financing sources. In our view, the model that CID4 started with trying to provide active hands-on management, now we're continuing to expand on that, but also not invest but providing guidance. Rick Duke is very active in helping to raise finances, but there's a lot of confusion about what venture capitalists are doing today and what they're not. Dr. Duke said, "Venture capital changed dramatically around 2008-09 and I think there was an expectation it was going to come back in a relatively short period of time. And I think it surprised all of us when we haven't seen the return of venture capital at the level that it was in the late 90s and early 2000 period. Most notably for Colorado, at least in the life sciences area, we don't see much in the way of that initial lead VC firm that we had and enjoyed during that early 2000 period. That has really forced us to go out to the coast to look for venture capital money for our client companies. Or, actually to look at some of the angel investors and angel investor groups that have been forming recently here in Colorado.." .Listen for much more... RELATED LINKS: CID4 || CU Technology Transfer Office || CBSA || CU TTO Channel || TTO Blog || KEYWORDS: Rick Duke, Kevin Smith, CID4, Colorado Institute for Drug, Device and
Diagnostic Development, Colorado Life Science Industry, Bioscience Discovery Evaluation Grant program, CU Technology Transfer Office,
Proof of Concept > bytes=8753217 LISTEN TO: Richard Duke & Kevin Smith, CID4
Rick Duke & Kevin Smith, CID4 Investing
Supporting the Colorado Life Science Industry...
1346_ 2/4/13 -
Larry sat down to get an update from Kevin Smith, President & CEO and Richard (Rick) Duke, Ph.D., Founder & CSO - CID4 [Colorado Institute for Drug, Device and Diagnostic Development - a 501-C3 non-profit organization, launched back in 2009 with a mission to support the growth of the Colorado Life Science Industry both in terms of numbers of companies and numbers of jobs. Kevin explained, "Over the period of time since we started operations we work with companies, both to invest in and provide active management, to help guide them through the valley of death, when they're running out of cash but before they can actually access larger amounts of investment capital. So far we've invested in six companies - put $2 million to work. Those companies have created 65 direct jobs and they've attracted $20 million in investment capital into their businesses and used to grow their businesses here in Colorado." Rick said, "I think what sets us apart from other types of organizations like this is that we provide active management to our portfolio companies or project companies for that matter." A lot of that technology is early spin outs out of the University of Colorado or other research institutions where you've got a faculty member who is an entrepreneur and inventor, but doesn't necessarily have the experience in starting a company, or managing the operations, or developing a business plan, or product development plan. This is where CID4 often takes a fairly active role. Getting the company off the ground. Initiating operations and literally pitching the company to both angel investors and venture capital investors - with the goal of graduating them, raising a significant amount of capital to where they can now move out on their own." It's important to understand that CID4 is a not-for-profit company and what that means is the money that they invest in a portfolio company, if there is a return on that investment, rather than that traditionally being shared with the management of the venture capital firm, in fact, in our situation, that money goes back into technology development. This is unique from a number of... Listen for more...
RELATED LINKS:
CID4 ||
CU Technology Transfer Office ||
CBSA ||
CU TTO Channel ||
TTO Blog ||
KEYWORDS: Rick Duke, Kevin Smith, CID4, Colorado Institute for Drug, Device and Diagnostic
Development, Colorado Life Science Industry, Investments, CU Technology Transfer Office, bytes=5738060
LISTEN TO: Richard Duke, Founder/Chief Scientific Officer & Kevin Smith, President/CEO, Colorado Institute for Drug, Device and Diagnostic
Development
Manish Vachharajani. Convincing others would turn out to be the real problem. "Funding agencies and investors, except for a handful of Boulder angels, universally said, ‘No way; no how. You guys are crazy,’" Giacomoni remembered. The work finally began to pay off in late 2009, when LineRate got its first angel investor, a Boulder local, whose interest attracted other angel investors. Ultimately, they raised $575,000 in angel financing for the company, allowing Giacomoni and Vachharajani to hire seasoned networking developer Mark Terrel, create a production-ready product, and recruit experienced startup leader Steve Georgis to serve as chief executive officer, which in turn, attracted a second round of funding totaling $4.75 million. The pair went on to co-found a company based on the technology, LineRate Systems, which they sold earlier this year to F5 Networks. The acquisition price — nearly $125 million according to filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission — was the largest exit of a networking infrastructure company in the Boulder area in years. "John and Manish were incredibly persistent in going after their vision," CU-Boulder’s Tallman said. "They met with dozens of...Listen for more... 
