October 17, 2011 presentation hosted by University of Chicago Booth School of Business Entrepreneurial Roundtable at Northern Illinois University Naperville Campus. Video by Stone Cliff Productions, Inc.

Looking for a great idea for your business or to start a business? The next great business idea or technology may not be at IBM or Apple. It may be in a research lab. Our federal government spends billions of dollars each year funding basic and applied research at universities and federal laboratories across the country. Not only is much of this research available to businesses, including small businesses, but our government actually encourages people to take these technologies to market. Learn how you too can take advantage of this great opportunity by listening to Neil Kane, a serial tech transfer entrepreneur.

The process of taking a technology out of the lab and forming a business around it (broadly known as "tech transfer") is of much interest these days. Frequently these innovations, because they are driven by the government's priorities, are geared to major societal issues such as renewable and cheap energy, clean water, homeland security, new drugs and biomedical devices, etc. which also have tremendous commercial potential. What's not well known is that the government encourages people to take these technologies to the market, and sources of funds are available to make that happen.

In this presentation. Neil Kane will describe the process of forming new businesses based on academic innovations. Through his "Nine Guiding Principals" he will address:

- How to identify technologies that can be commercialized
- How to evaluate and assess their commercial viability
- How to secure rights to the technologies through licensing
- How to create a business around the technology and build a management team
- How to obtain financing from investors and government sources (such as grants and SBIRs), and
- How to build a tech transfer start-up into a profitable corporation

Neil Kane is a true expert on the practical business aspects of tech transfer. He was CEO of advanced Diamond Technologies, Inc., a firm he formed with two Ph.D. scientists in 2003 by licensing technology from Argonne National Laboratory. Neil was co-Executive Director of the Illinois Technology Enterprise Center at Argonne and was Entrepreneur in Residence with Illinois Ventures, LLC. In these roles, he was founding CEO of several companies based on academic research. He has closed multiple rounds of venture capital and secured numerous SBIR/STTIR and other government contracts and awards.