Throughout your startup or business growth journey, entrepreneurs need a team around them. ASBTDC serves as vital doers and connectors in this space. We are launching a series of Q&As to highlight relationships important to us—and to you.
We will introduce you to our partners, who are funders, co-sponsors, hosts, conveners, and resource providers from various pathways along the entrepreneurial technologist journey in Arkansas and the nation.
First up in our Q&A series is Stefanie Kennon-McGill, senior program manager at BioVentures, LLC, the technology transfer office for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
We reach out to resource providers like Stefanie when helping clients advance innovative healthcare solutions. Her work focuses on guiding healthcare entrepreneurs and serves as an important bridge between the academic world and the worlds of healthcare and biomedical entrepreneurship.
ASBTDC and BioVentures work together frequently. For the Lab2Launch Accelerator cohort focused on National Institutes of Health, we co-counseled. participants on competitive SBIR/STTR grant submissions. Our Technology Team has helped promote biosciences entrepreneurial mentoring and growth in the state and supported the UAMS Health Sciences Innovation and Entrepreneurship (HSIE) training program for Postdoctoral Fellows.
Meet Stefanie Kennon-McGill, Ph.D.
Q: BioVentures plays a crucial role in commercializing university research. What are some key challenges researchers face in turning discoveries into startups?
A: I think the biggest challenge is taking the first step in recognizing the value of commercializing your research. As someone who took a traditional academic research career path before joining BioVentures, I always thought of commercialization as a “dirty word,” in the sense that you should let your discoveries speak for themselves and not profit off them.
However, what I failed to realize is that commercialization can be an incredibly powerful tool to leverage when you want to efficiently get your work out into the hands of people who will actually benefit from it, which is typically the ultimate goal in biomedical research.
Another challenge that many researchers face when exploring the idea of forming a startup is simply that our skillset as researchers often does not overlap with the skillset needed to properly run a business, and that is completely okay.
That is why we love to partner with organizations like ASBTDC. The entrepreneurial support organization ecosystem in Arkansas is designed to help folks who have amazing ideas and discoveries but don’t have the business acumen to figure out how to turn those discoveries into a startup.
We all start from somewhere, and having such an incredible network of service organizations across the state makes that starting process a lot less cumbersome.
Q: What resources or programs does BioVentures offer to help entrepreneurs move from idea to market?
A: A lot of our work focuses on protecting and commercializing UAMS intellectual property. We have an incredible IP and Licensing team who work hard every day to connect with UAMS inventors to protect their work through patents or copyright.
They also connect with already established companies who may be interested in licensing the IP from the inventors and university, and they spend a great deal of time working on those licensing deals.
In addition to our core work on IP and licensing, we also offer training, events, talks, and other outreach to educate faculty, staff, and students about all aspects of entrepreneurship, regulations, and commercialization.
Additionally, we are in our second year of an accelerator program called AR Health Ventures Therapeutic Accelerator (ARHVA), which is designed to bring UAMS therapeutic discoveries to the point of commercialization in a rapid, efficient manner by providing funding, consultation, guidance, and more. This has been a very successful program so far, and I can’t wait to see what our second cohort has in store.
Finally, we’ve recently expanded our mission to have a statewide focus on healthcare entrepreneurship and economic development. We are fortunate to have an amazing grant writing team who have secured federal funding for our program such as the Arkansas Collaborative for Technological and Innovative Venture Equality, or ACTIVE.
This program, funded by the MBDA Capital Readiness Program, allows us to support up to 25 health-related, early-stage Arkansas entrepreneurs each year. It has been a joy to get to know and support our cohort members! They are incredible entrepreneurs who are working hard to improve health across Arkansas.
Q: How does partnering with ASBTDC and other entrepreneurial support organizations strengthen the startup ecosystem in Arkansas?
A: I love the ESO network in Arkansas! There are so many incredible service organizations like ASBTDC across the state that are all staffed with people who want to support entrepreneurs and see them succeed, which I find so inspiring. I think this network is vital, as we aren’t capable of being experts in every aspect of entrepreneurship and startups.
So, while we at BioVentures have our expertise in healthcare and biomedical entrepreneurship, we don’t have the bandwidth or expertise to guide our researchers through an SBIR application in the way that ASBTDC does. I love that I can so easily direct one of our researchers to an organization like ASBTDC and feel confident that they will receive the help they need.
Q: What’s one startup or innovation that has recently come out of BioVentures that excites you?
A: One of our first ARHVA awardees, Gyan Sahukhal, has been doing incredible work with Mohamed Elasri and other great UAMS researchers. Their work focuses on developing agents to prevent biofilm formation, which would allow for more efficacious treatment of certain infections, particularly in bone.
This team is working on forming a startup around this work, and I think they have great potential to make a significant clinical impact.
Q: What advice would you give to a researcher or scientist thinking about launching a startup?
A: You are not alone! As I mentioned earlier, the skills that make for a great scientist aren’t necessarily the ones that make for a great CEO, and there is nothing wrong with that.
However, it makes collaboration and partnership all the more important! Take the time to develop your team, do customer discovery to see if there is a market for your IP, and take full advantage of the amazing network of entrepreneurial support organizations that are at your fingertips.
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Call on Us
If you are on a “lab to launch” journey to commercialize your novel innovation or are seeking capital for product development, Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center’s innovation consulting and market research staff can help!
Our Technology Team provides consulting, training, connections, and technical assistance to help you navigate non-dilutive seed fund options through America’s Seed Fund, the SBIR/STTR program. In addition, we assist you with one-on-one advice, educational opportunities, connections, and expert entrepreneurial support.