University of Arizona online hub aims to spur collaboration between entrepreneurs, inventors
A new online hub launched by the University of Arizona aims to help tech entrepreneurs learn about new inventions and research coming out of the school that can provide opportunities to launch or join startups.
Called StartupHub, the site highlights what are considered the most promising opportunities, allowing visitors to check them out by industry — such as diagnostics, digital health or medical devices — or by position, such as CEO, co-founder or chief science officer.
The hub is a project of Tech Launch Arizona, or TLA, UArizona’s office dedicated to commercializing the school’s research and making an economic and societal impact. The office has a venture development team that helps inventors and entrepreneurs connect and launch startups.
“Our goal is to maximize the societal impact of the world-class research taking place at UArizona,” said Bruce Burgess, TLA director of Venture Development, in a statement. “University faculty, staff, and researchers produce hundreds of inventions each year, and this website is strategized for maximum effectiveness in connecting the highest-potential inventing teams and inventions with investors, technology experts, and entrepreneurs looking for their next great business opportunity who can bring those innovations to fruition.”
Burgess said the hub will feature “only the best of the best” opportunities. Inventions that will be curated on StartupHub have to be cutting-edge in their field and address clear market needs, TLA said, but they also have to be supported by teams qualified and ready to work with outside entrepreneurs.
There are currently 17 opportunities up on the site. Some early examples highlighted by TLA include a trail-ready snake-bite antivenom kit, a device to relieve carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms and an oral treatment for gastrointestinal disease that doesn’t compromise gut microbiome health.
Interested entrepreneurs can use the site’s detailed data points and “meet-the-inventor” videos to gain a broad technical understanding of inventions and a personal understanding of how their inventors work.
Tech Launch Arizona says that since 2013 its work has contributed to $1.6 billion in economic output with more than 500 licenses and options, more than 600 patents issued and more than 2,700 startups launched.
One of the companies it helped launch, Metfora, was one of three bioscience startups participating in the University of Arizona Center for Innovation that were welcomed to participate in the exclusive Flinn Foundation Bioscience Entrepreneurship Program.
Metfora, based in the Tucson area, is developing a test to differentially diagnose four lung diseases from a single blood draw.