Tomorrow I'm hosting the 4th annual URES (University Research and Entrepreneurship Symposium) - an event that keeps getting better every year. We'll have 300+ investors, entrepreneurs, and startup executives in the audience hearing 10-minute presentations by 30 technology entrepreneurs who have developed, and intend to start companies around, technologies within world-class research universities around the US. This year we've expanded to include 3 tracks: Life Sciences, Energy, and IT. Having worked with the other members of the Executive and Steering Committees (which include Jeff Fagnan and Bruce Booth at Atlas Venture, and Bilal Zuberi and Hemant Taneja at General Catalyst, and David Cappillo at Goodwin Procter) over the last few months to select the projects and then working with the entrepreneurs on their presentations, I can vouch for the quality of the ideas presented and the caliber of the entrepreneurs.
The proof's in the pudding. Of the 50 projects presented in the first three years of URES, 5 companies have been funded. With any luck, I'll soon be able to claim URES led to an investment for Flybridge - I recently reached agreement to lead an investment in a company I first saw at URES 2010!
Gonna be fun tomorrow...
