Our Process

Technology Sourcing
In addition to private party submission of innovative concepts as candidates for the next University Funds portfolio company, our management team leverages a broad sphere of investors, employees, executives, corporations, and associates to identify technology opportunities. These partners alert us to emerging market needs for innovation development, and enable us to monitor promising research being conducted at the universities, national research labs (NRL’s) and corporate technology partners (CTP’s) that form our sourcing network.

The University Funds has formal sourcing agreements with over 20 major research universities and NRLs, and a growing number of major corporate partners. We maintain regular communications with these partners to cultivate relationships where both parties can benefit from the identification of business development opportunities around emerging technologies and market trends. Through these and other relationships, our Technology Review Team is constantly evaluating new products and companies that may support a new or existing portfolio venture.

Our Managed Launch Process
The University Funds’ approach to monetizing emerging technology is centered on 4 principle pillars; People, Partners, Process and early Profits. Our model for maximizing Investor returns is based on the belief that successful outcomes are the product of understanding market opportunities, sound and continual planning, and disciplined operational execution.

At the core of this strategy is our Managed Launch Process; a systematic approach to company development that leverages shared resources and the collective networks and experience of our people to accelerate the commercialization process. The Managed Launch Process uses a prescribed methodology for forming, growing and guiding portfolio companies to successful exits. Its objective is to move the company at an accelerated pace between critical milestones, without wasting time and resources on non-material matters.

This model for business formation leverages the entrepreneurial expertise of our members with the processes, discipline and capital commitments necessary to create viable business entities that can effectively compete in the commercial marketplace.

More About Our Managed Launch Process

In the early phases of a new venture, management must address the daily operational challenges of a startup, while staying focused on key strategic objectives and doing things right the first time. More often than not, in the midst of operational distractions and the realities of uncertain funding, compromises are made and programs are put into the market pre-maturely, or are unduly delayed and miss market opportunities.

A significant percentage of the resources within a startup are consumed with the effort needed to raise multiple early fund raising rounds. This detracts from the very task that is most essential – the development of the technology and the business. Products launched the wrong way, or to the wrong market segment, often require re-working later at considerable cost of time, capital and equity. Without experienced people, process and capitalization, far too many mistakes are made and potentially great companies fail before they have a real chance to succeed.

The University Funds proprietary Managed Launch Process is used by portfolio company management and monitored by our Business Accelerator teams to closely manage the creation of our portfolio companies. The Managed Launch Process and support services from the Business Accelerator help to ensure that each portfolio company achieves product development milestones, as well as strategic marketing and operations objectives, as a requirement for continued funding. This in turn streamlines IP commercialization and accelerates time-to-market. This methodology for product development and operations execution significantly lowers early-stage risk and improves the potential for superior investment returns.

More About Our Managed Launch Process