From Ideas to Startups: Advice from Successful Stony Brook Faculty Entrepreneurs

A panel discussion, From Ideas to Startups: Advice from Successful Stony Brook Faculty Entrepreneurs, was held virtually on October 14, 2021 by the Stony Brook University Chapter of National Academy of Inventors in partnership with Intellectual Property Partners (IPP). 

Five prominent Stony Brook academic researchers and entrepreneurs shared their experience in challenges and the rewards of running faculty start-ups. The discussion was moderated by David Hamilton, Executive Director for the Clean Energy Business Incubator Program (CEBIP).

“Being a researcher is hard. Obtaining a research grant is hard. Doing research is hard. Entrepreneurship is hard. Starting a business is hard,” stated David Hamilton as he began the program, “but trying to do all those things at the same time – that’s really, really hard.” These words defined the subject of the conversation: why commercialization is so important and what can be done to pave the way into entrepreneurship for the academic innovation community.  

The five academic panelists, all deeply involved in academic research, spoke about finding their way to combine this with the entrepreneurial path. During the discussion, they addressed questions such as: balancing roles as a researcher vs. entrepreneur; finding space and resources for their startup; and how to engage their students and postdocs. All the panelists shared stories of what motivated them to start thinking about getting involved in business, the vision for their academic startups, and their frustrations and successes.

“Much of the creativity among our faculty and students has the potential to benefit society, and only a small portion of those innovations achieve that goal and make it to the marketplace,” said Dr. Richard J. Reeder, Vice President for Research, during final remarks. He said this discussion will hopefully inspire other researchers and innovators and help them get on the path of entrepreneurship with the goal of bringing their innovations to market.

This panel was held as part of a series of workshops organized by IPP and Stony Brook NAI Chapter: the goal of these workshops is to inspire innovation and entrepreneurship across the SBU campus.  The panel was recorded and available to view in its entirety here.