What happens when you mix astronomers with rocket builders, Storm Troopers and startup founders? Find out for yourself at the 13th Hawaii Geek Meet, taking place Sunday, Sept. 25 at Magic Island. This is my one annual event, and I'd love to see you and your family there!
There's a lot of great science happening at the University of Hawaii, but after a discovery or innovation is made, how can we turn academics into entrepreneurs, and shift from chasing research funding to making commercial sales?
That's the mission of the UH Office of Innovation & Commercialization (OIC), which this month re-launched its UH incubator program with a new name: HITIDE, a typical academic backronym that stands for the Hawaii Technology Innovation Development Ecosystem.
It's the latest initiative to extend the university's success in bringing in R&D funds into greater business opportunities.
It takes a village
UH's Nimbus AI made national waves with its solar energy prediction technology.
The prospects for a startup in Hawaii are far, far brighter today than they were ten years ago. For all the challenges every business faces in the Aloha State—which has a long-standing reputation of being anti-business—the overall innovation ecosystem has grown from almost nothing to almost robust.
We have a ton of resources for nascent and early-stage startups, and a growing constellation of organizations dedicated to helping founders succeed. On the rare occasion I'm asked what's still most needed, I've recently harped on two points: the lack of follow-on, eight-digit funding pathways, and the limited engagement of our otherwise stellar, top-tier university.
The recent arrival of Builders VC and Decisive Point in Hawaii, as well as a couple of other firms testing the waters, may help bridge the fundraising gap. As for UH entrepreneurial initiatives, the Shidler College of Business has greatly expanded its offerings, thanks to loyal support from namesake businessman Jay Shidler (which the school in turn pays forward to the community). Its Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship (PACE), in particular, is becoming a vital resource for both students and the community.
Considering the size and resources of the UH system, however, it's not quite the front-line player one might expect in the local innovation ecosystem.
Universities were a key part of how Silicon Valley evolved—not that we should aspire to be another Silicon Valley. But in every high-level, holistic study of successful entrepreneurial communities, higher education looms large. "Town-Gown Relations," I've heard it called. Growing and sustaining the talent pipeline is a huge need, but universities have a broad array of valuable resources that could go a long way in a startup ecosystem.
Research commercialization is one of them.
UH is a juggernaut in scientific research. In just one field, from one agency, UH brought in $50 million in federal funding in the last two years. Combining all disciplines and funding sources, UH attracted a record $505 million in the last fiscal year. Half a billion dollars coming out of the pandemic, the most since 2011.
UH President David Lassner lauded the milestone as validation of the university's research and innovation activities, characterizing them as "a major economic sector for Hawaii that creates thousands of jobs and provides economic stimulation across our islands." And no doubt about it, that Hawaii is home to cutting-edge science is reason to celebrate.
But commercializing that valuable intellectual property is a different matter, and a long-time challenge.
Turning scientists into entrepreneurs
UH researcher Dr. Angel Yanagihara forged her own path to commercialization.
Despite what your uncle may have told you, everyday technologies like Velcro, Teflon, and Tang were not developed by NASA before ending up on store shelves. Still, space research has brought a number of revolutionary technologies into our lives.
But it's a compelling narrative: solutions for complex problems finding a market among regular consumers.
What's glossed over in most of these myths, however, is the long, twisted, arduous path between a laboratory and the patent office, and from that patent to a product. Scientists are not natural businesspeople—nor lawyers, salespeople, accountants, and so on. And getting help requires partners that both understand the deep intricacies of the research as well as see how it might find investors and customers.
Dr. Angel Yanagihara turned a lifetime of studying venoms and toxins into a compelling product that could reduce the pain of stings and even save lives. She knew that there was a market for what she'd made, but it was not easy to get "Sting No More" out into the world.
She had a lot to say about the role UH played—or didn't play—in her journey.
The purpose of the UH Office of Innovation of Commercialization (OIC) is to facilitate that process, managing, protecting, commercializing and marketing UH intellectual property and technology assets to "support the diversification of Hawaii’s economy by promoting UH research and innovation."
Perhaps the most visible recent initiative of the office was XLR8UH, a "proof of concept center/venture accelerator" launched in 2015. Developed in partnership with Sultan Ventures, XLR8UH garnered national acclaim out of the gate, earning awards and significant funding.
The program went on to graduate six cohorts of companies that had some connection to the university, whether it was based on UH-developed technology or founded by a UH alumni, student, or employee. Unfortunately, in 2019, XLR8UH was sunsetted. (Sultan Ventures pivoted to run XLR8HI, an entrepreneurship center targeting very early-stage startups.)
The OIC regrouped, and amid the pandemic, brought its incubator/accelerator offerings in house with the Ideation Studio@UH, funded in part with CARES Act money.
"Ideation Studio@UH will be a catalyst for innovation and entrepreneurship at UH,” said UH Vice President for Research and Innovation Vassilis L. Syrmos at the time. “It is tailored to meet the needs of our faculty and staff to support them in starting companies, creating jobs and diversifying and growing our economy and Hawaii’s innovation ecosystem.”
Earlier this year, the program graduated its latest cohort of three UH-affiliated companies:
Nimbus AI: Using machine learning and next-generation satellite data to provide near-, medium- and long-term solar forecasting.
Hawaii Innovation Lab: Developing a liquid metal coating that could reduce manufacturing costs of lighter-weight solar power mirrors.
Edge Energy: More effective visibility, analytics, and controls of distributed energy resources, including PV and battery energy storage.
Now, the program has a new name, but the same vision of helping members of the UH community turn their innovative ideas into commercially viable products and successful startup businesses.
HITIDE is nigh
Nimbus AI has won over $70,000 in prizes to build its company.
Announced relatively quietly earlier this month via an informational webinar, HITIDE is described as "a UH System innovation incubator program that provides concierge services, seed funding and resources specifically tailored to meet the unique needs of academic entrepreneurs with UH-affiliated, deep-tech startups."
Companies accepted into the program will receive $25,000, as well as coaching to secure SBIR funding which—if successful—HITIDE will match. There may also be an opportunity for follow-on funding from UH Ventures.
But the money is the least interesting part.
"We have you drive your business and your goals on your own, but we understand that every business is going to come in at a very different level of maturity, and most likely, this this level of maturity will be pretty young," explained OIC program director George Yarbrough. "We will take you through the vernacular, we explain the modeling, we connect you with the mentors that can push you and can challenge you, and connect you with industry experts."
Yarbrough says the curriculum will be tailored to the specific goals of each founding team, whether it's developing soft-skills and understanding the basics of business to seeking federal funds to pitching a venture capitalist.
"It's hard to fit a template to all businesses, because everyone does come to this program at very different levels, with very different technologies, so everything is case by case," he said.
In fact, if an idea isn't quite ready for the incubator, Yarbrough said the OIC can still help them with the "Patents to Products" program, funded by the Office of Naval Research.
"Let's say you have a really interesting idea in a lab that you're creating," he said. "We will pay for a postdoc or an entrepreneur in residence to sit in your lab and help develop that idea and technology up to a point where it could be commercializable.
"Using lean methodology, testing it, thinking through customer discovery, after that technology has hit a certain level, then that would be a good time to kind of enter the incubator program HITIDE," he explained.
At the end of the flexible, 12- to 24-month HITIDE program, there'll be a "demo day."
"There will be a showcase where everyone will have to explain to the community about what their research is, what they're doing, how they're going to be growing, and—the most important thing—how they're going to make money," he said.
Yarbrough, who joined the OIC a few months ago, says that community outreach and matchmaking will be part of his responsibilities.
"I don't come from academia, I've been an entrepreneur for the last nine years, and I can say that there are entrepreneurs beyond the walls of UH that would be really excited about working with some of this technology, to pursue its growth," he said. "That's a component that I think that we need to do a better job at."
"I'm very passionate about supporting the ecosystem of innovation within Hawaii, not just UH, and I think that UH has a very impactful and important role for the entire state," he added.
OIC communications director Lea Okudara put the program in perspective.
"Without universities, there would be no Google, there would be no computers, TVs, none of these great innovations and inventions," she said. "There are a lot of great technologies that have come out of UH."
Among them, ALOHANET, virus-resistant papayas, cloned mice, COVID vaccines, space sensors and water sensors and more.
"We are here to support innovators and entrepreneurs and translating your ideas, taking it from the lab to the market to actually make an impact," Okudara said.
She also called out some of the areas where UH research and the office's efforts have been focused.
"Some of the priority areas that we focus on are based on national science funding priorities as well as some of the unique strengths and capabilities of Hawaii," "Ocean and planetary science, astronomy, health and wellness, digital economy, civil infrastructure like cybersecurity, and energy and sustainable ecosystems."
"This is just to give you an idea of some of our major focus areas, but that doesn't mean that we don't support any other areas," she clarified.
Applications open
HITIDE is open to startups that are UH affiliated. This could be at the company level (at least one member of the company is a UH system faculty, researcher, student, staff and/or alumni), or at the innovation level (the technology must have originated and/or been developed at the University of Hawaii).
"Customized to complement and support the demands of academic entrepreneurs," HITIDE expects participants to commit at least four hours a week to the program.
This next cohort will consist of five companies. Applications are due Oct. 3, with the program kicking off the week of Nov. 15. For more information, visit hitide.research.hawaii.edu.
