Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship

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Rice Alliance
for Technology and Entrepreneurship Capitali
zing Ideas.
2009 AOM Conference Brad Burke, Managing
Director August 11, 2009
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Rice University Overview

• Private university in Houston, TX
• Ranked 17 overall by U.S. News World Report
• 4 Best Value Undergraduate University
• Top 10 Engineering School / Top Bioengineering /
  Nanotechnology
• Small size 3,000 undergraduates, 3,000
  graduates, 600 faculty
• 21 of undergrad students are National Merit
  Finalist scholars
• Adjacent to the Texas Medical Center

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Houston Overview
Houston ranked 1 Best City to Live, Work and
Play - Kiplinger's Personal Finance - July
2008 Best U.S. City to Earn a Living - Forbes.com
- August 18, 2008 Best City to Get Ahead -
Forbes.com June 2009 Best City for Recent
College Grads - Forbes.com - June, 2008 Best City
for Your Job - BusinessWeek - June, 2008 Lowest
Cost of Living Among Major Metro Areas -
3Q08 Top Metro in the Nation - Site Selection
Magazine - March 2009 Best Job Growth (01/08 to
01/09) - U.S. BLS March 2009 Nation's
Healthiest Housing Market - February '09 Best
City to Buy a Home - Forbes.com - July,
2008 Largest IT Service Economy - December,
2008 America's Best Cancer Hospital - M.D.
Anderson Cancer Center - uly 2009 Most
Accessible City for the Disabled - National Org.
on Disability Feb., 2008 Top Local Government
Green Power Purchaser EPA - July 2008
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The Rice Alliance for Technology and
Entrepreneurship was founded in 2000
University center strategic alliance among 3
schools
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Rice Alliance Mission

• The three-fold mission of the Rice Alliance is
  to
• Provide entrepreneurship education to the Rice
  community, the Houston business community, and
  beyond
• Facilitate the formation of new technology
  start-up companies
• Help make the surrounding region a leading center
  of technology entrepreneurship
• A Catalyst for Building Successful Ventures
  through Education, Guidance and Connections

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Rices MBA Program was one of the first to
require students to take entrepreneurship
Managing Growth
Representative Courses
The New Enterprise
The New Enterprise Business Plan Development
Technology Innovation Entrepship
Enterprise Exchange / Exit
Venture Capital
Technology Feasibility / Commercialization
Assessment
The course sequence roughly follow a company life
cycle.
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Concentrations in Entrepreneurship
Specialized Fields of Study
Course 1 Launching and building a life science
start-up Course 2 Roles of Founders Venture
Capital in high tech start-ups
Life Science Entrepship
Real Estate Entrepship
Education Entrepship
Experiential Learning
Internships
Action Learning Projects (ALP)
Required of all MBA candidates 6-week
intensive projects working for external companies
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Entrepreneurship Faculty include both
Tenure-track and Practitioners
Edward E. Williams, Ph.D. Named one of the
nation's best entrepreneurship teachers by
BusinessWeek
Jack Gill, Ph.D.
H. Albert Napier, Ph.D. Acton Foundation award
for Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education
Leo Linbeck
Dennis Murphree Murphree Ventures
Robert D. Ulrich, Ph.D.
Atul Varadhachary, Ph.D., M.D.
Blair Garrou DFJ Mercury
Marc Epstein, Ph.D.
Dan Watkins, Ph.D. DFJ Mercury
Ned Hill DFJ Mercury
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Venture Capital Forums educate students and
entrepreneurs on what is required to launch a
start-up company
Energy Clean Technology
Life Science
Nanotechnology
I.T. Web 2.0
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Technology Venture Forums have multifaceted
outcomes

• Educate students entrepreneurs on the start-up
  process
• Bring VCs and other investors to campus
• Connect researchers with the business community
• Build upon the local entrepreneurial community
• Provide mentorship and advice to entrepreneurs
• Outreach to current students and alumni
• Connect with investor types

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800,000 in Prizes!! April 16-18, 2009
Worlds Richest and Largest Business Plan
Competition!
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84 Companies have successfully launched their
companies after competing at the Rice Business
Plan Competition
Successful Company Start-up Rate by Year of
Competition
During the competitions eight-year history, 37
of teams (84 out of 228 past competitors) have
gone on to successfully launch their
business. Total funds raised gt145
million (incl. 55 million in the past 12 months)
69
50
43
42
29
21
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The feedback was astonishing. Our company will
work as a result of it and would not have without
it. - RBPC Competitor
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350 Teams applied for the 42 competition slots in
2009 800,000 in prizes
Teams Competing of Schools
2009 U.S. Schools
42
ArkansasBabson Berkeley (2)Brown Carnegie
Mellon Chicago (2) Colorado StateCornell Dartmout
h Harvard Illinois Inst. Tech. Iowa State Johns
Hopkins (2) Michigan (2)
MIT (2) UNC-Chapel HillNorth Dakota PurdueRice
RPI (2)San Francisco SMU (2)South
FloridaStanford (2)Texas (UT-Dallas) Utah Virgin
ia (2) Washington
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36
35
34
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This was probably the single most important
learning experience during my MBA. -
Competitor
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2009 International Schools Thammasat
(Thailand) Cambridge (UK) Queens
(Canada)
SP Jain (India) Waterloo (Canada)
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Judging Panel includes over 200 investors and
mentors
2009 Judging Panel by Current Occupation
Judges 60 Venture Capital 40 Angel
Investor 20 Private Equity 40
Entrepreneurs 30 Legal/Financial 20 NASA
(special) 10 Corporate/Other 220
Venture Capital
Corporate
Financial Services
Private Equity
Legal
Angel Investors
Entrepreneurs
Still the best event for Private Equity, Venture
Capital, early-stage deals and networking.
Judge
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There have been 30 Rice University related
start-up companies over the past 9 years
1. Advanced Biosciences 2. Advanced Reality
(inactive) 3. Applied NanoFluorescence4.
Aristan Medical5. BetaBatt 6. BioSonic 7.
Cambrios (affiliated company) 8. Carbon
Nanotechnology, Inc. (now Unidym) 9. Desmogen
(inactive) 10. Ensysce Biosciences (Bob
Gower) 11. Glycos Biotechnology (DFJ Mercury) 12.
Houston Medical Robotics 13. itRobotics 14.
LaserGen (Baylor start-up with Rice
affiliation) 15. Mass Specific Force 16.
Molecular Electronics Corp. (inactive) 17. MTPE
(Museums Teaching Planet Earth) 18.
NanoComposites 18. Nanopartz 20. NanoRidge 21.
Nanospectra Biosciences 22. Nano 3D Biosciences
23. NatCore 24. NewCyte 25. Oxane Materials 26.
ProMedior 27. Solterra 28. Somatogen
(inactive) 29. Trellis (affiliated company) 30.
Vanguard Solar (Kleiner Perkins) 31. Xilas
Medical (affiliated company)
Carbon Nanotechnologies Incorporated
Nanospectra Biosciences
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We have assisted in the launch of over 230
technology-based start-ups
Company Start-ups Assisted Cumulative
Total Funding Raised M
233
505M
207
172
350M
150
302M
128
106
213M
76
118M
50
67M
45M
23M
Over 750 early-stage companies have participated
in our programs over the past 9 years
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Lessons Learned

• Integration of business, engineering science
  schools
• Outreach programs supplementing classroom
• Advisory boards
• Community entrepreneurial network
• Funding
• Never able to get ahead.

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2009 Conference Host
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Brad Burke bburke_at_rice.edu www.alliance.rice.edu