Business Incubator Series: Interview With Julia Rosen, Associate Vice-President For Innovation And Entrepreneurship, Arizona State University, Venture Catalyst At ASU — Scottsdale, Arizona (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What are the sources of your applications?

Julia: They come from all over the world, from students to faculty in greater Phoenix, the nation, and the world. They really come from all over the place.

Our economic development mission of SkySong, where we’re actually recruiting companies, has led us to build a rich network of investors from around the world [comprising] government officials who work in the innovation space and other universities and incubators around the world that are interested in helping their companies access the U.S. market.

We provide a differentiated offering because we’re a not-for-profit accelerator. We’re here as a university, and we’re interested in building long-term relationships with companies.

ASU, externally, has a broad network of investors, other incubators and accelerators, government officials, and universities throughout the world. We leverage that network for economic purposes and for our accelerator.

Within Arizona and our own university, obviously, we have a set of individual networks. Because we are the only university in the metro region, we have a fairly easy time getting attention for our services compared to an accelerator that might be a small program in a very large city.

Irina: How do you process the applications?

Julia: There’s a short form on the Venture Catalyst website. Then, our staff will usually do about a half-hour conference call with the entrepreneur, sometimes an hour, to really get a better flavor of them. We’re not asking entrepreneurs to spend an incredible amount of time on paperwork. We’re just saying, “Hey, let’s just sit down and talk, and understand where you are, and what we can do for you.”

The road map itself is a vehicle that defines the near-term Venture Catalyst relationship with a company. The road map might mean the Venture Catalyst is going to work with you. Our individual staff are going to do a whole bunch of things. We’re going to get the university heavily engaged. Or, it might mean we think your idea still needs a lot of work, and here are some community resources that we think can be valuable to you.

Irina: Are there any fees for entrepreneurs when they apply?

Julia: No, not for the initial application. The fee comes later, once we decide – and the entrepreneur agrees – here are the services we think we can provide for you, and you agree that you need these services. At that point, we charge for those services based on how many or how few they use.

For example, taking the market research, if somebody is engaging a student consulting group, that has one fee to it. If someone wants our professional staff to do the market research, that would have another fee. It is dependent upon the exact service offering. It goes back to the notion of customized service. And it is free for current students and faculty.

Irina: Approximately how many applications do you receive a month?

Julia: My best guess is about 25.

Irina: Out of those 25, how many get to work with you?

Julia: We will give a road map to everyone, but the road map varies in significant ways in terms of our engagement. As a public university, if people want help, we’ll talk to anybody, and at least give people a few referrals. It’s not like we say, “We’re not going to take you.” We just might not engage with you in a substantive way. But, again, the scale of our assistance and the intensity of our engagement is based on the promise of the company.

Irina: Once you accept a company, what are the next steps?

Julia: It depends on the individual road map. Let’s say we recommend that a company, over the next 90 days, talk to potential customers. We might not do much for them until they’ve done their work.

If they come back to us, we might say, “OK, the next step is X.” Maybe they would then be ready to meet potential investors. Maybe they’d be ready to meet a faculty member who’s a technical expert in her field. Road maps tend to be about six months in duration.

We don’t do a new road map every month. We try to give an outline of “Here’s what we’d like to see from you over the next six months.” Sometimes we jump in right away. Other times, entrepreneurs have to do their work before we’ll engage in a serious way.

This segment is part 4 in the series : Business Incubator Series: Interview With Julia Rosen, Associate Vice-President For Innovation And Entrepreneurship, Arizona State University, Venture Catalyst At ASU — Scottsdale, Arizona
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