With a front row seat to university commercialization for over a decade, one thing is clear: too many high potential projects die before they create significant impact.
Whether it's first-time founders struggling with difficult decisions, customer pilots that don't lead to larger projects, or a misalignment of incentives in the university system, it's time to re-imagine commercialization.
Too many good projects get stuck.
When things are stuck, you need torque to break them free.
So many things can kill a startup, sure. Startups based on university research have even more challenging odds, including significant technical risk, market selection, market timing, and high capital expenditures. Universities often depend on enthusiastic first-time founders to take their best shot at taking disruptive technology to market.
The Drake Equation contemplates the many variables that must break just right for a planet to be life-bearing and have developed a contemplative civilization.
Much like the search for life, dozens of variables need to break the right way for a startup to create significant impact in entrenched industries, and any wrong decision can be the death knell that dooms promising research breakthroughs to the shelf. Whether it's poorly designed pilots, taking capital from the wrong people or in the wrong structure, or technology maturation taking longer than anticipated, danger is everywhere.
Torque Startups is here to help build impactful companies. That means working alongside founders to chart a path to market, bringing experience from years of early-stage startup and commercialization experience.
We work with faculty directly to determine the best path to market, find pilot customers, and help build the business the way we would if it were our own.
Torque creates impactful startups from university research.
