Dartmouth's isolated location can make it more difficult for professors to bring their research to market, but several startups have been successful because of Dartmouth's strong alumni network and support from the College itself, according to Jake Reder, director of the Office of New Ventures at Dartmouth Medical School, which provides consulting services to DMS professors interested in starting their own companies.
Professors may choose to start private companies to develop their inventions into marketable products, Alla Kan, director of Dartmouth's Technology Transfer Office, said.
The College, however, legally owns many of the inventions that result from research conducted at Dartmouth because the TTO files the patents for these inventions, Kan said. Professors seeking to form startup ventures based on their research may acquire the license to use College-owned technology in return for equity or royalties from the company's profits, she said.
As a smaller institution, Dartmouth generates less revenue annually from licensing technology to startups and established companies than many of its peer institutions, Kan said.
The TTO measures the success of Dartmouth technology transfer developing research into marketable products in terms of income generated for the College relative to the resources that Dartmouth expends on research.
In the 2006 fiscal year, Dartmouth reported its income from licensed technology as 1.72 percent of its research expenditures, as compared with 3.34 percent at Harvard University, 1.29 percent at the University of Pennsylvania and 0.79 percent at Johns Hopkins University.
"Somebody once compared Dartmouth to a boutique, versus [the Massachusetts Institute of Technology] as a department store," Kan said. "It's smaller, but we have fine researchers whose fruits span many areas of human knowledge."Other institutions, including Stanford University and MIT, also benefit from being located in an area with a "critical mass of investors," Reder said.
The way that institutions provide infrastructure and support for professors' entrepreneurship varies greatly, Reder said.
"There are some places where they will go out of their way and say, 'If you want to start a business, we'll give you a sabbatical, and you'll hold your position,'" Reder said. "Then at other places, they say that you can't do any research on campus if you are starting a company. Yet both can be successful."
Dartmouth offers professors who wish to start private companies counseling and networking services through the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network, an organization under the purview of the Office of the Provost, Gregg Fairbrothers '76, the network's founding director, said.
Members of the network work individually with professors to help them develop a business plan and secure investments for their startups, he said. The network draws from an extensive alumni community to provide entrepreneurs with business advisers and direction in addition to connecting them with investors, he added.
Engineering professor Tillman Gerngross, co-founder of the biotechnology company GlycoFi, noted the importance of alumni contacts in an interview with The Dartmouth.
"Many Dartmouth alumni are in venture capital firms, so it's quite easy for Dartmouth faculty to get in front of some very sophisticated and experienced investors," he said.
B. Stuart Trembly, a Thayer School of Engineering professor who founded the vision correction company Avedro based on research conducted at Dartmouth, said experienced entrepreneurs, including other Dartmouth faculty and administrators, advised him about the business side of his startup while he oversaw its scientific operations.
"The exciting thing for the inventor is to keep thinking about new ideas," he said. "It's my natural interest."
Dartmouth can improve the success of affiliated startup companies by standardizing its networking policies, Reder said.
"I want to try to systematize the process of [developing startups] to the point where investors are fighting to get a piece of the company," he said.
Some startups associated with Dartmouth professors, including GlycoFi, which was acquired by Merck in 2006, have been particularly successful, Reder said, adding that he believes many more companies have the potential to do just as well.
"In the Dartmouth family, I see world-class medical scientists, business minds and engineers," he said. "It's just a matter of putting everyone together."
The Dartmouth Regional Technology Center, a non-profit organization also founded by Fairbrothers, provides laboratory and office space as well as business advice and networking to entrepreneurs in the Upper Valley region. Several professors' companies currently rent space from the DRTC, including the Mascoma Corporation, a bio-energy firm co-founded in 2005 by engineering professors Lee Lynd Th '84 and Charles Wyman, as well as GlycoFi, which was cofounded in 2000 by Gerngross and Thayer School Dean Emeritus Charles Hutchinson.
The College's administration also often support professors in forming startups, Kan said. The TTO often awards licensing rights to Dartmouth startups rather than to established companies when the two options are otherwise equal in qualifications and potential to develop the product, she said.
"Bringing licensing and entrepreneurial activity into the College makes it stronger financially and also makes students aware of new opportunities," Trembly said.
Startup activities are also guided by policies established by the Office of the General Counsel, Kan said. Professors are discouraged from using College facilities and resources to conduct personal business activities because of Dartmouth's non-profit, tax-exempt status.
Rules established by the general counsel also seek to ensure that there are no conflicts of interest, Reder said. Professors who maintain open communication and transparency can avoid legal conflicts later on, he said.
"There's a broad potential for problems when you get professors working in companies while doing research," Fairbrothers said. "We spend time trying to troubleshoot in advance."
