Register here.

When: Tuesday, November 4, 2025 | 12:00pm ET

Registration:  Click Here

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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Webinar Description:

Breakthrough technologies from academic institution need more than just great science—they need great founders. But what happens when no founder is waiting in the wings?

This webinar spotlights two pioneering programs designed to close that gap: CU Boulder’s Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator and the University of Michigan’s Accelerate Blue Foundry. Both initiatives proactively recruit entrepreneurial leaders and match them with promising university innovations to launch scalable startups.

In this session, Amy Dodenhoff (Director of Venture Development, CU Boulder) and Dave Repp (Innovation Partnerships, University of Michigan) will share:

• How their institutions are building founder-recruitment pipelines to expand startup formation capacity through these programs • How they each structured their programs
• Marketing and recruitment strategies for the programs
• Matching processes that align external founders with university IP/potential startups
• Success stories and challenges from program cohorts thus far
• Metrics for the programs

Intended Audience: Technology transfer and commercialization professionals, innovation hubs, academic incubators, and university leaders interested in models for recruiting founders into academic startups.

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Since the purpose of this webinar is to answer your questions on venture capital and startups, submit your questions early. Query areas could include:

• Considering the fundraising environment, recommendations on how to stand out amongst the crowd
• The industry areas that are particularly interesting to VCs right now
• The best ways to get introductions to VCs
• Recommendations for first-time academic founders

Matt and Manny will also take questions from the audience the day of the webinar but sending your questions in advance will put them at the top of the queue.

This webinar is free to all of OUP’s academic institution partners.

When: Wednesday, September 17, 2025 | 12:00pm ET*

*Please note: this webinar will be 90min

Registration:  Click Here

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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Webinar Description:

Join us for an exclusive webinar exploring Lilly Catalyze360 — a comprehensive approach designed to empower the early-stage biotech ecosystem. This innovative platform is built on three strategic pillars aimed at accelerating promising science and removing barriers to innovation:

• Lilly Ventures – global investment arm focused on advancing breakthrough ideas through strategic funding.
• Lilly Gateway Labs – providing lab space, scientific resources, and collaborative engagement opportunities.
• Lilly ExploR&D – delivering tailored R&D solutions to help startups scale science with speed and precision.

In this session, you’ll hear directly from both Lilly and biotech leaders about how Catalyze360 is accelerating early-stage science through unique access to the company’s deep scientific expertise, curated partner network, and decades of industry experience.

When: Tuesday, September 9, 2025 | 12:00pm ET

Registration:  Click Here

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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Webinar Description:

Finding capital for your new venture is never easy, but recent years have been particularly deflated for certain sectors, including MedTech. What is a startup founder to do? Join three founders out of academic institutions who have attained capital for their new MedTech ventures in the past couple of years to hear their journeys in attaining this critical capital that helped launched their startups. Each founder has raised capital in a variety of ways. They will discuss:

• The capital sources they have brought in
• The road to getting to each of those sources
• What the capital will allow their startups to achieve
• The connections that enabled each of the capital intakes
• Programs they participated in for launching new ventures
• The failures along the way in raising capital
• Their next funding steps
• Their advice for their fellow MedTech startup founders

Please join us to hear from our fantastic panelists:

Charlie Childs – Founder and CEO of Intero Biosystems

Leila Daneshmandi – Co-Founder and COO of Encapsulate

Kalen Hall – Co-Founder and CEO of Informuta

If you have any questions from our panelists, please submit them during registration.

When: Thursday, July 17, 2025 | 12:00pm ET

Registration:  Click Here

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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Webinar Description:

Looking for early-stage commercialization funding? Join our federal agency experts’ discussion on their small business research commercialization funding programs, SBIR and STTR. During the program, the experts will review:

• General information on their agencies (NSF, NIH, and NCI) and how they work in the commercialization process
• General information on the commercialization-focused programs of their respective agencies
• The differences between SBIRs and STTRs
• Eligibility
• Phases
• How the applications are reviewed
• Funding mechanisms
• The CARE and TABA programs
• Recommendations for successful grants

If you have any questions for our panelists, please submit them when you register.

When: Thursday, June 5, 2025 | 12:00pm ET

Registration:  Click Here

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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Webinar Description:

Many universities now have Entrepreneur-in-Residence programs to help along nascent startups or aspiring academic founders. Experienced startup executives join these programs for various reasons and perform a variety of responsibilities to shepherd these early-stage opportunities. During this webinar, we’ll speak with three current EIRs:

• Don Manfredi - University of Michigan
• Julie Schoenfeld – Caltech
• Althea Stillman – UCSF

They will share why they joined their respective EIR programs, the skills they bring to the programs, their multitude of tasks, the impacts EIRs can have, and more.

If you’d like to review our previous EIR webinar from the perspectives of the program directors, you can watch it here.

We welcome your questions, both ahead of time (submitted during the registration process) and during the webinar itself.

When: Thursday, April 3, 2025 | 12:00pm ET

Registration:  Click Here

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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Webinar Description:

As a graduate student, many career options lie in front of you. One potential route is founding a startup based on the innovative research conducted in your lab. Beginning a startup company is complex and challenging. While there are now many programs to assist academics in their startup endeavors, some aspects you learn as you build the venture. Come hear from two successful startup CEOs who founded startups as graduate students. They will discuss their journeys:

• Making the switch from academia to a new venture
• Fundraising
• Building their teams
• Challenges both expected and unforeseen
• The ultimate exits made by their first startups

Dr. Shelley Force Aldred founded her first startup as a graduate student at Stanford University and now is on her third new venture. Dr. Laura Schewel founded her first startup, StreetLight Data, while a graduate student at Berkeley. More information on both of them is below.

We welcome your questions, both ahead of time (submitted during the registration process) and during the webinar itself.

When: Thursday, March 27, 2025 | 12:00pm ET

Registration:  Click Here

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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Webinar Description:

OUP is pleased to invite you to our annual startup financing trends webinar. Join Nabil Ullah and Justin Robeny of OUP’s investment team for a discussion on startup financing trends to review the state of the venture funding landscape.

We’ll cover current market behaviors across the entire startup ecosystem with a specific emphasis on university spinouts. Justin Robeny will outline trends in the life sciences, including biopharma, research tools, diagnostics, and medical devices while Nabil Ullah will review the tech and physical sciences, ranging from software to climate tech.

OUP leverages public sources and its own proprietary database of active university spinouts from its partner institutions to provide unique insights and perspectives for 2025 and beyond.

When: Tuesday, February 4, 2025 | 12:00pm ET

Registration:  Click Here

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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Webinar Description:

On February 4^th, join us for a discussion on university venture funds, where academic institutions are investing capital into the startups forming based on intellectual property from their institutions. First, Bryn Rees of the University of Colorado Boulder will provide a landscape analysis he conducted on existing university venture funds. This landscape will be followed by overview of three existing university venture funds: Buff Gold Ventures at CU Boulder, the Caltech Seed Fund, and Accelerate Blue Fund at the University of Michigan. Mike Psarouthaskis will also discuss a Michigan State Fund initiative.

Topics to be covered for the funds include:

• Objectives of the funds
• Coordination around the university for the funds
• Management and oversight
• Size of fund and per investment
• Types of investments

Please note that this webinar will run for 75 minutes in order to cover all of the material and questions. We have a terrific roster of speakers:

• Case Cortese, Director for Innovation at Caltech
• Mike Psaouthakis, Executive Director of Impact Investments and Strategic Alliances at the University of Michigan
• Bryn Rees, Associate Vice Chancellor, Innovation & Partnerships at the University of Colorado, Boulder

When: Thursday, November 14, 2024 | 12:00pm ET

Registration:  Click Here

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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Webinar Description:

Have you wondered what comprises a venture studio? How does this model differentiate from accelerators and incubators? Join us for an insightful webinar exploring the roles that venture studios play in the university innovation ecosystem. Moderated by Jaimie Testai, Best Practices Manager at OUP, this session will feature three venture studios: Prutha Atre of Rose Rock Bridge, Taylor Bench of Summit Venture Studios, and Tom Denison of SmartHealth Catalyzer, Inc.

In addition to discussing the venture studio model, the panel will delve into their individual programs including how they interact with university technologies or startups. The panelists will also take questions from the audience the day of the webinar but sending your questions in advance will put them at the top of the queue. Please submit any questions during registration.

This webinar is free to all of OUP’s academic institution partners.

When: Tuesday, October 15, 2024 | 12:00pm ET

Registration:  Click Here

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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Webinar Description:

Join us for an insightful webinar exploring the current landscape of AI and generative AI investing, with a special focus on the critical role of university spinouts in shaping the sector. Moderated by Ajay Rayasam, Senior Associate at OUP, this session will feature two up-and-coming voices in venture capital: Jordan Windmueller, Principal at A* Capital, and James Wu, Investor at First Round Capital.

In addition to discussing the trends and opportunities in AI/ML investing, the panel will delve into the rise of prominent academic labs and how these labs have significantly influenced the current generative AI landscape. The speakers will also share their firms' perspectives on the future of the industry and discuss specific investment themes they are excited about. The webinar will be conducted in an open-ended Q&A format, encouraging active participation from attendees. This is a unique opportunity to engage directly with experts and gain valuable insights into the rapidly evolving AI investment landscape.

This webinar is free to all of OUP’s academic institution partners.

When: Tuesday, October 8, 2024 | 12:00pm ET

Registration:  Click Here

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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Webinar Description:

Join OUP for our fifth annual 'Ask a VC' webinar, a session where academic founders and our partner TTOs can ask Managing Partners Marc Singer and Bill Harrington anything and everything as it pertains to venture capital operations, decision-making, and the current investing environment.

Since the purpose of this webinar is to answer your questions on venture capital and startups, submit your questions early. Query areas could include:

• Considering the fundraising environment, recommendations on how to stand out amongst the crowd
• The industry areas that are particularly interesting to VCs right now
• The best ways to get introductions to VCs
• Recommendations for first-time academic founders

Marc and Bill will also take questions from the audience the day of the webinar but sending your questions in advance will put them at the top of the queue.

This webinar is free to all of OUP’s academic institution partners.

Topic: Finding Your Startup CEO, Part 2 - Sourcing

When: Tuesday, September 24, 2024 | 12:00pm ET

Registration:  Click Here

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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Webinar Description:

While innovations out of academia in the STEM area are the basis of more than 1000 startup companies per year in the U.S., academic inventors are not always the right fit to lead these startup companies. Given this, how does an academic founder find a great individual to fill the CEO position? Following up on the first session of this two-part webinar series, OUP Managing Partner Matt Cohen will moderate a panel discussion on sourcing C-level candidates for your academic startup company. Our panelists each come from different perspectives of the C-level recruitment process – a talent partner at a startup studio, a serial academic startup founder, and a recruiter. We’re delighted to have Sam, John and Josh joining us:

• Sam Dore – Head of Talent at Madrona Venture Labs, the innovation arm and startup studio of Madrona Ventures

• John Rogers - Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Neurological Surgery at Northwestern University, and serial entrepreneur of startups such as Active Impulse Systems, XDisplay, MC10, CoolEdge, Sibel Health, Epicore Biosystems, Neurolux and Rhaeos.

• Josh Albert – CDO and Managing Director at Klein Hersh, a premiere executive search firm for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies

Registration information is below. When registering, you can also submit questions ahead of time for our panelists.

When: Thursday, September 5, 2024 | 12:00pm ET

Registration:  Click Here

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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Webinar Description:

Join us for a panel discussion webinar on what university leaders should know about royalty monetization, including legal nuances, university mission view points, and buy-side perspectives. As an opener, we’ll review what a royalty monetization is and the growth of monetizations in the past few decades. The bulk of the webinar is a practical discussion on the decision process, the legal agreement, other party considerations, engagement with inventors, and specialty help with royalty monetization transactions. Our panelists will share some real examples from their own experiences.

We are delighted to have the following people joining us:

• Teri Willey of Pathway to Cures
• Ryan Murr of Gibson Dunn
• Todd Sherer of Emory University
• Andrew Fineberg

As always, we appreciate any advance questions, and questions will also be welcome during the webinar itself.

Register here

We are pleased to invite you to OUP’s upcoming webinar.

Topic: Finding Your Startup CEO, Part 1

When: Friday, June 21, 2024 | 12:00pm ET

Registration:  Click Here

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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Webinar Description:

Join OUP for a two-part webinar series on finding a CEO for your academic startup company. We will hold the first part of this webinar series on June 21^st and will focus on the evaluation process for CEO candidates. OUP Managing Partner Marc Singer will discuss the importance of the leadership team to a startup’s success and explore methods for evaluating outside CEOs. The webinar will highlight relevant backgrounds and important characteristics of a startup CEO, and it will provide tools to assist with candidate evaluation. Marc will also provide data on the performance of different types of CEOs, including grad students and professors, from OUP’s tech portfolio.

The second part of the webinar series will be held later this summer and will focus on sourcing of the CEO and other C-suite talent. OUP Managing Partner Matt Cohen will moderate a panel featuring a recruiter, a talent professional from a VC firm, and a serial academic entrepreneur. Dates and additional information coming soon.

This webinar is open to all of OUP’s academic institution partners. The webinar will be recorded and available on YouTube within a week of the live version.

We are pleased to invite you to OUP’s next webinar:

Topic: 2024 Startup Financing Trends

When: Thursday, March 14, 2024 | 12:00pm ET

Registration:  Click Here

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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Webinar Description:

OUP is pleased to invite you to our annual startup financing trends webinar. Join Harry Won, Nii Dodoo-Amoo and Nabil Ullah of OUP’s investment team for a discussion on startup financing trends to review the state of the venture funding landscape.

We’ll cover current market behaviors across the entire startup ecosystem with a specific emphasis on university spinouts. Harry Won will outline trends in the life sciences, including biopharma, research tools, diagnostics, and medical devices while Nii Dodoo-Amoo and Nabil Ullah will review the tech and physical sciences, ranging from software to climate tech.

OUP leverages public sources and its own proprietary database of active university spinouts from its partner institutions to provide unique insights and perspectives for 2024 and beyond.

Watch here.

When: Wednesday, February 7, 2024 | 12:00pm ET

Registration:  Click Here

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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Webinar Description:

Starting companies out of universities is a complex endeavor, but startups can get a head start when done in conjunction with a company formation investor. In this webinar, we’ll hear from three company formation investors in the life sciences:

• Deborah Palestrant, Partner, 5AM Ventures and Executive Chair, 4:59 Initiative
• Jay Lichter, Managing Partner, Avalon BioVentures
• Vikram Chaudhery, Co-Founder, President & COO of General Inception

Each investor will describe their fund thesis, what they look for in opportunities arising from academic institutions, and the process of their company formation efforts. We’ll then move on to a series of questions on topics such as talent, sourcing possible investments, working with academics and academic institutions, growing the startup, and successes and failures.

Please note that although the webinar is scheduled for one hour, our webinars often run overtime due to the volume of questions we receive; therefore we suggest holding up to an hour and a half on your calendars. We look forward to having you join us for this informational discussion!

Watch the webinar here.

When: Tuesday, October 10, 2023 | 12:00pm ET

Registration:  Click Here

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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Webinar Description:

Do you have a burning question on venture capital you need answered? Join OUP for our fourth annual 'Ask a VC' webinar, a session where our partner TTOs can ask Managing Partners Marc Singer and Bill Harrington anything and everything as it pertains to venture capital operations, decision-making, and the current investing environment.

Since the purpose of this webinar is to answer your questions on venture capital and startups, submit your questions early. Query areas could include:

• The past year in startup funding - what happened? How difficult is it really to raise a round right now? And how have deal terms changed to reflect this different environment?
• Considering the fundraising environment, recommendations on how to stand out amongst the crowd
• The industry areas that are particularly interesting to VCs right now
• The best ways to get introductions to VCs
• Stages of companies more attractive to VCs in 2023
• The converse - what areas are having a difficult time fundraising right now?
• Downsized funds - what does that mean for the startup world?
• Recommendations for first-time academic founders

Marc and Bill will also take questions from the audience the day of the webinar but sending your questions in advance will put them at the top of the queue.

This webinar is free to all of OUP’s academic institution partners.

When: Thursday, September 28, 2023 | 2:00pm ET*

*please note this is a later start time than our standard

Registration:  Click Here

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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Webinar Description:

Are you an academic researcher, PI, professor, or graduate student with an interest in entrepreneurship? If so, you should know about two excellent fellowship programs for academic founders. On September 28 at 2pm ET, OUP is hosting a webinar featuring these two programs:

• Activate is a two-year fellowship that provides early-stage hard-tech science entrepreneurs $100K in research funding, yearly stipends of up to $110K, intensive entrepreneurial training, mentorship, networking, and other benefits. Activate Fellows have raised nearly $1.3B in follow-on funding from leading public and private sources
• Nucleate on the other hand runs a six-month, equity-free cohort program designed for academic biotech founders called Activator. Over 100 life sciences ventures have participated and raised over $190 million in venture funding. Participating teams refine their scientific discoveries into biotech venture theses and train under Nucleate's unparalleled network, rigorous curriculum, funded fellowships, legal support, and highly subsidized perks.

We encourage any academics interested in entrepreneurship from your university to attend this webinar and learn more about these valuable fellowship opportunities.

Watch here.