“Have You Considered Being An Entrepreneur?”
Introducing a new video series for aspiring business leaders
By Shay McLaughlin
Intern, CSU Energy Institute
How do aspiring entrepreneurs make the lap from lab-based research and development to starting — and growing — successful companies?
In a new video series entitled “Have You Considered Being An Entrepreneur?” researchers from Colorado State University sit down for enlightening conversations about the ins and outs of the entrepreneurial process and how to navigate the business landscape.
Produced by the Energy Institute, CSUVentures (now CSU Strata), and Launchpad, this video series covers topics ranging from general advice to navigating challenges, protecting intellectual property, finding a team, fundraising, and more.
You’ll meet people like Colin Bell, a co-founder and current Chief Revenue Officer for Growcentia. With technology that was developed at CSU, Growcentia’s products are natural and organic liquid additives that protect and increase growth and quality of plants that benefit farmers. Growcentia was founded in 2015 and now employs 50 people in Fort Collins and sells their products worldwide.
You’ll also hear from Lyndsey Linke, CEO and a co-founder of SiVEC Biotechnologies. Launched in April of 2016 as a CSU spin-out company, SiVEC is a discovery and pre-clinical phase biotech company. They have developed drug delivery platforms for different RNA based therapies, including mRNA vaccines.
Alongside Colin Bell and Lyndsey Linke are numerous business and research leaders, including the Energy Institute’s executive director, Bryan Willson, who joined the conversation around what it takes to start your own company and all the programs that are offered to help along the way.
Several key resources are mentioned in the video series:
- CSU Ventures: LAUNCHPAD’s Research to Market (R2M) Workshop. R2M is a five week program to help those interested in bringing a technology to market.
- National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (NSF I-Corps) Program. The I-Corps Program helps to connect experimental research to the world of entrepreneurship or other industry related problems.
Speaker Introductions
Meet the speakers, leaders and researchers, who will bring their experience behind taking research from the lab to a growing company:
- Colin Bell, co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer of Growcentia.
- Ryan Pearson, co-founder and CEO of Cypris Materials. CSU alumnus.
- Lyndsey Linke, founder and CEO of SiVEC Biotechnologies. CSU Alumnus.
- Bryan Willson, Executive Director of the Energy Institute at CSU.
- Chern Hoi Lim, founder and CEO of New Iridium. Former Postdoctoral Fellow at CSU.
- Chuck Henry, Access Sensor Technologies, DeVoe, and Burst Diagnostics. Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at CSU.
- Jeff Muhs, Associate Director of the Energy Institute at CSU.
- Keith Paustian, Soil Metrics. Professor in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences at CSU.
- Matt Wallenstein, founder of Growcentia. Professor and Department Head of Soil and Crop Sciences at CSU.
- Amy Prieto, founder of Prieto Battery. Professor in the Department of Chemistry at CSU.
- Todd Bandhauer, Harvest Cooling. Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at CSU.
- Tom Reilly, CEO of Access Sensor Technologies.
Stay tuned next week for the next video of the “Have You Considered Being An Entrepreneur?” video series!