Devices & Diagnostics, Startups

Mayo Clinic joins Arizona Furnace, a tech transfer-accelerator hybrid

Arizona State University announced    Mayo Clinic  will join the Arizona Furnace  and will  amp up […]

Arizona State University announced    Mayo Clinic  will join the Arizona Furnace  and will  amp up access to healthcare technology in the state’s unique startup accelerator. The accelerator supports startups in the physical and life sciences.

“The AZ Furnace Program represents an opportunity to fuel innovation alongside our strategic partner, Arizona State University, as well as the other esteemed contributors,” Mayo Clinic in Arizona CEO Wyatt Decker said in a release. “AZ Furnace is a truly powerful and well-designed incubator for such activities and we look forward to participating during this second cycle.”

On its face, the Arizona Furnace looks like a pretty typical incubator: Selected startups begin their business as a part of the incubator with at least $25,000 in funding, plus mentorship and nine months of incubation. The tech transfer office takes small equity in the company; the Furnace takes none. The experience culminates in a demo day.

The Furnace approaches the tech transfer centers at Arizona research institutions and asks to see their “unencumbered technologies,” Gordon McConnell, assistant vice president for ASU’s entrepreneurship and innovation group, said. McConnell and his team work with the tech transfer offices to see which technologies could be spun out. Then the Furnace narrows down those ideas to ones that are commercially viable and wraps the technology in strong, plain language. The point is so someone “without a double PhD” can understand its value, McConnell said. Then, the next big step is for the Furnace to “evangelize” the technologies to potential entrepreneurs.

Then, the  Arizona Furnace  flips the focus of most accelerators. Rather than having startup teams with new technology apply to be housed in the accelerator, the Furnace offers the technology from the state’s top research institutions and has teams apply to turn each specific technology into a business. Teams of entrepreneurs compete for spots to pursue the technologies that interest them. (Last year, more than 50 teams vied for 10 spots at the accelerator.)

This allows the scientists and faculty to stay a part of the commercial side of the technologies they invent if they so choose, while taking the innovation out of the university wheelhouse–giving true entrepreneurs the opportunity to really help a startup grow.

“It’s economic development, and it’s also using resources that are being underutilized,” McConnell said.

It also allows companies like Mayo Clinic, that have many technologies that are shelved or waiting for development, to share and enhance technologies through potential startups and spinouts. 

But Mayo Clinic isn’t the first large healthcare business to partner with the accelerator. Dignity Health beat them to that punch. The Furnace also includes partnerships with Northern Arizona University, BioAccel, Thunderbird, Arizona Technology Enterprises, the University of Arizona  and the Arizona Commerce Authority.

McConnell said he expects Mayo will put out about 40 technologies that could be picked up by the startup teams, and will continue the trend of medical devices and diagnostics technology at the Furnace.

Arizona entrepreneurs, if you think you’ve got what it takes and are interested in pursuing life sciences technology, the deadline for application is Nov. 12, 2013.

As for other tech transfer centers and incubators, if the Furnace’s model sounds enticing, you’re not the first to think so.

“We have been approached by clusters of universities in other states about replicating the methodology in other states,” McConnell said.

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