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Startup (4)

Researchers Enable Today’s Vehicle and Smartphones Cameras to See Around Corners

 

Algolux and University Scientists Develop Non-Line-of-Sight Technology That Photographs Hidden Objects Using Conventional Camera Sensors

Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), Long Beach, California — June 18, 2019 — Algolux has announced that a team of researchers from Algolux, the University of Montreal, and Princeton University has developed a new method that lets conventional color cameras — the ones in your smartphone or in a vehicle camera — see hidden objects that are occluded by walls or other scene objects.

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Spin-Off vs Start-Up

 

The internet offers a lot of advice for start-ups — some good, a lot of it bad. In fact, giving advice has become a profitable industry all by itself with the inevitable impact on quantity and quality. Much of the good advice is focused on Web2.0 start-ups and often a bit inappropriate when you are a university inventor looking to spin out a venture. Rather than repeating all the general guidelines for successful entrepreneurship, I want to highlight some of these differences and introduce a university founder perspective.

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Start-Up Titles are Dangerous

 

Titles are always tricky, but particularly dangerous in the startup environment. It’s the much more pedestrian titles that create equal if not bigger problems (e.g. “Engineer”, “Manager”, “Director”, Vice President”, “CxO”, etc.). Their danger comes in two forms:

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The Ins and Outs of Venture Capital

 

Thus far in this Venture Capital series, we have covered the fundamental three “P’s” of building a technology venture: people, product, and pesos. But the last often comes with a bit more paperwork than the first two. In this article, we will look at common structures for venture capital deals, the motivations of the players involved in venture funding, and some of the pitfalls that could destroy your company (or your stake in it) if you are not careful.

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From Idea to Enterprise — Technology Transfer Tips for Academics

 

University researchers are probably the largest potential source of commercially valuable inventions and yet they are generally not viewed as leaders in entrepreneurial value creation. We will therefore provide some commercialization tips for faculty members as well as some suggestions for investors and entrepreneurs working with faculty members. Joining me for this article is Dr. Lorne Whitehead, a previous CEO who has spent the last 20 years combining the roles of a university professor and administrator with a high rate of patenting and spin-off company creation.

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Ownership versus Leadership

 

Any organization should be continuously on the look-out for talented people who are capable of taking on leadership roles. In this context you hear the word ‘ownership’ a lot, in reference to ‘owning’ a function, project, or deliverable. The words are often used interchangeably but, I believe, have very different roles. In essence, leadership means leveraging others, while ownership means getting stuff done. All companies need both, but startups in particular succeed or fail on the basis of leadership and ownership in the organisation.

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High five

5 Rules for Cofounder Heaven

 


Finding a good cofounder is a key ingredient of a successful startup. Having had the opportunity to work with a variety of co-founders over the years, and now pairing up with individual co-founders for TandemLaunch portfolio investments, I have developed a couple rules of thumb for what to look for in co-founders.

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