State funds help fill a void on startup investing

Wanted: Investors willing to risk money in "the valley of death."

That is Robert Barnhill’s name for the perilous stage between the time a commercially viable idea is hatched by a university researcher but before it has been developed enough to attract traditional venture capital money.

The issue is more than academic: Without investment money, potentially valuable university research withers on the vine before its commercial potential can be determined.

The lack of funding is the "weak link here," said Barnhill, the University of Texas System’s first vice chancellor for research and technology transfer, a post created last year to help bring more university-bred ideas into the marketplace.

By Robert Elder
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Full Story: http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/technology/04/16invest.html

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