Meet the Venture Partners Team

Meet the Venture Partners Team: Tasso von Windheim

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 20:06:50 +0000

Meet the Venture Partners Team: Tasso von Windheim Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/30/2022 - 14:06

Name: Tasso von Windheim
Title: Venture Fellow
Years at Venture Partners: <1

Q: Tell us a little about yourself! (Education, Where You’re From & How You to Got to CO, Interests, Hobbies, whatever!)

A: I was born in Guelph, Ontario and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. I studied material science engineering at NC State University where I co-founded Undercover Colors, a startup focused on developing technology to reduce the rate of drug-facilitated sexual assault. After my work with Undercover Colors, I joined Duke University and completed a PhD in electrical engineering. I came to Colorado looking for an opportunity to combine my technical skills with my experience and passion for technology commercialization, and have felt right at home working for Venture Partners.

Q: What is your role at Venture Partners? Tell us more about what you do.

A: I am a Venture Fellow, which means I work across the Venture Partners team helping with licensing and new venture development. I assist with licensing and marketing of ��ƷSM��ӰƬ technologies and work with new startups to help position themselves for seed investment.

Q: What is your favorite part about your job and what do you like most about working on the Venture Partners team?

A: My two favorite things about working for Venture Partners are the people and the technologies. It’s exciting to be working in an environment with so many people with complementary skill-sets, and seeing how that talent is used to commercialize impactful technologies.

Q: When you aren’t at work, where will we find you?

A: Hiking in the mountains with my dog Gryphon.

Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

A: Being bad at something is the first step to being good at it.

Contact Kayle

Have questions about Venture Partners? Email Tasso at Tasso.vonWindheim@colorado.edu.

Say hello to Venture Fellow Tasso von Windheim, who's been with the Venture Partners team for two months. Before joining CU, Tasso co-founded Undercover Colors, a startup focused on developing technology to reduce the rate of drug-facilitated sexual assault

Off

Traditional

White

Emily (Klein) Vogt, Director of Venture Development

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 21:54:56 +0000

Emily (Klein) Vogt, Director of Venture Development Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/09/2022 - 14:54

Emily here! As Venture Partners' new Director of Venture Development, I'd love to introduce myself. I'm stepping into the very big shoes of Sally Hatcher, who is moving on to lead a new venture capital fund focused on funding ��ƷSM��ӰƬ's deep tech startups. I'm joining Venture Partners from my work building the Colorado startup ecosystem at Rockies Venture Club (RVC). RVC, one of the largest angel investing groups in the country, connects and educates early-stage entrepreneurs and angel investors. During my time with the group, I taught educational workshops, coached entrepreneurs, hosted events, catalyzed new angel investors, and invested in innovative startups.

With Venture Partners, I am thrilled to be taking the lead on two important programs: Ascent Deep Tech Accelerator and I-Corps. Ascent is a new Venture Partners accelerator for deep tech startups coming out of the University of Colorado campuses in Boulder, Colorado Springs and Denver, supporting early-stage companies to accelerate their viability and traction over four months. I-Corps is an NSF-funded program designed to launch and support researchers and startups through training, mentorship and programming.

I believe in a future where diverse, sustainable, and creative companies lead our society; where venture capital is accessible to all; and where business drives impact as well as profit. I champion underrepresented founders and am a huge advocate for people who don't believe the system is built for them.

I would love to be of help and my virtual door is always open; please reach out to me at emily.klein-1@colorado.edu to connect and learn more about getting involved in Venture Partners programs. Chat soon!

Warmly,

Emily (Klein) Vogt
Director of Venture Development

Emily joins Venture Partners from Rockies Venture Club where she supported early-stage entrepreneurs and angel investors across the US.

Off

Traditional

White

Meet the Venture Partners team: Kayle Lingo

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 16:08:30 +0000

Meet the Venture Partners team: Kayle Lingo Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 01/19/2022 - 09:08

Name: Kayle Lingo
Title: Senior Marketing & Communications Specialist
Years at Venture Partners: <1

Q: Tell us a little about yourself! (Education, Where You’re From & How You to Got to CO, Interests, Hobbies, whatever!)

A: I was born and raised in Broomfield, Colorado as one of the few Coloradans. I received a Bachelor's in Communications from the University of Colorado Denver and am currently pursuing a Master's of Public Administration from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. For the past five years, I have worked as a Communications & Marketing Assistant at CU System Employee Services. I have just recently joined Venture Partners November 2021. I love weightlifting, playing video games, completing jigsaw puzzles and cuddling with my two cats, Elvis and Sabrina!

Q: What is your role at Venture Partners? Tell us more about what you do.

A: I am the Senior Marketing & Communications Specialist for the team. I work closely with everyone to help promote the services, events and resources offered by Venture Partners to current ventures, researchers, faculty members, investors and more. The main goal in my day-to-day work is to raise awareness of Venture Partners in the best way possible.

Q: What is your favorite part about your job and what do you like most about working on the Venture Partners team?

A: The best part of working at Venture Partners has been learning about all of the new inventions and ventures that have sprung out of ��ƷSM��ӰƬ! We have the opportunity to see life-changing inventions start from a small idea into a full-fledged company. I have also truly enjoyed meeting and working with everyone since I have started! The Venture Partners team has been so welcoming and helpful as I began my new position, and I feel supported in any circumstance.

Q: When you aren’t at work, where will we find you?

A: You can always find me working out in some fashion. I love weightlifting, running and riding my bike on the local trails. I also love to be in the kitchen and experiment with new recipes.

Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

A: This is a really simple one: Never give up. Growing up, my parents have always told me to never give up, no matter what you are doing.

Contact Kayle

Have questions about Venture Partners? Email Kayle at kayle.lingo@colorado.edu.

Say hello to Senior Marketing & Communications Specialist Kayle Lingo, who's been with the Venture Partners team for three months. A lifelong Coloradan, Kayle joined Venture Partners from CU System Employee Services. She loves weightlifting, cooking and doing jigsaw puzzles.

Off

Traditional

White

Meet the Venture Partners team: Lynn Pae

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 21:46:30 +0000

Meet the Venture Partners team: Lynn Pae Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 12/13/2021 - 14:46

Name: Lynn Pae
Title: License Administrator
Years at Venture Partners: 19

Q: Tell us a little about yourself! (Education, Where You’re From & How You to Got to CO, Interests, Hobbies, whatever!)

A: I’m originally from the DC area, but I lived in Florida for 17 years before moving to Colorado. My husband was in the Navy when we met, stationed in Jacksonville, and he wanted to return to Colorado where his family lived. I love the mountains, the changing seasons, and I appreciate the health-conscious culture here.

Q: What is your role at Venture Partners? Tell us more about what you do.

A: I am the license administrator. I work closely with licensing managers to manage the license after they close the deal. I enforce the financial terms in our license agreement including collecting royalties from our licensees and distributing them to our inventors, their labs and the university. I also provide financial and operations support for the team.

Q: What is your favorite part about your job and what do you like most about working on the Venture Partners team?

A: I work with a great team. Everyone is very dedicated to helping faculty develop their inventions. I’ve been with Venture Partners since the beginning, when we first become a CU department, and I’ve seen the department grow to what it is today. We have so many programs now such as Destination Startup™, Starting Block and Research 2 Market. It’s exciting to be a part of that.

Q: When you aren’t at work, where will we find you?

A: I love hiking and paddle boarding. We usually go every weekend when the weather is nice. I also love to be in the kitchen. I enjoy cooking and baking, and I’m always looking for new recipes.

Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

A: You are responsible for your own happiness. You can’t wait for something or someone to change to make you happy. I always try to remember that I can’t change what other people do; I can only change how I respond to any situation.

Contact Lynn

Have questions about Venture Partners? Email Lynn at lynn.pae@colorado.edu.

Say hello to License Administrator Lynn Pae, who's been with the Venture Partners team for 19 years. Originally from the DC area, she moved to Colorado with her husband after 17 years in Florida. She loves the mountains, paddle boarding and cooking.

Off

Traditional

White

Meet the Venture Partners team: Hannah Nelson

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 21:48:28 +0000

Meet the Venture Partners team: Hannah Nelson Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 11/17/2021 - 14:48

Name: Hannah Nelson
Title: Licensing Analyst
Years at Venture Partners: 1

Q: Tell us a little about yourself! (Education, Where You’re From & How You to Got to CO, Interests, Hobbies, whatever!)

A: I’m originally from the Midwest (Chicago suburbs) but spent the last 20 years of my life living all over Texas. I’m very excited to be spending my first year in beautiful Colorado!

I got my B.S. in Biology at Trinity University in San Antonio, did a stint as a diagnostic lab tech after college, then got my Ph.D. in Microbiology at the University of Texas at Austin. While I was getting my doctorate, I wanted to explore careers at the intersection of science, business, and law- which is how I learned about the awesome field of technology transfer. I started as an intern in the UT Austin tech transfer office, then moved on to a full-time role at the UT Health Science Center in Houston. When my family decided to make the move to Colorado, I was fortunate to be able to join the team here at ��ƷSM��ӰƬ.

Q: What is your role at Venture Partners? Tell us more about what you do.

A: I lead our license compliance efforts, to ensure that companies stay on track once a license agreement is in place. An intellectual property license is like a marriage- there is a lot of work that goes into the “dating” phase of establishing an agreement, but once the license is executed, that is only the beginning of a (hopefully) long relationship. I also manage new inventions in the life science portfolio.

Q: What is your favorite part about your job and what do you like most about working on the Venture Partners team?

A: It didn’t take long to realize what an intelligent, talented, and fun team is at Venture Partners. Working with everyone here has been great. The thing I love about this field is that you are constantly exposed to new and exciting innovations, and you get to learn about so many different areas of research.

Q: When you aren’t at work, where will we find you?

A: Outdoors with my family, traveling, or trying a new restaurant. If you share your restaurant recommendations, we will be fast friends!

Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

A: To use the rule of one touch. Meaning if you can take care of an item the first time you touch it, do it, because it will save both time and mental space. I'm not always successful in implementing it, but I aspire to follow it when I can!

Contact Hannah

Have questions about Venture Partners? Email Hannah at hannah.nelson@colorado.edu.

Say hello to Licensing Analyst Hannah Nelson, who's been with the Venture Partners team for one year. Originally from the Midwest, she received a degree in Biology from Trinity University and a Ph.D. in Microbiology at the University of Texas at Austin before moving to Colorado this past year.

Off

Traditional

White

Meet the Venture Partners Team: Amy Dodenhoff

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Oct 2021 17:08:32 +0000

Meet the Venture Partners Team: Amy Dodenhoff Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/21/2021 - 11:08

Name: Amy Dodenhoff
Title: Licensing Manager
Years at Venture Partners: 2

Q: Tell us a little about yourself! (Education, Where You’re From & How You to Got to CO, Interests, Hobbies, whatever!)

A: I grew up in Massachusetts and am an avid Boston/New England sports fan. I went to Brown, where I got my degree in Mechanical Engineering and my masters in Entrepreneurship. From there, I did some work at early stage startup companies before making the jump into patent law. I moved to NYC and worked as a Technical Advisor and Patent Agent while attending Fordham Law School at night, eventually becoming a patent attorney in Cooley’s New York office. My husband and I moved to Boulder in 2018 when he was accepted into graduate school at ��ƷSM��ӰƬ. We had been looking for an ‘excuse’ to move to Colorado for a few years, and jumped at the opportunity. I moved to Cooley’s Colorado office, and about a year later, I made the move to Venture Partners.

Working at Venture Partners is really fun. I have the opportunity to learn about so many exciting technologies from innovators at the forefront of their fields. I thrive off of the entrepreneurial energy on campus, and I’m passionate about helping our startup teams and guiding them towards success. I also feel so lucky to be part of the New Venture Challenge (NVC) team! Last year, I ran Female Founders’ Night and helped to coordinate other events, as well.

Q: What is your role at Venture Partners? Tell us more about what you do.

A: I am a Licensing Manager and primarily work with innovators across our engineering, physics and computer science departments. I strategize the best ways to get the innovations developed at CU into the market. This involves protecting our innovations through intellectual property, including patents and copyrights, and finding the right partners to commercialize them—via either a startup or existing company. If you have an idea or invention, please reach out to us! We have so many resources and look forward to working with you!

Q: What is your favorite part about your job and what do you like most about working on the Venture Partners team?

A: It’s hard to pick just one! I love our team, working with our inventors and learning about their technologies, supporting our startup teams, strategizing on how to commercialize technologies, learning about different industries, and negotiating agreements.

Q: When you aren’t at work, where will we find you?

A: On the trails with my family! I love being outdoors and being active in just about any form. I love to hike and snowshoe. My husband and I have been taking our daughter hiking and snowshoeing since she was just a few weeks old. She’s almost two now, and with most of her life coinciding with COVID, we’ve spent a lot of time on the trails! I also love yoga, camping, traveling, reading, lighthearted sitcoms (currently loving Ted Lasso), snowboarding, and watching sports.

Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

A: “Make the best decision you can with the information you have, and move on.” My Dad has said these words to me hundreds of times. It sounds so simple, but it really helps me make big life decisions without getting (too) stuck in indecision. It’s also a good reminder not to waste energy regretting or rethinking those decisions, because I did the best I could given what I knew at the time.

Contact Amy

Have questions about Venture Partners? Email Amy at amy.dodenhoff@colorado.edu.

Say hello to Licensing Manager Amy Dodenhoff, who's been with the Venture Partners team for two years. Originally from Massachussetts, she received a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master's in Entrepreneurship from Brown University before making the jump into patent law.

Off

Traditional

White

Meet the Venture Partners Team: Kay Burns

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 15:37:01 +0000

Meet the Venture Partners Team: Kay Burns Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 09/23/2021 - 09:37

Name: Kay Burns
Title: Administrative Assistant
Years at Venture Partners: 9 months

Q: Tell us a little about yourself!
A: I’m from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After graduation, I moved to San Francisco and worked as an Executive Assistant in the finance industry for three years. I’ve always loved to travel, so in 2019, I decided to move to New Zealand on their Work Holiday Visa. It was an amazing experience – I lived in a van and traveled all over the country for about five months and for the other half of my time there, I lived in Wellington and worked as an Executive Assistant at the Ministry for Women.

We’ve been in Boulder for about a year now, and love to hike, rock climb, ski, and play with our new puppy.

Q: What led you to this career and working at Venture Partners?
A: I have held administrative roles since graduating college, but most of my time was spent in the finance industry. While I learned a lot in that industry, after returning to the US, I was ready to learn more about a different field and take on a new challenge.

Q: What is your role at Venture Partners? Tell us more about what you do.
A: I am the Administrative Assistant for Venture Partners, so my role spans many different areas. I help put on the entrepreneurial training programming that we host (like Research-to-Market, which is happening right now!) as well as other events, process invention disclosures and assist with patent filings, and help with assorted financial tasks.

Q: What is your favorite part about your job and what do you like most about working on the Venture Partners team?
A: My favorite part about this job is watching the inventors go through our programming and make progress on their technology. Even in the short time that I’ve been here, many faces and names have become familiar and it’s exciting to watch them pivot and grow.

Q: What’s the best piece of advice you've ever received?
A: “Very little is needed to make a happy life; it’s all within yourself, in your way of thinking” is a quote that I always try to keep in mind.

Contact Kay

Have questions about Venture Partners? Email Kay at kay.burns@colorado.edu.

Say hello to Administrative Assistant Kay Burns, who's been with the Venture Partners team for a little over 9 months. Originally from Wisconsin, she worked finance roles in San Francisco and assisted New Zealand's Ministry for Women before arriving in Boulder to help facilitate our entrepreneurial programming.

Off

Traditional

White

Meet the Venture Partners Team: Nicole Forsberg

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 19:48:55 +0000

Meet the Venture Partners Team: Nicole Forsberg Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 08/18/2021 - 13:48

Name: Nicole Forsberg
Title: Business Development Associate
Years at Venture Partners: 2.5

Q: Tell us a little about yourself!
A: I was born and raised in Sweden and grew up in a small town on the southwest coast. Growing up I always had an interest in health and the environment and science subjects were my favorite, so I got both my Bachelor's and Master’s degree in Environmental Science from Lund University.

I have always loved entrepreneurship, and I launched my first business idea in my high school physics class: a small scale energy generator to put on spinning bikes to run the facility. I had discovered how much kinetic energy was wasted in spinning classes (which only turned to waste heat) so I thought why not take advantage of it? My teacher shut down the idea, as he thought the cost per energy generated wouldn’t make sense. Who knows if it would have been a good one if I’d stuck with it :)

I’m addicted to “runner’s high” so in my spare time I enjoy running. I also love the typical Colorado activities such as hiking and skiing, and I also play a fair amount of golf. Growing up, I competed in badminton and was also a coach for a few years. Maybe I’ll pick it back up in Colorado at some point!

I moved from Stockholm to Boulder about three years ago to join Venture Partners. I had been to Colorado plenty of times growing up, since my grandparents lived in Denver. I got introduced to Venture Partners through a delegation from the State of Colorado that I had hosted in my previous position in Stockholm.

Q: What led you to this career and working at Venture Partners?
A: Just over 9 years ago I spoke at an international bioenergy conference about my research findings from my Master’s degree. From that event I got offered a position as the Director of New Business for North America at a Swedish IR-sensor company active in the bioenergy sector. With a team of two, I grew the market with about $2 million USD in sales over the course of three years, so it was a lot of traveling back and forth across the Atlantic. I eventually went on to a global role with the company, enjoyed all the international travel, being a part of exciting projects in the energy sector and growing my international network.

Eventually I got the “startup bug.” I was offered the position as Head of Customer Engagement at an early stage medical device company in the women’s health sector that an acquaintance founded after leaving her position at CERN (post being part of the project that discovered the Higgs boson). Women’s health is an area I am very passionate about, and it was a great ride. Today, the company is the first FDA approved device in its class with offices in Stockholm, Geneva and NYC.

This led me to my profession today, where I wanted to make an impact. How better do that than turning groundbreaking research innovations into actual products in the market so they can make an impact? This brought me to the Royal Institute of Technology, KTH, to run their incubator and internationalization programs. I coached about 100 startup teams and ran programs for faculty founders in Silicon Valley, Boston, New York City and Munich. In this position I hosted several international delegations and one was a group from Colorado. They introduced me to Venture Partners at ��ƷSM��ӰƬ, and I was excited as I felt that this position allowed me to use my business development experience together with the research commercialization background from KTH.

Q: What is your role at Venture Partners? Tell us more about what you do.
A: I lead our business development, so I help fast-track the commercialization path for our research inventions. I work closely with the licensing managers on commercialization strategy for our innovations.

Q: What is your favorite part about your job and what do you like most about working on the Venture Partners team?
A: I love the impact we have on society. These groundbreaking research inventions have the potential to solve some of society’s most pressing problems. It’s a privilege to be able to support this process.

Q: What’s the best piece of advice you've ever received?
A: Trade expectations for appreciation :)

Contact Nicole

Have questions about business development and commercialization help? Email Nicole at nicole.forsberg@colorado.edu.

Say hello to Business Development Associate Nicole Forsberg, who's been with the Venture Partners team for a little over 2.5 years. Originally from Sweden, she brings almost 9 years of experience working in the bioenergy, medical device and university commercialization industries.

Off

Traditional

White

Meet the Venture Partners Team: Collin Bunch

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 16:01:43 +0000

Meet the Venture Partners Team: Collin Bunch Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 07/28/2021 - 10:01

Name: Collin Bunch
Title: Program Coordinator
Years at Venture Partners: 1.5

Q: Tell us a little about yourself!
A: I studied Marketing for Undergrad and MBA in Ethical & Strategic Leadership at UCM in Warrensburg focused on company culture and eliminating risk/dysfunction. I started my first social venture as an undergrad, Chairs that Care, where we donated all of our profits to the Women's Shelter in my city.

My family owns Bluff Dwellers Cave in Noel, MO. It was discovered by my great-grandfather, and my parents currently run the business as the third generation. It has a show cave, museum, and Cavern Inn out of the historic limestone farmhouse.

We decided to move to Colorado when a business my wife and I were helping in Missouri fell apart, and we ended up camping across the state for three weeks with our two kids. I moved to Colorado for this role right before the start of the pandemic.

Q: What led you to this career and working at Venture Partners?
A: After starting a successful social venture and some large corporate culture and consulting roles while in academia, I was recruited by the Small Business & Technology Development Center in Missouri. Similar to the SBDC in Colorado, they provide no-cost resources and coaching to entrepreneurs from Main St. to University IP.

As a specialist in digital marketing and sales, I was part of the Growth team for Missouri where I got to work with second stage or scaling innovation firms. This was my first real exposure to the difference between a traditional startup or entrepreneur with something like a service or app vs. creating a new battery the size of train cars to bring in after natural disasters. I also began to appreciate that these types of firms create high-value, net-new jobs. Essentially the way you build up an economy is supporting these types of firms that solve big problems and pay their people well.

A few years later I relocated from Kansas City to Columbia, MO to work with the University of Missouri’s tech transfer program. This was my first experience with NSF I-Corps and different models of customer discovery applied to deep tech companies.

I have experience starting a company that wasn’t properly validated and understand the frustration of putting so much time and effort into something that nobody wanted. One of my early failures was for a platform called Preznc where we provided benchmarks for digital marketing efforts against competition to orient strategy and spending for online sales. I still use the tool internally, but there was not a consistent group of people who would pay what we needed, so it didn’t make sense to form a startup.

After my wife and I quit our roles to help transition our family cave business, I took a role as an Entrepreneur Program Manager with a private/public partnership where I launched an incubator, several hackathons and a game jam community.

For the past seven years I have also worked as a contract specialist for the National Center for Economic Gardening based out of Golden. They partner with cities and economic development entities across the U.S. to provide strategic growth research for second stage innovation firms to help spur targeted job creation.

Venture Partners has created a very market-focused and outcome based program over the last several years. Having worked within academia for 10+ years I was drawn to the difference in having a startup program vs. designing the entire program to successfully launch ventures from CU. We had 2-3 former CU clients that IPO’d this spring and could not be more excited for the cohort going through our programs this year.

Q: What is your role at Venture Partners? Tell us more about what you do.
A: I am our Program Coordinator for Venture Development. We are a small team within Venture Partners that seeks to directly help teams and founders while also developing programming and resources to increase the success of future entrepreneurs from CU. We host two core programs each month around the Elements of Entrepreneurship—core skills and knowledge anyone will need to succeed and a talk from a successful founder from CU or the deep tech world. Beyond our monthly cadence we offer deeper dives into customer discovery with programs like Starting Blocks and Research-to-Market (R2M).

We are also launching a new accelerator program in 2022 that is a natural evolution of our offerings and special programs like PHAST and IN2 where we provide additional coaching, mentorship and executive leadership for our teams.

Q: What is your favorite part about your job and what do you like most about working on the Venture Partners team?
A: The constant evolution and striving to improve our programs and the associated outcomes in our clients. A lot of this job is helping brilliant people solve problems and make connections which keeps everything interesting. It's been great to tap into the Boulder ecosystem and mentors that Stephen and Sally have developed. I have followed Boulder/Denver as a startup hub for years, and it’s great to be a part of this dedicated group of people creating tomorrow. It has also been fun and challenging to apply the same strategies and processes that we teach to our own work like customer discovery, lean development and agile project management.

Q: If you could invent/discover anything, what would it be?
A: A universally trusted source of the current best information on a topic. There is a half-life of facts as we continue to learn and expand the questions we ask, but there is too little trust and understanding of how scientific knowledge is gained, and it seems like a huge risk to our country/society.

There would be no demand for it and it would fail spectacularly.

Contact Collin

Have questions about venture development and commercialization help? Email Collin at collin.bunch@colorado.edu.

Say hello to Program Coordinator Collin Bunch, who has been a member of the Venture Partners team for the past 1.5 years. He has experience as an entrepreneur, consultant and marketer.

Off

Traditional

White

Meet the Venture Partners Team: Marta Zgagacz

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 20:57:22 +0000

Meet the Venture Partners Team: Marta Zgagacz Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 06/23/2021 - 14:57

Name: Marta Zgagacz
Title: Director of Licensing
Years at Venture Partners: 7

Q: Tell us a little about yourself!
A: I’m a bit of a globetrotter. My family was always on the move, exploring new countries, meeting people, camping by the beach, or hiking with skis on our backs looking for a snowy trail. The wanderlust never left me.

I moved to U.S. when I was in high school and went on to study physics at Rutgers. I actually decided to apply to their physics program after I read the famous book by Leon Lederman. I was instantly fascinated that we know so much about this invisible particle just by observing its effects on our world. I was excited to later meet him when I was working at the Collider Detector at Fermilab, where we were looking for the Higgs Boson. We had a big party for the 20th anniversary of the experiment, where he asked me who I wanted to be when I grew up and told me a joke—I knew I was in the right place!

Q: What led you to this career and working at Venture Partners?
A: While I was studying physics in grad school, I met a few university researchers who wanted to start a company around their invention. I didn’t know at that time that technology transfer even existed! We started the company, negotiated a few licensing agreements and eventually took it public. After I left the company, I traveled around the world and loved it so much, I wasn’t sure I wanted to come back. Still, it was a natural transition to go from working for a university spinoff to working at a university with researchers to help them commercialize their inventions, armed with all the experience I gained while being in their shoes.

Q: What is your role at Venture Partners? Tell us more about what you do.
A: My team and I work with CU inventors to help them commercialize their inventions. Whether you just have an idea or a fully-fleshed out technology and want to start a company, reach out to us! We have a ton of resources regardless of where you are on the journey. It’s never too early to start learning about the value proposition for your technology and how we can help you along the way.

Q: What is your favorite part about your job and what do you like most about working on the Venture Partners team?
A: Can I expand my favorites to three? (1) brainstorming ideas for technologies developed by our amazing inventors, (2) solving puzzles, (3) negotiating agreements and sending the technologies off into the world. I think we have an amazing team—everyone has some superpower! We are all such individuals, but complement and strengthen the team in our unique ways. We have a lot of fun working together.

Q: What’s the one thing you wish you had brought with you on your trip around the world?
A: I wish I had a Kindle during my travels. I found myself hauling around piles of books in my already overstuffed giant backpack. It was customary to pick up books that were left behind at guest houses, then leave them at the next guest house after you were done. If you ran into a gold mine of things you wanted to read, it was tough fitting it all into a backpack!

Contact Marta

Have questions about intellectual property strategies or licensing your technologies? Email Marta at marta.zgagacz@colorado.edu.

Say hello to Director of Licensing Marta Zgagacz, who has been a member of the Venture Partners team for the past seven years. While studying physics in grad school, she started a company with university researchers, took it public, then later returned to the university to help researchers commercialize their inventions—just as she had done years before.

Off

Traditional

White