Commercialization
What would the world be like today if Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak had kept their invention of a new personal computer in their garage? Or turned it instead into an actual fruit company? Thankfully, they commercialized it and formed Apple Computer in 1976.
Commercialization refers to taking an invention and introducing it to the marketplace. Some are welcomed with open arms and some are not. It involves a plan to manufacture, advertise, sell, distribute, and provide customer support, which is not exactly easy to pull off. It takes a lot of funding and hard work, and only a small percentage of new businesses continue to be successful.
Today universities of all sizes have realized the financial gain possible by helping to commercialize a variety of products as a result of research projects taking place on campus. Whether it’s a new vaccine, software, or robotics, the university will provide lab space, help recruit investors from their vast alumni network, and work with the inventor to patent and trademark the new product.
As just one example, Carpe lotion for hands and feet was started by two undergraduate students from Duke University and the University of North Carolina who suffered from excess perspiration. Both schools have very active entrepreneur incubator programs called the Carolina Angel Network and the Duke Angel Network, which are dedicated to investing funds and resources into early stage ventures. The networks helped find a chemist to come up with the right formula, and assisted in obtaining venture capital from alumni. For these services, the university will usually take a percentage of the startup’s equity. Carpe is now up and running with additional capital provided by investors.
Commercialization can also take place in an established company when someone has come up with an idea for a new product. Sometimes called intrapreneurship, they must go through the same process as a startup with obtaining funding, doing market research, and figuring out how to sell, manufacture, and distribute the new product.