Selling the Story of a Discovery

Many scientists loathe any association with such commercial considerations Höök observes, and indeed, even Lita Nelson, director of the Technology Licensing Office of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, takes pains to distance academic enterprise from pure entrepreneurship. "Most universities see technology transfer primarily as a way of getting very early stage technology invested in," she says. "They recognize the high risk. It is not primarily a money-making proposition for most universities, ... but instead a way of getting their funding for basic research into practical use by the public."

But product development requires private finance. Before Höök could get development funds, he had to replace his focus on the basic research with an emphasis on the story, the market-based justification of investment in an innovation. That story can ...