AUTM on the Air

Turning research into something that actually works in the real world sounds straightforward, but it rarely is. There’s a gap between discovery and impact that trips up even the most promising ideas, and it often has less to do with the science and more to do with how the problem is framed, understood, and communicated. My guest today is Marc Filerman, Chief Business Officer at Start2 Group, a global accelerator working across academia, startups, and government to help early-stage ventures de-risk, grow, and scale.
Marc brings a unique perspective shaped by his background as an MIT-trained engineer, corporate leader, and serial startup founder. At Start2 Group, he helps run major programs like BARDA-supported VITAL and NSF-backed Stride Ventures, supporting thousands of companies and contributing to billions in follow-on funding. We talk about what actually separates startups that move forward from those that stall out, including the importance of defining a clear problem, building a real value proposition, and choosing a focused foothold market instead of trying to do everything at once.
We also get into where universities and tech transfer offices have an opportunity to better prepare founders, especially when it comes to early validation and adopting a commercial lens alongside strong IP. Marc shares practical insights on funding pathways beyond venture capital, common mistakes he sees again and again, and how small shifts in thinking can dramatically improve a startup’s chances of success.

In This Episode:
[04:05] Marc shares the three through-lines guiding his career: building things, solving complex problems, and teaching others.
[06:15] He explains his shift from engineering to startups through a passion for translating real-world problems into solutions.
[08:45] Introduction to Start2 Group and its global footprint supporting startup de-risking and commercialization.
[11:20] Breakdown of government-backed programs including BARDA and NSF partnerships, and how they fund innovation.
[14:10] Differences between VITAL (biotech, pandemic preparedness) and STRIDE (deep tech, materials reclamation).
[17:48] A major funding opportunity is highlighted, including a $100M antiviral development initiative.
[21:52] Marc outlines three core startup success factors: clear problem, strong value proposition, and focused market entry.
[24:10] Why poorly defined problem statements derail startups before they gain traction.
[26:30] He explains value propositions as benefits divided by adoption hurdles, not just features or outcomes.
[29:15] Common adoption barriers emerge, especially inertia and resistance to workflow disruption in healthcare systems.
[32:05] The hidden impact of IT integration and organizational complexity on startup adoption.
[34:45] Why many “real problems” never get solved due to low prioritization despite clear need.
[42:33] The importance of choosing a foothold market and resisting the urge to over-expand too early.
[44:10] Academic founders struggle with narrowing focus due to fear of limiting platform potential.
[46:00] Defining a true foothold market as one where customers urgently demand the solution.
[48:10] The biggest gap in university commercialization is lack of early validation and commercial thinking.
[49:20] Tech transfer offices can better support founders by encouraging market validation beyond IP development.
[50:30] Not all startups fit the VC model, alternative funding paths like angels and bootstrapping are critical.
[51:30] Closing reflections on improving startup success through clearer strategy and commercialization readiness.

Resources: 
AUTM
Start2
Marc Filerman - LinkedIn

One of the toughest calls in technology transfer isn’t deciding whether a discovery is interesting or even promising. It’s deciding whether that discovery should become a company at all. There’s a big difference between a strong piece of research and something that can support a venture-backed startup, and most of the real work happens in that space in between.
My guest today is Omar Zahr, Chief Technology Officer at TandemLaunch, a venture creation firm that builds companies around university technologies in collaboration with global industry and academic networks. Omar started his career as a researcher at McGill University, where he completed a Ph.D. in Materials Chemistry before moving into venture development. Over the years, he’s worked at the intersection of deep tech, founders, and university IP, helping shape early-stage research into companies that are actually investable and positioned for growth.
We talk about how to evaluate whether a technology is truly “company-ready,” what it takes to build a business around early-stage science, and why not every invention should become a startup. Omar also shares how TandemLaunch approaches founder pairing, how investor expectations shape deep tech timelines, and where tech transfer offices can make or break momentum in the process. It’s a practical look at what happens between invention disclosure and a funded company, and why getting that middle stage right matters so much.

In This Episode:
[05:08] Omar Zahr walks through his transition from materials science at McGill into venture creation at TandemLaunch.
[06:14] He explains how curiosity, not a fixed plan, led him away from academia and toward commercialization.
[07:22] The moment he began to understand the broader gap between research and real-world impact started to take shape.
[08:35] Omar outlines how TandemLaunch differs from traditional incubators by acting as a company builder, not just a funder.
[09:48] The venture creation model is described as an end-to-end process from invention to seed-stage startup.
[11:02] He shares what makes a university technology “company-ready,” starting with proof of core scientific validity.
[12:16] The idea of building a business narrative first comes into focus as a key decision-making tool.
[13:29] Working backward from a successful exit helps determine whether a startup path even makes sense.
[14:41] Omar explains how some technologies are better suited for licensing when a full company story can’t be formed.
[15:54] The role of tech transfer offices is highlighted as essential for structuring deals and protecting all sides.
[17:08] Early IP clarity is discussed, focusing on capturing the true differentiator behind the invention.
[18:21] He breaks down how licensing complexities like field of use and background IP are handled in practice.
[19:37] Getting involved early allows TandemLaunch to influence patent strategy and support broader filings.
[20:49] The conversation shifts to founder selection, including how technical and product leads are identified.
[22:03] Omar explains why experienced CEOs are critical, even when other team members are first-time founders.
[23:17] Managing expectations between inventors and startup teams often comes down to relationship dynamics.
[24:28] Deep tech timelines and investor expectations are explored, with a focus on reducing risk step by step.
[25:32] Omar closes on a key challenge: slow negotiations introduce risk and can quietly kill otherwise strong deals.

Resources: 
AUTM
TandemLaunch
Omar Zahr - LinkedIn
Omar Zahr - AUTM

Some of the most meaningful industry–academic partnerships don’t begin with a breakthrough headline or a flashy piece of technology. More often, they take shape around a real research need, a practical solution, and a willingness to keep showing up and working through the details over time. That’s the kind of collaboration we’re exploring here, including how ideas move from early-stage science into something researchers can actually use, and what it takes to make those relationships last.
My guest today is Mark Fairey, Senior Licensing Manager at STEMCELL Technologies, Canada’s largest biotech company known for its high-quality reagents, instruments, and tools used by life science researchers around the world. Mark has spent two decades at STEMCELL, moving through roles in R&D, scientific sales, business operations, and now licensing and business development. That range of experience gives him a grounded, practical perspective on what it really takes to turn academic discoveries into reliable, scalable products, and why the strongest partnerships often start long before anything is ready for market.
We talk about what actually bridges the gap between a promising idea in the lab and something that can be reproduced, scaled, and trusted in labs globally. Mark shares how STEMCELL evaluates technologies, why understanding real-world workflows matters just as much as the science itself, and where academic teams often underestimate the challenges of usability and scale. We also get into the role of tech transfer offices, what makes early conversations productive, and why consistent communication is still the backbone of any successful long-term partnership.

In This Episode:
[02:03] Mark Fairey reflects on his 20-year path at STEMCELL Technologies, from research into sales, operations, and licensing.
[03:11] He explains how time spent working directly with researchers gave him a clearer view of how products perform in the real world.
[04:07] The conversation turns to STEMCELL’s “scientists helping scientists” philosophy and how that mindset still shapes the company today.
[05:02] Mark discusses what helps move a promising academic insight toward something that can become a dependable product.
[06:18] He says early-stage science needs more than exciting data. It also needs a real commercial niche and a practical use case.
[07:26] A simple muffin-baking analogy captures why scaling a process is much harder than just repeating what worked in the lab.
[08:39] Mark shares how his exposure to customers and end users affects the way he evaluates technologies for licensing.
[09:47] Trust, strong science, and a shared commitment to improving research workflows all factor into lasting academic partnerships.
[10:56] He points to communication as one of the most important ways tech transfer offices can keep partnerships productive over time.
[12:04] Regular check-ins, clear expectations, and timely replies all make it easier for industry and academia to stay aligned.
[13:16] Not every collaboration leads to a license, and Mark explains why smaller, informal relationships can still be worthwhile.
[14:28] The discussion highlights what academic teams sometimes miss about usability, shelf stability, and large-scale reproducibility.
[15:42] Mark broadens the lesson beyond life sciences, arguing that commercialization always starts with solving a real-world problem.
[16:54] He reflects on how the volume of university innovation has grown and how both academia and industry have become more fluent in each other’s needs.
[18:06] When researchers or tech transfer offices first reach out, a solid non-confidential overview helps make the conversation more productive.
[19:02] Mark closes with his biggest takeaway for tech transfer professionals: communication, empathy, and active listening matter most in building relationships.

Resources: 
AUTM
STEMCELL Technologies
Mark Fairey - LinkedIn

Sometimes the most powerful innovations come from the most personal places. This episode tells the extraordinary story of Danyelza (naxitamab), a life-saving immunotherapy for children with neuroblastoma, and how it earned a finalist spot in the AUTM Better World Project.
What makes this story truly remarkable isn't just the science, although that's impressive enough. It's the unlikely partnership between a researcher who refused to give up, a tech transfer team that believed in an "ultra-orphan" drug when no one else would, and a father who turned his desperation into determination by founding a company to bring this therapy to other children facing the same devastating diagnosis as his daughter.
Joining me are three key figures from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center who shepherded this breakthrough from lab bench to bedside: Dr. Nai-Kong Cheung, the Enid A. Haupt Chair in Pediatric Oncology and a world-renowned expert in antibody-based therapies for childhood cancers; Dr. Yashodhara Dash, Vice President of Entrepreneurship & Commercialization at MSK; and Dr. Imke Ehlers-Surur, Director of Technology Development & Licensing, who negotiated one of the most unconventional licensing deals in tech transfer.
We discuss the 25-year journey from early mouse antibodies to FDA approval, why pharma companies initially passed on this technology, how regulatory designations like the rare pediatric disease priority review voucher changed the business case, and what happened when MSK had to decide which patients would receive limited drug supplies a moment Dr. Cheung compares to Schindler's List.
Disclosure: MSK and Dr. Cheung have financial interests in Danyelza.

In This Episode:
[03:07] Dr. Cheung explains neuroblastoma is a devastating childhood cancer that spreads to bone, bone marrow, and other organs, making it one of the most difficult pediatric cancers to treat.
[04:31] The "aha moment" came in the mid-1990s with antibody 3F8, when the team saw how these antibodies could light up tumors and eliminate metastatic disease.
[07:00] The early mouse antibody got rejected by the body, so the team used protein engineering to create a humanized version that could arm the immune system without rejection.
[08:14] Funding was one of the toughest challenges working with small budgets meant relying heavily on internal grants and parent groups like the Band of Parents.
[09:31] Dr. Dash describes the commercial landscape as a "hard sell". It was an ultra-orphan market, and companies wanted small molecules instead of antibodies.
[10:22] Persistence and entrepreneurial mindset kept the project going internally, applying for FDA designations and advancing the technology before finding the right partner.
[11:01] Dr. Ehlers reveals Y-mAbs Therapeutics was founded by Thomas Gadd, the father of one of Dr. Cheung's patients, who built a company when other paths stalled.
[12:07] Working with a founder who had unparalleled motivation but limited drug development experience meant MSK developed a forward-looking commercialization strategy.
[14:28] The biggest difference in negotiating with a patient-family founder versus traditional VCs was making sure both sides were speaking the same language.
[17:34] While MSK's Technology Development Fund provided some gap funding, the real story was philanthropic support from groups like the Band of Parents.
[18:42] The conversation turns to FDA accelerated approval in November 2020, after running out of drugs and having to decide which patients would benefit a moment compared to Schindler's List.
[21:12] To avoid conflicts of interest when helping form Y-mAbs in 2015, stepping out of the clinic completely became necessary to focus on research full time.
[24:19] The regulatory designations were "transformative" orphan drugs given seven years of exclusivity, and the rare pediatric disease designation came with a priority review voucher worth $80-300 million.
[27:18] Without these regulatory incentives, the startup may not have been fundable at all, though Thomas Gadd is noted as a "force of nature."
[28:18] Y-mAbs' acquisition by CERB Pharmaceuticals means proceeds will flow back to MSK to fund future cancer research, a typical life cycle for early stage technologies.
[29:41] Finding a drug or cure for a child so they can reach their full potential is described as priceless, with reflections on the anguish parents face.
[30:58] A powerful story about a physician father whose daughter responded to the antibody but ultimately died from graft versus host disease, an experience that drives the mission.
[34:05] When there's a convergence of mission and purpose with many people participating, that flame will continue to burn and inspire other tech transfer offices.
[35:34] The conversation concludes with emphasis on the importance of philanthropy, the power of parents, and finding a mission-driven partner to achieve FDA approval.

Resources: 
AUTM
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
The Nai-Kong Cheung Lab
Dr. Nai-Kong Cheung
Dr. Yashodhara Dash
Dr. Yashodhara Dash - LinkedIn
Dr. Imke Ehlers-Surur
Dr. Imke Ehlers-Surur - LinkedIn
Danyelza
AUTM Better World Project
Band of Parents
Y-mAbs Therapeutics
SERB Pharmaceuticals

If you've ever thought that intellectual property was just for lawyers, patent professionals, and the occasional venture capitalist, today's episode might change your mind. We're talking about what it would look like if anyone, your neighbor, your parents, maybe even a seven-year-old with a wallet could find, understand, and invest in the technologies shaping our future. It's a big idea, and our guests are actively building the infrastructure to make it real.
Chris Hack and Geoffrey Smith are the co-founders of Brilliance, a company working at the intersection of AI, blockchain, and decentralized finance to make intellectual property more accessible and investable. They're building tools that help non-specialists navigate patent landscapes using plain language search, connecting problem-solvers with the right opportunities, and experimenting with tokenization as a way to open royalty stream investing to a much broader audience than has ever had access before.
In this conversation, we dig into what it actually means to democratize IP, how AI is changing the discovery and translation of patents for people outside the profession, and what role blockchain and smart contracts could realistically play in the future of licensing and royalty management. We also talk about the guardrails that need to exist, the misconceptions worth clearing up, and where Chris and Geoffrey see the biggest opportunities for tech transfer offices to dip their toes in without taking on a lot of risk.

In This Episode:
[02:28] Chris explains that democratizing IP is less about what it is and more about who can access it everyday people, not just specialists.
[02:30] The biggest barriers to IP participation are readability, discoverability, and the high cost of creation, all of which technology can help address.
[03:49] Geoffrey adds that beyond discovery and translation friction, there's a matching problem: universities want partners, companies want solutions, and no one has solved the bridge between them.
[03:50] Brilliance built AI tools not for patent professionals, but for investors and entrepreneurs who need a low-friction first pass at understanding what a patent covers and why it matters.
[05:13] The tools are not patent drafting tools, they're designed to expand the footprint of who engages with IP in the first place.
[05:48] Chris and Geoffrey share their vision of making IP as conversational and familiar as real estate, starting with the people closest to us.
[07:57] Tech transfer offices can list IP on Brilliance's repository for free, feeding their AI model and getting exposure to a new class of potential investors.
[09:55] The conversation turns to tokenization and why NFTs in this context have nothing to do with digital art and everything to do with creating an immutable ledger for royalty contracts.
[10:21] Chris breaks down how NFTs function in their prototype marketplace as pointers or receipts, not the underlying contracts themselves.
[12:49] Brilliance's current model involves acquiring royalty streams, syndicating the funding, and owning the stream with a vision to move those transactions fully on-chain over time.
[13:50] Smart contracts in this context aren't legal agreements, they're programmable rules that govern how a token behaves on the blockchain and direct payments to whoever holds it.
[15:39] Blockchain explorers could eventually give municipalities and governments real-time visibility into where innovation is happening and where to direct funding.
[16:34] The most common concerns Brilliance hears from institutions involve regulatory uncertainty and security, but Chris and Geoffrey treat those as design guidelines, not dealbreakers.
[18:49] Compliance and governance aren't obstacles; they're the blueprint for building the right product, including AML and KYC requirements for the next marketplace iteration.
[19:06] The team is watching the Genius Act and Clarity Act closely, hoping clearer federal guidelines will let them move with more confidence.
[20:08] Brilliance focuses on non-dilutive funding by purchasing the economic interest in a royalty stream while leaving the underlying IP assets intact.
[22:00] Guardrails for tokenized IP investment need to address regulatory compliance, asset vetting, buyer and seller transparency, and clear valuation frameworks.
[24:00] For tech transfer offices wanting a low-risk entry point, the IP repository is free, requires minimal effort, and immediately connects listings to active investors using AI search.
[24:30] The Connect platform matches problem-havers with problem-solvers using embedded AI, and was built specifically to solve the sponsored research visibility problem.
[25:30] Chris addresses common misconceptions: NFTs are not speculative assets, smart contracts are not legal contracts, and blockchain does not require cryptocurrency speculation.
[26:49] Geoffrey's son asked how to invest in robots and that question became their clearest articulation of what success looks like in five to ten years.
[27:59] Most of the existing IP ecosystem patent attorneys, legal contracting, relationship-driven deals will remain intact. Brilliance is adding to it, not replacing it.
[30:00] Chris shares a hope for the future: rewarding collaborative innovation over individual filings and reducing the siloing that slows down big breakthroughs.
[31:28] For tech transfer professionals wanting to stay current, Chris recommends subscribing to Brilliance's newsletter as a curated starting point for AI and blockchain trends.
[32:17] Geoffrey closes with a reminder that understanding the fundamentals of AI — not just the applications is the safest and most practical place to start.

Resources: 
AUTM
Brilliance
The Lantern
Chris Hack - LinkedIn
Geoffrey Smith - LinkedIn