Coming to America

I should have taken this journey years ago.

Growing up and living in Australia is a privilege. In the world of commercialization, it is also ahead of it's time, having to do what it does with a small market.

It has its boundaries when the outcome is to scale your thinking, your tools, and your product beyond a limited market. Having achieved some success in Australia - albeit hard fought, there was a nagging thought of being able to do something on a bigger stage. To make more of a difference. To also experience a different life.

With some persisting and luck, I found myself having a conversation with Barry Selick at UCSF. Barry had become a Vice Chancellor at UCSF with a mix of Business and Science. He wanted something different at UCSF and was tired of the usual IP driven commercialization that didn't bring proper benefit. I'll never know why he took a chance on an Australian that had no direct US experience, but it worked.

It was so tough leaving "home", settling kids and finding accommodation. Hard to understand if you haven't done it, but the US is designed so well for it's population, it's almost impossible to navigate as a newcomer.

What I found is that the US system was so driven by IP as a first step that there were many many opportunities that went by the wayside. When the first real screen is IP and then a "shoot and hope" process, it's no wonder we all find it tough to commercialize. Results stem from serendipity. I wrote a more specific article on this - "I say phooey to the valley of death".

The activity is largely unaccountable, without measurement or monitoring (beyond meetings) of work in progress. In reality that work in progress in progress is worth something or a lot.

We quickly built new systems to become a truly "market first" institution. We build better teams around innovation by adding entrepreneurs with a real path to value to those who committed. We also curated business models so we could create companies and real sales.

It meant going further than the University had gone before with signals and people all entrenched in the market. You can imagine that this threw a lot out of their usual compliance driven worlds. Most stayed with it, and beyond some initial nervousness, meant they could achieve things they had just talked about. Central to the culture was the ability to fail, to learn and to pivot. All things a University doesn't instinctively know.

With a great outcome and a portfolio of companies that grew from very little to $250m over the 5years. It was time to take on a new challenge.

San Antonio wanted to change and there were the elements of success bubbling in the University and the region. The experience of Texas was something new. The journey continues.