The co-founder of Michigan eLab, Rick Bolander also serves as the firm’s Managing Director. A longtime entrepreneur himself, Mr. Bolander now uses his experience and network to help University of Michigan students, faculty, and partners achieve their entrepreneurial goals.
In addition to sponsoring entrepreneurial training, Michigan eLab provides promising startups with the full venture capital support they need to achieve final liquidity. The eLab also works with a team of technology commercialization experts who identify and transfer recent innovations from the laboratory to the market. Once this team has selected a potential technology for commercialization, its experts guide researchers or university officials through several key steps.
First, the team ensures that the technology is patentable by researching relevant “prior art,” or previously extant information about an innovation, if any. Next, experts evaluate the product’s marketability and technological merit before applying for a patent. Finally, the technology commercialization team seeks out a licensee, or a company interested in purchasing the rights to the innovation. Alternatively, the team at Michigan eLab helps the researcher build his or her own startup company as a way to market the technology.
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