Start-Up Companies: From Finding Funding to Turning a Profit

HOBOKEN, N.J. - There is evidence that our country's "high-tech" market will be the backbone of our future economy. But theses new start-up companies need the funding and business know-how to turn a new technology into a profitable product. What are venture capitalist firms looking for in start-up companies? What business model can take a new idea or technology and generate a marketable product? What future challenges will investors and start-up companies face?

On the next edition of Technogenesis, Victor Lawrence, vice president of Bell Laboratories and Lucent Technologies, and Frank M. Shinneman, president and CEO of PlasmaSol, join Stevens President Dr. Harold Raveche in an informative look at the current state of our country's "high-tech" venture capital industry.

Technogenesis is a weekly TV program produced by Stevens Institute of Technology (Stevens), in cooperation with cn8, the Comcast Network. This week's program will examine the importance of "hi-tech" venture capital businesses and what is needed to make them successful.

The Technogenesis program, " Start-Up Companies - From Finding Funding to Turning a Profit" airs at 7 p.m., on cn8, the Comcast Network, each of the following Sundays throughout New Jersey, Westchester County, New York, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston: October 26, November 9 and November 23. The program will also appear at various times throughout the week on the local Comcast outlets in Prince William and Fairfax counties, Va., as well as Prince George's County, Md. Please check for local listings.

Hosted by Stevens President Dr. Harold J. Raveche and veteran TV journalist Steve Taylor, each program includes special guests from the areas of science, technology, government, education, business or industry.

Dr. Victor Lawrence is Vice President, Advanced Communications Technology, Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies. He leads the development of technologies that go into the most innovative, reliable and cost-effective communications networks for leading telecommunications service providers.

Dr. Lawrence played a significant role in the development of every major international voiceband modem standard - making high-speed data communication over international networks possible. He was co-founder of Lucent's digital video business, which has encoders in over 150 television stations and in many broadband networks worldwide. He has been instrumental in establishing other start-ups that used Lucent's technologies, including elemedia and Lucent Digital Radio (now Ubiquity). He has been a key proponent of research and development globalization, and is championing the effort to bring fiber optic connectivity to Africa.

Mr. Shinneman was most recently the transition President of Moltech Corporation, a rechargeable battery maker, where he joined the company already in Chapter 11 to restructure assets and develop a reorganization plan.

Previously he was the manager of US Business Development for Umicore, a $4 billion global producer of non-ferrous metals, opto-electronic, battery and semiconductor materials. He was the founding President and CEO of Nanodyne, one of the first nano materials companies. In 1998, the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Union Minieré (now Umicore).

Co-produced by Stevens and Comcast, the half-hour Technogenesis programs feature government, research and industry leaders discussing some of the most challenging real-world issues facing science and technology today.

The cn8 Comcast Network is one of the nation's largest regional cable networks reaching more than to 7 million households in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Boston.

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.

Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,150 undergraduate and 3,500 graduate students, with about 250 full-time faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.  

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