University of Washington Center for Commercialization

"It’s motivating that such talented and experienced executives are choosing to devote their time to identifying opportunity at our university." Linden Rhoads
UW Vice Provost—Commercialization

NEW VENTURES ADVISORS LEND THEIR EXPERTISE

C4C’s New Ventures team has created a vibrant network of expert advisors, including entrepreneurs, business executives, angel and venture capital investors, attorneys and others. This network is an invaluable resource for UW researchers as they are developing their business ideas.

Our highly effective Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIR) program invites veteran industry experts to join C4C for six to nine months at a time. During this period, they help identify technologies with commercial promise, and provide UW researchers with real-world insights about the commercialization process along with expertise in target markets, product development, and fundraising strategies. See current EIRs below.

Our new Capitalization Table Board of Advisors program will help UW start-up companies ensure that the structure of the start-up is appropriate for the business model and plan for the company. And it will help ensure the company is fundable and operational moving forward. See current advisors below.

Current C4C EIRS

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  Rob Arnold is the former President and CEO of Geospiza, Inc., a leader in cloud computing solutions for genetic analysis. Geospiza was successfully sold to Perkin Elmer in May of 2011. Prior to Geospiza, Rob founded and served as Chairman and CEO of Crossport Systems, a leader in Internet security providing complete security solutions for broadband. In December 2001, Rob led the successful sale of Crossport to Lineo/Metrowerks, a division of Motorola. Before founding Crossport, Rob co-founded and was Chairman and CEO of ST Labs, Inc., which he built into a highly regarded and top-ranked software testing and quality assurance firm, employing 250 people. ST Labs customers included Microsoft, Intel, Hewlett Packard, Adobe and Countrywide Home Loans. After selling ST Labs to Data Dimensions, Inc. (DDI) in 1998, Rob served as its executive vice president for the newly-formed test center division until September, 1999. In that role, he led DDI’s transition to an Internet-centric testing and quality assurance firm.

  Rob presently serves on the executive committee and board of directors of the Technology Alliance. In 1998, Rob was named one of the “Top 40 Under 40” business leaders by the Puget Sound Business Journal.

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  Robert Barry has over twenty five years of medical device experience starting at ground floor with manufacturing engineering and culminating in founding and leading of medical device companies. Robert has extensive experience taking class II & III products and teams from concept through market introduction. His core expertise includes identifying unmet needs and creating viable products/teams/companies to meet those needs. Robert has a reputation for leading inspired, efficient teams to on-time, on-budget delivery of novel medical devices. He is also an inventor on over 25 issued patents in the fields of cardiology, radiology, pulmonology and thoracic surgery, several of which resulted in viable medical devices that are still in use today.

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  David Bluhm has spent the past 28 years starting and growing technology companies. In a variety of founder, director and senior operational roles, David has been involved in over 20 start-ups that have achieved a combined “high water” equity value of over 36 billion dollars including two IPOs and seven company acquisitions.

  David currently serves as Chairman of Z2Live which creates social and multiplayer games for mobile devices. David is a co-founder of Medio Systems, a mobile search and advertising company, former CEO and Chairman of GoTV Networks, the industry’s largest made-for-mobile television network, former CEO at WUF Networks, which helped pioneer mobile music streaming and was acquired by Yahoo! In 2004 and co-founder of mobile gaming company HandsOn Mobile which he helped grow into one of the industry’s leading providers of mobile games and wireless entertainment companies. David received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington.

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  Tom Dawson has over 30 years experience managing, developing and commercializing new products, implementing operational best practices, lean enterprise systems and has held P&L responsibility for medical device, sensor & instrument, telecom and electronics firms.

  Involved with a number of start-up companies, Tom is currently president of Periowave Dental Technologies and has held the position of chief operating officer of Ondine Biomedical, vice president of operations for Dux Area, Inc., president of Kistler-Morse Corporation, a subsidiary of Danaher Corporation, and vice president and general manager of Leviton Voice and Data. Tom also held the positions of director of M&S, IT, product development, HR, and operations. He has managed multiple sites including the U.S., Mexico and Europe. He has been an advisor and board member for technology and retail start-up companies. Tom holds a bachelors degree from Washington State University and an MBA from the University of Washington.

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  Steve Dimmer has 25 years of broad experience founding, building and growing medical device companies. He co-founded and served as CEO of Holaira from inception through Series B financing in 2012. Holaira is a venture capital funded start-up with a novel therapy which has the potential to impact millions of patients.

  Prior to Holaira, Mr. Dimmer was a founding Vice President at Calypso Medical (acquired by Varian) and served through commercialization. The Calypso® System has improved the lives of thousands of cancer patients by increasing the accuracy of their radiation therapy. He has been responsible for bringing numerous medical device innovations to market at both start-ups and large companies. Mr. Dimmer is an inventor on over 75 issued or pending US patents. He received a BS in Electrical Engineering from San Diego State University and an MBA from the University of Washington, Foster School of Business.

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  Craig W. Philips has over 25 years of pharmaceutical experience in the US and overseas with both big and small pharma companies. He has experience with development and commercialization of both small molecules and biologic agents in a variety of health sectors including: oncology and hematology, autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular disorders, antiviral, dermatology, allergy and others. Craig spent the early part of his career with Bristol Myers, and then held senior positions at both Schering Plough (now Merck), and Bayer Schering . Most recently, Craig was President at Cell Therapeutics, a company focused on the development and commercialization of new cancer therapies. Craig has broad industry experience and an extensive record in lifecycle management, commercializing new drugs and in both business development and partnership management.

  Craig received a BSBA and MBA from The Ohio State University. He has been actively involved in the pharmaceutical industry organization in the US and overseas and was an industry Board member in Canada, Thailand and Australia. He was chairman of the Intellectual Property Rights Committee with the American Chamber of Commerce in Bangkok, Thailand. He currently sits on the Board of the Hope Heart Institute, a non-profit organization focused on the research and education of cardiac health issues.

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  Rhonda Rhyne has over 25 years of experience in the health care industry, working with both public and private companies and as a health care provider. Rhonda served as president of CardioDynamics, a publicly-traded, innovative cardiovascular medical device company, from 1997 until 2009, when the company was sold to SonoSite. Prior to joining CardioDynamics, Rhonda held positions of CEO, VP of sales and marketing, and board director at Culture Technology, Inc., a privately-held biotechnology company specializing in culturing autologous skin for burn patients.

  Throughout her career, Rhonda has been recognized as an industry leader with honors that include: Entrepreneur of the Year–Medical Products, Ernst & Young, 2003; Fast 50 Award for 50 Fastest Growing Technology/Life Science Companies in Southern California, Deloitte, 1999–2007; and Women Who Mean Business Award, San Diego Business Journal, 2000. Rhonda earned an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Business Administration and a bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy from Washington State University.

Current Capitalization Table Board of Advisors

The capitalization table board of advisors is offered as an opt-in resource to UW start-up companies. C4C has recruited a panel of top venture attorneys and other veterans representing the different roles in the innovation ecosystem to informally counsel founders on their initial decisions around allocation of equity in their start-up. These advisors are experts on best practice, current market norms, and deal terms.

Decisions on equity allocation and capitalization structure need to be appropriate for the start-up’s business model. They must be made such that the resultant company is fundable and will have the best opportunity to execute on its plan. Issues with the capitalization table can cause serious problems for start-ups when decisions were made without the benefit of conferring on best practice.

The C4C New Ventures group helps to prepare each team that presents to the board by providing foundational materials on capitalization table construction, coaching on advance preparation of a presentation on the contributions of founders to date, and the expected and needed contributions from founders, advisors, consultants, start-up management, and employees going forward. The format of each meeting is an open dialogue between the start-up team and the board of advisors.

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  David Clarke, a Partner in Perkins Coie’s national Business Practice, focuses on the representation of emerging growth companies, middle market businesses, public companies, venture funds and private equity funds. David’s practice emphasizes mergers and acquisitions, private equity and growth equity transactions, venture capital financings, public offerings and corporate governance. David works with privately held clients at all stages of development, serving as outside general counsel and as a key advisor on M&A and corporate finance transactions. In addition, David represents leading venture and private equity funds in portfolio company investments. David is a regular speaker on M&A, venture capital and private equity topics. .

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  Craig Sherman is a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he focuses on corporate and securities laws, representing companies, venture capital firms, and investments banks in private placements and public offerings. Craig also has extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, technology licensing, and domestic and international joint ventures. Craig began private practice in 1989 with Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York and Paris, and joined Perkins Coie in Seattle in January 1995. He became a director in the Kirkland office of Venture Law Group in December 1996 and was managing director of the Kirkland office from May 2000 until August 2002, when he joined Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. He has been a member of the firm’s Policy Committee, Compensation Committee, Nominating Committee, and Finance Committee.

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  Sonya Erickson is a partner in Cooley’s Emerging Companies and Life Sciences practice groups and a member of the Firm’s Business department. She joined the Firm in 2008 and is resident in the Seattle office. Ms. Erickson’s practice encompasses the representation of emerging growth companies, established technology businesses and venture capital funds. Ms. Erickson has represented issuers and underwriters in numerous public offerings, has substantial experience in venture capital and other private financing transactions and has worked on technology-based strategic partnerships, collaborations and mergers and acquisitions. In addition, Ms. Erickson is corporate counsel for numerous private and public companies including Alder Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., ARZEDA Corporation, Blue Nile, Inc. (NILE), EKOS Corporation, EndoGastric Solutions, Inc., Ground Truth, Inc., Seattle Genetics, Inc. (SGEN), Varolii Corporation, and Zumobi, Inc.

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  Joe Wallin is an attorney and partner with Davis Wright Tremaine LLP. He focuses his practice on emerging, high growth, and startup companies. Joe frequently represents companies in angel and venture financings, mergers and acquisitions, and other significant business transactions. Joe also represents investors in and acquirers of businesses, and provides general counsel services for companies from startup to post-public. Joe is the founder and editor of StartupLawBlog.com.

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  Vikram Jandhyala is Professor and Director of the Applied Computational Engineering Lab at UW EE. He has published more than 150 papers and is founder of Physware, a venture-funded startup in electronic design automation. He currently chairs the UW EE Professional Masters Program and regularly presents technical short courses in industry, conferences, and national labs, and also presents seminars on entrepreneurship and research enterprise. He has served on the technical program committees of the Design Automation Conference, ICCAD, DESIGNCON, IEEE APS, and IEEE EPEP. He is a senior member of the IEEE and a full member of URSI Commission B and has served as a consultant to government agencies and contractors, large corporations, and startups. He has served as visiting faculty at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and the City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, and as a visiting researcher at the center for applied computing, Lawrence Livermore National Labs.

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  Patrick Stayton currently serves as the Washington Research Foundation Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington. He received his B.S. in Biology (summa cum laude) from Illinois State University in 1984, his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois in 1989, and was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, also at the University of Illinois. Dr. Stayton’s eclectic research group works at the interface of fundamental molecular science and applied molecular bioengineering. His laboratory has fundamental projects aimed at elucidating the basic principles underlying biomolecular recognition, and connected projects applying these principles to medical applications in the drug delivery, point-of-care diagnostics, and regenerative medicine fields. He has published over 200 scientific papers. Dr. Stayton has a strong interest in translating the group’s research, has been awarded several patents, and is a co-founder of the startup companies PhaseRx Inc. based on his group’s drug delivery work, and Nexgenia based on their diagnostic work.

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  David Bluhm has founded, co-founded or held senior positions in dozens of start up companies resulting in 2 IPOs, 7 acquisitions and over $32 billion in high water market value. Most recently David co-founded and built Z2Live into one of the leading mobile games companies in the world. He previously served as CEO of NextMedium, the first online marketplace for product placement advertising. As CEO of GoTV Networks, he built the world’s largest mobile television studio and distribution network. David also co-founded Medio Systems, which provides predictive analytics to the world’s largest wireless carriers, mobile ad networks and mobile applications developers. David was CEO at WUF Networks when it was acquired in 2004 by Yahoo!. Prior to WUF, David co-founded (M)Forma (now HandsOn Mobile). David was also CEO of NearMe, the first mobile directory service. David co-founded 2WAY Corporation and was a Senior Business Development Manager for Motorola, VP Sales at Mosaix International (through a $40 million IPO) and VP Sales and Marketing at Davox Corporation (NASADAQ: DVX).

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  Scott Jacobson joined Madrona in 2007 and currently serves on the boards of Haiku Deck, Indochino, LUMO BodyTech, RewardLoop, and Yieldex, and is a board observer for AdReady, Animoto, BuddyTV, Decide, Mercent, Optify, Redfin, Sewichi, and ShopIgniter. Scott also served on the board of Jambool prior to its acquisition by Google in 2010. “I was attracted to Madrona because of the firm’s partnership approach to investing. As an early-stage investor, we are truly rolling up our sleeves and partnering with the entrepreneurs we back on a day-to-day basis. We really do invest a lot of ourselves in our companies.” Scott is particularly interested in consumer web, digital media, and mobile technologies that present opportunities for major disruption of large, established markets.