The Tech Entrepreneurship Blog

Welcome to the Tech Entrepreneurship Blog, a place to share our experiences in the technology transfer world. Our aim is to provide helpful content for students, university inventors, tech transfer professionals, and entrepreneurs alike: basically anyone interested in bringing university technology out of universities, and putting it into the hands of the general public.

You can find a brief intro to our regular cast of characters below.  Your feedback, stories about your own experiences, and topic suggestions are welcome.  We hope you’ll visit us again soon!

Helge Seetzen – The Serial Founder 

I have seen the university tech transfer world from several angles: I learned the basics of founding, building and selling a business as a student inventor (Sunnybrook Technologies, later BrightSide Technologies). At BrightSide, I got broader technology in-licensing experience by working with 10+ universities across to globe to commercialize their ideas. Following BrightSide’s acquisition I got a corporate perspective on tech transfer/licensing at one of the world’s most successful licensing companies and continued my involvement with universities. All of these experiences led me to my most recent endeavour TandemLaunch Technologies, a turn-key accelerator for university innovation, keeping me involved with university technology transfer on a daily basis.

Through all these roles I have learned that university entrepreneurship can be very exciting and rewarding, but is far from easy. Hopefully some of you can learn from my mistakes, successes and experiences as I share them on this site. There are many great blogs out there for general entrepreneurship so I will focus on coretechnology innovation, university entrepreneurship and technology transfer.

I am based in Montreal with three inspiring little ones and a wonderful wife who not only works a lot more than I do but also makes the world a better place.

Enjoy your time on the blog and drop me a note at helge.seetzen at tandemlaunchtech dot com if you have comments or questions.

Maria Dlugosch – The Development Manager

A French and German Master’s degree in Political Science at IEP Aix-en-Provence, KU Eichstaett-Ingolstadt, led me to Quebec where I worked with the Bavarian Consulate … only to run away screaming from all future government jobs. While I learned that I never should have studied political science, my language and cultural communication skills have been invaluable assets working in a diverse company dealing with inventors from all over.  I fell in love with Quebec in more than one way, and after having returned to Germany decided to come back only to discover a job that fit my personality perfectly.

Colleagues at TandemLaunch describe my role as “Kraken” – I take care that projects get done, on time, on spec, within budget. I’ll do what it takes to drive technical development forward – and I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty. I truly believe that only an entrepreneurial attitude can create value on every level of the company – from the CEO down to the latest intern. Entrepreneurial passion is what will make you stay after 5pm and come in earlier than 9am. It will drive you forward, it will bring you to new heights, and let you do stuff that you didn’t think you were capable of doing.

My parents taught me to think before you speak, so my posts are short and to the point, but hopefully full of interesting ideas and pointers to inspire fledgling technical development managers.

Praise for my blog posts, sense of humour, and choice use of metaphors can be directed to maria.dlugosch at tandemlaunchtech dot com.

Amineh Younes – The Product Manager

Did someone say product placement?  After working for a national retail company, and an even larger human resources company, the reality hit that I wasn’t going to adapt to large corporate culture.  Things were moving too slowly, and by things, I mean me.  I took a risk and became a startup product manager to learn more, do more, and accelerate my career.  From redesigning the product, to managing marketing campaigns, I’ve done it all (and still am) as the product manager for Mirametrix eye tracking solutions.

I love throwing myself in head first and learning the sink or way, but I realize that’s not everyone’s cup of tea.  My posts will be on product manager tips and tricks that will hopefully save some of you from learning the hard way.

I am located in Montreal, Quebec, I find comfort in dark chocolate, center myself with yoga twice a week, and let my wild side free riding a motorcycle during the summer. I love fashion, and need to know where you got that cute outfit J

Follow my twitter @AminehYounes

Emilie Boutros – The Finance Maven

When I was young, I wanted to become a pianist. Instead I studied math, started a career in accounting, and finally ended up working with entrepreneurs. It wasn’t until then that I realized it was indeed possible to really, REALLY, love a job.

I started my career at KPMG, and have spent most of my career working in finance positions at technology companies including Softimage, and CGI. Most recently I was Corporate Controller and interim CFO at Averna Technologies, a $30M/year revenue company offering electronics quality systems and services to the consumer electronics industry.  I joined TandemLaunch because I fell in love with the team, the vision and the creative and entrepreneurial culture.

I’m a big dreamer, which means I’m a terrible driver. I’m also a big fan of great deals and nothing makes me happier than telling a good story to good friends. I expect more than money from a job; for me a job is more about the opportunity to bond and work as a team to realize a project. I’m passionate about building teams, scaling up a business, and finding new ideas to make a reality.

Katie Young Morris – The Speculator

I want your demos. In all seriousness, my current existence largely revolves around finding out what cool multimedia inventions coming out of universities can do.  If you’ve found your way to this bio, and you’re a university researcher, do me a favour and send me a cool video showing off your invention(s).  Who knows, maybe I’ll even feature it on this blog!

I have spent most of my working life in various university research roles, and am deeply inspired to apply research findings to real world applications.   I am most proud of my work (and persistence) with the CHILD Studies Program doing research on intimate partner violence, and setting up the Lien MOMS Link trial intervention.  Doing partnership research has taught me a lot about aligning interests, being persistent, and the fundamentals of collaboration.

Somewhere between moving to Montreal, and my intention to do graduate work in research management, TandemLaunch came into the picture.  With a natural curiosity for – everything – TandemLaunch gave me the ideal opportunity to experience the research world from a new perspective.

You can get in touch with me at catherine.young-morris at tandemlaunchtech dot com (to send your demo, of course).