Old Tradition, New Support
QUOTE/UNOUOTE"Just adding a larger nose doesn't do it.... [VirginiaWoolf] was not homely.' —ENGLISH PROFESSOR BRENDA SILVER, AUTHOR OF VIRGINIA WOOLFICON, ON NICOLE KIDMAN WEARING A PROSTHETIC SCHNOZZ TO PLAY THE WRITER IN THE MOVIE THE HOURS (FROM ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY)
INNOVATION AT DARTMOUTH IS nothing new. The College has spun breakthrough ideas from its labs and classrooms since 1853, when professor Dixie Crosby, DMS1824, distilled Pennsylvania rock oil in Crosby Hall to open the Age of Petroleum. What is new in Hanover is a burgeoning groundswell of interest across the Dartmouth community in entrepreneurship and the commercialization of research—and a growing alliance of local organizations ready to help.
Hanover is fast becoming an entrepreneurial center, hosting not only Borealis Ventures, New Hampshire's sole venture capital firm, but also a network of institutions focused on new business ventures that extends from the College through the Upper Valley. One such organization is the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network, a department under the office of the provost.
Founded two years ago by Gregg Fairbrothers '76, the network is an expanding web of alumni available to work with new entrepreneurs both on and off campus as educators, investors, managers or mentors. Its purpose is to help Dartmouth entrepreneurs implement market-worthy ideas. "The bubble may have burst," says Fairbrothers, "but its left behind a grassroots interest at the College in understanding how to seize commercial opportunities and realize the value of intellectual property."
A veteran entrepreneur himself—the Norwich, Vermont, resident founded and managed several oil and gas production companies around the world—Fairbrothers is now helping others start new ventures and is harnessing alumni expertise to aid in the effort.
One nascent business benefiting from such expertise is KnowledgeMatrix. Based on decades of brain research, KnowledgeMatrix has developed customizable software and processes that it hopes will transform corporate learning. The Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network has helped the company build its team, which now includes alumni in business development, technical and advisory positions.
"Without the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network, KnowledgeMatrix would not exist," says KnowledgeMatrix CEO Virginia Reed, Adv'97, who is also a Dartmouth professor of psychological and brain sciences. "We're academics, not business people. This is new ground. The Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network has helped us make the expert business contacts we need." Reed hopes a handful of alumni will also become development partners.
Education in entrepreneurship is a key piece of the system. On April 12 the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network and Tucks Foster Center for Private Equity will co-sponsor the second annual Conference on Entrepreneurship, called Greener Ventures (www.den.dartmouth.edu). Most of the panelists and speakers will be Dartmouth faculty and alumni. The one-day conference, held in Hanover, will focus on the nuts and bolts of commercializing research and innovation.
Go Big Green Gregg Fairbrothers '76has established a network to nurturebudding entrepreneurs.
