The inventor of Ethernet has said Austin does not need more money to be a more innovative city, but it needs more companies that know how to market themselves better.
In his keynote presentation at the second annual Texas Venture Labs Expo on Wednesday, Bob Metcalfe, now professor of innovation at the University of Texas at Austin, said some people think Austin would be a more innovative city if only it had more cash.
“I take the opposite view,” Metcalfe said. “Money would be here if we had more companies that we marketed better.”
Metcalfe was speaking at the McCombs School of Business’s inaugural Venture Week conference, part of the 2011 Global Venture Labs Investment Competition. The South By Southwest-style conference, hosted at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center, brings together entrepreneurs, the business community, investors and alumni.
Metcalfe said Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s recently announced goal to make Austin more like Silicon Valley was laudable and that he believes that the Valley and secondary innovation cities such as Boston and Austin need not be in competition with each other – rather, they should be learning from each other.
One important lesson Austin could learn from Silicon Valley is the importance of young entrepreneurs working closely alongside more experienced figures, he said. He pointed out that Apple Inc. (AAPL) was founded not just by computer whiz kids Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, but also by Mike Markkula, an angel investor who provided the company with critical early funding and managerial expertise.
With that goal in mind, he plans to encourage more professors to take an interest in their young charges’ entrepreneurial interests. “It would help if more professors were actually interested in starting companies.”
Such interaction, Metcalfe said, was a crucial part of the ‘Doriot Ecology’, named for Harvard Business School professor General Georges Doriot, who in 1946 founded the first modern venture capital firm. The Doriot Ecology – the ideal mix of conditions and players for innovation – is made up of early adopters, research professors, graduating students, scaling entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and strategic partners.
Metcalfe’s point was reinforced by the Austin Technology Incubator’s (ATI) director, Isaac Barchas, who also spoke at the conference. The ATI was created to allow transition of money, expertise, ideas and innovation between the Austin community and the University of Texas, Barchas said.
In the last three years, the ATI had helped more than 50 companies raise about $75 million. It had a 75% funding success rate and was responsible for a $100 million economic impact in Central Texas.
“The goal of this program is not for the University of Texas to get rich,” Barchas said, “but to give back to the community.”
Speakers at the Texas Venture Labs Expo also included Richard Miller, chief technology commercialization officer at the University of Texas, and several start-up technology companies that presented their business plans and case studies to an attentive audience of about 100 people from Austin’s business community.
Texas Venture Week continues through Saturday.
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