Alumni offer advice to budding entrepreneurs
Author: Unknown Publication Date: Wednesday May 04, 2011
Kurt Long doesn’t beat around the bush. If you have an idea that you think is strong enough to form a company around, he says, you’d better be prepared to put your own money on the line.
“If you’re an early entrepreneur and you say, ‘Gosh, I want to do this, but I wish someone would fund it for me’ — what risk have you taken?” he asks. “Don’t expect the funding source to absorb all your risk for the benefit of your upside.”
Long (BSBA ’84) should know. He’s now leading his second company, FairWarning Inc., which detects privacy breaches for health care providers. It is recognized as a global leader in the industry. He sold his first company, the identity management firm OpenNetwork Technologies, after 10 years of successful growth.
Long was one of three UF alumni who shared their start-up expertise as part of the Office of Technology Licensing’s recent Celebration of Innovation Showcase. Fellow alumni Christopher Gallen (BA ’73) and Reggie Groves (BSP ’82) sat down with Long for a round-table discussion of the ins and outs of evaluating an idea, finding funding, building a company from the ground up and even knowing when to hand it off to new leadership. Gallen is executive vice president of research and development for the biopharmaceutical company Zalicus, and Groves is vice president and general manager of the medical technology company Medtronic.
All three offered varied advice, including how to choose investors to work with and how life will change once your company gets off the ground. But their overall message offered a mix of hope and realism with a large dose of dogged determination.
“All obstacles are speed bumps, not road blocks,” Gallen said.
Read more about the startup advice given at the Celebration of Innovation Showcase"
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