Austin Forum - Oct 4th (Part 1 of 4)

Innovating with University Startups
Bob Metcalfe, Professor of Innovation, Cockrell School of Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin

Innovating with University Startups
Bob Metcalfe, Professor of Innovation, Cockrell School of Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin

At The University of Texas at Austin our motto is, "What starts here changes the world." Let's talk about changing, and hopefully improving the world with innovations driven by university startups. These startups inhabit The Doriot Ecology, named after Professor Georges Doriot, who invented modern venture capital 65 years ago. The six main species of the Doriot Ecology have driven much of what we celebrate as innovation, Silicon-Valley-style technological, entrepreneurial innovation at scale. These six species are: research professors, graduating students, scaling entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, strategic partners, and early adopters. Innovations are driven by fiercely competing teams of various combinations of these species—startups. We are working to support startups coming out of The University of Texas at Austin. We are even trying to teach undergraduates how better to operate the machinery of free enterprise.

Dr. Robert M. Metcalfe is a professor of innovation and fellow of the Clint W. Murchison Sr. Chair of Free Enterprise based in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at The University of Texas at Austin Cockrell School of Engineering. He has been a general partner of Polaris Venture Partners since 2001 and continues to advise the Massachusetts-based firm as a venture partner. During the 1980s, Metcalfe founded and grew the billion-dollar computer networking company, 3Com Corp., which merged with Hewlett-Packard in 2010. In the 1970s, he worked in the Computer Science Laboratory of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, where he invented today's local-area networking standard, Ethernet, for which he received the National Medal of Technology.

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