From Patent to Profit: 4 Strategies for Commercializing Academic Patents Without the VC Model

Recently, I saw a note from a university congratulating its tech researchers for being granted patents. But will these patents ever be used commercially or has the money spent been wasted? Can any of these patents be used commercially with some enhancements to the current ecosystem?

About 97% of patents gather dust. Here are 3 reasons:

· VC is of no use at this point. VCs want Aha, meaning proof of potential, and an unproven patent is usually not enough. In an analysis of 85 billion-dollar entrepreneurs, only 1% secured venture capital after proving the technology. 23% secured venture capital after proving their business strategy and potential using business skills. 76% built real unicorns using business skills and no VC. This means that someone has to prove both the business strategy and the financial potential of VC-free patents - if they want to commercialize them.

· Entrepreneurial education in business schools does not focus on this stage. Brian Chesky had to prove the potential of his business before securing angel capital. He got $20,000 from an incubator and advice to focus on satisfying a few customers. Heeding this advice, Airbnb focused on New York, due to its huge influx of international visitors. Many of these New York visitors became hosts upon their return home. With this startup, Airbnb grew to 10,000 users and 2,500 listings. After proving its strategy and leadership, Airbnb secured angel and venture capital.

Unfortunately, business schools focus more on "first-mover" ideas (which are beaten by the "smart-mover" strategies of unicorn entrepreneurs), technological innovations (which are mostly not commercialized ), business pitches (which are superficial) and venture capital (which helps about 20 out of 100,000 companies - after Aha). By focusing on smart financial strategies and the skills of billion-dollar entrepreneurial unicorns, universities may actually be able to earn meaningful revenue from more patents, build more successful businesses, and drive the regional unicorn ecosystem.

· Most companies don't know how to build unicorns on emerging trends. Many companies, from Control Data to Sears, have become unicorn entrepreneurs due to their inability to compete on emerging trends. Often companies acquire start-ups that look like unicorns, but over 70% of business acquisitions fail. And some companies, like Xerox, have failed to capitalize on technologies they invented themselves.