This month, KickStart Venture Services is pleased to highlight Bob Dieterle, Entrepreneur in Residence for digital health and AI/ML with Innovate Carolina and the Eshelman Institute for Innovation, as a resource for early-stage UNC startups. In the following article, he outlines special considerations for digital startups as well as his own background in the industry. Read on to find out more about Bob’s work helping digital startups commercialize their technology and how interested startups can connect with the resources he provides.
Hi, I am Bob Dieterle and I would like to thank Kick Start Venture Services for allowing me to introduce myself and provide a brief overview on how I help commercialize digital research here at UNC.
Since I started over 8 months as the Entrepreneur in Residence for Digital, AI and ML commercialization, I have been introduced to dozens of incredible PIs and grad students that need help in commercializing their innovative digital related research. Think of me as the “digital venture builder” for innovative and commercially viable UNC research. I proactively discover, source, validate and then, along with the broader UNC innovation and entrepreneurship community, work to launch the university’s best digital related research.
First, a little bit about myself, I am a new venture, early stage technology entrepreneur. I have been at the forefront of emerging technology transformations since I was part of the first laptop development team at IBM in the mid 1990s. I have been both on the vendor and client sides of emerging technology, working in various progressive leadership roles at IBM and Lenovo and then leading early stage digital technology companies, most recently as Founder/CEO of MobileSmith Health. I have a bachelor of science in electrical and computer engineering from NC State University and an MBA from Duke.
Digital Commercialization – It’s a different game.
In software, the novelty and commercial value is not usually in the technology, like an algorithm or function, but in the use case, packaging and market and maybe most importantly – the automation of the problem that is being solved. A good example of this is Airbnb. Aren’t they just a website that books rooms online from available inventory at a given place and given date? The value is in not in that technology but in the novelty of the use case in sharing/renting out rooms in private homes. Airbnb’s technology development and deployment were not the key challenges for this startup but instead figuring out all that goes into renting out someone’s private home.
Secondly, significant early round funding is not as critical in starting up a company because software, data storage and hosting are now very cheap. Ten years ago, a software startup needed $100k – $300k+ of capital to launch. Now many founders are bootstrapping the startup, eschewing outside investors, and growing through a customer-funded model. This also means many startups get to profitability much quicker. The VC and angel communities understand this and are de-risking and waiting longer to invest in these “revenue generating” digital startups. A good byproduct of this is that founders are spending less time raising capital and instead are completely focused on ramping company operations, proving out their business models and selling to their first customers.
The 3 Hats
I have found that successful digital ventures have founders who wear “multiple hats”. The more hats a founder or founding team “wears” the less money they need to get going. In a digital startup there a 3 critical “hats” that are needed to get launched into customer revenues:
The Tech Hat, The Domain Hat, and The Sales Hat.
Many of the founders/PIs I have met at UNC are nationally recognized domain experts in the research that they are conducting and this is a good match with me as I bring the tech and sales hats to the table. With this unique university partnership, I help move and often accelerate these ventures through the key commercialization milestones.
The 3 Hypotheses
As I am diving into these ventures, I am trying to determine and assist in the buildout of each of the 3 commercialization categories that are critical for successful digital startups:
First, The Market Hypothesis – problem discovery, market segmentation, value proposition/differentiation, total addressable market and initial market entry plan
Second, The Product-Tech Hypothesis – Reference design, proof of concept, Prototype and MVP
Third, The Business Hypothesis – team building, resource ramp, cash needs and business model
I call these categories – The 3 Hypotheses – as each of these are initially the best-case assumptions or theories that need to be proven out after company formation. I work with each venture to identify and close gaps in each category. This is where I leverage the great infrastructure of resources, funding, programs and mentorship that UNC’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem offers. In my short time here, I see that this ecosystem provides a huge boost for any UNC startup.
Next Steps
I’d love to learn more about your digital research here at UNC as well as help you understand more about my process and methodology. I can be easily reached at my email: bob.dieterle@unc.edu. You can also find more of my writing on digital startups on LinkedIn.
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