Q&A with Ashley Jennings
How has your ability as a storyteller made you a better businessperson?
My background is in broadcast journalism, and I touched a lot of different hardware and software while in the field. As a field producer/journalist, my team transmitted information at a pretty rapid pace, testing out various hardware and software along the way. This is where I got my tech bug. Just like in a news piece, there is a strong narrative and story to be told in business. My ability as a storyteller has helped me understand the narrative – the actual DNA of a business.
I think the ability to tell stories has a direct ROI on your ability to sell whatever you're selling, the ability to brand and market and connect with customers and stakeholders. Storytelling has also given me the empathetic touch it takes to sit down with founders and researchers; being able to ask about what drives them.
I coach a lot of our teams to get ready for the pitch stage when they're going on the competition circuit. One of the things we focus on is the audience: recognizing which part of your story is most important to them; the consumer in the stands. That involves working with founders and researchers on their narrative, pitch decks, and the script for when they present – both in non-dilutive funding and diluted funding situations. I help them answer questions from investors, institutional funds and angel networks. Because I am deeply connected to these teams, I get to watch as the story evolves over time through all the pivots and transitions, successes and failures.
What is your greatest wish for Austin when it comes to making this place even better from a science and technology perspective?
Austin has been a tech boomtown for a while now, but most people don’t realize how, historically speaking, Austin has been an incredible generator of technology. The University of Texas at Austin is a global research powerhouse, with a proven track record of creating new, world-changing ideas. We, as an institution, are just now being recognized for it. Research coming out of the University of Texas would be awarded grants and win pitch competitions, but there was a disconnect between the megaphone and the marketplace.
My vision for Austin is one of a continued collaborative ecosystem: pulling the City of Austin, the University, SXSW, and the Austin Chamber of Commerce together. Ultimately, this would lead to UT Austin being mentioned in the same breath as MIT and Stanford innovation programs. I want to see UT generating intellectual property and technologies at a rapid pace, launching successful products and businesses to impact the world and drive economic development.
My role in this is to help get the word out: we’re already doing the work here, but we might not be talking quite as loudly as the Bay Area, New England etc. With large tech companies already here, like Oracle and Tesla, and Apple and Google, we’ve been recognized as a tech city, but we have yet to really plant our own entrepreneurial flag. Texas overall has a unique opportunity to take on our global energy challenges, and Austin is a part of that, but I’m really excited for Austin to carve out its own niche as a life science and medtech hub.
My primary focus at the Texas Innovation Center is helping the University serve as that megaphone for technology commercialization and helping train our researchers to think like entrepreneurs and founders. I serve as an operational startup role with teams, helping with market analysis to pitch decks to investor readiness.
Academic research is back in the spotlight and has been identified as a source of new solutions and new commercial products. There are well over 3,000 researchers on campus – how do we get them the recognition they deserve? How do they get their work in front of the people that are most important to them, whether it’s private capital, or just one person who they could help, the Texas Innovation Center is working with them to get what they need.
How has teaching students how to be entrepreneurs changed your view of the startup landscape and/or entrepreneurial practice?
I had the chance to work with a lot of SaaS companies and founders earlier in my career, and that world revolves around a problem, solution, product to market cycle. Working with academic researchers – from undergraduate to faculty to postdocs – it’s very different. Most of these individuals are starting with something completely new –- a solution –- and then identifying where it fits best into solving potential, big problems. Deep tech is very capital intensive up front; requiring things like lab space, precision equipment, and a team of capable people.
Speaking of people, every day I am impressed more and more with the new generation. Back in 2015, it felt like every startup had to do with the gig economy, social media, or dating apps. Students today are thinking about climate change and food scarcity, clean energy or materials that help drive climate tech. These are questions that are so important to our very survival on the planet, and students in classrooms are fighting for their chance to solve them. Getting to witness that passion is both humbling and infectious – you can’t help but want to be a part of it.
What created the demand at UT Austin for an innovation center and how has it adapted to fit cohort needs?
Before the Texas Innovation Center came to be, schools and labs had different types of resources to tap into across campus, but no real deep tech focus. We operate like a venture studio and are physically housed on campus in the Cockrell School of Engineering, but serve all researchers across campus. We pour resources into and around startups that range from ideation in the lab to series B-funding for growing enterprises. We have what most would expect from a venture studio, things like coworking space and conference rooms, workshops, prototyping and innovation funds, and a very large network of mentors.
Beyond just the expected, the Texas Innovation Center is still a part of the University of Texas system: a massive benefit for anyone involved in deep tech. We have built partnerships and connections within the university, and we are uniquely qualified to serve some of the most ground-breaking science and innovation going on. A prime example is a company called Tau Systems, who are building compact laser-plasma particle accelerators. I’ve also had the pleasure to work directly with Longhorn Life Sciences, which are building post-operation, smart dressings for cancer patients.
If you could fix one thing about tech commercialization, what would it be and how would you do it?
I would make the business and management talent side of a startup more accessible. When startups are in their most nascent stage, scientists and researchers don’t need to bring in a whole board and c-suite, they just need some light guidance. I would give more startups access to mentors and experts to provide guidance, and help to coach founders in how to build a startup business. Teaching an MBA the deeply technical knowledge of lab work is much more difficult than it is to get someone with a background in science or engineering to understand what a business plan is and how to build a financial model. We love coaching researchers to be founders and have business hats on.
As the founders move through the commercialization process, I would also want to make it more clear when they need to stop trying to do everything themselves. When is it time to hire more researchers, or when should you get someone else to run the business? Or when is it time to hire human resources or marketers? Maybe these are serial entrepreneurs who love to get new ideas off the ground, maybe it’s someone from an angel network, or maybe it's a passionate young entrepreneur looking to make an impact.
Another thing would be to increase access to the essential early capital for startups. When you have an idea in a lab, it is a huge investment of time to go out on the pitch circuit to get seed funds, or to try to raise angel investors, or even applying for non-dilutive grants. I would change that by making it easier for investors to work with the research institutions, by bringing the money closer to where the deep tech actually comes from. I would want angel investors to be more knowledgeable about what is going on at high impact universities like UT. I would make institutions more aware of the impact that building a commercialization arm can have for their reputation as a school. UT Austin is doing just that, and it’s really exciting times.
What is one thing going on at the Texas Innovation Center that folks ought to know about, but probably don’t?
First and foremost, if someone is interested in learning more about deep tech and research going on at the University of Texas at Austin, or about supporting or connecting with us, please stop by! We’d love to have you for coffee.
Second, that the research is already happening. We have more than 30 companies in our portfolio right now across different verticals. The Innovation Center works with everything from alternative energy, advanced materials, AI, ML, CPG, robotics – the list goes on. We have a focus on biotech, medtech and life sciences, and I’m really excited about some of the people we get to work with. Researchers, entrepreneurs, and scientists are all working together to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing our planet today. It’s our moment in time to make an impact.
Learn more about us at: https://texasinnovationcenter.utexas.edu/
