What to watch: Deep Tech Venture Summit showcases Midwest innovation

Released on Friday, June 21, 2024

The Deep Tech Venture Summit took place in Chicago on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (Photo: Matt Murton)

The Deep Tech Ventures Summit brought together around 350 attendees, 23 speakers and 22 startups to explore a range of topics across the fields of quantum, data science and AI, clean tech and life sciences.

The event was hosted by the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, which has helped create more than 600 companies that have raised $10 billion in funding.

“When you listen to the accelerators today, you see the power of the platform,” said Samir Mayekar, vice president and managing director of the Polsky Center, at the opening of the Deep Tech Venture Summit.

“It's our job to make sure we hear new ideas and technologies from the University of Chicago ecosystem and help bring them out into the world,” Mayeker said.

The energy here is amazing.

Satyajeet Salgar, MBA 07, Google AI

Juan de Pablo, executive vice chancellor for Science, Innovation, National Laboratories and Global Initiatives, also emphasized this mission, saying, “At the University of Chicago, we are committed to advancing fundamental research and development in field-defining areas.”

“We are addressing global challenges that cannot wait 20 years for breakthroughs,” de Pablo said. “We need to solve the climate problem now. We need to cure cancer now. And we can't do it without entrepreneurship, innovation, and organizations like the Polsky Center and all of you in this room.”

Chicago Booth alumni and founders Sheila Mikhail (MBA 93) and Jennifer Freed (MBA 15) delivered the morning keynote addresses.

The Entrepreneur's Journey

The morning keynote featured two female entrepreneurs: Jennifer Fried, MBA ’15, CEO and co-founder of Flow Medical, and Sheila Mikhail, MBA ’93, advisor and co-founder of Asklepios BioPharmaceutical (AskBio).

With 20 years of leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, Mikhail shared his own journey and offered advice to fellow entrepreneurs in the audience.

When you don't have funding, you have two options, she explained: give up or find a way, and Mikhail did, which included applying for lots of grants, tapping venture philanthropy, and other means to secure investment.

She added that in a startup environment, you have to do everything yourself. If the trash needs to be taken out, do it. If there's a problem with the computer, fix it. Mikhail enjoyed the fast-paced early stages and the variety of roles, but noted that not everyone can do that.

She explained that different roles require different skills, and in the best interest of the company, sometimes it's necessary to pass the baton to move things forward.

Mikhail will serve as AskBio's CEO until March 2023, during which time he grew the company to more than 349 employees in five countries. In December 2020, he led negotiations for the $4 billion acquisition of AskBio by Bayer AG.

The afternoon featured panel discussions and startup presentations in the fields of quantum, clean technology, life sciences, data science and AI.

From the lab to the factory floor: Unleashing the potential of quantum computing in the real world

Eze Bartz, director of the Polsky Center quantum accelerator Duality, led the discussion with Peter Hoffman, president of Elevated Advisors, Coleman Collins, director of product management at IonQ, Aaron Kemp, director of advisory technology risk at KPMG, and Victoria Bills, chief investment strategist at Banlion Capital.

When asked what it would take to de-risk having more suppliers in the ecosystem, Collins said the answer was inequality of scale. “We buy about 12 a year. We choose certain technologies based on what's available in the supply chain,” he explained. “We were buying lasers that weren't for our purposes. There are other teams in our field that use lasers for other things, but they're buying more. So the supplier's time is being taken up there. He described it as a chicken-and-egg problem, a matter of scale. “There are a lot of great ideas, but if they don't sell, they don't get noticed,” he added.

Advising quantum companies seeking funding, Bills said connecting with venture capitalists is like dating. “If you're a founder, you need to realize that you're also part of the prize,” she said. You and the venture capitalist need to grow together. Accessing funding is not a one-way relationship, but a collaborative partnership.

Clean Energy Revolution: Building Sustainable Solutions for a Greener Future

“When we started Resurgence, we were focused on finding thought leadership and partnerships and collaborations to develop our programs in a meaningful way that would create the greatest impact,” says Ozge Guney Altay, director of Polsky Centers’ cleantech accelerator Resurgence.

During that time, she met with speakers on the clean tech panel, including Karthee Madasamy, founding managing partner at MFV Partners, Johanna Haggstrom, vice president of R&D operations at LanzaTech, and Sara Chamberlain, co-founder and managing director at Earth Foundry.

All of the speakers stressed the importance of knowing your customer inside and out. “Make sure you focus on your customer and know everything you can about their space,” Chamberlain said.

“We want something that's better than what we have today and cheaper,” she added. “It's not going to be cheaper from day one, but the trajectory has to be measurably better and cheaper. That's really hard to find.”

The role of universities in building a life science ecosystem

“Universities are doing great science, but the question is how do they get it out to the world,” said Steven Gould, consulting director at the Polsky Center, opening the life sciences panel.

Brian Coe (MBA '99), CEO of Belay Diagnostics and adjunct professor at Chicago Booth, moderated the discussion and began with some practical advice: “Make sure you can explain what you do in 30 seconds in layman's terms. Be brave and go find people you would never think you'd work with,” he added. And if they don't ask who they'll work with, that's just who they are.

Lisa Dahl, vice president of innovation and new ventures at Northwestern University, explained that the organization's role is to provide funding, but not just that: The goal is to provide all the pieces to make a startup as investable an asset as possible.

Steve Lehman, head of ventures at Portal Innovations, pointed out the benefits of joining the university ecosystem: “Team building is like dating,” he said. [and] You can go on lots of dates.

“This is a community, and if we can break down the barriers in this community, it creates exponential opportunity,” added Nancy Sullivan, CEO and managing director of Illinois Ventures.

From a founder's perspective, Marta New, CEO of Radyus Research, highlighted the benefits of having a diverse team, specifically advising on partnering with people who have been through the same thing.

Beyond Silicon Valley: The rise of AI innovation in the Midwest

Saurabh Sharma, general partner at Jump Capital, said it's pointless to compare it to Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley has its own ecosystem, which is great for the country. But Chicago and the Midwest have their own ecosystem, he said. There are great companies here, the question is how to scale them. To do that, you need to retain talent and grow capital.

Comparing coastal and non-coastal investments, cash-for-cash returns are very similar, adds Drive Capital general manager Landon Campbell: “This is where the DNA of founders is focused, doing more with less, working hard and not overemploying. Ultimately, this is where more investors should be investing their time.”

Kristian Hammond, co-founder of Narrative Sciences, offers this advice: “Stop thinking about the technology. It's not about the technology itself; it's about what it does for people.”

“You build something and you're excited about it, but you're expected to solve a problem, not just build technology,” he added. “You have to care about your users. Your job is to think about how you're going to impact people around the world and what you can do with your technology. If you can't do that, why start a company?”

The panel was moderated by Shyama Majumdar, who leads Transform, the Polsky Center's data science and AI accelerator.

In the closing keynote, Satyajeet Salgar (MBA 07) and David Uminsky discussed building products in the AI ​​era.

Artificial Intelligence: 3.5 Innovation

“The energy here is incredible,” said Satyajeet Salgar (MBA '07), director of product management and UX at Google AI, in a discussion with David Uminski, executive director of the Data Science Institute at the University of Chicago.

Salgar, who currently leads the interdisciplinary Applied AI team that develops cutting-edge machine learning capabilities at Google, began by addressing the evolving role of AI in products.

“It feels like over the last decade or so, AI has become an increasingly important part of the products we build, but it's very much behind the scenes,” Salger says. “The role has grown incrementally, but the improvements today are no longer linear, they're exponential.”

Salger touched on 3.5 things he sees before talking about AI innovation in general and answering questions from the audience. The first item is the current state of AI models. He said these models are very powerful and are being used in many applications.

“Large language models (LLMs) are machine learning models that can understand and generate text, and they're particularly good at that. But I think everyone is trying to sprinkle LLMs into their existing products,” he said, noting that there's an opportunity to build AI-native applications, true AI products.

Salger then spoke about the trajectory of improvement and potential of AI models, citing the AI ​​Index report. [these models] “There's going to be a different world in the next two to three years, so make sure you're building for that world,” Salger said.

The third bucket deals with specific applications of AI. You can see that with things like Alpha Fold and applications of AI in biology and computer science. “If we can get better at using AI as an addendum or accelerator for research, we're going to see great results,” he said.

The last (half) part: Pick and shovel manufacturers were very successful during the Gold Rush, Salger noted, explaining that the same would be true for manufacturers who could improve on LLM's development tools.

Deep Tech Ventures Summit was sponsored by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Caruso Ventures, Cooley, JP Morgan, McAndrews, TechNexus Venture Collaborative and True Blue Partners.

// Polsky Deep Tech Ventures is a full-spectrum accelerator and venture support initiative dedicated to transforming deep tech innovations into startups and bringing life-saving, world-changing products and services to market. Founded in 2023, we provide sector-specific expertise, entrepreneurial training and funding.

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