{"71325":{"#nid":"71325","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Atlanta Entrepreneur Paul Freet Joins VentureLab Team at Georgia Tech","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EPaul Freet, who recently joined Georgia Tech\u0027s VentureLab unit in the role of a commercialization catalyst, admits he\u0027s overqualified for his job.  \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EBut that\u0027s a good thing, says Freet, a successful entrepreneur with three startup companies to his credit -- almost a requirement for a job that demands both broad business judgment and sustained entrepreneurial enthusiasm.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022I think that in general VentureLab tends to bring in people who are overqualified -- people who have done this before, who have created multiple startup companies,\u0022 he says.  \u0022They\u0027re here because they have some higher mission, a higher vision.\u0022 \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EVentureLab is a unit of the Enterprise Innovation Institute\u0027s Commercialization Services, which evaluates and helps to commercialize Georgia Tech intellectual property. About 10 percent of the 300 or more inventions disclosed by Tech researchers annually are judged to have the right stuff for forming a VentureLab startup. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWorking with other VentureLab commercialization catalysts, Freet is responsible for aiding and advising numerous fledgling technology ventures, most of which are still in a pre-incorporation, proof-of-concept phase.  VentureLab catalysts help these aspiring companies sharpen their product concept, find office\/lab space and also obtain seed funding, which generally comes from the Georgia Research Alliance.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022We\u0027re delighted to have recruited an entrepreneur of Paul\u0027s experience and stature,\u0022 says Stephen Fleming, director of Commercialization Services. \u0022His combination of entrepreneurial experience, technical acumen and plain old business enthusiasm are ideal qualities in a commercialization catalyst.\u0022  \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFreet graduated from Georgia Tech in 1986 with a bachelor\u0027s degree in electrical engineering and a computer engineering certificate.  He spent his initial career years with semiconductor giant Hitachi in both marketing and application engineering roles.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EHis entrepreneurial calling began in 1996, when as chief technology officer he helped found a San Diego startup called TruSOLUTIONS, a maker of Linux servers for Internet use. That company was sold to VA Linux Systems in 2000 for $200 million.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFreet then moved with his family back to Atlanta and founded Racemi, a venture-funded maker of modular blade-server computers.  Racemi evolved into a software company that has pioneered a new approach to data-center recovery and migration tasks. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFreet first became familiar with Georgia Tech\u0027s startup-company programs  in 2002 when Racemi became a member of the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), a Georgia Tech unit that incubates young companies that have moved beyond the VentureLab stage.  Racemi graduated from ATDC in 2007 and is now an independent company.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EBut Freet already knew Stephen Fleming. They met when Fleming was working for a venture-capital fund, and they stayed in touch over the years.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022When Stephen announced he wanted to fill a VentureLab slot and was looking for suggestions, I started thinking about who I would refer him to,\u0022 Freet recalls.  \u0022Then it dawned on me that, my goodness, that would be a perfect role for me.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAs a VentureLab catalyst, Freet is already using his computer, software and electronics experience to shepherd a number of Georgia Tech researchers and their discoveries through a process that could lead to a viable startup company.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe biggest stumbling block for new companies isn\u0027t material, he says;  seed money and office space can usually be found for a promising technology.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EInstead, the greatest challenges are intellectual. Distilling a technological idea into a commercial product is difficult, and often the researchers who made the discovery can\u0027t make that leap because they lack business experience and are too close to the technology.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022If all you\u0027ve got is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail,\u0022 Freet says.   \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ETo commercialize any technology, he explains, it\u0027s critical to boil the concept down to something simple and come up with an instructive \u0027story\u0027 that can be shared.  \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022That\u0027s something I try to do very quickly with a young company -- find the real germ of the idea and a way to explain it simply,\u0022 he says. \u0022If you\u0027re trying to raise money, you need to present an investment in a way that a venture capitalist can explain to his or her partners.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFinding that story can also help identify a technology\u0027s first commercial application.  Freet recalls a recent example in which Georgia Tech researchers had devised a powerful technology to track computer and other expensive equipment. Further discussion indicated the technology was best viewed as a way to keep companies from losing things. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFreet believes that much of VentureLab\u0027s capability hinges on its interdisciplinary nature and the broad experience of its staff. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022We can really bounce things off one another,\u0022 he says. \u0022And while I might think that a discovery applies to the computer hardware business, we might find out that it\u0027s actually a very good fit as, say, a biomedical application.\u0022 \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFreet says the most attractive part of his VentureLab job consists of two benefits that are of great importance to him - giving back to his alma mater and home state, and improving his already strong connections to the state\u0027s technology community.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022And then,\u0022 he adds, \u0022there\u0027s the fun stuff - learning about all this great technology and getting to know some pretty amazing people here at Tech.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAbout the Enterprise Innovation Institute\u003C\/strong\u003E:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nThe Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute helps companies, entrepreneurs, economic developers and communities improve their competitiveness through the application of science, technology and innovation. It is one of the largest and most comprehensive university-based programs of business and industry assistance, technology commercialization and economic development in the nation.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearch News \u0026amp; Publications Office\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 100\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAtlanta, Georgia  30308\u003C\/strong\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMedia Relations Contacts\u003C\/strong\u003E: John Toon (404-894-6986); E-mail: (\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jtoon@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ejtoon@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E) or Nancy Fullbright (404-894-2214); E-mail: (\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:nancy.fullbright@innovate.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Enancy.fullbright@innovate.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E).\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWriter\u003C\/strong\u003E: Rick Robinson\n\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"Atlanta entrepreneur Paul Freet has joined Georgia Tech\u0027s VentureLab program as a commercialization catalyst.  In that role, he will assist in the formation of startup companies based on Georgia Tech discoveries.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech\u0027s VentureLab has a new commercialization catalyst"}],"uid":"27303","created_gmt":"2008-04-30 00:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:03:24","author":"John Toon","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2008-04-30T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2008-04-30T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"71326":{"id":"71326","type":"image","title":"Centergy Building","body":null,"created":"1449177367","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:16:07","changed":"1475894632","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:43:52"},"71327":{"id":"71327","type":"image","title":"Paul Freet","body":null,"created":"1449177367","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:16:07","changed":"1475894632","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:43:52"}},"media_ids":["71326","71327"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.innovate.gatech.edu\/","title":"Enterprise Innovation Institute"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.innovate.gatech.edu\/venturelab","title":"Georgia Tech VentureLab"}],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"132","name":"Institute Leadership"}],"keywords":[{"id":"2579","name":"commercialization"},{"id":"166973","name":"startup"},{"id":"4193","name":"venturelab"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cstrong\u003EJohn Toon\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EResearch News \u0026amp; Publications Office\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/contact\/index.html?id=jt7\u0022\u003EContact John Toon\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E404-894-6986\u003C\/strong\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jtoon@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}