Technology Commercialization

João Pereira
28 October 2021

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 Your Teacher

• João Pereira
• 20+ years teaching Business Economics, Marketing, Business Planning
• 20+ years investing in tech startups @ VC funds
• jjpereira@fe.up.pt
• Mobile +351 932269898
• Linkedin https://pt.linkedin.com/in/joaojesuspereira

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 Course Schedule

1. University commercialization of technology and its challenges

2. Intellectual property: sale, licensing, venture creation and informal

technology transfer

3. Commercialization of technology: strategy, innovation diffusion,

technology adoption and open commercialization

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 Teaching methods,
learning activities & assessment

• Lectures and class discussion

• Presentation and discussion by students

• Group work and individual assignments

• Literature review

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 Grade breakdown

Assignments & success

50% Individual essay +

40% Group project +
10% Group project discussion

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 Individual Essay: Commercialization

• Delivery date: Dec 20th, 2021

• Literature Review
• Please select one of these topics:
• Intellectual property sale as technology commercialisation
• Licensing and technology commercialisation
• Spinoffs and Startup Companies as mechanisms for technology commercialisation
• Informal technology transfer
• Deliverable: written essay up to 3.000 words (~10 pages, Arial, 12, single),
word file format; filename “Student A.docx”
• Upload: Moodle assignment
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 Group Project: Commercialization Plan
1) Choose a technology from the options available here at UP Innovation https://upin.up.pt/en/content/technologies
(other university sources accepted, example TechFinder https://techfinder.mtu.edu/ ).
2) Break down each technology into a list of component functions/features and use these lists to help you identify
non-obvious commercial applications. For your most promising application, identify a specific firm or customer that
would benefit from that application.
3) Explain your value proposition: the specific application of the technology (including a simple description of how it
works) and why the firm/customer would benefit from it (including how it is better than whatever they might be
doing now).
4) Construct hypotheses to test about a potential commercialization plan. Document a minimum of 3 in-person or
phone customer/partner interviews, explaining why you chose to interview that person, and a summary of the new
and interesting things you discovered from the interview, and which hypotheses were validated or falsified.
5) Design a plan explaining who should build/license the technology; whether there should be any exclusivity
conditions; identify alternatives to your target firm & identify any other partners (including for marketing &
distribution). Your plan should also explain why this technology with this firm will succeed in the market. How will
your plan create and capture value? Estimate end-user Total Addressable Market, identify competitors & the
competitive advantage, suggest a revenue model, & identify risks.
Groups: 5/6 students (expecting up to 6 groups)
Date and deliverables: Jan. 20th, 2022; 30 min. presentation and Q&A, up to 20 slides deck, upload over Moodle; pdf
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