"Entrepreneur in Residence"

Caltech is a world-renowned science and engineering institute that marshals some of the world's brightest minds and most innovative tools to address fundamental scientific questions. We thrive on finding and cultivating talented people who are passionate about what they do. Join us and be a part of the diverse Caltech community.

Job Summary

The Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR), as a member of the Office of Technology Transfer and Corporate Partnerships (OTTCP), will facilitate Caltech startup company formation in order to increase both the quality and quantity of startup companies based on Caltech intellectual property. The EIR will serve as an experienced mentor to faculty, students, and alumni involved with Caltech technologies, as well as spearhead many of the entrepreneurial activities on campus. The EIR will be a key member of the Caltech Seed Fund team and will identify investment opportunities, draft investment memos, and participate in investment decision-making. The EIR will work with OTTCP staff to identify technologies with the potential to turn into successful startups. The EIR will establish a streamlined process to help faculty, students, and alumni with limited startup experience successfully navigate the process. The EIR will help define milestones necessary to position the technology for investment and focus the faculty, student, or alumni on achieving these milestones.

Essential Job Duties

The EIR will focus on evaluating candidate technologies identified with the assistance of OTTCP and through outreach to Caltech faculty, students, and other researchers. The successful candidate will prioritize candidate technologies in terms of market potential, technical and regulatory risk, intellectual property status, near-term financial needs, investment potential, and other relevant criteria. The EIR will work with the faculty or student responsible for the most promising technologies to put together and execute a short-term plan for startup formation. This plan may include market research, further technical proof-of-concept work, or other risk reduction activities necessary to make a final determination regarding whether the technology is appropriate for a startup. Once these activities are completed with positive results, the EIR will work with the faculty or student on practical tasks such as company formation, selection of corporate counsel and other services, as well as preliminary strategic tasks such as team building and business plan development. Once the Caltech startup company is established, the EIR will support the company in both internal Caltech and additional external seed funding opportunities. If appropriate, the EIR will shepherd the startup through the Caltech Seed Fund evaluation process. Subsequent to seed funding, the EIR will help the founders prioritize startup activities to maximize value in order to secure long-term financing. The type of support the EIR provides a seed-stage startup will depend on its needs. In some cases, the startup may not have adequate funds to establish the office and lab it needs to achieve critical product development milestones; therefore, the EIR will help to put agreements in place with Caltech to allow the founders to continue to use Caltech resources for a limited period of time, in compliance with Caltech policies. The EIR will also assist in recruiting leadership and other management personnel to the company. The EIR may act as a mentor to the company and provide advice on managing financial and personnel resources. As the startup transitions out of the seed stage, the EIR will use their experience with the financing process and network of funding sources to help the startup secure long-term capital.

In addition to startup creation, the EIR will support entrepreneurial activities at Caltech. This may include supervising the OTTCP Summer Internship program and student business plan competitions, and presenting technology that may be of interest to corporate partners or investors. The EIR will engage in outreach activities with faculty, students, and alumni to make them aware of the entrepreneurial resources Caltech offers. Outreach efforts may include one-on-one meetings with faculty or small campus events that showcase the technologies actively supported by the EIR. Additional responsibilities will include: providing connections to the venture capital community, maintaining a list of experienced entrepreneurs and domain experts to serve as mentors, and serving on the selection committees of the Grubstake, Rothenberg Innovation Initiative (RI2), and the Caltech Seed Fund programs. The EIR will work to build a network of alumni entrepreneurs who can act as mentors, funding sources, and potential leadership for new Caltech startups. The EIR will propose and develop additional programs and activities to support entrepreneurship at Caltech and will work with OTTCP to continually enhance commercialization efforts on campus and other duties as requested.

The EIR will be a key member of the 4-person team that manages the Caltech Seed Fund (two OTTCP EIRs, the Director of New Ventures, and the Chief Innovation Officer). The Caltech Seed Fund was established in January 2021 to provide seed funding to Caltech-related startups as the first investment and launch them off campus. The EIR will help identify good candidates for investment from the Caltech Seed Fund, shepherd them through the investment review process, draft investment memos when appropriate, and act as one of the decision-makers for investments.