The Entrepreneurial Empowerment (EE) Series, co-hosted by PCI Ventures, PCI, The Mack Institute for Innovation Management, and Pennovation Works, was held monthly at the Pennovation Center from September 2024 through April 2025.
The seminar series targeted entrepreneurs and founders building new ventures and covered an array of topics, as highlighted below, in support of their entrepreneurial journey:
Strategies for Entrepreneurial Commercialization of Academic Science with speaker David Hsu, Richard A. Sapp Professor of Management at The Wharton School, touched on how universities are a locus of innovation and why multi-disciplinary teams, especially those having commercial experience, are critical for successful commercialization of academic science.
Andrew Hamilton and Jacqueline Berman, Partners at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, a global team of lawyers and legal professionals providing comprehensive corporate, transactional, litigation, and regulatory services, spoke on the importance of building relationships with vendors and service providers for early-stage companies.
During a virtual session with RSM, a network of assurance, tax, and consulting experts that provides services to emerging and middle-market companies, Kevin McMonagle, Partner, and Adam Gonsiewski, Senior Manager, discussed R&D incentives and tax credits available to life sciences start-ups, which can be favorable for the business and the community.
Intellectual Property (IP) is a top concern for most startup founders. In this session, Phyllis Simon, a patent attorney with the Penn Center for Innovation, gave an in-depth look at the process companies need to understand to effectively protect their IP. She discussed provisional patents, PCTs, and shared entertaining anecdotes to clearly illustrate the complexities of filing patents.
You’ve started a business and are leading a team. How do you motivate your team to stay agile and aligned? How do you help your people channel their efforts and expertise toward a common vision? Drew Carton, PhD, Associate Professor of Management at The Wharton School, explored how organizations and their leaders can unite people despite their differences.
Using a tournament perspective, Christian Terwiesch, PhD, Andrew M. Heller Professor at The Wharton School, and Lennart Miencke, Mack Institute Predoctoral Fellow, explored innovation management and lean operations, including the use of AI tools for driving innovation.
Thank you to everyone who joined us, participated, and contributed to making these sessions an engaging forum for empowering entrepreneurs in our community!
Our next EE series will be starting in Fall 2025 and we want your input on topics! Please complete this survey to help us create a productive series for you.
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