In the Beginning: WPI Venture Forum Founded 15 Years Ago

by Allison Chisolm, Editor
WPI Venture Forum Vantage

During the spring of 1990, Central Massachusetts was awash in unemployed or underemployed people with technical training. Technology companies were shedding workers like a shaggy dog sheds fur in a heat wave. For some, this offered the opportunity to develop ideas they'd had for new products. Others sought out networking opportunities for their next job.

People flocked to the MIT Enterprise Forum. Two visitors included Jim Fee '65 and Jim Dunn '65. They hadn't seen each other since their days together in a local naval reserve unit. But both were working with technology start-up companies, and thought the MIT model should migrate to Worcester.

In June, they met again at their 25th reunion. They discussed their idea with Bill Grogan, who had been their electrical engineering professor, and Fee's fraternity advisor. He suggested they meet Grant Professor of Entrepreneurship Bill Gasko, MS '65, PhD '69. The three discussed how other venture forum groups operated, examining MIT, Brown, and one in California. They also contacted Paul Johnson, who organized the business plan contests for the MIT Enterprise Forum. Johnson shared with them the nitty-gritty details of running the MIT meetings.

A WPI Venture Forum workshop held in the early 1990s.

"He helped us understand why they did what they did," says Fee, who continues to advise start-ups through Adhva Innovation Management, together with Gasko. "We decided to copy them." But with a regional twist, notes Gasko. "We were going to be less formal, more welcoming. We wanted to create a culture of support for the tech entrepreneur."

That initial meeting in Gasko's office turned into an almost-weekly event. Others soon joined them, including Joseph Najemy '71. The advisory group's meetings moved into the Project Center conference room.

"Some were standing room only," relates Fee. "The meetings just seemed to grow." The group discussed two possible models for the new Venture Forum: workshops to address typical start-up business questions, or monthly meetings for networking. Gasko solved the dilemma, Fee recounts, by saying, "Let's do both."

As a matter of policy, committee members would not be speakers. The group would ask upcoming presenting companies to name their dream customer or potential venture funder and then invite them to be panelists. Before the meeting, presenting companies would work with panelists for initial feedback on their case. Panelists would fill specific roles, offering a mix of financial and marketing expertise.

"Our basic premise was what we called 'the entrepreneur paradox,'" says Fee. "Companies are successful because they do what people told them they couldn't do." Tech entrepreneurs learn from listening to the experiences of others, he continues, and the meetings would help explain the ever-changing rules for securing venture funding. Service providers (attorneys, CPAs, HR and marketing experts) helped reinforce core principles for running new companies.

The inaugural meeting, with both keynote speaker and case presentation, was held in June 1991, after the first workshop in April. The first Business Plan Contest followed in September 1992. At first, "we had many inventors, some start-ups coming out of garages," says Dunn, now Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President for the Center for Technology Commercialization (CTC). "Each hour of programming took about 10-12 hours of planning." Early programs covered business plans, market identification, structuring a deal, reaching the customer and leadership, similar to today's program line up. As word spread about the presentations' quality, sponsors soon followed, including Mirick O'Connell, Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation (MTDC) and Bowditch & Dewey, which remain sponsors today.

By fall 1991, meetings were held in Salisbury Labs. Later, they moved to Higgins House. As the group needed more administrative support, the WPI Alumni Association "picked it up and gave it legs," according to University Vice President Stephen J. Hebert '66, then the Association's secretary and treasurer.

"All we needed was a phone and a filing cabinet," Bob Creeden, Managing Director of the Center for Innovative Ventures (CIV) at Partners Healthcare, recalls telling Hebert. Creeden was working at the MTDC at the time and later succeeded Gasko as chair. Hebert introduced the group to Sharon Davis, who became their liaison and helped them reach out to the WPI alumni community.

The first newsletter came out in November 1991, edited by Janet Britcher, then an executive search and human resources consultant with Keane Associates in Newton and now with Transformation Management. Saturday workshops and joint events with other organizations helped the group expand its reach.

The WPI Venture Forum "turned out to be the place for inside information, networking and testing new ideas for new enterprises," says Gasko.

In the 1800s, Fee notes, "scientific information was promulgated through meetings of scientific societies. In some ways, I think that's what the WPI Venture Forum has been doing, providing an opportunity for people to come together to talk and hear the latest developments."

"It was the right concept at the right time with people willing to give the energy and time to make it work," says Hebert. "It remains a resource, a network and a lot of friends," adds Gasko.