Start-Up Companies: From Finding Funding to Turning a Profit

HOBOKEN, N.J. - There is evidence that our country's "high-tech" market will be the backbone of our future economy. But theses new start-up companies need the funding and business know-how to turn a new technology into a profitable product. What are venture capitalist firms looking for in start-up companies? What business model can take a new idea or technology and generate a marketable product? What future challenges will investors and start-up companies face?

On the next edition of Technogenesis, Victor Lawrence, vice president of Bell Laboratories and Lucent Technologies, and Frank M. Shinneman, president and CEO of PlasmaSol, join Stevens President Dr. Harold Raveche in an informative look at the current state of our country's "high-tech" venture capital industry.

Technogenesis is a weekly TV program produced by Stevens Institute of Technology (Stevens), in cooperation with cn8, the Comcast Network. This week's program will examine the importance of "hi-tech" venture capital businesses and what is needed to make them successful.

The Technogenesis program, " Start-Up Companies - From Finding Funding to Turning a Profit" airs at 7 p.m., on cn8, the Comcast Network, each of the following Sundays throughout New Jersey, Westchester County, New York, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston: October 26, November 9 and November 23. The program will also appear at various times throughout the week on the local Comcast outlets in Prince William and Fairfax counties, Va., as well as Prince George's County, Md. Please check for local listings.

Hosted by Stevens President Dr. Harold J. Raveche and veteran TV journalist Steve Taylor, each program includes special guests from the areas of science, technology, government, education, business or industry.

Dr. Victor Lawrence is Vice President, Advanced Communications Technology, Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies. He leads the development of technologies that go into the most innovative, reliable and cost-effective communications networks for leading telecommunications service providers.

Dr. Lawrence played a significant role in the development of every major international voiceband modem standard - making high-speed data communication over international networks possible. He was co-founder of Lucent's digital video business, which has encoders in over 150 television stations and in many broadband networks worldwide. He has been instrumental in establishing other start-ups that used Lucent's technologies, including elemedia and Lucent Digital Radio (now Ubiquity). He has been a key proponent of research and development globalization, and is championing the effort to bring fiber optic connectivity to Africa.

Mr. Shinneman was most recently the transition President of Moltech Corporation, a rechargeable battery maker, where he joined the company already in Chapter 11 to restructure assets and develop a reorganization plan.

Previously he was the manager of US Business Development for Umicore, a $4 billion global producer of non-ferrous metals, opto-electronic, battery and semiconductor materials. He was the founding President and CEO of Nanodyne, one of the first nano materials companies. In 1998, the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Union Minieré (now Umicore).

Co-produced by Stevens and Comcast, the half-hour Technogenesis programs feature government, research and industry leaders discussing some of the most challenging real-world issues facing science and technology today.

The cn8 Comcast Network is one of the nation's largest regional cable networks reaching more than to 7 million households in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Boston.

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870 and celebrating 140 Years of Innovation, Stevens Institute of Technology, The Innovation University TM , lives at the intersection of industry, academics and research.  The University's students, faculty and partners leverage their collective real-world experience and culture of innovation, research and entrepreneurship to confront global challenges in engineering, science, systems and technology management.

Based in Hoboken, N.J. and with a location in Washington, D.C., Stevens offers baccalaureate, master’s, certificates and doctoral degrees in engineering, the sciences and management, in addition to baccalaureate degrees in business and liberal arts.  Stevens has been recognized by both the US Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security as a National Center of Excellence in the areas of systems engineering and port security research. The University has a total enrollment of more than 2,200 undergraduate and 3,700 graduate students with almost 450 faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America as well as strategic partnerships with industry leaders, governments and other universities around the world.  Additional information may be obtained at www.stevens.edu and www.stevens.edu/press.