commercializing federal r&d: secrets to startup success · 2018-01-02 · •ip protection and...
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Commercializing Federal R&D: Secrets to Startup Success
Janeya Griffin • NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center
Kraettli L. Epperson • Vigilant Aerospace Systems
Agenda• What is FlightHorizon?
• Vetting federal technologies for commercial potential
• Finding relevant federal innovations
• Validating market potential
• Negotiating a win-win deal
• Building a market-ready product
• Cultivating the market
• Conclusions and lessons learned
• Detect-and-avoid for piloted and autonomous drones
• Unmanned aerial systems (UAS)
• Exclusively licensed (U.S. #9,405,005)
• Fully implemented software with transponder integration
• Tablet- or laptop-based
• Helps meet FAA requirements
• Years of flight testing
• Growing market demand: Industrial flying
What Is FlightHorizon?
Vetting Federal Technologies for Commercial Potential
Why NASA Patents IP• Space program technologies may have other applications
Vetting Federal Technologies
Evaluating Commercial Potential• Market research
• Does the technology meet a market need?
• Prior art search• How does it compare to what exists?
• Level of development• What is required to get this
technology to market?
Vetting Federal Technologies
Market Need
NASA’s Marketing Strategies• Active outreach
• Conferences
• Online postings
• http://technology.nasa.gov
Vetting Federal Technologies
How Vigilant Aerospace Found This Tech• Conferences
• Publications
• Word-of-Mouth (friends at NASA and FLC)
Validating the Market• Initial screening
• Technical feasibility (NDA)
• Market applicability
• Competitiveness
• Disruptiveness
• Problem-Solution statement
Validating the Market
Validating the Market
Average 5.3 incidents per day
0
50
100
150
200
250
INCIDENTS
46%
Problem-Solution Statement• Millions of drones
• No air traffic control
• No detect-and-avoid
• Solution exists and is viable
• IP protection and patent
• Uses existing infrastructure
• Meets likely regulatory hurdles
• First-to-market opportunity
• Go-to-market strategy
Negotiating a Win-Win Deal• NASA wants to help startups license technology
• Flexible and open to all companies
• Options and programs• Startup NASA
• Evaluation license
• Commercial licenses• Standard license with negotiable terms
• Some patents have preset low-cost fees and standard terms for rapid licensing
• Space Act Agreements for access to inventors and facilities
Negotiating a Win-Win Deal• Apply for license
• Full business plan
• Full pro forma
• Forecast balance sheet and profit-and-loss (P&L)
Negotiating a Win-Win Deal• Bidding process
• Critical factors• Familiarity with the market and the technologies
• Vision for the product
• Vision for product-market fit
• Vision for the future
Negotiating a Win-Win Deal• Negotiations
• Licensing fees and percentage rates
• Milestones
• Books and guidelines
• Attorney with experience
Building a Market-Ready Product
Commercialization Process• IP transfer: Collection of patent info,
source code, documentation, notes
• Intake and software development setup: Agile processes
• Extensive software evaluation
Building a Market-Ready Product
Development Process• Interface updates
• Functional changes• Small UAS, slower targets, static
targets
• New hardware integrations• New receivers, transponders
• Review and quality control
• Customer feedback
• Product roadmap and long-range planning
• Testing, testing… and more testing
Building a Market-Ready Product
NASA Flight Testing: 2013Building a Market-Ready Product
sUAS DemonstratorBuilding a Market-Ready Product
NASA Flight Testing: 2016 & 2017• Testing of FlightHorizon at NASA
Armstrong: Variety of aircraft
• ~350 encounters: Two programs
• FAA and FCC observers
• AIAA paper
Building a Market-Ready Product
Ongoing Development & Testing• Ongoing flight tests: 2017, 2018
• New features, filters, algorithms
• Low-cost, highly effective
• Short-range DAA via settings
• New equipment testing and feature validation
• Customer demonstrations
• Customer flights
Building a Market-Ready Product
Cultivating the Market
NASA Outreach Contributions• Success stories
• Awards
Cultivating the Market
Recent Industry PressCultivating the Market
Industry PresentationsCultivating the Market
Industry OutreachCultivating the Market
Scott Simmie: The Digital Circuit
“…In fact, some recent research on this front
has been carried out using DJI products, which
were successfully able to sense-and-avoid each
other in test-scenarios… An autonomous detect-
and-avoid technology has been successfully
tested using DJI Phantom 4 drones in yet
another important step toward a world with integrated airspace…”
Cultivating the Market
Colin Snow: The Drone Analyst
“…There are other solutions for aircraft
identification that don’t involve certificates or a
digitally enabled UTM system. For example,
Vigilant Aerospace completed beyond line-of-
sight flight testing of its new FlightHorizon
collision avoidance system for drones at NASA
Armstrong Flight Research Center in the Mojave Desert without a complex system.”
Cultivating the Market
Summary• NASA is a good source of innovations to be commercialized
• Other government agencies as well
• Access to innovators and facilities can be negotiated
• Collaborative R&D benefits both parties
Lessons Learned• Do your homework
• Find great technologies – online and at conferences
• Research them in-depth – great online resources
• Look for large or rapidly growing markets and well-defined problems
• Hire experienced advisors• Attorneys and consultants
• Be patient• Accessing federal technology takes time
• Remember: You’re standing on the shoulders of giants
• Take advantage of cooperative agreements and opportunities
Janeya Griffin • NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center
Kraettli L. Epperson • Vigilant Aerospace Systems
Commercializing Federal R&D: Secrets to Startup Success
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