by Joe Runge, UNeMed | March 15, 2016
You don’t have to be Mark Zuckerberg. Entrepreneurs are not just misunderstood geniuses that leave college early to intensely build their big ideas. They are also professionals that have solved problems for their employers and launched new products. They are employees that have accumulated valuable skills and now want to put those skills to work for themselves.
There is no substitute for on-the-job learning. Running a business is dealing with all the unexpected challenges that present themselves every day. Businesses fail—no matter how brilliant the entrepreneur—when they succumb to the torrent of problems that confront them every day. Zuckerberg learned to solve all those problems as they came, but you can take time to learn the skills to solve those problems first. More professional training makes it more likely that you will solve the inevitable problems that confront your company.
If you want to be an entrepreneur, get a job. It is the best way to get the skills and experience you need.
For example, your second biggest investor is calling and all you have is bad news. The prototype doesn’t work and you can’t say when it will. That meeting with the publicly traded company that you hope is going to buy your startup will have to be rescheduled. You take a deep breath and answer the phone.
The investor hits the roof when you tell him. Pained, you rub your eyes and let him vent, searching through your Dropbox to find the revised development plan. The investor is in for more money than you have ever had in your life. He sits on the board of the publicly traded company that you want to sell your startup to.
A startup company is filled with high stakes moments. If you fail to win the investor over, right now, then that could be it for the company. He could stage a coup, withhold future investment or sour the company you want to buy your startup.
To succeed you need to have more than the technical understanding of the prototype and the managerial skills to create the plan to fix it, you need the interpersonal skills to win over the angry investor as well. It can take a career to build those skills but you do not have to be a retired CEO to be an entrepreneur. Take a job where you have ownership of a project, the need to satisfy stakeholders and an opportunity to make long term plans. Even if it is just for a few years the better our skills the less likely that your company will fail.
The investor lets you talk for quite a while, politely stopping you to ask if you think it will work. After a brief pause you tell him a story about how you used the same approach in a prior job. It was for a different kind of technology than the prototype but for a very similar problem. You are even asking the same contractor to build the parts.
The investor is quiet for a long time. You offer to update him in three weeks and schedule the call. He repeats his displeasure with you but thanks you for your honesty. He is uncertain about your plan but wants to see how it goes.
You hang up the phone and slump in your chair. It went better than you had thought — towards the bottom of your greatest hits of terrible phone calls. After a few minutes you stand up and circle the date on your calendar. In three weeks you better have something good to report.
Both bills deal with promoting, supporting and growing start-up and small businesses in the state. For more details of the hearing, see the Lincoln Journal-Star’s coverage 
OMAHA, Neb. (January 20, 2016)—Submitting a new invention to UNeMed just got a little easier.
It was a big year for one of our startups, Virtual Incision, a surgical robotics company built out of a collaboration between UNMC surgeon Dmitry Oleynikov, M.D., and UNL robotics engineering professor Shane Farritor, PhD Virtual Incision is focusing its work on making colon resection surgery—where a piece of damaged or diseased colon is removed—a minimally invasive procedure. In 2015 the company raised more than $11.2 million in the opening round of investing and landed a prestigious robotics 
Our most popular new blog post of the year came from UNeMed’s newest team member, Amanda Hawley, PhD An intern at the time, Dr. Hawley had recently completed her doctorate in cancer biology, and offered advice to fellow scientists looking for alternate career options. Her key recommendation: Challenge yourself with new experiences outside your comfort zone. You might be surprised with what you learn about yourself. Since then Dr. Hawley has been promoted to a full-time postdoctoral position with UNeMed.
Radux, a new company built on a UNMC invention, is the most recent in a long line of startups that has benefited from the University of Nebraska’s Proof of Concept grant funding program. Radux used the cash to build its first working prototypes of devices made to protect physicians from harmful radiation and other injuries that can occur while performing fluoroscopic procedures. Radux was founded by UNMC interventional radiologist Greg Gordon, M.D.
Two more UNMC inventors earned national recognition with awards, most recently on Dec. 16 when Rodney Markin, M.D., was named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. “Rod is a rare breed,” said Michael Dixon, PhD, president and CEO of UNeMed. “It’s uncommon to have a skilled clinician who also has such a keen understanding of business and what it takes to develop a product. Not only is he a prolific inventor with 35 patents, but he’s also helped turn those ideas into products – products that have built startup companies or have sold widely in multinational companies.”
In May, UNeMed announced that its services now also cover smartphone and tablet applications. UNeMed can help provide or find resources for further development while securing any intellectual property associated with the software. As a registered publisher at iTunes and Google Play, UNeMed can also publish an app to the most common marketplaces.
One of our most popular posts from 2015 announced the new status of 
Adam Ruben, PhD, from “Outrageous Acts of Science” on the Science Channel, gave a talk during UNMC’s 2015 Innovation Week titled “Public Perception of Science.” He listed examples of the public’s ill-informed response to scientific discovery like cloning animals, vaccines, and the 
by 
OMAHA, Neb. (November 1, 2015)—Amanda Hawley, PhD, has been promoted from intern to a full-time postdoctoral position as a licensing associate with UNeMed, the technology transfer and commercialization office at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
“The idea of PortCas is pretty basic,” said Joseph Siu, PhD, who is working with Hanson on the PortCas. “If we can move a humongous, $100,000 simulator, move it into tiny boxes, and make it cheap enough for every medical student in the world to have one, then we’ve met our goal.”
Dr. Al-Murani said the technology is unique because it’s a naturally occurring protein, versatile, easy to manufacture and easy to store and use.
Qian Zhang, PhD, of UNeMed presented the Portable Laparoscope, an invention of Chandra Are, M.D.
Thoraguard is an innovative approach to the chest tubes used to drain fluids. The tubes are prone to clogging, causing Retained Blood Complex, which doubles the mortality rate, increases the length of stay in patients by about a week, and increases the costs to care for a patient by about $30,000. Larger tubes cut down on clogging but bring about a different set of problems, such as increased infections and damage to surrounding organs.
Valeriya Kettelhut, M.D., PhD, presented a system to track infections in hospitals and other high-risk environments, such as transport centers, cancer centers, and long-term facilities.
“Think about how we use chemical today,” said Draper. “Our overuse of chemicals and anti-microbial products are contaminating ourselves, our water, our air, our ground, and creating new contaminants in our environment.”
