Ben Walker, Executive Director at Innosphere Ventures Regional Life Sciences Incubator, (left) passes the microphone to Jason Johanning, MD, inventor/founder of Automated Assessments, during the Oct. 31, 2024, Idea Pub: Morning Edition.
OMAHA, Nebraska (October 31, 2024)—UNeMed’s seventh edition of “Idea Pub: Morning Edition” featured Ben Walker and Timothy Jones of the Colorado-based startup incubator, Innosphere Ventures Regional Life Sciences Incubator.
Innosphere is a consortium of state bioscience trade organizations and academics institutions from six states: Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, Utah, Texas and South Carolina. Nebraska’s contingent includes UNeMed, NUtech Ventures and BIO Nebraska. NUtech is UNeMed’s sister office managing technology transfer operation for Nebraska’s Lincoln and Kearney campuses.
Walker is the Executive Director and Jones is the Chief Operating Officer.
The pair outlined how Innosphere ushers an early-stage company—and its founder-inventor—through the development process, which often includes mentoring on creating proposals that attract investors and business-savvy executives while providing sales and marketing insights.
“We’re looking for people with good ideas, but you don’t have to have every single detail figured out yet,” Walker said. “Just be coachable and willing to work and spend the time.”
Morning Edition also featured a trio of startup founders, including Jason Johanning, MD, who founded his startup, Automated Assessments, with an invention he created. His invention helps surgeons determine the frailty of a patient before surgery, a previously subjective exercise that Dr. Johanning hopes to quantity with more certainty.
Dr. Johanning and Automated Assessments was among one of Innosphere’s recent cohorts, and he championed the experience as an invaluable step forward for his company.
UNeMed, the technology transfer and commercialization office for UNMC and UNO, sponsored the event, which will continue as a regular monthly series. The series will continue to feature guest speakers from the entrepreneurial ecosystem; and will provide UNMC and UNO innovators an opportunity to build new partnerships and allies that can help develop their innovative ideas and discoveries into products that help people.
The next Morning Edition is planned for Thursday, Nov. 21, at 9-11 a.m. in the DRC II commons. The featured speaker will be Scott Henderson, general partner at NMotion, a startup accelerator out of Lincoln.
Morning Edition will continue on the last Thursday of every month, featuring a new speaker each time. Each Morning Edition will also feature “Office Hours,” with UNeMed and MOVE, a pre-seed and seed venture capital firm focused on investing in Nebraska technology startup companies. Office Hours creates the opportunity for faculty, students and staff to have one-on-one time with MOVE or UNeMed professionals to discuss new technologies or startup potential.
