 |
Sept. 3, 2003 — In 1999, Ed Moran’s assessment of nanotechnology’s future led him to register nanobusiness.com as a domain name. Two years later, he heard about the launch of the NanoBusiness Alliance and contacted the founders, who had already
registered nanobusiness.org.
null
 |
Moran was so impressed with Nathan Tinker’s and Mark Modzelewski’s vision that he eventually agreed to turn over nanobusiness.com to the fledgling trade association.
null
Today, both Moran and the alliance founders are building nanotech consulting businesses. Moran is running a practice at Deloitte & Touche, while Tinker and Modzelewski set up the NanoBusiness Development Group (NBDG), the alliance’s for-profit consulting arm, in fall 2002.
null
Deloitte is working with companies such as Carbon Nanotechnologies Inc. and organizations like the New Jersey Nanotechnology Consortium, while NBDG is helping a Fortune 500 chemical company develop its nanotech strategy, and has done similar work for government groups in Canada and Japan.
null
The two fledgling consulting practices are not alone. Other firms, including Cientifica Ltd. in Europe, nABACUS Limited in Hong Kong, and Sygertech Consulting Group Inc. of Montreal, Quebec, want to help guide companies to nano’s promised land, for a fee of course.
null
Stephen Glapa, for instance, started In Realis in Milpitas, Calif., to help scientists find commercial applications for their nanotech research. But with venture funding tight, he notes, few small companies are willing to open their wallets to business consultants now. In the meantime, Glapa has been developing nanoreference.com, an online guide to nanomaterials for engineers and scientists.
null
At Deloitte, where Moran holds the unusual title of director of product innovation, the lawyer-turned-venture capitalist-turned-nanotech-business-builder has been charged with identifying new technologies important to clients. “Nanotechnology is at the root of many industries and very relevant to Deloitte’s tech clients,” said Moran, who also noted that developing nanotech expertise is giving the firm an opportunity to innovate beyond its core accounting practices.
null
Tinker said the NBDG’s goal is to help large companies and organizations make sense of nanotech, as well as to connect small companies and startups with bigger corporate players. A chemical company NBDG is working with came to Tinker with a variety of aims: to better identify opportunities for partnerships and acquisitions and to learn which types of nanomaterials might enhance the optical or physical properties of products it already makes, such as paint, coatings and textiles.
null
The company also wanted to get a better handle on how its intellectual property and patents stood up against competitors.
null
To help clients assess technology, NBDG relies on an ad hoc group, “our brain trust,” said Tinker, composed of Versilant Nanotechnologies Inc. founder Cynthia Kuper, Northwestern University professor Rod Ruoff, and Don Freed, a former executive at Nanophase Technologies Corp.
null
Moran said his group at Deloitte aims to enable clients, particularly small tech companies founded by scientists, improve their overall business practices.
null
In particular, he said, young small tech companies need to understand where their products fit into industry road maps and industrial processes. As a global company, Deloitte can help startups forge partnerships and connections with the right companies, according to Moran.
null
“With venture money scarce, small tech companies have to generate revenue soon,” Moran added. “We can help them get their business focused faster.”
null
Alan Marty, the executive-in-residence at JP Morgan Partners who is managing the firm’s nanotech investments, said that consulting services or an institutional venture capital group like JPMP can support a startup’s main challenge: making the transition from a science culture to a business culture.
null
“Of course, hiring an experienced CEO with lots of contacts can also help,” said Marty. Most companies probably end up using a combination of all these avenues, he said.
null
Peter Hébert, a co-founder and managing partner at Lux Capital, said the market for nanotechnology consulting services is just beginning to form. “We’re only now starting to see people from top consulting companies at nanotech conferences and events.” In his view, the greatest demand for consulting services now comes from large companies willing (and financially able) to outsource strategic expertise to formulate their nano plans.
null
Meanwhile, the big traditional consulting firms appear to be taking their time to formulate their own efforts in nanotech. A few, such as Booz Allen Hamilton and McKinsey & Co., are reportedly working to help clients such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration make sense of the nano landscape. A McKinsey & Co. study cited in the Chicago Tribune last year identified biomedical technology and nanotechnology as promising for city investment.