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Overview
An entrepreneur in residence can help turn your research into a company. Two university program directors explain how these partnerships work and what to agree on before you commit.
You’ve spent years on the science: running experiments, publishing, building a body of work. Turning that work into a company is a different skill, and it’s not one most scientists were trained for. That next step can feel daunting, even when the research is strong.
That’s why many universities, and some companies, bring in entrepreneurs in residence (EIR). An EIR is usually a proven founder, executive, or investor who spends about a day a week on campus, looking for researchers to partner with and, in some cases, to build a company around.
If your university runs an EIR program, here’s how these partnerships work and what to settle before you sign on.
What Is an Entrepreneur in Residence?
An entrepreneur in residence, sometimes called an executive in residence, is an experienced business professional brought in to turn promising life science, health, or biotech research into a company, said Darren Cooke, JD, Chief Innovation and Entrepreneurship Officer and Executive Director of UC Berkeley’s Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Center.
Many have founded companies, raised venture capital, led product development, or exited startups. They come out of industry, or from years spent commercializing university technology, and a few have a science background of their own. So the faculty member brings the science to the table, while an EIR brings what’s needed to turn it into a business.
Beyond mentoring, an EIR may help launch the company and even join its leadership team.
How Does an EIR Program Work?
Programs differ, but the usual goal is a partnership that builds a company around a faculty member’s discovery, Cooke said. The EIR handles what most scientists haven’t: raising capital, hiring, setting strategy, and sizing up the competition. Some can also bring a fresh read on the research itself, or on a market the entrepreneur might not have thought about.
At UC Berkeley, EIRs become university employees for about six months or more, working with faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and grant recipients on commercializing their research. Cooke said the clearest sign of success is when an EIR quits to start a company with one of them.
Weill Cornell Medicine runs a similar program through BioVenture eLab, part of Enterprise Innovation, said Loren A. Busby, its director and a former EIR herself. There, senior executives work side by side with an inventor to commercialize a technology. Sometimes the institution has a specific match in mind, especially when deep experience in a particular area makes an obvious pairing. Other times, an EIR is introduced to a handful of researchers, speaks with some of them directly, and drums up the opportunities worth commercializing.
"And if it is funded by a venture capital firm, then the EIR potentially runs the company so that you have that continuity of business talent who manages the business side once that spin-out is operationalized," Busby said.
What About Equity?
Equity is where first-time academic founders are most often caught off guard. Some ecosystems spin out companies from a set template, but not all of them do.
"Weill Cornell doesn’t have a pre-established template. Each opportunity between the EIR and the inventor is negotiated between those parties," Busby said. "And, then, of course, the university will negotiate its equity representation on the cap table separate from the interaction between the scientific founder and the business founder."
How the equity gets weighted depends on what each person did in the past, what they’ll contribute in the near term, and what they’ll contribute over the longer term, Busby said. The scientific founder stays looped in as the business takes shape, but the EIR handles most of the organizational and management work.
For first-time founders, giving up equity can actually work in their favor. A founder who holds too large a stake can make the company harder to fund, Cooke said, because investors often expect founders to own less than they might assume.
What Are the Benefits of an EIR Program?
University EIR programs are almost always voluntary. Plenty of faculty commercialize on their own, and that’s fine. But if you want the help, an EIR can offer:
Strategic guidance from someone who has built and sold companies before
Introductions to investors, partners, and potential hires
An outside, market-minded take on your science
A partner in the parts of company-building you haven’t done yourself
Berkeley already funds early proof-of-concept work, Cooke said. What comes after is harder: turning a promising result into a company. For many researchers, that’s the gap an EIR fills.
Where Partnerships Break Down
Not every EIR partnership becomes a company, and not every one is meant to. When they do run into trouble, it’s usually over something that could have been settled at the start. Cooke and Busby both point to these areas worth agreeing on early:
Governance: Decide who has the final say, and on which kinds of decisions.
Responsibilities: Spell out who handles what, and what time commitment each of you is making.
Roles: Decide who runs the company. A scientific founder may be better suited as Chief Scientific Officer or Chief Medical Officer, or on the Scientific or Clinical Advisory Board if they’re keeping their faculty post.
R&D plan: Agree on how you’ll advance the science.
Economics: Settle compensation and the equity split up front, including any vesting or equity taken in place of cash during fundraising.
Milestones: Define what success looks like and set the markers you’ll measure against.
Relationship: Stick to your areas of expertise and build trust through transparency.
Communication: Talk regularly about priorities, fundraising, hiring, and strategy so no one drifts.
