I can talk about Digital Media Zone. Every week we have 10 to 30 tours coming to Digital Media Zone, from very large enterprises to start-ups.
We have about 80 start-ups now that are moving towards graduation and they would love to meet with enterprises and partner with them.
What we have heard a number of times from larger organizations is, “I love your technology but I cannot procure it. As soon as I move you to my procurement process, you will lose because you are competing with the IBMs of the world and so on.”
Procuring that innovative start-up technology is becoming a challenge for these large enterprises. They are willing to give a grant here and there to the university, but a lot of them have challenges adopting that technology and partnering with a risky, small start-up, because the committee who is deciding on the procurement will have difficulty justifying it.
If there were new models so that those technologies could be adopted quickly, validated quickly, and brought to market, I think it would show how effectively we can translate disruptive research to commercialization.
It has happened to us a number of times that the CEO of a very large organization has come and said, “I love your technology but I cannot procure it in this timeframe.”