New technologies and intellectual properties are being created all over the US, but many times the capabilities to commercialize it are unavailable. Boston-based Allied Minds is a diversified holding company focused on venture creation that transforms previously unknown or filed away technology and life science innovations. Out of the research of more than 160 US universities and federal labs in their network, Allied Minds creates robust startups, complete with capital, shared services and central management in place.
With such luminaries like GE and Bristol-Myers Squibb counted amongst their partnerships, Allied Minds is one of the few companies approaching intellectual property from a portfolio standpoint, quite different from standard VC funds that do most of the investing in the US.
I spoke with Chris Silva, CEO of Allied Minds, for the inside story on how the company was created and what’s next.
Tell me about you and your company.
Allied Minds is a venture creation company, which is a little different than a traditional venture capital fund in that our structure is a corporation rather than a fund. We did this because we first get our ideas from US universities and federal government laboratories. When we’re seeing inventions and ideas, they are pre-company formation; we don’t have a CEO there or a board. There’s a large gap between the number of these ideas created at universities and the companies that form based on them. We created Allied Minds to be able to bridge that through the structure, which allows us to take that technology, create the startup ourselves, and give it some initial interim management. Many times we do try to find an entrepreneur to start it with us.
