TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER
Penn State University
“’So what? who cares? why you?®’” is … a process to help you contemplate and evaluate your ideas and start up company concepts. It will help you abandon many ideas and concepts by identifying the facts, myths, and critical assumptions, yet it will provide validation for the one idea you may then decide to pursue.”
– from Dan Leri’s Introduction to the Cool Blue Lab Journal, Innovation Park, Penn State University
University of Central Florida
“’So what? who cares? why you?®’ is theoretically sophisticated enough to satisfy our academic requirements, street-smart enough to appeal to our coaches and investors, and practical enough to hit the primary concerns of the technology transfer group.”
– Dr. Cameron Ford, Founding Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of Central Florida
National Research Council Canada
"This book effectively blends the theoretical and practical aspects of opportunity identification and provides a logical and structured approach to formulate the business concepts for an idea. The worksheets at the end of each chapter are an excellent foundation to any business case."
– Clement Langemeyer, Director, Business Portfolio Office, National Research Council Canada
ENTREPRENEURSHIP & COMMERCIALIZATION
University of Central Florida
“Wendy Kennedy’s ‘So what? who cares? why you?®’ methodology cuts to the core commercialization issues and puts researchers in a position to seriously consider the potential of their ideas. It gives the University of Central Florida a standard approach and language to work with inventors to discover the commercial potential for their ideas."
– Joseph Giampapa, Associate Director, Technology Transfer, University of Central Florida
Pegasus Equine Diagnostics
“I have been using the ‘So what? who cares? why you?®’ book daily to help craft my first business plan. Even without the business plan completed, I finally managed to get a Heads of Agreement signed between myself and a manufacturer for certain marketing rights to my start-up story whilst we finalise a licensing/royalties agreement. This gave me capital to continue writing grant applications, advance the ideas and drum up investor interest. It has been a struggle to turn what began as a crusade into something that has a possibility of making money – I really did need your book and will be recommending it as a tool that should be available to the life science incubation community here. Thank you for an essential resource!”
– Sue, Pegasus Equine Diagnostics, Nottingham, UK
Iotum
"The So what? who cares? why you? methodology makes it very easy to develop strategy and cut out all of the extraneous 'fluff' that it's easy to get bound up in. Wendy's method forces you to focus on the real issues. I've used it successfully with a team of 15 that had only a basic knowledge of business and I've used it in my own startup. It works."
– Alec Saunders, President & Founder of iotum Corp
ACADEMIC PROGRAMS
University of Canterbury, New Zealand
“I have started using ‘So what? who cares? why you?®’ as a workbook in a number of courses I teach in new Zealand and Australia. The book is practical, to the point and of great value in that the essential concepts of commercialization are presented in a way that can be readily used. Wendy has managed to strip the subject of all the myth and hype usually associated with turning ideas into businesses; the book is an essential teaching as well as a practice tool.”
– Piet Beukman, Director, Engineering Management Programme, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
University of Central Florida
“‘So what? who cares? why you?®’ helps students ask the right questions and provides direction and a framework for their research. I use it as a textbook to guide student research in undergraduate business development courses, I invite guest speakers to address issues raised by the workbook, and I have students complete the worksheets as homework assignments.The book is also being used in a brand new commercialization course being offered on campus.”
– Dr. Cameron Ford, Founding Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of Central Florida
WORKSHOPS
“I was very pleased with the Inventor’s Toolkit workshop you gave at FPTT. As the workshop organizer, I received numerous positive feedback evaluations expressing the great value participants received for the time invested. You presented a clearly articulated and logical platform from which to learn. Your experience was obvious and the workshop really delivered on the challenging task of evaluating and assessing research results. ’So what? who cares? why you? – will indeed be put into action at FPTT and we look forward to engaging you again in the near future.”
– John A. Kane, Senior Program Officer, Federal Partners in Technology Transfer (FPTT)
“Your recent seminar at Penn State was one of the most useful sessions I have ever participated in. It directly addressed some of my current project concerns, so it really couldn't have been more timely.”
– Kerry Small, Entrepreneur
"Wendy's workshop was presented to a group of senior executives in technology development and innovation. They thoroughly enjoyed the session, especially the work sessions around real cases. For days and weeks afterwards, we are still debating and using Wendy's materials."
– Brian Guthrie, Executive Director, Networks, Innovation & Knowledge Management, Conference Board of Canada
“I got a lot out of your session – it provided deceptively simple but organized tools and it is a methodical process, which made my iron ring twitch all day!! I prefer a simple process flow-sheet that I can follow rather than stumbling around in the dark.”
– John Kabel, M.A.Sc., U of Western Ontario
“’So what? who cares? why you?®’ is theoretically sophisticated enough to satisfy our academic requirements, street-smart enough to appeal to our coaches and investors, and practical enough to hit the primary concerns of the technology transfer group.”
– Dr. Cameron Ford, Founding Director, for Entrepreneurship and Innovation,
University of Central Florida
I'm an Oxford graduate, a Mercer Consulting alumnus, and I've been in consulting for 15 years. For the past five years, I’ve been working to commercialize a very big idea. ‘So what? who cares? why you?®’ is, quite simply, the best advice I've been able to find on clarifying my pitch *at any price*.”
– Neil Freebairn, Network Innovations, UK
THE METHODOLOGY
“‘So what? who cares? why you?®’ provided my global team of technology oriented scientific staff with a methodology to define and articulate a business value proposition to support their applications for funding from a large investment pool. The transformation in thinking that occurred was significant and as a result, many, many, better investment decisions were made.”
– David Mann, former SVP, Emerging Technologies, Nortel Networks
“The So what? who cares? why you?® methodology makes it very easy to develop strategy and cut out all of the extraneous “fluff” that it’s easy to get bound up in. Wendy’s method forces you to focus on the real issues. I’ve used it successfully with a team of 15 that had only a basic knowledge of business and I’ve used it in my own startup. It works.”
– Alec Saunders, President & Founder of Iotum Corp.
“During the very formative stages of our business, Wendy helped us define our customer focus and business value proposition. She gave us an approach for getting our business started successfully and as we matured, she helped us to establish a solid foundation for growth that has had lasting impact.”
– Helen Maskery, former President and co-Founder, Maskery – Human Interaction Engineering
“So what? who cares? why you? provided my global team of technology oriented scientific staff with a methodology to define and articulate a business value proposition to support their applications for funding from a large investment pool. The transformation in thinking that occurred was significant and as a result, many, many, better investment decisions were made.”
– David Mann, Angel Investor + Technology Business Advisor
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