Problem statement
A research project at MIT shows significant promise but isn’t ready for spinoff yet. Another ~$250K is needed to keep incubating the project and further de-risk the technology. No obvious source of funding is available today.
Examples
Potential solutions
Marco Ferrara understands the trickiness of having MIT spinoffs keep hanging around MIT and doing sponsored research there; he proposed a “buffer layer” entity that would license IP, pay for sponsored research at MIT, take a stake in spinoffs that it helps create and invest in. MIT could be an LP.
Nagarjuna Venna proposed raising a fund that pays for the requisite sponsored research and holds the IP licenses, and then spins off companies.