The name was released during Demo Day festivities on Wednesday.
The Texas Tech University Office for Research Commercialization announced Wednesday the new name of the Texas Tech Kinetic Accelerator.
The Accelerator program launches startup companies based on technologies discovered and developed in Texas Tech research labs. It combines cutting-edge inventions discovered in research labs with entrepreneurs, students, inventors, experienced mentors, collaborative office space and an intensive curriculum based on the Lean Startup Methodology to launch new companies and move inventions from the lab to the market.
“Kinetic means of, relating to or resulting from motion; energy in motion,” said William Lowry, associate director of the Kinetic Accelerator program. “Our deepest belief is an idea in motion can change the world. Our chief concern is the possibility a world-changing idea may lay dormant. Kinetic sets ideas into motion by connecting them to entrepreneurs who are equipped with the right tools and marketplace insight.”
Participants are selected through a competitive application process. Through the four-month program, teams of students and entrepreneurs work alongside inventors and mentors to launch a new venture based on Texas Tech technologies. The current group began in January and culminated with a presentation at the Kinetic Accelerator Demo Day on Wednesday (May 13) to an audience of venture capitalists, angel investors and business leaders.
“The Kinetic Accelerator was designed to be an economic development resource for West Texas and beyond by leveraging technologies at Texas Tech, national laboratories and other universities around the country. It's essentially a mechanism for moving intellectual property off the shelf and into the market,” Lowry said. “With this in mind, we mapped out what we wanted our culture to look like. We connect, arm, fund and equip entrepreneurs. We also test ideas, ask questions and seek to prove market validity and we hope to build companies that deviate from the norm. Our philosophy is ideas are useless unless used, so we build these ideas by giving them the resources, momentum and allies they need.”
