Join Dr. Mary Goldberg and our guest Co-Host John Inserra as they talk to IMPACT Center mentors Don Morrison and Corinne Vinopol about how to communicate your technology and story effectively, how mentors can help get your technology to market and how they have been there and done that so you don't have to.
Host: Dr. Mary Goldberg, Co-Director of the IMPACT Center at the University of Pittsburgh
Guest Co-Host: John Inserra, Principle at Mindful Venture Consulting
Guests: Don Morrison, chairman of Deal Flow for BlueTree Allied Angels, and Corinne Vinopol, CEO of the Institute for Disabilities Research and Training Inc.
John Inserra | LinkedIn
Corinne Vinopol | LinkedIn
Don Morrison | LinkedIn
IMPACT Center | Website, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter
Full Episode Transcript | PDF
Timestamps:
01:08 IMPACT Center Training
01:56 Co-host and Guest Intros
04:55 What is in it for the mentor and what do they bring to the table?
08:08 Business experience is not enough
10:39 It is more than knowledge and skill
13:20 How effective communication is important
18:21 Pitching vs Discovery vs Conversation
Mary Goldberg00:05
The IMPACT Center at the University of Pittsburgh supported by the National Institute of Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research, proudly present ImpacTech. Today's episode is "Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen and a push in the right direction" with our guest, Don Morrison, chairman of Deal Flow for BlueTree Allied Angels, and Corinne Vinopol, CEO of the Institute for Disabilities Research and Training Inc. I am also joined by a special co-host, John Inserra, Principle at Mindful Venture Consulting. Recorded remotely from my soundproof bedroom closet in Pittsburgh, PA, this is your host, Dr. Mary Goldberg, and welcome to our fifth episode of the ImpacTech podcast series. Welcome back, listeners. I'm so excited to be joined virtually by such esteemed guests today. John, you're my first co-host, and I know you'll be a great one. So thanks, again.
John Inserra01:07
Pleased to be here.
Mary Goldberg01:08
We'll set the stage for today's chat by detailing a bit about IMPACT Center's training. We have three levels. We have a BootCamp to lay out the fundamentals of basic translation. In other words, how to get an idea ultimately into the hands of the people who need it. Our StartUp phase to vet and validate an innovators notion about pathways to market for their particular idea and Accelerate our third level; a customized intervention that covers everything from business plans to investor pitches. Relating back to my co host, John and our guests for today, they've been super involved as mentors to the teams but also continuously helped to shape our training programs. We're very grateful. I'm going to turn it over to you, John. Introduce yourself and our other guests today.
John Inserra01:56
Okay, pleased to be here with to find guests and you. I myself am the product of decades long journey that started in pharmaceutical laboratory, took me out into the sales field, spent some time in early stage technology startups and ultimately in a classroom. And from that journey, I've developed an interest in helping entrepreneurs, my fondly referred to nerds mindfully share their innovations with regular folk in a way that they can understand each other. I think my friends here are very much of the same belief. So Don, maybe tell us a bit about yourself.
Don Morrison02:34
Sure. Thanks, john. I like to say I have the best job in Pittsburgh because I get to wear several different hats. One of the hats I wear is that of Chairman of Deal Flow for BlueTree Allied Angels, which is one of the region's largest and oldest angel investment groups. I'm also an Etrepreneur in Residence at the University of Pittsburgh and the Big Idea Center, which is part of the Innovation Institute. I also volunteer a lot of my time mentoring and coaching teams in innovation works AlphaLab, AlphaLab Gear and the newly minted AlphaLab Health Accelerators. So the common thread in all the hats I wear is that every day I'm working with entrepreneurs, and why am I attracted entrepreneurs. I mean, we all know they're not normal people. They're running into places where they're going to get rejected, where most people seek approval and comfort. And entrepreneurship is not for everyone. But entrepreneurs are the ones who change the world. And so I'm really excited to be part of the Pittsburgh startup ecosystem, and also to be part of the IMPACT program, which gives me an opportunity to work with yet more entrepreneurs. So I'm happy to be here.
Mary Goldberg03:47
Thanks, Don We're so glad to have you.
John Inserra03:49
and Corinne.
Corinne Vinopol03:50
Well, hi, I'm Corinne Vinopol. I'm president and CEO of the Institute for Disabilities Research and Training and we are a small business that's 36 years old. We spend a lot of time in the Small Business Innovative Research grant arena. And in fact, we're Tibbets Award winner for our work doing R&D. Our company mostly works in the field of deafness and deaf blindness. And we're principally software developers, but we have done some hardware as well. It's been a real privilege to work with the IMPACT center from its inception. And I've been very excited about the opportunity to be a mentor to different groups. What they do excites me and I'm very encouraged by the opportunity that they have to bring what they here to four have been working on in the lab actually to market and benefit people all over the world.
John Inserra04:55
That's one thing that is clear. We three of us, have a four of us, I believe, all share great satisfaction in working with these folks and helping them bring things to the market. So I know what's in it for us. But what is the value of a mentor to an innovator who is seeking to commercialize an idea? Maybe we can Corinne, would you maybe start with that? What do you see as the advantages?
Corinne Vinopol05:20
Well, as I say, to some of the people, I mentor, you don't have to make those mistakes already made them for you. And I think we saw that the other day at one of the meetings. So actually, one of the things that we have done outside of IMPACT was, we were mentoring a group in Morocco for three years through USAID and modifying our technology to benefit deaf people in Morocco. So the team there were leveraged up by our experience our IP, and enabled them to move very quickly. So I think we see the same thing within the IMPACT Center with the groups that I know I've worked with, when they have ideas, or when they go in certain directions, I could say, you know, I tried that before myself, this is what I encountered. And I just want to give you a heads up to look for this or look for that. Or you need to go through this avenue, or that, because most of the mentors are more later stage people. You know, we've done our battles, but there's a generation coming up with fresh ideas, but that we can share them with them, and get them to move forward much more quickly,
John Inserra06:36
definitely would agree that the experience that we bring is a key element. And, Don, tell us about what else the you see the mentor bringing,
Don Morrison06:46
When I started my career decades ago, I was very fortunate to have had some really fantastic business mentors. They took me under their wing, they, you know, they taught me what I didn't know, which was essentially everything. And entrepreneurs don't know what they don't know. But I never had an entrepreneurial mentor, had this great, fantastic business mentors, but had never had an entrepreneurial mentor. And, you know, entrepreneurship, as a science, or art, if you will, is relatively new. So that's why I'm so passionate, because looking back on my career, had I had an entrepreneurial mentor as part of the mix, you know, I might have done a few things differently. And so that's why I'm so passionate about helping entrepreneurs today, because there's a certain pattern to learning entrepreneurship. And once you understand, you know, customer discovery and market research, competitive research, all these kinds of things, if your first idea doesn't work out, you'll understand what steps what boxes have to be checked for your next idea to work. So that's why I'm so passionate about helping entrepreneurs, because it's really about understanding the process that essentially all development and discovery has to go through to be successfully commercialized.
John Inserra08:08
I really stimulated by your both of your responses to think about the fact that while we understand that entrepreneurs don't necessarily have new innovators have this necessarily have a lot of business experience. But business experience is not enough. Because I think you're pointing out is there's something different. That's entrepreneurial, that is not just taught in finance or accounting class that you really need to have. So..
Corinne Vinopol08:37
One thing I think you need is grit.
Mary Goldberg08:41
I was gonna ask you about Corinne. Tell me, tell us more about that. And then I have one thing to share. Go ahead.
Corinne Vinopol08:50
Well, if you're going to be an entrepreneur, you don't have anybody to fall back on. So that's something I discussed with my groups, which is a different mindset, because some of the groups are in universities or hospitals. And they always have like this little cushy thing going on in the background. And I said, if you really want to be an entrepreneur, and you're going to step out on your own, remember, you don't have that fallback. So you have to be prepared for the ups and downs. I was suggesting, for example, with a group that I'm mentoring right now about working in a particular channel and seeing if it's effective, because we're making a hypothesis that this is the way to go. And they were saying, well, a way to we get a grant to pay for our time to investigate this. I'm like, Oh, no, no, no, not if you're an entrepreneur, you're going to do sweat equity. This is going to come off your own time and your own dollar. You're going to see if you get remunerated later for taking a chance for having some grit to see if if you can survive or if you fail. So it's a very different mindset than what some of them have had in the past.
Mary Goldberg10:03
I like the idea of the mindset, of course, not existing of solely knowledge and skill. But beyond that, right? It's there's some effective components of that. And in preparation for the session today, I was doing a little bit of reading, and I found some research that suggests just that it's not just knowledge. It's not just skill. But it's things like self confidence, for example, and resilience to keep moving forward, but specifically applied to entrepreneurship. And so I'm interested in what kinds of tactics or what sorts of coaching do you do to help develop that sort of skill.
Don Morrison10:39
So I was just going to say that, from my experience, the most successful entrepreneurs are extremely curious and open to considering different possibilities. You have to have confidence in your original hypothesis, and then go about customer discovery to validate that, but there's a fine line between being focused and driven and being you know, insane, you know, Einstein said, you know, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, does know his work. And you have to try to validate your hypothesis. But you also have to listen to mentors, oftentimes with gray hair and scar tissue, and know when it's time to pivot from your original hypothesis.
John Inserra11:24
Yeah, I think that in summary, like that experience is brought to the table, and an entrepreneurial mindset is brought, but also that confidence is provided, because mentors, tell the entrepreneur, yes, it's okay, you can do this a different way, you have to present in a different way. And so we're there to provide them with that confidence, because success does build upon itself. So I think that's critical.
Corinne Vinopol11:54
I think a lot of them have confidence in their technology, but not necessarily confidence in the saleability, the commercialization. So they're very proud of what they've built. But one thing that's been great about this whole experience is pushing them out the door out of the lab, you know, out of the hospital out of the university, and getting to meet with the end user and say, does this work for you? And if it doesn't, you know, what do we need to tweak to make it work for you. And that's where they need that little confidence to open the door and step out.
Don Morrison12:35
One of the things I explained to every entrepreneur is, it's rarely about the technology, you know, the technology works, doesn't work usually works. But why companies fail or succeed it's not the technology, per se, it's about the business model. You know, they're talking to the right customers, they've priced it, you know, appropriately, they've got a compelling value proposition, they're able to communicate what they're doing to basically disrupt different markets. But it's very rarely just about the technology, per se. You have to have a underlying great technology that's providing a real value proposition. But it's, it's really about the business model that will determine whether they succeed or not.
John Inserra13:20
And you raise an interesting point that I wanted to pivot to, which is, you mentioned how communication can be effective, but I'm still not getting success. But I think, because communication is has so many facets, we think about the way they listen. So let's flip it around a little bit and think about communication. from a standpoint of a young innovator who's now has to go out into the world talk to users. What kind of advice or wisdom do you have regarding communication in this effort?
Corinne Vinopol13:54
Well, one thing I tell them is develop a set of questions. So we had talked during the training about hypotheses, but a hypothesis is a position based on a question. And I've been suggesting to my groups that they get a series of questions together, that are open ended, that they could ask these different customer segments that would help run their understanding of what the customer needs. So we may develop a hypothesis based on that. But then the question helps with the communication with the customer, because it gives them a jumpstart, on responding to their position on what their needs are.
Don Morrison14:42
One of the things that many entrepreneurs share is a very highly technical background. They're, chemical engineers or mechanical engineers or computer software engineers, and they're up to their elbows in the technology itself, but when they do try to explain it to someone outside the field, it's really, really hard to communicate effectively what you're doing. So you really have to, you know, dummy it down and explain it in clear, simple terms, to non techies, what you're doing. And that's a really hard thing for many people to do. You know, the example I usually give is, you know, pretend you're explaining this either to your seventh grader or to your grandmother. Don't use undefined acronyms. Avoid technical talks at all costs. Because whether you're talking to investors or customers, you have to be able to explain in clear, simple terms, here's what I do, here's why it's important. And here's the value proposition I'm offering.
Corinne Vinopol15:46
So I would say two things. Don't say grandmother, I'm a grandmother. The second thing I don't say dumb it down, because I actually find that that challenge of simplifying and clarifying is actually very daunting for geeks. Because as you said, so aptly, they're you know, knee deep hip deep into their technology, they've been using terminology that they understand with each other, they'll say a few buzzwords, and everybody knows what's talking to, but if they go outside, now I say talk to the naive listener, or looker, someone who has no exposure to what you're doing. And see if you can take it down to like you're saying a common denominator that this people can go, aha, that's what you're doing. And that's pretty hard to do.
Don Morrison16:41
I was just going to say, at BlueTree, we see a lot of pitches, and many of them are for very complex technologies. And you know, we have a pretty smart group of investors at BlueTree, but, you know, we're not experts in each of these micro fields. So you have to explain to us in very clear, simple terms. So I think simplifying is a probably a more accurate term, the dumbing it down, but but you have to explain it so people can understand it in clear, simple terms.
Mary Goldberg17:14
Corinne, what are your rules of thumb for getting down to that common denominator? Don had a couple of suggestions relating to acronyms and keeping it simple, but sometimes those who are more technically minded need rules. And I'm curious what they are.
Corinne Vinopol17:31
Right, well, I don't think there are any hard fast rules, because it's sort of depends on the technology. So some technologies are pretty apparent. And if you capture like key functions, or just you could have just a sexy, you know, tagline, if it's something that's real apparent, but if it's something that's complex to convey, which is something that I saw last semester, in this semester, working with groups that have sensory disabilities technology, that they really had to capture the essence of the functionality, and also, not just that, but what it will do for the end user. But what's the benefit? It says something that does this for you
Mary Goldberg18:17
Fill in the blank. Yeah, makes sense.
John Inserra18:21
You know, I look at at a deeper level at the think about the intention of an innovator when they are speaking when they're either making a pitch, or just having a conversation with an end user or some other strategic partner is whether the intention is to hear that your product is great. Or your intention is to listen really carefully, and hear what the user or the partner what their needs are. And I think it's a hard way for pitchers, you know, when they're presenting to think that they're presenting, but what you're trying to do is to elicit the questions that will guide you further. So do you guys interact with your mentees on that presentation, and how they should focus on listening to the questions and such that they get back?
Don Morrison19:16
I think that there's a difference between pitching and discovery. You know, mistake a lot of entrepreneurs make is they think that customer discovery is an opportunity to pitch their idea. And that's really not the case. You really shouldn't even mentioned what you're doing to the people you're talking to. It's really about understanding the problem and listening very closely to how is the problem being solved today? You know, what are the opportunities to improve upon that? Because that's where discovery and innovation will come to light. You know, it's a mistake to try to pitch your idea. During discovery. You have to really listen hard and close and really understand the problem. But when you go into pitch or sales mode, then it's about clearly communicating in simple terms. Here's what I do. Here's why it's important. Here's what's in it for you.
Corinne Vinopol20:10
Don let me ask you a question like to get in to the door to do the customer discovery, do you think the group should at least have some very simple explanation? We're developing XYZ. So we need to understand, you know, your needs relative to this question, or this technology that we're building?
Don Morrison20:34
Sure, that's fair, I always suggest playing the struggling student card, you know, doing research. And you know, we're doing research to come up with a better solution to this problem. And we'd like to understand how your company is solving that problem. Now, I mean, that's, that's really the best approach. Most people especially if you play the struggling students or struggling entrepreneur card will be open, if they feel it's a sales pitch, the force shields go up. And you don't get the honest, open feedback that you really, really need to have great customer discovery.
John Inserra21:11
And what about the role that you have of assumptions that come into this discussion between an innovator and the rest of the world?
Don Morrison21:22
Everybody starts off with hypothesis or multiple hypothesis about who their customer is, pricing model. There's a long list of, of hypotheses and the what are the objectives of customer discovery is to validate those hypotheses or to disprove them? There's a lot of really great resources out there about bias confirmation, you know, we have a hypothesis, and that becomes our bias. And then we go into customer discovery, trying to prove that bias. So you have to be really guarded, to really be open for true feedback,
Corinne Vinopol21:59
since that's why I suggest to my groups that they come up with the questions first, so the questions are open ended. And it sort of makes them open their minds to the may get different answers. And then I say, Okay, what do you think the answer is going to be? So I said, Okay, that's one of many possible answers. But let's stick with the questions when you go to your customers, and see if what you get back is going to validate what you thought the answer was going to be.
John Inserra22:30
I think that we all in our just recent recitation saw that with several of our amenti innovators through their discovery process, came up with totally new directions to explore because they left things open enough to allow that information to flow towards them. So I think it's essential for sure. If I may, I was wondering about the mention that you just had earlier of the problem statement and want to talk about the bare bones essentials to get an innovation to market. What kinds of things have to absolutely be there, regardless of the presentation and other things we've just been discussing, what has to be in place for a successful product to go to market?
Mary Goldberg23:14
That's a great question, John. But we've run out of time and would love to cover that in our next episode instead, when we continue our discussion with Don and Corinne in episode six of the ImpacTech series.If you like ImpacTech, please review us on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you again for tuning in and continue to make an impact in whatever you do. A quick note from our sponsors, IMPACT initiatives are being developed under a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research. NIDILRR is a center within the Administration for Community Living, Department of Health and Human Services. IMPACT initiatives do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR, ACL or HHS, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government and the same goes for the University of Pittsburgh. We'd like to thank our ImpacTech guests and our production team at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Michelle Zorrilla from the Department of Rehab Science and Technology, Natalie Vasquez and Dr. Marie Norman, from the IDEA Lab at the Institute for Clinical Research Education.