» Clayton tech firm born at WU is rarer than it should be


BY DAVID NICKLAUS
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
05/24/2010


Seven years ago, Global Velocity's data security technology was an interesting invention in Washington University's Advanced Research Lab.

Now it's the basis of a company with 17 employees, $21 million in funding from investors and the beginnings of a commercial customer base.

"It's an exciting time for us," says Greg Sullivan, the company's chief executive. "My job here is to create a sustainable, valuable organization that's high-growth and high-margin — in short, a great business."

Washington University does its share of pushing. It has trained almost 50 faculty members in the basics of starting a business. Its Bear Cub Fund makes development grants of $25,000 to $50,000. A partnership with the BioGenerator, a privately funded technology development organization, gives biotech companies some mentoring and the opportunity for additional money.

Castanho adds, however, that the community still needs to pull technology out of the university. He says the biggest difference between Washington University and a place like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, No. 1 on Milken's tech-transfer index, isn't culture.

Rather, it's that MIT is surrounded by venture capitalists and businesspeople who compete to spot lucrative opportunities.

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"“When we spoke with the folks at Global Velocity - the company's corporate headquarters is in Clayton, Mo., with an office in Palo Alto, Calif. - we were impressed with what we termed “DLP on steroids”.  This is one hot box … We liked this product and the company for their creative approach to a real problem: deep analysis at very high speeds and reduction of the number of boxes needed to put on our perimeters.”"

 

Peter Stephenson
SC Magazine
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