Yet only a small fraction of these ideas, inventions, and potentially game-changing solutions ever make it off campus. Institutions like
the University of Washington have a responsibility to help more of them make it out into the world. Human health, the environment, the
economy, and society depend on it.
In this spirit, President Ana Mari Cauce convened a roundtable in 2019 tasked with finding ways to accelerate the UW’s innovation-to-impact cycle.
Among the many initiatives examined, one stood out: Creative Destruction Lab. CDL began as an experiment at the University of
Toronto in 2012. Its objectives-based mentoring program starts with the premise that the largest problem startups face is not a lack of ideas, hustle, office space, or even capital. It’s a deficit of the expert business judgment required to prioritize what needs to be done for a company to make it to market and succeed.
CDL harnesses the convening power of great universities, bringing together accomplished entrepreneurs and rising stars in science with the shared goal of helping new ventures set short-term objectives, putting them on a path to massively scale.
CDL comprises a network of sites at 12 leading universities in six countries with a joint mission to commercialize science for the betterment of humankind. CDL-Seattle attracts serial entrepreneurs like Ingrid Pultz and Bruce Montgomery, who have changed the course of medicine through the companies they’ve built.
Every year, mentors meet with an annual cohort of startups once every eight weeks over a nine-month period to pass their knowledge and experience on to the next generation of scientist-founders. Together with UW, CDL is focusing some of the best brains on our biggest
challenges right here in Seattle.
Dr. Emer Dooley is adjunct faculty in Entrepreneurship at the University of Washington’s Foster Business School, a recipient of UW’s
Distinguished Teaching Award, and executive director of the Alliance of Angels Seed Fund. Through the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship and as site lead for Creative Destruction Lab-Seattle, she involves the UW community in all aspects of company creation, technology commercialization, and investment.
