Swanson School Faculty Member Taking Professional Enhancement Leave to Accelerate Growth of His Pitt Startup
Tevis Jacobs’ transformation into an academic entrepreneur didn’t come on suddenly.
He didn’t disappear into a phone booth wearing his lab coat and emerge buttoning up a Brooks Brothers suit or in Silicon Valley chinos and a blazer.
Rather, it was a gradual realization that unless he took a more hands-on role in translating his innovations from the lab to the market, his ideas for improving manufacturing efficiency would remain confined to research publications.
“I was not someone who had an entrepreneurial mindset, at all,” he said.
Given his previous indifference, nobody is more intrigued than Jacobs, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Science at the Swanson School of Engineering, concerning his plan to take a one-year professional enhancement leave beginning in September to take the helm of Surface Design Solutions, the company he launched in 2023 to commercialize his innovations.
His story exemplifies what is possible at Pitt for innovators yearning to translate their ideas into societal benefit for the world.
Jacobs admits to a degree of naivete as a young researcher that if he published the “right” papers, manufacturers would take the reins and implement his ideas into their production processes.
“I feel the work I’m doing can have a real impact in making better products that, for example, reduce the number of slip-and-fall accidents in the workplace; improve the biocompatibility of medical devices; improve the manufacturing efficiency of industrial equipment,” he said. “But sometimes as scientists, we do not focus on couching our science in a way to be applied to the real world. Manufacturers are trying to do many things at once, and don’t have the time or expertise to dive deeply into the science around their products.”
Jacobs’ first baby step toward commercial translation occurred when he launched a free web application called Contact Engineering.
“We have had more than 500 users of that software and have gotten really good feedback,” he said. This first foray, however, still required more in-house expertise than most companies can afford.
“Through Pitt, we worked with a large manufacturer in the semiconductor industry. The project was very successful, but it took four years, two doctoral students, and two postdocs,” he said. “This just wasn’t a scalable solution. If we’re going to have a real impact in the real world, we needed to develop a tool that could be readily applied to a company’s particular use-case without PhD-level scientists or PhD-level knowledge.”
The breakthrough was the development of a physics-informed machine learning approach to implement surface analysis. Jacobs, an experimental scientist, and his long-time collaborator, Lars Pastewka, a professor at the University of Freiburg in Germany focused on computational and data-driven engineering, created a tool that could optimize surface performance quickly and without expert knowledge.
The Startup Journey: From Lab to Market
Jacobs approached the Innovation Institute, part of the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, about protecting the intellectual property around this concept and beginning to explore its commercial potential more seriously.
Around this time, he contacted a former doctoral student from his lab, Luke Thimons, to see if he would want to join the project, now on its way to becoming a startup. Thimons, who had taken a job in research and development at a local Fortune 500 company, didn’t hesitate to give up his steady paycheck for the wild ride of a startup.
“I was really excited to see the progress Tevis had made with the tool, and I understood its potential immediately,” said Thimons, who works directly with the company’s initial customers to continue implementing the tool and refine it based on customer feedback.
The company has gained momentum. It has raised over $500,000 so far, and its initial customer has renewed the contract and is planning to implement the software across its entire enterprise. Jacobs is also working with Paul Petrovich, Director of New Ventures at the Innovation Institute, on an application for a non-dilutive federal SBIR grant.
Last year, the Innovation Institute celebrated Jacobs’ progress by naming Surface Design Solutions as its Startup of the Year.
University Support
Even with Thimons in place and the ability to devote 20 percent of his time to Surface Design Solutions under university policy, Jacobs determined that for the company to flourish, he would need to jump in with both feet, at least for a while.
His entrepreneurial mentors in the Innovation Institute encouraged him to talk to other faculty members from the Swanson School of Engineering who had launched startups, such as Chris Wilmer, Steven Little, and Buddy Clark, who provided advice and encouragement.
He then approached his department chair, who supported him, and brought the leave request to the dean, who signed off. Although he will be on leave from his academic role, Jacobs wanted assurance that he could still mentor his graduate students, work on academic papers, and “keep the lights on” for his lab. He got it.
Throughout this process, meetings with the university’s Conflict of Interest Office (COI) have also left him feeling reassured.
“To be honest, I expected a lot of barriers, legal and otherwise, that would make it difficult to start and manage a company,” he said. “But I was pleasantly surprised. I have been meeting periodically with Christina Gasdia, the Director of the COI office, and I found that her office has always been proactive and helpful in understanding and avoiding conflicts of interest. There are, of course, common-sense considerations to make sure that things are handled reasonably and ethically; but all of them can be straightforwardly navigated.”
And although the license for the intellectual property has been in place for nearly two years, Jacobs said he continues to lean on the Innovation Institute network. Entrepreneurs in residence Priya Amin and Tony Torres are available for regular consultation, which was helpful last fall at the Three Rivers Venture Fair, a venture capital event where Jacobs didn’t know a soul going in but was provided with introductions by the Innovation Institute team.
The Innovation Institute also connected him with a business mentor, Steve Bence, who has provided critical one-on-one coaching in areas unfamiliar to Jacobs.
“In the beginning, our team was scientifically strong, but weak on sales and business strategy knowledge. Steve has been indispensable in advising us here.” Jacobs says. “He has helped us quantify the value of our product, in terms of cost-savings or increased revenue for our customers. In turn, he guided us in figuring out how to capture some part of that value so that we can build a profitable and scalable business.”
A Model for Future Innovators
“I have friends at other universities, ones that are considered ‘top tier’ for starting companies. When we get together and swap war stories, I’ve found that I am receiving more and better support at Pitt,” he said.
The experience so far has been so positive that Jacobs said he could foresee doing it all again if there is a future innovation in his research that could have real-world impact.
“There are multiple avenues to translating academic research innovation to the market,” said Evan Facher, Pitt’s Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Associate Dean for Commercial Translation at the School of Medicine.
“There is no one-size-fits-all approach. A lot depends on the type of innovation and the engagement level of the faculty member,” Facher said.
For some innovations that have been significantly de-risked in the lab and have a clear value proposition, a simple licensing of the technology is appropriate. The faculty member could take an advisory role in the company. There is also the potential for a sponsored research agreement whereby the technology is optioned or licensed by an industry partner that also supplies funding for additional research.
“For other innovators with an entrepreneurial passion and a technology that requires more direct attention to de-risk for potential investors and customers, a professional enhancement leave may be the best alternative to explore,” Facher said.
The Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship provides the education, mentorship, and funding to help Pitt innovators navigate their commercialization pathways. Whether you’re taking your first steps or are ready to launch a startup, our team is here to support you at every step.
Check out our programs page to learn more about our offerings or email us at OIEHelp@pitt.edu to connect with our experienced staff.