Hamdi is the Executive Director of AVX, a non-profit cooperative exchange connecting high-value talent with early start-ups backed with research and IP from leading comprehensive research universities across the United States. AVX focuses on solving the 'talent valley of death' for deep technology ventures. Over the past 4 years, AVX has worked with over 520 proto-ventures from 33 different universities and has generated over 10,000 connections for these teams with advisors, board members, co-founders, c-level leaders, and investors who have experience helping inventors build ventures. 

This conversation is a fast-paced, deep dive into the world of technology transfer. Hamdi has seen and participated in this sector from a variety of different vantage points and has an extremely unique perspective. We talk about the team DNA of strong research-based university spinoff companies, including advice to young entrepreneurs and researchers who want to lead or join these initiatives. Hamdi is one of the most well-connected people in the space and operates at a distinctive intersection and critical stage for these young startups coming out of the lab. We talk about what tech transfer orgs (TTOs) do well, how they can improve, and also Hamdi's background as a researcher and what might be on the horizon for him. I always learn from Hamdi every time we speak and this was no exception. I highly recommend signing up for Hamdi's newsletters which aggregates an enormous amount of useful info on research commercialization from around the web including articles, insights, events and more. See past issues here and enjoy the episode! 

More about Hamdi

Prior to AVX, Hamdi completed his BA/BS in Chemical Engineering at Tufts University and his PhD at Columbia University in the lab of Dr. Ozgur Sahin. Hamdi’s research interests lie at the intersection of biology, energy, and the environment; his thesis is titled “A Theory of Renewable Energy from Natural Evaporation”. Hamdi has co-authored several papers in Nature Biotechnology and Nature Communications. During his PhD, Hamdi served as the President of the Graduate Student Advisory Council at Columbia University and worked for 6 years as a Fellow (3 years) and Senior Fellow (3 years) at Columbia Technology Ventures – the tech transfer office at Columbia University in the City of New York. Hamdi previously served as an assistant and advisor to both the BioMedX Accelerator at Columbia University and the New York City Regional Innovation Node (NYCRIN) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) i-Corps program.

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