MIT Proto Ventures serves as the Institute’s internal venture studio — a program not aimed at supporting established startups, but instead at cultivating entirely new ones from scratch. Situated at the crossroads of groundbreaking research and pressing real-world issues, Proto Ventures actively develops startups that utilize MIT technologies, expertise, and concepts to tackle significant industry challenges.
Each startup development initiative commences with a “channel” — a specific area such as clean energy, fusion, or AI in healthcare — where MIT is distinctly equipped to excel, and where urgent real-world challenges demand solutions. Proto Ventures recruits full-time venture builders, highly skilled entrepreneurs who immerse themselves in MIT laboratories, engage with faculty, identify promising inventions, and investigate unmet market demands. These venture builders collaborate with researchers and aspiring founders from across MIT who participate in Proto Ventures’ fellowship program to form fresh teams, refine business ideas, and propel early-stage validation. Once a startup is poised to launch, Proto Ventures connects it with MIT’s expansive innovation ecosystem, including incubation initiatives, accelerators, and technology licensing.
David Cohen-Tanugi SM ’12, PhD ’15 has been the venture builder for the fusion and clean energy channel since 2023.
Q: What obstacles arise in launching startups from MIT labs? In essence, why is there a need for a venture studio at MIT?
A: MIT consistently tackles the world’s most formidable challenges, such as decarbonizing heavy industry, stopping future pandemics, or adapting to extreme climate conditions. Yet, notwithstanding its remarkable depth of research, relatively few of MIT’s technological advancements progress into successful startups aimed at these challenges. There are insufficient technical discoveries from MIT labs transitioning into commercial ventures to confront these critical issues.
Several factors contribute to this. Currently, it often requires a significant amount of chance for a technology or concept in the lab to evolve into a startup effort within the Institute’s ecosystem. Successful startups don’t merely arise from exceptional technology — they result from a fusion of great technology, unmet market demands, and dedicated individuals.
An additional reason is that many MIT researchers lack the time, the professional motivation, or the skill set required to commercialize their technology. They frequently do not have a suitable partner who possesses technical know-how or experience in bringing innovations to market.
Moreover, while MIT excels at supporting entrepreneurial teams already in progress — offering world-class accelerators, guidance services, and research funding initiatives — what’s lacking is a mechanism to intentionally discover and cultivate venture opportunities that haven’t yet emerged.
MIT requires a venture studio because we need a new, proactive approach for translating research — one that dismantles barriers and connects profound technical talent with validated market demands.
Q: How do you provide value to MIT researchers?
A: As a venture builder, I serve as a translational collaborator for researchers — someone who can lead the exploration of commercial avenues in cooperation with the lab. Proto Ventures addresses the needs of faculty and researchers who recognize that their work holds real-world potential but lack the time, entrepreneurial knowledge, or interested graduate students to pursue it. Proto Ventures fills that void.
Having completed my PhD at MIT a decade ago, I’ve witnessed how many researchers are eager to make an impact beyond academia but struggle to find a starting point. I assist them in strategically contemplating how their work fits into the actual marketplace, I tackle tactical obstacles like intellectual property discussions or establishing initial commercial partnerships, and I actively engage in customer discovery, identify potential co-founders, or seek new funding sources. Even when the result isn’t a startup, the process often uncovers new collaborators, use cases, or research avenues. We’re not solely hunting for IP — we’re fostering a richer culture of technology translation at MIT, one lab at a time.
Q: What constitutes success?
A: We’ve launched five startups across two channels thus far, including one that will offer energy-efficient propulsion systems for satellites and another focused on developing advanced power supply units for data centers.
However, counting startups isn’t the sole measure of impact. While embedded at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, I have interacted with 75 researchers in translational activities — many of them for the first time. For instance, I’ve aided research scientist Dongkeun Park in crafting funding proposals for next-generation MRI and aircraft engines utilizing high-temperature superconducting magnets. Working with Mike Nour from the MIT Sloan Executive MBA program, we’ve also devised an innovative licensing strategy for Professor Michael P. Short and his antifouling coating technology. Sometimes it takes an external perspective like mine to connect researchers across departments, propose new collaborations, or uncover overlooked ideas. Most importantly, we’ve demonstrated that this model is effective: embedding entrepreneurial scientists within labs alters the way research is translated.
We’ve also observed that researchers are keen to translate their work — they simply need a framework and a partner to assist them in doing so. This is particularly true in the hard technology sectors where MIT excels. That’s the promise Proto Ventures offers. Based on our initial outcomes, we believe this model could be transformative, not only for MIT but for research institutions around the globe.