Release date: August 5, 2025
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What kind of person decides to license bleeding-edge battery technology from a national lab and try to bring it to market with no funding and no guarantees? According to Jay Fraser, you might need a little bit of crazy and a lot of persistence.
In this special episode of The Transfer Files, we revisit one of our favorite conversations exploring how deep tech innovation finds its way into the world. I’m joined by Richard Amato, Executive Director of the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), the country’s longest-running university-affiliated business incubator, and Jay Fraser, President and CEO of New Dominion Enterprises, a startup navigating the complex world of federal tech commercialization.
Richard shares how ATI has evolved over the decades to focus on high-stakes, high-impact technology, including clean energy, semiconductors, and medical devices. He highlights the power of tailored mentorship through ATI’s Texas Venture Mentor Service and what it really takes to support deep tech founders for the long haul.
Jay brings his lived experience to the table, sharing candid lessons from the frontlines of working with Idaho National Lab, building a startup around electrolyte technology, and learning how to translate groundbreaking science into something the market can understand and eventually adopt. His journey shines a light on the psychological and strategic challenges that entrepreneurs face, and the crucial role incubators like ATI can play in helping them navigate the “valley of death.”
This is a story about relationships, resilience, and redefining what it means to bring federal innovation to life.
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In This Episode:
[03:09] ATI was launched 35 years ago. We discuss how it's changed and evolved over the years. In 2001, the clean energy incubator was launched.
[04:44] They've also launched a healthcare incubator and microelectronics incubator.
[05:06] There's now a focus on R&D and technology.
[05:42] Deep tech is often hardware-based and comes out of a lab. It's also something that will take longer to get to market.
[07:32] We learn about TXVMS.
[08:53] New Dominion was started because Jay's previous company had a relationship with Idaho National Laboratory under a defense contract.
[10:02] Relationships are everything in technology transfer.
[12:21] It's challenging for small companies to license when working with federal laboratories [17:23] We go over the multiple challenges of commercialization.
[19:26] Deeptech has a heavy high capital cost and a long time to market.
[21:18] The importance of understanding the motivation of the scientist in the first place.
[22:54] Richard talks about dealing with younger entrepreneurs. The age doesn't matter, but coachability does.
[26:34] With an incubator, it's the job to de-risk and get to market as soon as possible. This often leads to working with brutal honesty.
[28:36] Richard has been on both sides and sometimes the most important part is the psychological piece.