Brains Meet On Innovative Web Portal

Rajendra Deshpande wants to innovate the process of innovation in the health sector. InnovationDock, the entrepreneur’s Camarillo-based startup, runs a web portal to connect innovators – including inventors, university labs and research and development nonprofits – with organizations looking for new ideas, such as large corporations and venture capital firms. The site specializes in the pharmaceutical, medical device, technology and digital health sectors. Companies can post requests for proposals on the site to address specific needs, and innovators can offer solutions. For now, the site is free for both buyers and sellers. Deshpande plans to make money with a subscription model once the site’s user base reaches a critical mass, with the prices still undetermined. So far, he has financed the company from his savings. Inspiration for InnovationDock came from Deshpande’s former stints as a researcher at Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson and Amgen Inc. in Thousand Oaks. “I observed and experienced the struggle to search and find the external products and technologies that matched exactly the internal innovation and business needs,” he said. “My motivation for InnovationDock came from feeling the need to overcome this decades-long status quo.” The company faces plenty of online competitors, including NineSigma and Eli Lily spinoff InnoCentive. And the entire open innovation industry has run into resistance from in-house corporate researchers. A study by university ETH Zurich in Switzerland found companies face a learning curve when they outsource innovation. “Open innovation is not merely a technological phenomenon but involves managerial challenges, such as the transformation of business models, implanting new types of R&D organizations and cultural change to accommodate a more ‘open’ attitude among employees,” the study stated. Deshpande acknowleges the cultural challenges, but he believes geography will work in his favor. “With so much entrepreneurial activity spurring in Southern California in recent years, InnovationDock is a timely entrant poised to catalyze accelerated co-innovation in the region,” he said. – Joel Russell