CAS CONNECT 2018

Weaver Labs received $175,000 this spring fromOSU Research Foundation’s Cowboy Technologies, which invests in new businesses seeking to commercialize technology owned and licensed from the university. Cowboy Technologies Executive Director Daniel Will said Roark andWeaver are on the right path to building a successful business. “Weaver Labs has its bases covered with a strong technology-to-market match and talented founders who can execute their business model,” Will said. “That makes them a good investment.” The new company is headquartered at the Meridian Technology Center for Business Development in Stillwater, where a lab is being set up. Anuradha Singh, a former postdoctoral fellow inWeaver’s lab, was hired as the first employee soon after the company’s launch in June. Despite spending countless hours building the business, neither Roark nor Weaver accepts a paycheck yet. ‘Idea business’ Weaver and Roark seeWeaver Labs as not only a producer of fluorinated compounds, but also a developer of intellectual property, which is the ownership of information and intellectual innovation underlying a technology. Much of the IP behindWeaver’s development of chemical compounds is owned by OSU. In the future, Roark said the business will expand into new areas that match the lab’s expertise. “We want to be in the materials business and we want to be in the idea business by creating our own intellectual property,” Roark said. Another technologyWeaver Labs has developed and patented is the synthesis of phosphorescent compounds used in digital displays like smartphone screens. Weaver says the market for organic light-emitting diodes is large and growing quickly. Roark said his experience has shown that building a successful business is a process of trial and error, watching and waiting, not unlike what a baseball player goes through. “In a game, every time you put the ball in play, you run as hard as you can to first base and then you see what happens,” Roark said. “Sometimes, you’re going to hit one in the gap and you get to run the bases.” JIMMIE WEAVER OSU COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SC I ENCES 39