British Columbia Innovation Council

This case examines the challenge of pitching the commercial potential of a new technology to attract funding. Dr. Matt Reid was definitely outside of his comfort zone! The professor of Physics was most comfortable in the lab studying the optics of surfaces and discussing the findings with graduate students and fellow researchers across Canada.

Tomorrow he would fly to Vancouver to make a presentation to a jury of venture capitalists, bankers and CEOs as a finalist in the New Venture BC Competition on the commercial viability of a new technology. The fledgling company he had founded desperately needed money to move the technology from the laboratory to commercial applications. Reid was one of the leading researchers in the world exploring the potential of terahertz radiation for imaging and measuring the properties of materials. Reid had decided to pursue the possible uses of terahertz technology for increasing efficiency and quality in the processing of forest products, which is BC's largest industry. Reid's challenge was to explain this new technology in a comprehensible fashion and to convince the jury of the economic viability of applying this technology to the forest industry.

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