Latest research on high-tech startups

Since 2003, an informal consortium of four (now five) West Coast research universities have been hosting an annual research conference on technology entrepreneurship. The 6th West Coast Research Symposium on Technology Entrepreneurship was held earlier this month at Stanford (engineering not business). The other sponsoring organizations are USC, Oregon, Washingto and UC Irvine.

The conference is no longer just a West Coast affair, but this year drew an national (if not international) contingent of tech entrepreneurship researchers, with presenters from MIT, Wharton, Illinois, Northwestern and INSEAD (among others). Because it’s a small conference — consisting mainly of the paper authors and discussants — there’s not enough room for all the people who want to attend.

In an interesting innovation, Stanford has put MP3 files of all the presentations up on the Stanford Technology Ventures Program website. (Independent of WCRS, the STVP also has an impressive list of talks posted to its own iTunes U site as well as its own website).

Next year’s conference will be back at UW Seattle. Let’s hope that this innovation becomes a regular feature of the program.