News and Events > Seminars > "How to Start a Company in Difficult Economic Times" a workshop on the U.S. Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) with Misha Plam"

"How to Start a Company in Difficult Economic Times" a workshop on the U.S. Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) with Misha Plam"

When: Thursday April 24, 1:30-3:30pm
Where: Engineering Center Administrative Offices, Clark Conference Room (ECAD 150)

You are invited to join us for a workshop with Misha Plam, a Boulder Entrepreneur who has built a very successful company by winning SBIR grants to develop and commercialize CU technology. He will present the case of his company, Sievers Instruments, Inc., and provide practical information on how to win and make the most of the SBIR program: -Which technologies are most often funded by SBIR grants? -What is the competitive process for winning an SBIR? -What do you need to include in a winning Commercialization Plan? -Why write a business plan? -What happens when the first product fails in the marketplace?

Dr. Misha Plam, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Boulder Quantum Ventures, is an expert on commercializing research and building high tech entrepreneurial companies. He founded Sievers Instruments, Inc., in 1984 and served as its Chairman, President, and CEO. The company received a number of SBIR awards and develops chemical analysis instruments for scientific and commercial purposes. One such instrument measured the quality of recycled water on the Russian Space Station "MIR" and is presently being used on International Space Station (ISS).

In 1997 Plam was selected as Ernst and Young Entrepreneur-of-the-Year (Rocky Mountain Region), and the same year was awarded Entrepreneur of Distinction at Esprit 97 in Boulder, Colorado. In 2000 Plam was elected as an Academician, one of only 77 foreign members in the prestigious Russian Academy of Engineering based in Moscow. He has been widely recognized for his contributions to the American-Russian Space Program and the SBIR program in the USA.

After receiving his advanced degrees from Moscow State University with a focus on glaciology, Plam became director of the Mountain Research Station in the Caucasus Mountains of Russia. He immigrated to the United States in 1977 and became Director of Mountain Research Station and Adjunct Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

Plam left in 1980 to work as Manufacturing, Service and Research Engineer, then Marketing Analyst at Pure-Cycle in Boulder. He helped found several companies in Boulder, then founded Sievers Instruments, Inc., in 1984. He sold Sievers Instruments, Inc. in 1996 to Ionics, Inc. and stayed on as President through 2001. Plam still serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Ionics-Sievers, Inc.

Plam is now a Resident Entrepreneur and Limited Partner at Boulder Ventures, Ltd., a venture capital firm. He's a member of the Board of Evolutionary Genomics, as well as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Boulder Quantum Ventures. He has lectured on engineering and entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado, Stanford, Plehanov Business Academy in Moscow, Russia and numerous research institutes in Russia. He's a member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado. He is married to Olga Plam, a well known, successful still-life artist.