It Works

ATI Associates consistently rave about their real-world experience, the value and benefit of working with real startup companies, truly being a part of creating them, and how that experience augments their academic pursuits. After leaving ATI, most Associates go on to begin careers in law, business, industry, communication, and academia; and, in a few cases, they even start their own companies!

Associates have moved on to successful careers such as:

•Consulting firms like Bain, the Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte, and Infosys
•Industry positions with multi-national corporations such as General Electric’s Leadership Program and Conoco Philips Ventures
•Wall Street careers with investment banks like Jeffries
•Law careers, including Federal clerkships and offers at law firms including Cravath, Swaine & Moore and DLA-Piper
•Tech focused not-for-profits like Clean Technology and Sustainable Industries (CTSI) and Texas Foundation for Innovative Communities (TFIC)
•Early-stage technology company roles, such as with Incenergy and Xeris Pharmaceuticals.  Not infrequently, these roles develop out of the relationships that ATI associates establish with member companies during their associate positions.
•And some associates become startup founders themselves.  A great example is Famigo, founded by two ATI Associates (an MBA student and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering student), which has gone on to be admitted into ATI, establish commercial traction, receive funding, and recently graduate from ATI.

We believe the ATI experience is best summarized by former associates themselves:

Mary Nguyen, Ph.D. Candidate in Biomedical Engineering, Bioscience Associate, 2009-2012:

Working at ATI has been an invaluable experience, especially coming from a science background. It is exciting to witness and participate in the transition of a technology from the bench top into a viable commercial product. Many factors are responsible for a companies’ pathway to success, and ATI helps bring all those pieces together.

Kirsten Frazee, M.A. in Advertising, MKT/PR Associate, 2011-2012:

I had an amazing experience as a marketing/public relations associate at ATI. I learned so much about communications, from writing blogs and press releases to managing our Web site and social media. I was given the freedom to come up with my own ideas about how to manage our marketing/public relations processes, and that is rare for a student position. I was inspired by the passionate and innovative entrepreneurs, serial and student, who I worked with, and I know the experiences that I had at ATI and the skills that I gained will carry me in my future career.

Toni Miranda-Aranda, MSTC Graduate 2012, IT/Wireless Associate, 2011-2012:

ATI is a perfect ecosystem for opportunity for students and entrepreneurs alike! After working at ATI for two semesters, I have discovered a vivid community of emerging technologies and startups with countless resources and programs fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. I have had many opportunities to work on hands-on projects for startups in the IT/Wireless industries. An ATI associate position enables the direct application of knowledge acquired at school to real life experiences.

Joel Garcia Galan, CEI Associate, 2011-2012:

If I could recommend an student position for any engineering student that is planning to be involved in the business and entrepreneurial environment, ATI is the place to be. It's an innovation hub. During my associate position at ATI, I have learned many skills from business strategy, marketing and finance to IP protection and term sheets. The directors at ATI are very experienced and are invested in their associates’ development, which is reflected by the people they introduce you and the type of events you get invited to like angel investing courses, the Clean Energy Venture Summit, 3 Day Startup, and regular business strategy meetings. But most importantly you gain a service attitude. All of the people at ATI go out of their way to help the startup community, even when a company is not part of ATI.

Luke Carriere, Executive MBA Candidate at Fordham University, ATI Associate, 2011-2012:

Although I am an EMBA student at Fordham University in NYC, I chose to live in Austin to be immersed in their tech startup scene. ATI is the best place I could imagine to get first-hand experience in the formation, incubation and funding of startups. As an associate, ATI has opened up unique opportunities for me to work with organizations such as NCIIA, Angel Capital Association, Longhorn Startup Camp and Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship. The entrepreneurship ecosystem in Austin is thriving and ATI is at the center of it.

Blayne Kettlewell, Biomedical Engineering BS, Bioscience Associate, 2009-2010:

As a Biomedical Engineering student at UT, I focus on the dynamics of gait instability at preferred transition states and embryonic stem cell differentiation to hematopoietic progenitor cells. Through ATI, I graduated from the Student Entrepreneurship Acceleration and Launch (SEAL) program, where I started my first company, RBK Instruments, which manufactures devices for the blind. ATI gave me a great bridge between business and the engineering disciplines, and helped me build a systematic way of identifying the strengths and weaknesses of a technological innovation and how it might lend itself to the commercial world. 

Brett Newswanger, MBA, Bioscience Associate, 2010-2011:

ATI allows students to understand the intersection of business and technology, and to immediately apply concepts from the classroom in a real-world setting. ATI also gives budding entrepreneurs a perspective of the challenges involved with starting and running a small business.

Beth Goldstein, Cell and Molecular Biology PhD, Bioscience Associate, 2009:

I worked with ATI while pursuing my PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology at UT. My ATI time helped me pursue work on the business side of a research organization, and I served as a research scientist for Terapio, helping the company determine its drug’s ability to combat side effects from cancer radiation treatments.  This led to a full time job with Terapio.

Greg Baden, Law, ATI Associate, 2010:

Whereas the UT law school is strong with academic education, the ATI experience was my best opportunity to get hands on, practical experience in IP, corporate and venture law. Also, the associate position at ATI provides the opportunity for law students interested in entrepreneurship to begin building their professional network in the Austin area and beyond. The conversations and connections developed during your time at ATI can serve as a springboard into your career. Finally, ATI provides UT students a great opportunity to 'cross-pollinate' across different areas of the university that have complementary professional interests, but wouldn’t normally interact.

Jameson Otto, MBA, ATI Associate, 2010:

I did competitive intelligence research on data transmission in the smart grid market. I was given a few specific guidelines but other than that was largely given a lot of freedom to research how I saw fit.  It was challenging, rewarding labor and I thoroughly enjoyed working with the team at ATI. I have since taken an information management position in Washington, D.C., where I hope to utilize the skills that I picked up at ATI.

Yilan Zhu, Advertising MA, MKT/PR Associate, 2010:

ATI’s tolerance and inclusiveness gives everybody here the chance to learn, grow and succeed through failure. It is an incubator of not only startup companies but also of people and dreams. Working at ATI is an experience of thinking and creating. Working with clients to research the market or design their websites, planning large or small events require one to think, extract the useful and abandon the meaningless.

Andrew Hill, Business BA, ATI Associate, 2009-2010:

I learned a great deal about startup businesses and how ATI moves member companies through the incubation pipeline to market.  ATI diversified my resume and was the reason I got hired at Deloitte Consulting, where I am currently a Business Technology Analyst working with the Emerging Solutions service line, which is ironically incubating new technology groups.

Iva Paleckova, MBA, ATI Associate, 2010:

Not until ATI did I have a chance to put what I had learned in school into any practical applications. As one example, I did a research project about liquidity in Texas, to help guide our entrepreneurs through the process of selling a company, while avoiding all negative ramifications that could come as a result of doing so.

Clay Robison, Journalism BA, MKT/PR Associate, 2010:

ATI gave me consistent access to and opportunities to work with the ATI directors, whose talent and ability to teach are priceless for a college student. My ATI experience also let me work beyond my pay grade – my associate position was both high responsibility and high expectations.

Jamie McAllister, LBJ MA, ATI Associate, 2009-2010:

I sincerely believe that what I learned at ATI will forever shape my public policy perspectives. As a master’s student at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, with a focus on economic development and transportation policy, I had not had much interaction with the entrepreneurial community, nor would I have considered this world valuable to my career. This changed dramatically while working at ATI. 

Laura Benold, English BA, MKT/PR Associate, 2009-2010:

ATI incubates people, not just ideas and companies. To grow at ATI was the best professional, and one of the best personal, decisions I ever made. The lessons I learned are countless, and in the spirit of incubation, I will share a few of the morsels I have gathered:

1. Don’t be afraid to be afraid. It’s healthy to do scary things sometimes, and the rewards are incalculable. Take a professional risk that has a chance to fail; and success will be a far greater reward because of that chance.

2. Take Initiative. Be bold, and ask for what you really want.

3. Relationships are the most important thing. At the end of the day, the people who know and believe in you are the greatest asset you have. What is true for private life is also true for work, and I never realized that until I was looking for a job and felt the support of the ATI community around me.

4. Give value to the community. During Pipeline Meetings every Friday morning, I always found myself surprised when one of the directors said, “Let’s do what we can for them.” in reference to companies not within our walls. Aren’t we running a business here? Do we have time for this? The answer to both of my questions was a resounding, “Yes.” I learned that there’s always time to give something back and create substantial value over time with small deeds.