The "valley of death" for early stage companies as illustrated in Erich Schwartzel's article, "Pittsburgh gives birth to tech firms, but can't keep them" is a problem we must resolve, not only for the Pittsburgh region, but for the sake of our national economic competitiveness.

It's a complex issue that needs focused commitment, including adequate regional resources and support for new ventures. If our region wants to realize its aspiration -- and potential -- to be a model of reinvention and renewal, many constituents in the community must come together.

One point worth exploring: Companies that develop from university faculty research projects have a good chance of taking root in the region. Most faculty are committed to staying in their positions long term; they are also attractors for talent and resources. I would wager that investing in and supporting these projects and companies is a wise expenditure that will have both short- and long-term payoffs for the investors and the region.

ReCaptcha, mentioned in the article, is one such example. It began as a faculty PROBE at Carnegie Mellon's Project Olympus, which provides start-up advice, micro-grants, incubator space and connections on and off campus. Olympus is working to assure the success of such ventures in our region.

Prof. Luis von Ahn, reCaptcha's founder, is busy at work (here in Pittsburgh) on new innovations. Currently in the pipeline and poised to become additional success stories are: Graphics Parallelism in the Cloud (Prof. Adrien Treuille), GG-Idea-Lab (Profs. Carlos Guestrin and Seth Goldstein), Safaba (Prof. Alon Lavie), TransportChain/Go-op (Prof. Robert Hampshire).

There are many other examples of faculty generated companies that have emerged from our region's universities, as well as companies faculty have brought to Pittsburgh. We also are fortunate to have great partners in our community working hard to make our region a technology innovation hotbed. With such talent and energy, the smart money would be wise to follow.

LENORE BLUM
Shadyside
Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon University
Director, Project Olympus

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