It’s by no means the end of Sudek’s involvement in Orange County’s burgeoning entrepreneurial ecosystem, he said.
“I’m calling it semi-retirement, because I don’t know how to retire-retire,” Sudek told the Business Journal.
“It’s time for me to focus on other things I love doing. I want to get back to more hands-on coaching and investing.”
Sudek, the founding executive director of the public research university’s commercialization branch, UCI Beall Applied Innovation, said he will remain active through angel investor groups and venture capital firms.
A significant portion of his efforts will be devoted to “lifting up underserved groups and individuals, helping [them] gain access to capital and connections,” he said.
Ecosystem Upstart
In 2014, Sudek joined UCI and led the conversion of the university’s technology transfer branch into an outward-facing organization that served the broader Southern California community, in addition to UCI.
The idea came from Don Beall, chairman of The Beall Family Foundation, who, along with his family, has provided Applied Innovation with more than $30 million in philanthropic gifts.
The conversion was also championed by UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman, whose flexibility and willingness to provide resources allowed the organization to grow “big and fast,” Sudek said.
Applied Innovation’s facility at UCI Research Park, known as The Cove, grew from an initial footprint of 1,500 square feet to over 100,000 square feet.
Today it houses faculty and student support programs such as a startup incubator and small business development center, as well as office space for community organizations and the University Lab Partners wet lab incubator.
“Richard had a real impact on helping the university embrace entrepreneurialism,” Ken Beall, spokesman for The Beall Family Foundation and chair of the board of Beall Applied Innovation, told the Business Journal.
The organization “became more focused on how to work with the region to enable more opportunity for emerging businesses to scale up and have a lasting impact. That will be the legacy of Richard’s time at Applied Innovation.”
“I’m proud of how we impacted the entrepreneurial ecosystem,” Sudek added.
“We became a center of gravity for the ecosystem. We saw about 50,000 people through our doors.”
New Chapters Ahead
The common thread between all of Sudek’s endeavors?
“I like to get things started,” he said. “I’m a bootstrap entrepreneur.”
Sudek received his bachelor’s in computer science from UCI, and started computer consulting company Nadek Computer Systems at the age of 24 with $250. Some 17 years later, he sold the business to Science Applications International Corp.
He returned to school after selling his company, earning a master’s degree in organizational behavior studies, an executive MBA, and a Ph.D. in management from Claremont Graduate University.
Sudek went on to teach entrepreneurship at Chapman University and became an angel investor through groups, such as Tech Coast Angels and Golden Seeds, before joining UCI.
As for the next chapter of Applied Innovation as a more mature organization, it’s looking to leverage “world-class engineering, computer science, biological and life sciences research, and continued investments in healthcare,” Ken Beall said.
The region has a “unique combination to develop research-based innovations. We’re inclined to build on that strength.”
Beall, who is on the search committee for Applied Innovation’s new executive director, said the group hopes to announce a successor in the next 60 to 90 days.
Value-Driven Adviser
Providing mentorship to new entrepreneurs has always been a passion for Sudek.
One of his recent mentees is Leen Kawas, chief executive of Athira Pharma (Nasdaq: ATHA), a clinical-stage drugmaker in Massachusetts that went public last September and sports a nearly $650 million market cap.
“She’s bringing an Alzheimer’s drug that reverses some of the symptoms of the disease to market, and she’s doing it for about $300 million, whereas most drugs take about a billion dollars to develop,” Sudek said.
“She’s a rock star, a scientist and immigrant from Jordan. What she’s done is a huge accomplishment.”
Sudek said supporting anyone, as long as they make an honest living, is a value that’s been “deep rooted” in his family and upbringing. While events of the last year regarding race relations made him more aware of systemic issues, he said it’s still an area of focus that he’s been thinking about for several years.
Ongoing commitments include participation in a Series A fund launching for women, minorities and people of color. The fund will be led by General Partner Landon Taylor, an investor, founder of STEM and workforce development program Base 11, and a former executive at Santa Ana-based title insurance giant First American Financial Corp. (NYSE: FAF).
“We need more investment in underserved populations,” Sudek said.
“A lot of it has to do with network—the network that so many of us take for granted—but people from different backgrounds and families might not have access to the same networks. Networks produce connections to money, mentoring and other forms of support.”
Ultimately, more investment in underserved communities will “create a flywheel of successful entrepreneurs of color, and those entrepreneurs will likely reinvest and mentor others,” Sudek said.
“It’s a snowball effect.”
