How we help | Mentoring
Mentoring for tech transfer professionals.
Practical, experience-led mentoring for tech transfer offices and research innovation teams. Three tiers, from a six-week Foundations Program for new staff through to an Embedded Commercialisation Mentor working alongside your team. Built around real deals, real disclosures and real decisions, not theory.
20+ YEARS IN THE TECH TRANSFER TRENCHES
When you’re staring at a term sheet at 11pm wondering if you’re about to make a million-dollar mistake, you don’t want someone who learned about licensing from a case study. You want someone who has been in that room, negotiated those clauses, and can tell you which battles are worth fighting. That’s the difference between advice and wisdom.
Who it’s for
Built for the people doing the actual tech transfer work
Whether you’re new to the role, balancing a stretched portfolio, or running an office that’s outgrown its capacity, our mentoring meets you where you are.
New tech transfer professionals
Early-career staff moving into commercialisation from a research background, a legal background, or a fresh role at a TTO. You need foundations, fast.
Practitioners on live deals
Experienced staff currently working through a licence negotiation, a partnership conversation or a stalled disclosure. You need senior support in the room, or a sounding board for ideas, not theory.
TTO directors & team leads
Office leaders looking to lift team capability, support complex deals, and shape the culture of how commercialisation gets done. You need a senior mentor embedded alongside you.
OUR MENTORING PROGRAMMES
Three tiers of mentoring, tailored to your team & your goals
We run three tiers of mentoring, each shaped for a different depth of engagement. Between them, they cover the day-to-day of commercialisation work. Licence strategy, industry conversations, IP decisions, deal structure, and the calls that don’t come with a template. Some tiers are shorter and more focused. Others sit alongside your team for months at a time, going deeper into the office and the work.
Every team is different, and the right fit depends on where you are, what you’re working through, and where you’d like the mentoring to take you. The best next step is a conversation. Have a chat with us and we’ll help you land on the tier that makes the most sense.
What you actually get
Practical, deal-shaped guidance from someone who has done the work
Across all three tiers, we focus on the things that move commercialisation forward in practice. The list below is the shorthand version.
Licence negotiation strategy & deal structuring
Royalty thinking, deal shape and partner positioning, grounded in the deals we’ve closed and the ones we’ve walked away from.
Industry engagement & partnership development
How to open the right doors, how to keep the conversation alive when momentum stalls, and how to know when to pivot to a different partner.
IP commercialisation pathways
Licence, spin-out or industry partnership, mapped against your team’s reality. Not every IP wants the same future, and we help you read which one yours wants.
Managing complex or stalled deals
Where the conversation has gone quiet, the term sheet has gone sideways, or the researcher or innovator and the industry partner have stopped speaking the same language.
Building confidence in decision-making
The part of the job no induction ever teaches. Calling a tough conversation, holding a position under pressure, and knowing when to walk away from a deal.
Career & team capability development
How to grow as a commercialisation professional yourself, and how to grow the next person in your team.
Outcomes
What changes after the first few months
Improved confidence on live deals
Less second-guessing, fewer late-night escalations, and a clearer view on which calls to make in the room.
Stronger industry relationships
Conversations move beyond the initial pitch and into ongoing partnership, with you keeping the steering wheel.
Faster commercialisation decisions
You stop sitting on disclosures, term sheets and partnership questions, because you trust the process you’re using to read them.
A capability uplift you can measure
Especially on the Embedded tier, the office leaves the engagement noticeably stronger across the team, not just for the person in the mentoring seat.
An honest second opinion you can call
Even after the engagement ends, we’re still around. The mentoring relationship doesn’t evaporate when the retainer wraps.
From the people we’ve mentored
The shift our mentoring clients describe
“Professional & clear”
“Denise from JourneyTech provided us professional and clear direction throughout the commercialisation process and helped us navigate unfamiliar territory with confidence. Her guidance was practicable, understandable, and easy to follow.”
Florian Feirer
Director XaRo Pty Ltd
“Eternally grateful”
“Denise and JourneyTech saw the potential of our product in a completely unknown market space. Denise has worked tirelessly to convert our device from sitting on a shelf to now being sold worldwide. This simply would not have occurred without her knowledge, expertise, and tenacity. We are eternally grateful for her honesty, fairness and trustworthiness.”
Jeremy Young
Incident Management Industries
“Invaluable partner”
Denise (JourneyTech), brings outstanding commercialisation insight and a strong commitment to turning innovations into tangible impact. Her collaborative style, ability to engage both researchers and commercial stakeholders, and drive to deliver outcomes make her an invaluable partner on any project.
jane Banovac
Commercialisation Lead Agriculture Victoria Services
How we help
Six tailored offerings to help your organisation innovate
Strategic Advisory
For TTO directors and research leaders who want senior counsel on the office-level questions in parallel with team mentoring.
Explore strategic advisory
Tech Transfer Office Support
For universities whose in-house TTO is stretched thin. Embedded mentor plus external TTO support gives you full coverage without the headcount.
Explore TTO support
Licensing Strategy & Negotiation
When the mentoring conversation surfaces a live deal that needs hands-on negotiation support, this pathway plugs straight in.
Explore licensing strategy
Ready to get started?
Your research deserves a clear path from idea to market, and beyond.
Whether you’re weighing up your first innovation or scoping a long-term partnership, we’d be glad to talk it through. No pitch deck, no committee, just a conversation about what’s possible.