MIT Proto Ventures is the Institute's in-house venture studio - a program designed not to support existing startups, but to create entirely new ones from the ground up. Operating at the intersection of breakthrough research and urgent real-world problems, Proto Ventures proactively builds startups that leverage MIT technologies, talent, and ideas to address high-impact industry challenges.
Each venture-building effort begins with a "channel" - a defined domain such as clean energy, fusion, or AI in health care - where MIT is uniquely positioned to lead, and where there are pressing real-world problems needing solutions. Proto Ventures hires full-time venture builders, deeply technical entrepreneurs who embed in MIT labs, connect with faculty, scout promising inventions, and explore unmet market needs. These venture builders work alongside researchers and aspiring founders from across MIT who are accepted into Proto Ventures' fellowship program to form new teams, shape business concepts, and drive early-stage validation. Once a venture is ready to spin out, Proto Ventures connects it with MIT's broader innovation ecosystem, including incubation programs, accelerators, and technology licensing.
David Cohen-Tanugi SM '12, PhD '15 has been the venture builder for the fusion and clean energy channel since 2023.
Q: What are the challenges of launching startups out of MIT labs? In other words, why does MIT need a venture studio?
A: MIT regularly takes on the world's "holy grail" challenges, such as decarbonizing heavy industry, preventing future pandemics, or adapting to climate extremes. Yet despite its extraordinary depth in research, too few of MIT's technical breakthroughs evolve into successful startups targeting these problems. Not enough technical breakthroughs in MIT labs are turning into commercial efforts to address these highest-impact problems.
There are a few reasons for this. Right now, it takes a great deal of serendipity for a technology or idea in the lab to evolve into a startup project within the Institute's ecosystem. Great startups don't just emerge from great technology alone - they emerge from combinations of great technology, unmet market needs, and committed people.
A second reason is that many MIT researchers don't have the time, professional incentives, or skill set to commercialize a technology. They often lack someone that they can partner with, someone who is technical enough to understand the technology but who also has experience bringing technologies to market.
