Vince Scott, SENTIR Research Labs | Tulsa COG2019
Transcription:
Clint Parr: Here comes Vince Scott. And I’ve been telling stories about people’s hometowns and things of that nature. We’re not really sure where Vince is from.
But I will tell you — Vince, come on out here.
So, Vince’s professional career started in Annapolis, Maryland, and here is the path that he took to get to Tulsa, Oklahoma, but six months ago,
Vince Scott: Correct.
Clint Parr: Right. Okay, so we went from Annapolis, Maryland, moved to Mayport, Florida. Then Newport, Rhode Island. Then he moved to Pascagoula, Mississippi. Then he moved to Norfolk, Virginia, than Ellicott City, Maryland, then Pensacola, Florida, Harrogate, Great Britain, then Pinellas Park, Florida, Largo, Florida. They moved to Italy, and your left Nicola—
Vince Scott: —Nicola.
Clint Parr: Nicola and Kappa Ticino, Italy that he moved from Italy to Fort Gordon Georgia, from Fort Gordon, Georgia to Stuttgart Germany, from Stuttgart, Germany to Stillwater, Oklahoma from Stillwater, Oklahoma Cincinnati and from Cincinnati to Tulsa.
Vince Scott: I can’t believe you said all of that.
Clint Parr: Welcome, Vince Scott. It’s all set. Yes, his wife knows how to pack and move.
Vince Scott:Yes, thank you, Chris, for all the support moves.
So, Clint made a great intro. So, why am I here? I’m here for three things. First, I believe in our people — and I really mean that. I believe in the people in Oklahoma. I believe in the people in the Midwest. There is tremendous capability and capacity in the people we have and there can be no greater resource. The second thing I believe in is our community. Tulsa is a great community. This is a great place to live. This is a great place to raise families. It’s affordable. One of the previous speakers mentioned how’s the traffic working out for you in DC? Right? Or Dallas or Atlanta? Try driving there at five o’clock. This is a great place to live to raise a family affordably, to send your kids to a good school. Tulsa is really a wonderful community.
And finally, I believe in the opportunities.
I feel like there’s this nexus of opportunity coming together in Tulsa with the that we have here. It’s going to take work to make it real — to turn those opportunities into real value, into real companies, into real solutions, into real problems. But we have all the pieces here that we need to do that. We’ve got the city support. We’ve got support from organizations like the George Kaiser (Family) Foundation. We’ve got a great university system here. Not only the University of Tulsa, but we’ve got OU Tulsa, OSU, and other universities in Oklahoma. There is a tremendous amount of opportunity here in Oklahoma.
So, let’s talk just for a second about SENTIR Research Laboratories. We really — I want to thank Chuck. This is Chuck Colon’s brainchild. You heard him talk you up here as the CEO of STI TECH when we came out, but really SENTIR is his baby and really it’s founded on what can I do to make things better? Right? How do I grow my community? How do I make things better here in the state? So, as we look at what we’re doing, from SENTIR Research Laboratories, really we have that foundational community spirit in everything that we do and the lens through which we look at the world.
And SENTIR is focused right now on two main areas, I would say. First is bringing federal research and development dollars to the community. We believe that research helps drive innovation, small business, technical companies. And the second part is how do you commercialize that? There is a tremendous amount of intellectual property out there that is never turned into effective solutions for real problems, right? There are patents across the board, one of the other speakers mentioned. The Federal Department of Energy has 19,000 patents posted to their website and they would like hope turning their into viable companies and capabilities that can help automation. I think there’s a lot of capacity to do that here in Oklahoma. And so what we want to do is join up that federal research and development piece with an effective commercialization piece that’s going to create companies. SENTIR is planning to start 10 to 15 new companies around existing technology or new research or development technology in the next year. We’ve got three of those companies present here today. We’ve got a fourth in quantum computing operating in stealth mode, and more to follow.
So, we’re doing real work today to start to push this. I called this “year zero” for SENTIR Research Laboratories. 2020 is going to be year one and we are going to be running out the gate to make things better. The theme of this, of COG, though, is collaboration. So, in order to do that, we need to collaborate — not necessarily compete. We need to look at, “how do we make this a team effort across what we’re doing, across our companies, across our community, across our university system, so that we can bring the best and brightest to the table to make really viable companies that are going to add jobs and add to our economy here in Oklahoma.
So, with that, Clint also told me I am standing between everyone in the bar so that I shouldn’t talk for too long. I want to finish with two words that really mean a lot to me and to SENTIR Research Laboratories. The first of those is integrity. I’ve had the opportunity to work both in the federal government and in the commercial space now for a number of years. For me, integrity means everything. This is what we need to be about. I see a ton of that here in Oklahoma. And as we look at how we interact with entrepreneurs, innovators, universities, companies here in Oklahoma, I will tell all of you integrity is going to be a huge part of what we plan to be.
I talk to innovators, throughout this year, one of the things that I’ve been telling them is, “I am not out to be a vulture capitalist. I am not here to steal your company. I am here to look for capabilities that we can help companies grow and be better—particularly here in Oklahoma.” The second word that means a lot to me is “instigate.” So, “incubate” is a word that’s used a lot. We’ve coined the term “instigate” here at SENTIR. To me that has a piece of leadership and drive to it that “incubate” does not. We’re not waiting for someone to come to us with an idea or capability. We are out there looking for them. And we’re looking for ways to drive them and say, “You know what, that is a great idea. You’re doing a little bit with it here. How do I instigate a company to solve another problem over here?” Maybe in the federal space or maybe in the federal space and the commercial space, and actually in our, in our first six or seven months here, we’ve actually talked to companies about creating a new company that goes in both directions. Those are the kinds of things that we think about when it comes to “instigate.” So, we at SENTIR Laboratories really appreciate everybody coming out today. We’re glad you’re here. Please take the time to network and connect. There’s a lot of significant people in this room right now today, particularly from here from Oklahoma, but we’ve also had a number of come from out of state. We’ve got a representative from the Navy Small Business Office here and others that are real opportunities for you to collaborate. So, please take advantage of that. And don’t spend all your time with the bar? Clint — anything else you think we need to say?
Clint Parr: How about a round of applause for you, Vince? Thank you.
Learn more about the Tulsa Center of Gravity (COG) Group here.
