The University of Georgia is proud to partner with the 13 other Southeastern Conference (SEC) universities to launch the Southeast Executives-on-Roster (XOR) platform, a collaboration to broaden access to experienced entrepreneurial talent and to match that talent to university-affiliated startups needing executive management.

The XOR project started with a discussion at the annual meeting of the SEC Technology Transfer Directors in July 2017. After the discussion, the University of Kentucky’s Office of Technology Commercialization led a year-long collaborative development process with all 14 of the SEC university technology transfer offices.

The process included choosing a software platform development partner, creating the core principles for the platform, designing the specifications for the platform, drafting a guide to govern the platform’s use and operations, and recruiting and qualifying entrepreneurs and startups to populate the system. The software platform was developed by Wellspring, a technology commercialization software development company.

The research scope at each SEC university is broader than its immediately accessible entrepreneur talent network. By combining the networks of all participating universities, startup companies will be able to access a larger talent pool and have a greater chance of finding credible and fundable executive management. Similarly, qualified Southeast XOR entrepreneurs will able to review and explore a larger pipeline of potential opportunities in a central, more user-friendly space.

UGA is partnering on the Southeast XOR with the following universities: Auburn University, Louisiana State University, Mississippi State University, Texas A&M University, University of Alabama, University of Arkansas, University of Florida, University of Kentucky, University of Mississippi, University of Missouri, University of South Carolina, University of Tennessee, and Vanderbilt University.