About Us
Denichiro "Denny" Otsuga, Ph.D., RTTP
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Denny was born and raised in Japan and moved to the US when he was 14 with his father who was a metallurgical engineer sent to assist a steel company in Ohio.
Denny studied biology and eventually received a Ph.D. in molecular genetics. After seven years of his research career in an academic laboratory, which resulted in eight peer reviewed journal articles, Denny switched his career path to enter the technology transfer field in 2002. From there, he worked in a startup biotechnology company outside Los Angeles, where he had a role to acquire technologies from universities and sponsor research projects at universities. Since then, he has achieved progressively higher management roles at academic technology transfer operations, most recently as the Vice President of CSU Ventures, Inc., an independent intellectual property management and commercialization entity managing intellectual properties and the startup process on contract with Colorado State University. After realizing his hypocrisy of encouraging others to take risks to start a venture, he has not taken risks as a university administrator, acting as a bureaucrat. After CSU Ventures, Denny created a company that grew rapidly and exited for 20x the initial investment. Denny mentors and invests in venture founders as the Director of Venture Community Development at Rockies Venture Club, the longest-operating angel investment group in the world. Denny also gives his time to help entrepreneurs as a consultant at Larimer Small Business Development Center (SBDC). |