Advice for start-ups in Hauppauge Wednesday

Lawrence Weber is the "entrepreneur in residence" at Stony Brook University. Wednesday, he'll share his expertise -- gained from 15 years of work experience at a Fortune 500 company and running his own consultancy -- with would-be entrepreneurs.

At a talk before the Suffolk County Inventors and Entrepreneurs Club, Weber will offer advice on how to get a new product from idea to prototype and on creative ways to obtain funding for a new business. He said he also wants to aid potential entrepreneurs in understanding what they want out of starting a business.

At Stony Brook, Weber serves as the business development manager for the Center for Advanced Technology in Diagnostic Tools and Sensor Systems, and for the Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology. Those two centers are funded to promote research and collaboration between the public and private sectors, Weber said, and he wants to share how entrepreneurs can take advantage of resources there.

"I'm on a mission to enhance economic impact in the state of New York," he said.

"A start-up company doesn't need a complicated business plan. You just need to show what you have and be able to back that up -- you have to be able to explain succinctly . . . why someone would want to buy your product and why they won't get the product from somewhere else."

Weber focuses his counseling at Stony Brook on start-ups in the technical engineering and information technology fields. He started his career as an academic -- obtaining a PhD in physical chemistry from Michigan State University and doing research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, before leaving to work at Port Washington-based Pall Corp.

He then left to start his own consulting company, TechMark Corp. in Brookhaven, before joining Stony Brook five years ago. Weber has held the title of entrepreneur in residence since 2009.

Professionally, Weber's specialty is in technology commercialization -- bringing newly developed technologies to market so they can be sold and used. That skill set could be valuable in programs like Accelerate Long Island, which is trying to promote the growth of start-up businesses with new research and technology from local universities.

Weber said he has met with officials at Accelerate and hopes to expand on his ideas with them.

"We're really eager to work with guys like Larry; he's a very eager proponent of entrepreneurship and tech commercialization," said Mark Lesko, Accelerate's new executive director.

Weber's talk takes place at 7 p.m. at the H. Lee Dennison Building, 100 Veterans Hwy. in Hauppauge. It is free and open to the public.