UCSD - University of California - San Diego

12/05/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 12/05/2025 14:12

Horizon Accelerator Bridges University Innovation Gap with Formation of Distinguished Advisory Board

Published Date

December 05, 2025

Article Content

While universities generate breakthrough discoveries at unprecedented rates, most innovations never reach the market. UC San Diego alone produces 437 invention disclosures annually from $1.7 billion in research funding, yet only 15-20 become startups each year. The gap isn't talent or science quality-it's a fundamental mismatch between how universities create innovation and how traditional accelerators try to scale it.

Today, Horizon Accelerator announced the formation of its inaugural Advisory Board to address what researchers call the "commercialization valley of death", the critical $250,000 to $2 million early-stage funding gap where science-driven ventures most often fail. This distinguished group of leaders will guide Horizon's mission to accelerate research-based innovations toward measurable economic, environmental, and societal impact.

"Most accelerators push all startups through the same 12-week program, whether you're building a consumer app or developing a novel therapeutic," said Shane Moise, Director of Horizon Accelerator. "That approach fails founders who need 12-16 months to hit meaningful inflection points. This Advisory Board helps us build infrastructure that doesn't just move science from lab to market, but ensures it creates measurable impact in the world while generating real revenue and attracting venture backing."

Since launch, Horizon has supported 54 companies with 29 currently in residence. These ventures have collectively raised nearly $30 million in a region where $5.7 billion in venture capital has been deployed in 2025. With a target of supporting 25-30 ventures annually, Horizon aims to meaningfully increase the conversion rate from university discovery to sustainable enterprise.

Advisory Board Members:

Joel Oubre

Joel Oubre is Area Vice President - Digital, Retail Consumer Goods & Manufacturing at Salesforce, where he specializes in helping early-stage and high-growth companies align technology solutions with strategic priorities. With over 14 years at Salesforce, Joel has built high-impact teams and championed equitable access to technological advancement. A dedicated advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, Joel approaches leadership with a dual commitment to professional achievement and community impact.

Devon Tolliver

Devon Tolliver serves in UC San Diego's Office of Research and Innovation, where for over nine years they have crafted strategic partnerships with government agencies and industry stakeholders to enhance the university's global research reputation. Devon spearheaded Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) initiatives in 2020, co-chairing the Research and Innovation EDI Committee before being appointed to an official EDI leadership position.

"Horizon represents a fundamental shift in how we think about research commercialization at UC San Diego," said Tolliver. "We're not just creating companies-we're building sustainable infrastructure that compounds over time, ensuring our most promising innovations find pathways to impact while maintaining our commitment to equity and inclusion throughout the journey."

Patrick Giblin

Patrick Giblin is Founder and Principal of 451 Degrees Inc. and brings over 20 years of experience building AI-powered solutions from concept to commercial success. Patrick developed a patented Contextual Relevancy AI Ecosystem adopted by Meta, Netflix, Amazon, Walmart, and Oracle, with five issued U.S. patents. His entrepreneurial journey includes raising capital from Andreessen Horowitz, Social Capital, and 8VC, and scaling solutions that process over 200 million content items daily. As a founding member of TheGolfer.com, Patrick helped grow the company from startup to a $220M valuation.

I've raised from top-tier VCs and built companies from scratch-but I've also made every mistake in the book," said Giblin. "That's exactly what early-stage founders need: someone who knows where the landmines are because they've stepped on them. The decision-making framework gets forged in the hardest moments, and Horizon is built to deliver that kind of real operational guidance-not polished advice from people who've never lived it.

David Pelling

David Pelling is an experienced finance and technology professional currently working as an independent consultant and investor. David has led and managed a Family Office and Private Foundation, served as partner in online giving platform Mogiv and CFO for crypto giving solution Engiven. His product management experience spans Point Predictive, CoreLogic, FICO, and HNC Software, while his finance leadership includes roles as Vice President of Finance for MD7 and in Corporate Finance for Intel Corporation.

Alex Ferre

Alex Ferre serves as Corporate Development Lead at Hybrid Reefs, where he leads fundraising efforts to deploy advanced biomaterials protecting global coral reefs in changing ocean environments. Alex brings diverse experience spanning biotechnology business development at Ajinomoto Althea and Invivoscribe, leadership as Executive Director of the ALMA Life Sciences Foundation, and current work with ALMA Blue focused on ocean health and climate solutions.

The Understand, Identify, Execute Framework in Practice

Horizon's approach draws from evidence-based entrepreneurship research pioneered by institutions like Creative Destruction Lab and frameworks used by leaders at companies like Meta. Rather than generic "office hours," Horizon applies a rigorous three-phase methodology with each founder team:

  1. Understand: Deep assessment of current state, team composition, IP position, market validation, funding runway, and revenue potential. Teams work with advisors to map their actual position, not where they wish they were.

  1. Identify: Pinpoint the 2-3 critical milestones that unlock next-stage growth. This might be a key hire, strategic partnership, first pilot customer, FDA milestone, or capital raise. The focus is on identifying the highest-leverage opportunities specific to each venture's stage and market.

  1. Execute: Deploy targeted ecosystem resources, advisors, partners, capital connections, technical expertise, to achieve those specific milestones with precision. Founders move through 3-month milestone sprints over 16-24 months, the actual timeline for meaningful inflection points across diverse industries.

This milestone-driven acceleration has proven effective across health innovations, climate solutions, AI platforms, advanced materials, and beyond. Horizon remains industry-agnostic, focusing instead on two key criteria: ventures that are venture-backable and those positioned to generate revenue quickly.

Why the Traditional Accelerator Model Fails University Innovation

Research shows that most university technology transfer efforts suffer from what scholars call "the linear model fallacy", the assumption that good science naturally progresses through predictable stages to commercial success. In reality, the path from lab to market is iterative, non-linear, and requires different resources at different inflection points.

Traditional accelerators compound this problem by:

  • Fixed cohorts that force artificial timelines: A therapeutic navigating regulatory pathways operates on fundamentally different timelines than a SaaS platform. Both can be venture-backable; both can generate meaningful revenue but forcing them through identical 12-week programs serves neither.

  • Standardized curriculum that ignores context: A biotech founder needs FDA strategy and clinical trial design, not Facebook ads training. A climate hardware startup needs manufacturing partnerships and grant strategy, not consumer growth hacking.

  • Demo day mentality that optimizes performance over sustainability: The goal isn't a polished pitch; it's building companies that create lasting economic, environmental, and societal impact.

Horizon's rolling engagement model allows founders to enter when they're ready and progress at the pace their venture demands. This approach recognizes what recent research on science-driven entrepreneurship confirms: the most successful university spinouts are those that receive sustained, context-specific support matched to their actual development stage.

Building Regional Infrastructure with Global Impact

San Diego's innovation ecosystem is at an inflection point. While the region secured $5.7 billion in venture investment in 2025, much of that capital flows to later-stage companies. Early-stage, science-driven ventures still face structural barriers accessing the $250,000 to $2 million needed to reach institutional investment readiness.

Horizon addresses this gap not through direct funding, but by building the connective tissue between university research excellence, regional capital, industry expertise, and market opportunities. This is infrastructure in the truest sense; it is persistent, compounding, and designed to strengthen with each cohort of founders who move through it.

The Advisory Board volunteers their time, effort, and energy, and in doing so provide strategic guidance across funding pathways and investor connections, go-to-market strategy and commercialization readiness, sector-specific expertise spanning health, climate, AI, and emerging technologies, partnership development across industry and government, and ensuring equity and inclusion remain central to Horizon's programs and expanding community.

Join the Movement

Horizon invites investors to explore Beyond Horizon, the program's investor engagement platform connecting capital with science-driven ventures positioned for growth. Unlike traditional demo days, Beyond Horizon provides ongoing access to ventures that have already demonstrated milestone achievement and market traction.

Strategic advisors with expertise across industries, particularly those who've successfully navigated the journey from research to revenue, are encouraged to apply to join Horizon's expanding network of mentors and partners.

If successful, Horizon's model could reshape how research universities commercialize innovation, moving from transactional accelerator relationships toward sustained ecosystem infrastructure that compounds over time. The question isn't whether universities can generate breakthrough science. They already do. The question is whether we can build the infrastructure to ensure that science serves humanity at scale. Apply to become an Advisor with Horizon at UC San Diego.

About Horizon Accelerator

Horizon Accelerator is UC San Diego's next-generation accelerator designed to move research-based and science-driven innovations toward real-world impact. Serving as a bridge between discovery and deployment, Horizon connects founders, faculty, and students with investors, mentors, and partners to scale solutions across health, climate, deep technology, and emerging industries. Operating from UC San Diego's Design and Innovation Building, Horizon is building the infrastructure and movement to platform regional innovation globally, empowering innovators to move beyond proof-of-concept toward proof-of-impact. Learn more at beyondhorizon.ucsd.edu.​​​​​​

UCSD - University of California - San Diego published this content on December 05, 2025, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on December 05, 2025 at 20:12 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]