Innovaro CEO: Look beyond quarter

The CEO of Innovaro, the Ybor City-based company formerly known as UTEK Corp., says it will take a few more quarters to judge its performance and, more importantly, educate potential investors on what it does.

Innovaro, which changed its ticker symbol this spring to INV from UTK, has gone beyond simply being a conduit for universities to transfer technology to the private sector. It has reorganized into three lines of business — strategic services and innovation consulting; technology marketplaces; and insights and research.

“We want to be thought of as global,” says Doug Schaedler, who took over as CEO of Innovaro nearly a year ago from UTEK founder and former University of South Florida biomechanics professor Clifford Gross. He says Innovaro is striving to work with larger companies that want to improve their innovation capabilities.

In recent years, the 14-year-old company had become too fragmented through growth and acquisition. “The universities didn't really get what we did anymore,” Schaedler tells Coffee Talk, adding that the new brand will allow Innovaro to drive a new message to clients. “It's a refreshing change for the company and will position us really well.”

In the meantime, Innovaro needs to improve its financial performance. The company last week posted first-quarter revenue of $2.3 million, down $500,000 from the same three months in 2009, though it reduced its loss from operations to $1.6 million from $2.1 million over the year. Schaedler says much of the loss is from expenses such as severance agreements and debt reduction payments.

Innovaro, which has traded below $4 per share in recent weeks, has roughly 3,000 shareholders, mainly professors and doctors. However, Schaedler doesn't have to be too concerned with what Wall Street thinks since there are currently no analysts covering the company.