A discussion is provided of venture firms seeking out of 'various approaches to sniff out the most promising university innovations that can be turned into successful companies. Commenting are spokespeople for VC (venture capital) companies Morgenthaler Ventures and The Foundry. A good strategy, says Ken Gullicksen of Morgenthaler, is to become involved in the lives of university students. Mr Gullicksen has done so by being a judge for the 2002 Stanford Business Plan Contest, an annual event with a $25,000 prize that was in part underwritten by his company. Although no one else on the panel was excited about Matt Pauker's and Richi Kacker's slick e-mail encryption entry, Mr. Gullicksen was impressed with its potential and helped them sharpen their message while urging them to develop a platform for e-mail encryption rather than marketing magic. Three years later Voltage Security, had raised $30.6 million and had a spot on the Red Herring Top 100. The Foundry, which has a team of four executives who create prototypes for testing from ideas for medical devices, build companies around the ideas and work as the startup's management team until it is ready to have its first VC round. An example of a company started by The Foundry is Cierra, which was formed after a Foundry executive saw the need for a noninvasive tool that would be used to fix a heart defect. The Foundry has spun off nine companies since 1998, and none have been acquired or gone public, but VCs still like the model.