Founded in 2000, Acuity Edge was designed to offer large-firm capacity with small-firm care. Directly and through strategic partners, we have realized millions of dollars in revenue for clients including government agencies, universities, corporations, startups, and investors. Frequent client requests include invention evaluation & marketing for tech transfer offices, market & opportunity analysis for corporations, and diligence & strategy development for investors.
9 CORE COMPETENCIES
Experienced Staff
On average, our commercialization experts have over 20 years of industry experience, an advanced engineering or science degree, and intellectual property expertise.
Market Research
Maintain subscriptions for top-flight access to leading company, contact, market research, news, technology, and patent databases.
Broad Expertise
Evaluated and marketed thousands of client inventions, spanning numerous engineering and life science disciplines.
Primary Research
Utilize networks, seasoned staff, and skills training to identify subject matter experts and obtain insights through surveys, focus groups, and especially in-depth interviews.
Contact Network
Maintain a network of over 10,000 contacts to open doors for deals and capital in Fortune 500 firms, high-growth unicorns, midsized companies, and investors.
Art of Simplification
Known for simplifying complex technologies into compelling marketing messages to pique the interest of business professionals and investors.
Standard & Custom
Provide service uniquely tailored to client needs, while also providing standardized offerings that have proven effective across multiple customer types.
Results Focused
Reports don't generate results - actions do. Focus efforts on generating market demand, fostering partnerships, and closing deals.
About the President and CEO
CPVA (Certified Patent Valuation Analyst)
BS Biotechnology, James Madison University
QUINLIN MCCORMICK
Quinlin McCormick is President & CEO of Acuity Edge (AE), where he leads end‑to‑end technology commercialization programs that move complex inventions from disclosure to license. Since joining AE in 2019, he has been a key contributor in engagements with major TTOs (e.g., NASA), overseeing disclosure triage, technical and market diligence, positioning, and targeted outreach. Across these efforts, his teams have delivered over 2,000 technology evaluations and built focused marketing campaigns for a wide range of technologies. On average, TTO clients have experienced 100% licensing growth and 50% reductions in patent filing costs.
Beyond TTOs, McCormick leads engagements for disruptive firms, corporate innovation groups, and investors/acquirers, including new‑product planning, technology scouting, technology/IP valuation, and due diligence in emerging and deep‑tech markets. His commercialization approach blends rigorous techno‑economic assessment with primary customer discovery and direct marketing to decision‑makers, ensuring the right message reaches the right buyer at the right time. McCormick’s project portfolio spans advanced materials & manufacturing, life sciences & diagnostics, energy & sustainability, autonomy & robotics, space & aeronautics, AI & data systems, and semiconductors & electronics/optics.
Earlier in his career, McCormick served as a commercialization contractor at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and as a licensing and commercialization analyst in James Madison University’s Office of Technology Innovation. He has also worked as a consultant and in go‑to‑market and business‑development roles across the biotech, fintech, and digital asset markets. He advises student consulting teams in Duke University’s Consulting Practicum Program within the Master of Engineering Management (MEM) program, guiding engagements with venture‑backed technology companies.
McCormick holds a B.S. in Biotechnology (Genomics & Bioinformatics; focuses in Computer Science and Business) from James Madison University, where he received the Margaret A. Gordon Memorial Scholarship for Excellence in Undergraduate Research. He is a Certified Patent Valuation Analyst (CPVA). In addition to his consulting engagements, he is currently designing AE’s AI‑enabled workflows to modernize the technology‑transfer lifecycle.
About the Founder
MBA Duke University
MS Materials Engineering, North Carolina State University
BS Electrical Engineering, North Carolina State University
BS Materials Engineering, North Carolina State University
JOSEPH HOLMES, MS, MBA
After a decade of industry experience in R&D and technology commercialization, Joseph (Joey) Holmes founded Acuity Edge (AE) in 2000 to provide innovation management and business strategy services. Through many roles within the innovation and new-ventures landscape— inventor, product developer, entrepreneur, board member, and professor — Joseph Holmes has built a career surrounding the commercialization of technology. Most recently, he guides AE as the leading technology transfer contractor across all NASA centers and headquarters – helping to get NASA innovations into the hands of US industry.
Holmes helps entrepreneurs with business plans, judges plan competitions, advises venture investors, serves on company boards, negotiates license deals, values technology, and conducts SBIR reviews. His thoughts on commercialization have been presented domestically and internationally for the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), the Licensing Executive Society (LES), NASA, and the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and are published in the Industrial Research Institute’s Research-Technology Management and BusinessWeek.
Since 2005, Holmes has also taught Commercializing Technology Innovations (CTI) and served as director of the Consulting Practicum Program (CPP) as an adjunct professor in the Master of Engineering Management (MEM) Program at Duke University. Through his connections with industry and customer orientation, he has harvested and led over 280 industry practicum projects with Fortune 500 companies, Unicorns, and venture-backed startups that include Amazon, Apttus, BloomEnergy, Carbon, Cisco, Citrix, Deutsche Bank, Fanatics, GSK, Groupon, IBM, Kabbage, Lenovo, Microsoft, NetApp, Nokia, Parsons, Planet, SES Americom, Skanska, Square, TIAA, and Verizon.