Tell Me More: A Conversation with Your I-Corps Team: Kevin Moriarty, Sr.
- 12 hours ago
- 7 min read
Kevin M. Moriarty, Sr. is an assistant professor of practice and undergraduate program director in the Department of Technology and Society at Stony Brook University. He teaches the Technological Systems Management and Global Operations Management programs. He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses at Stony Brook University’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences since 1997.
Where did you grow up, and what sparked your interest in entrepreneurship?
I grew up in Middle Island, which is in Eastern Long Island, back when that was a rural, agricultural area. My first job was on a potato farm!
My father was a small business owner; he had a construction firm. I started working with him when I was six–running around the job site, picking things up. As time progressed, I worked with brick and concrete. My dad always said I should be an engineer—he didn’t want me to have to do physical labor, outside.
After graduating from high school, I served in the Army—I was a surveyor in the Army Corps of Engineers. I spent nearly eight years in the Army after the Vietnam War. I’m proud to say I was inducted into the NY State Veterans Hall of Fame in 2019. I got my first degree in business management but wanted to go to college for engineering—I went back to school in industrial engineering and then went into manufacturing, working for a Navy contractor.
I always had a passion to have my own business and be an entrepreneur. I started a small business doing engine repair and reselling. It was a mature market already, and tough to enter. I closed that and a few years later opened a business doing manufacturing contracting work. The 1980s manufacturing downturn provide too challenging, and I ultimately closed that as well. But I kept that interest in entrepreneurship.
What is a professor of practice? How did you come to work at Stony Brook?
Professor of Practice is a term describing professors like me who have an academic background but also decades of professional experience. It was my industry work that first connected me to Stony Brook. I was chief engineer on a product line at Siemens, and from there I joined Festo, where I was VP of manufacturing and North American operations. I spoke at a conference in New York City, and Stony Brook approached and asked me to teach. I began as an adjunct, and when I retired from my industry roles, I came to Stony Brook full time, in 2013.
I did my MBA while at Siemens and got an industrial engineering master’s as well. I had started a PhD while at Festo but had stopped because of the demands of work and travel. When I came to Stony Brook full-time, I restarted my PhD at the age of 60.
What was your first introduction to I-Corps? How has your role evolved?
I had an advisor with an industrial career like mine. He suggested that I do a regional I-Corps at NJIT; my idea was aligned with his research on manufacturing predictive service maintenance. Essentially, we were using industrial machinery to predict for how long equipment might be down for service.
I did a regional cohort at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) in 2018 and applied for a patent and then applied to participate in a national I-Corps in 2020. My mentor, Dr Paul Ranky of NJIT, was instrumental in helping to move that forward. He is a faculty member in the department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. He was my PhD advisor and the technical lead of our team; he’s also a great engineer. Another key influence at that stage was Ray Vaccari, the industry mentor for our national team. He also has several decades of manufacturing and quality control experience with several commercial industry organizations.
I did my national cohort with CUNY, which is how I first got to know John Blaho and others at the New York Hub. Later, I I reached out to John and Ariella [Trotsenko] to see if they could use another I-Corps mentor—that’s how I started working with regional cohorts at the New York Hub. I served in an adjunct role with CUNY for the first time in 2021. And then last summer, 2025, marked the first time I was part of a teaching team for a national I-Corps cohort. A year ago, the faculty lead of Stony Brook’s I-Corps program approached me; now I’m supporting that effort as co-faculty lead.
What question do you wish entrepreneurs asked?
I wish entrepreneurs knew how important it is to network and get out and tell your story! They know their technology, but networking and telling the story are also important. Few technologists understand that there’s a big world out there, and you will miss out if you are so focused on your own niche that you don’t communicate with others, across industries and sectors.
For example, every car today is made with antilock brakes, but that wasn’t always the case. That’s a technology that came from the aerospace industry. Auto engineers learned about it from their aerospace counterparts and realized if you could use it to stop a jumbo jet, maybe it would have value in the automotive industry.
You also must learn what the market needs, as opposed to just trying to sell what you develop. There are so many stories of great products that never made it in the market because market didn’t want it. A classic example I use while teaching is the Apple Newton. It was meant to be a portable handheld computer, but it never got off the ground—tension between product development and engineering kept moving the goalposts of what it was meant to do. The market also wasn’t ready for it; back in 1993 it would have cost over $900. Ultimately, they reinvented it with the iPhone and iPad.
Another great example is the VHS tape versus the video disc. The latter was the size of a vinyl record; it was a better product, with greater resolution and sound, but the manufacturer of VHS had better marketing. The market saw the video disc as too much like an old-fashioned record turntable—and it never took off.
After learning about so many different customer markets, can you share a market or customer challenge that still requires a solution you’re hoping to see?
I would love to see more innovation and development in the areas of operations and manufacturing industries. I don’t see a lot of innovation in production. I think there’s a tremendous opportunity, including for the authentic use of AI in manufacturing. If you are a parts supplier, your priority is delivery time. Every minute of downtime for your client while they wait for a part can be very costly. I would love to see a system that would send a machine to 3-D print the parts you need, alongwith a technician. Often the cost of downtime is far greater than the cost of the part.
For example, back when I was working in industrial operations, I had an automated machine that brough in $25K a day in revenue. I had to replace a $15 part, but it was going to take three days to get it. I needed it immediately, so I paid for a $600 plane ticket to get it onto a shuttle flight to Islip, New York. A colleague of mine cancelled the order—he thought it had to be a mistake, but in fact it was a worthwhile value proposition! That continues to be a challenge in search of a solution.
What’s the biggest surprise you’ve experienced as an I-Corps instructor?
The biggest surprise for me, personally was that the I-Corps approach is so different from what I learned in business school! I’m always surprised by tech folks, especially, who not only aren’t familiar with this approach, but also are not prepared for traditional business steps, like quantifying your ecosystem. With my MBA, I was taught that I needed a business plan—that’s what a bank will want to see. But early investors are looking to understand what the innovation or product does and why the beachhead market needs it. What is it improving, what is it fixing? I also wasn’t familiar with how many sources there were of non-dilutive funding.
So many people come into I-Corps thinking that they need funding right away. But your real objective should be to find your beachhead and customers that will be your first movers. If you don’t find them you aren’t getting funding, unless you find investors who know the beachhead and will make that leap of faith.
What advice would you give to I-Corps participants?
The best advice is, like we say in I-Corps, “get out of the building!” Get out and find out as much as you can about your space. So often, teams need to pivot, and that’s great! It’s important not to fixate on your own area and original solution, because as the founder, you are too biased. Don’t be afraid of what you are going to learn.
Can you share a recent accomplishment?
I was flattered to be asked to teach in a national cohort of I-Corps. I’ve led many entrepreneurial and industry-based endeavors and am excited to share the important lessons I’ve learned with young innovators. I’m proud to be part of that, as well as of my role with I-Corps at Stony Brook and the NY Hub.
What are you reading (or hoping to read soon)?
I love “farfetched” science fiction. Right now, I’m reading The Last Watch by J. S. Dewes.
What do you do to relax?
I love long distance bike riding. I was on the Army cross country team but switched to cycling 30 years ago. I just got back from Tucson, Arizona—I was out there for three days and rode over 130 miles. Every year we do a ride from here [by Stony Brook] to Montauk Point—it’s just under 100 miles. We do it for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, to raise funds to fight childhood cancers. I also love doing the Five Borough Bike Tour in NYC!
