Scipreneurs/playbook/1 - inventory of ideas

<p>Starting the scipreneurial journey is not an easy decision. For many of us, it's not a specifically conscious process, but rather a combination of serendipitous things that stack with each other until it becomes self-evident that we must start something. </p> <p>However, nothing prevents us from taking the process and make it on the one hand more rational, on the other hand better directed towards avoiding pitfalls. There's no single playbook that defines a path towards success. Each process will be subject to specific conditions, contexts, teams, and opportunities. Acknowledging these differences and leveraging them is crucial to increase the odds of delivering something meaningful. </p> <p>Before you embark into the spinout journey, you can start by identifying the resources you already have and may not be aware of. </p> <h2>Founders at different stages</h2> <p>If you are thinking about spinning out, probably you fall into one of two categories. Either you have already accumulated resources but haven’t realized it yet, or you believe spinning out requires “just one more experiment” to show how useful your science is. </p> <p>If you think you still need to perform an extra measurement, then I would argue it’s too early for you. There is a phase transition in people the moment they acknowledge yet another experiment is not necessary, it's the moment to think about everything else but science. Sadly, I have seen this happen over and over again. This "one more experiment" turns into a postdoc, another student to be supervised, another paper. It ends up being just an excuse. </p> <p>And this is useful when you are scouting for co-founders as well. If the scientific co-founder is still too focus on the experiments themselves, there's a chance they are not ready to become entrepreneurs. As soon as they receive an offer for another postdoc, or a faculty position, they will honestly believe that's the best path to spinning out and will drop the project halfway. </p> <p>On the other hand, there is a very large group of people who are ready. They have an intuitive understanding of what needs to be done, but lack a small nudge towards that path. It is a daunting process, with unknown consequences to the decisions that have to be made (and there are many!). </p> <p>Each section of this <em>playbook</em> aims at lowering the uncertainty of what needs to be done. Trying to keep it real, to the point, and entertaining if possible. </p> <h2>Resources</h2> <h3>Network</h3> <p>Universities offer a wealth of resources at the moment of spinning out. The first non-obvious one (or at least easy to underestimate) is the <strong>network</strong>. PI’s have access to other researchers and even people who work for larger companies. There’s a chance you are just 1-step away from being introduced to a valuable person you couldn’t have reached on your own. </p> <p>I will stress a lot the importance of access to people through each section, because it is one of the most valuable assets scipreneurs can have. Not only for the specific task at hand, but also down the road. However, talking to the proper stakeholders is not easy if you have no one to introduce you. </p> <p>After 20 years, a PI may have graduated more than 20 PhD's. That means the average work experience of those people is 10 years. Some may have continue pursuing professorships, some may have gone to companies, the government, etc. If you add 5 more PI's that may be closely related to you, that is more than 100 people you can reach out to by simply asking someone for an introduction. </p> <p>The importance of access to people at this stage is crucial to understand what challenges people are facing, how they are solving it today, and how do they work. We will discuss later about how to ask questions, at this stage it is important that you start compiling a list of people you would like to talk to, even if you don't know the names, you may know what companies are you targeting, or fields within research, or industries. </p> <p>Secondly is the IP. So much more than the patent that may or may not have been filed. From protocols, to know how and data. There’s so much value in data nowadays. </p> <p>A patent is always a good indicator to third parties such as investors, but rarely to your customers. </p> <p>A granted patent guarantees a given degree of uniqueness and novelty, which papers don’t. </p> <p>For someone on the outside, it shows that independent evaluators found it interesting and that hadn’t been done before. This is a strong signal, but rarely people spin out on a granted patent, many are at the application phase. It still shows you convinced at least your TTO of the value of what you are doing. </p> <p>And then you have the monetary resources. There are grants and other incentives that are only accessible to publicly funded researchers and are off limits to the rest. Smartly lining up funding gives a boost to the spinout process. </p> <p>Taking inventory of what resources you already have should always be the first step. </p> <p>If you are looking into spinning out of the university, have you made your list already?</p>