In May this year, I was invited to give a guest lecture at University of Auckland for the course SCIGEN201 “Innovating for a Knowledge Society”, to talk about my experience founding Pheromite Ltd. Pheromite is a startup company with the aim to develop new treatments against the Varroa mite, main pest of honeybees, and other ectoparasites affecting animal health. If you have read my previous blog posts about preparing presentations, you know that I like preparing with plenty of time. I started going through the AIMER process trying to figure out what my intention and message were going to be. Then, I got a great source of inspiration.
Two weeks before the presentation, I attended the opening to TechWeek in Auckland where Sean Simpson was part of a panel talking about clean tech. Sean Simpson is the scientist founder of LanzaTech, a company started in NZ more than a decade ago to make biofuel out of waste gas. I always enjoy listening to him, he is an engaging speaker. In that panel he said that while students attending top universities in US or UK such as Harvard, Stanford, Cambridge, and so on, have the exact playbook on how to start a business out of university; students in New Zealand do not have the exact playbook to do that. In New Zealand students are encouraged, he said, but don’t have the exact playbook. That immediately gave me the inspiration for the guest lecture. I created and presented the playbook titled “How to Create a Startup within Five Years of Finishing University”. The intention was clear, I want the students to create a startup company within 5 years of finishing their degree. The message was to engage.
In this blog post you will get the same playbook. If you are a university student, this applies directly to you. If you aren’t a university student, see what entrepreneurial opportunities university students have. If you have finished your studies long time ago, it’s never too late to create a startup using similar principles. The playbook has three chapters. First, engage the entrepreneurial ecosystem at the university. Second, use a university research project as the beginning for a business. Third, if you couldn’t find a good project or it didn’t work out, how to use your first job as the launchpad for your startup. The common theme is to engage with the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Chapter 1: engage the entrepreneurial ecosystem at the university
Most, if not all, universities have programs and societies to encourage students to get involved with entrepreneurship. When I was a biotechnology student at the University of Auckland, I got involved with Velocity and Chiasma. These are student-led organisations that are fostering entrepreneurship and innovation. While Velocity runs business idea competitions and educational events teaching entrepreneurship, Chiasma fosters commercial skills and connections for science students. Engage with these organisations or similar ones at your university. There are different levels of engagement you can have with these organisations. You can attend events and workshops, you can become part of the organising committee, and you can enter the competitions. The more you put in, the more you get out. The more you engage, the more you will benefit. I joined the Chiasma committee in the last year of my undergraduate, in 2007, and became CEO in 2010. All in all, I was in the committee from 2007 to 2011. I also entered ideas into Velocity, the business idea competition, from 2006 to 2015 almost every year. I graduated in 2012 with a PhD so I was still entering ideas after graduating (partnering with a current student). In 2011 our team were qualifiers for the $100k challenge but were not able to progress the idea to commercial stage. By engaging with this ecosystem, I gained knowledge about business and technology commercialisation; networks (some of the people that I met during those times are still people I go to for advice); and skills such as teamwork and leadership. Commercial knowledge, networks, and skills. Don’t miss the opportunity to engage with these organisations. There is where I met some of the most proactive university students. I am still involved as a judge for the ideas competition. If you haven’t got involved yet, if you haven’t entered ideas into the business idea competition, make a point to do so. It is the difference between doing university to get a degree or doing university to make a difference.
Chapter 2: use a university research project as the beginning for a business
Are you thinking about doing post-graduate studies? You are in the same situation I was in 2007, the last year of my undergraduate. I was torn. On one hand, I loved science and I really wanted to do a PhD to be able to do scientific research. On the other hand, I loved the idea of business and technology commercialisation. There was a programme at uni that had started only a couple of years before, the Masters in Bio Enterprise. Perhaps that was a good choice for me? I was torn, I didn’t know what to do! Should I do a PhD when I want to be involved in business, entrepreneurship, and innovation? And what if I get pigeonholed into being a scientist and can’t never make it to being involved in entrepreneurship and innovation? In this state of confusion, I attended one of the Chiasma events with five speakers, and I saw that their background was quite different to what they ended up doing. I thought “it doesn’t matter what I do now, in the end I will end up being where I want to be. For the next 3-4 years I really want to do research so I will do a PhD.” With the benefit of hindsight, it seems I made the right choice. However, there was another option. You see, I was torn between doing research or going more into technology commercialisation but I wish someone would have told me this: look for a research project that has real commercial potential.
If you are interested in entrepreneurship and are going to be involved with a research project at university, whether it is a fourth-year project, a Masters, or a PhD, you have an incredible opportunity in front of you. That is to do a research project that involves innovation with real commercial potential. Success stories show that it is possible. In 2005, Fady Mishriki and Kunal Bhargava did their fourth-year engineering project on inductive power transfer, a technology pioneered by Professor John Boys. They won some business competitions, including Velocity, and in 2007 founded PowerbyProxi to develop and commercialise the technology. PowerbyProxi was recently acquired by Apple, resulting in a successful exit for founders and investors. What an amazing story. From fourth-year project to being acquired by Apple in just over 10 years.
Another case is Green Spot Technologies. Ninna Gannucci was doing a PhD project under Associate Professor Silas Vilas Boas developing microbial fermentation technologies to process fruit waste. In 2015 they entered their concept into Velocity’s $100k challenge business idea competition. Since then, they founded Green Spot Technologies to commercialise their range of specialty environmentally friendly flours. This was the result of a fantastic combination of choosing a project with commercial potential and then using the opportunities at university to launch the idea into the commercial world. There are many more stories like this.
If entrepreneurship is something you are interested about, choose a university project that has commercial potential, enter business idea competitions, and you may be on your way to creating a successful startup. However, one of the main challenges is to choose a project with real commercial potential. How do you find a project like that? You will have to talk to several potential supervisors, both from academia and industry, and investigate if the commercial potential is concrete or is something that is going to happen sometime in the future. Most projects will have some potential commercial application, this helps obtaining funding. It will be your responsibility to discern whether this is concrete, something that can be commercialised soon, or not. That is why it is a good idea that you work on your entrepreneurial skills by attending the educational events at your university, it will allow you to decide whether a project has real commercial potential.
Chapter 3: your first years of working experience as the launchpad for your startup
Not everyone will be able to graduate from university having started a new company. Perhaps like me, none of the ideas that you enter into the business idea competitions can be progressed into starting a company. Perhaps like me, your research project was not at the stage to be commercialised any time soon. That means it is time to get a job. Should you completely forget about entrepreneurship? The answer is definitely…not. If fact, working for a few years is a great way to gain knowledge, networks, credibility and exposure to problems you can solve with a startup. The trick is not to get too comfortable with your job and not increase your expenses too much, keep your student lifestyle. Otherwise, how will you be able to leave that job? There are many cases that illustrate this pathway. I’ll mention three.
The first one is Privahini Bradoo, first CEO of Velocity and co-funder of Chiasma (taking part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem at university is a common denominator for many the examples). Priv finished her PhD at the University of Auckland and went on to do an MBA in US. Then she worked for Lanzatech in a business development position and developed her knowledge and connections in the clean tech space. After that, she continued as a consultant in the clean tech space and within five years of finishing her degree she co-founded her own clean tech startup, Blue Oak. In one of her visits back to New Zealand in 2010, I met Priv and asked her why she hadn’t started a business before. She said she was waiting for the right opportunity. Her years of work experience provided the perfect context for her to start Blue Oak.
Another case is Angus Brown, who finished his Commerce degree in 2010. I met Angus around 2014 while I was working at Comvita and he was working at the FoodBowl as Business Development Manager. What I didn’t know was that besides his day job, Angus was also working on his own startup, Ārepa. The FoodBowl is a space that companies can rent to develop and produce food and beverage products. It is supposed to be for the development and testing phase before companies go into full scale production. The FoodBowl also organises educational events to help companies be successful in this industry. By working at the FoodBowl Angus became an expert in the field, developing connections and gaining invaluable knowledge. These were an important factor enabling Angus to take Ārepa to the next level. I only got to know about Ārepa’s success recently. Ārepa produces beverages and supplements from natural ingredients that help with mental focus. They are exporting their products all over the world. A fantastic example of how to leverage you first years of working experience to gain expertise in a certain field.
If these examples have not convinced you yet, let me give you another example that I know very well, my own. In 2012 I graduated with a PhD in Molecular Biology. As you know, none of the business ideas had worked and I had a 1-year old son which meant I needed to get a job. I got a job at Comvita Ltd., the largest producer of Manuka honey. Soon after, my wife thought it was a good idea to buy a house (it actually was!) which meant I also had a mortgage to pay. I remember one of my teammates from the 2011 Velocity entry telling me that with a young family and a mortgage, I should forget about entrepreneurship. I believe his comment was well-intentioned, but will you let other people decide what you can and can’t do? I knew that, although contained, the fire of entrepreneurship was still burning within me. For three years, I never stopped upskilling myself and looking for entrepreneurial opportunities, both within and outside the company I was working for. In the meanwhile, I had a salary and was able to save some money. While working at Comvita, I became exposed to the problem of the Varroa mite, the main pest of honeybees. After some time, I thought that perhaps it would be possible to develop new treatments to deal with this pest. After presenting the idea to a few people, got some backing, and in 2015 I left Comvita to start Pheromite Ltd. That was 3.5 years after finishing my degree, within target. The money I had saved from my first job enabled me to survive 8 months without income before we raised money. Don’t stop believing.
To conclude, let me just say that perhaps all these examples look impressive to you. Maybe even beyond something you could accomplish. But trust me. I’ve met all of these people, except for Ninna Gannucci, and they are all made of flesh and bones just like you and me. They all have 20,000 genes just like you and me. The reason they created startup companies is because they believed they could do it, and so did I. Start by engaging, getting involved, follow the three steps I’ve talked about: engage with the entrepreneurial ecosystem at university, look for an academic project that has commercial potential, and use your first years of working experience as the launchpad for your startup. I also encourage you to find your own path to entrepreneurship because one thing I’m sure, you can do it too.
Make an impact,
Pablo