Commercialisation & Early Stage Funding

Adam IrvineBusiness Development ExecutiveEdinburgh Research and Innovation

startup@eri.ed.ac.uk

A Tale of Two Taps

A Tale of Two Taps

The Mixer Tap

“The market decides.”

Where are you in the supply chain?

Who is the buyer & what do they want?

The Segway Story

Hype

• “It will will be to the car what the car was to the horse and buggy“ Dean Kamen

• “It will be the fastest company to reach $ 1 billion in sales” John Doerr

• “It would become more important than the internet” John Doerr

• $180m product development

Target Market & Competition

£500-£1000+£100-£500+ £500-£1000+

Free £2000-

£4000£1000+

What went wrong?

• 50,000 units sold by 2009 = c$250m sales

1) Expectation – too high. This is the future of transport? 2) Performance – top speed 12.5 mph, c40km range & 8 – 10 hours to

recharge3) Infrastructure – Where do you charge? Where do you park?4) Regulation - banned from sidewalks and roads because it did not fit any

existing categories5) Product Launch – Amazon!!!

Key – Lack of user and market engagement

Innovation meets need meets viability

Commercialisationn

Funding

Successful Commercialisation

Stop innovating Start Prototyping

Funding

Innovation Initiative Grants - www.iig.ed.ac.uk • Opens mid-February• Up to £5k for new initiatives in teaching, research and student support

Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategy Support Fund • £2m per year - Biannual calls - 27th March 2015

Initiating Knowledge Transfer Fund (IKTF)• Open call • Up to £30k for Proof of Concept

RCUK Impact Acceleration Accounts • STFC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, EPSRC

Funding

Responsive Mode Grants • Pathways to Impact – no limit on the resources requested but 5-10%

BBSRC Networks in Industrial Biotech and Bioenergy • Proof of Concept – c£7m - projects up to c£50k • Need an industrial partner • Anaerobic Digestion, Biocatalyst Discovery, Bioprocessing, Metals in

Biology

Technology Scouts

• Eligibility: PhD & Post Docs

• Duration: Up to 4 months

• Time commitment: 4-6 hours per week

• Support & Training: • Supervised/mentored by a member of ERI personnel• Trained on key aspects of commercialisation of research• Budget to attend relevant external conference or partner engagement

Technology Scouts

• Evaluate a technology/opportunity

• Targeted marketing, IP Landscaping, market research to gather initial feedback on the commercial potential of a particular concept or technology

• Identify a specific theme or area of BBSRC research, identify the potential impacts and obtain feedback

• Audit internal capabilities or tools for commercial potential

• Profile a company, obtain wish list and match with University research

Obligatory Steve Jobs Quote

Innovation has nothing to do with how

many R&D dollars you have. When

Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was

spending at least 100 times more on

R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about

the people you have, how you’re led,

and how much you get it.

- Steve Jobs, 1998

Questions?

The Intellectual Property Question

• When is something patentable?• Novel• Non-obvious/inventive• Useful

• Patents are not always essential• Patenting costs money

• c£20-30k over 3 years

The Publication/Presentation Question

What is the Market?

What does the user want?

Who do you need to worry about?