DESY interviews graduates of CAROTS start-up school

Turning science into products and services is hard, but it does not need to be.

Scientists who want to turn to entrepreneurship often lack the business processes to launch their ideas on the market. 

The CAROTS Startup School 2.0 brings together CEOs, investors, and science experts to coach and mentor aspiring science entrepreneurs. The school is led by Pegram Harrison, senior fellow in entrepreneurship at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, together with the start-up team at the Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY)

The course takes about 40 hours to complete, and is split into four months – or about 5 hours per week. It consists of five webinars, accompanied by coaching and mentoring and culminating with multiple rounds of a pitch to CEOs, investors, and science experts. Startup School participants receive access to a network of successful scientific service companies via the MIXN network.

For the second iteration of the Startup School, 11 teams from Germany, Finland, France, Denmark, Spain, Sweden and Cyprus were selected by jurors. Participants all have scientific backgrounds in physics, astrophysics, material science, chemistry, data science, & biotech – and notably almost half are female scientists.

The teams also boast experience in advanced analytical methods, are interested in bridging the gap between science and industry and are playing with the idea of becoming a “sciencepreneur” by turning their scientific skills into a business. Meanwhile, the business ideas they applied range from physical chemistry, plasma physics, photonics, and x-ray optics to material science, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence.

During the second run of the School, DESY interviewed two of the company founders:

Taina Laiho, Chief Executive Officer, KeinoX (Finland) 

How has your company developed in the last six months? 

Six months ago, my company KeinoX was just established, but it was not in operation. Now it is my work. 

KeinoX is a Scientific Service Company selling materials research as a service for manufacturing companies. Although there are many this kind of companies around Europe, the concept is new in Finland. The first months of operation have gone fast, and my main task has been in spreading the word about the services that KeinoX offers. 

And I have developed as an entrepreneur during these months, too. I have learned marketing and business operation skills in addition to my earlier materials research skills. 

From whom have you received support? 

I have received monetary support from the state. I got a start-up grant. It is a small monthly money that is granted to support new full-time entrepreneurs at the beginning, when company generates only low income. Quite many of us new entrepreneurs receive that support in Finland.

I consider that I have got also indirect support from Business Finland, since KeinoX has been approved to be an innovation voucher service provider. If customer company meets the conditions of innovation voucher receiver, it can get 100% support from Business Finland to by analysis, measurements, and services from KeinoX. 

In addition to the monetary support, I want to mention that I have got a lot of intangible support from my family and friends. 

How did you like the CAROTS StartUp School? 

I got useful information from CAROTS StartUp School. There we talked about:

• elevator pitch
• pitching to customers and funders
• entrepreneurial mindset & jump from scientist to entrepreneur
• business model canvas
• business plan
• swot analysis
• financial plan
• pricing
• IPRs

 Were you able to apply the contents of the StartUp School? 

Yes. The content has been useful. 

What advice do you have for future founders of scientific service companies?

Just do it! Produce a detailed business plan at CAROTS StartUp School and begin to work accordingly. (You can modify the plan later, whenever needed.)

Ahmet Bahir Yildiz, Chief Executive Officer, Scatterin AB (Sweden), 

How has your company developed in the last six months?

We have focused on our first project and worked on business development. As of this month, we have started our second project. During the last 6 months period, we have also tried to get a better understanding of the industry’s needs and approaches.

 From whom have you received support?

We are in KTH Innovation’s pre-incubator program and among other things, it provides us weekly training in various topics, business coaching, and funding to facilitate our readiness level. We also appreciate Vinnova’s (Sweden's Innovation Agency) funding within the LIGHTer and Research infrastructure - utilization and collaboration projects. 

How did you like the CAROTS StartUp School?

CAROTS was a great start for us and provided the first kick we needed to realize our idea. We received valuable lectures and coaching from successful CEOs, and saw how business can develop. I should also mention the power of School when it comes to networking. After the final presentation day, we officially started Scatterin last summer.

Were you able to apply the contents of the StartUp School?

Yes! What we learned during the School was first-hand experience of the CEOs and I still check my notes, especially "Do's and don'ts from CEOs". For a person with no prior business knowledge, the School and its timing were a great chance for our Scatterin idea. We are still in contact with our CEO coach. 

What advice do you have for future founders of scientific service companies?

As the transition from academia to business is challenging, one should be seeking help and ready to collaborate, i.e. founding team. CAROTS is developed for future scientific service companies, and I strongly recommend future founders to get a seat in the program. Since most of us are university spin-offs, one should also have close contact with universities’ innovation offices to make the transition as smooth as possible. One last point, it is always great to start with a small market analysis to validate if there is a need in the field. 

For anyone wishing to reach out to Taina and Ahmet to learn more about their experiences, they can be contacted directly at [email protected] and [email protected]