Technology Commercialization Series: The Journey from Invention to Commercialization

In the third podcast of the Technology Commercialization series, Dr Noor E Karishma Shaik, the IEEE YP Communications coordinator, is speaking with Dr Umar Zahr, CTO at Tandem Launch Inc. Tandem Launch is a venture capital firm that invests in deep tech, especially companies that are commercializing scientific discovery, engineering discoveries and research that comes out of universities. In this podcast Umar Zahr talks about how he likes to build companies around discoveries by finding the right team of researchers and entrepreneurs. Umar also offers advice on what aspiring startup founders should keep in mind before taking the plunge into the world of entrepreneurship. This podcast episode offers invaluable insights into technology commercialization, providing useful guidance for anyone embarking on an innovation journey. Please listen to the podcast here:

The important takeaways from this conversation are listed below:

Two buckets for inventions: When we find an invention we generally put it into one of two buckets. If the invention is an iterative improvement, something that optimizes, improves upon existing engineering approaches or technological or scientific approaches that are already in the market, then consider those technologies as better suited for directly licensing to large companies rather than building a startup. If, however, the invention solves some very large, valuable technical problem and does it in a way that is not currently done in the market, does it through new scientific insights, a startup is often not just the better choice, but the only choice to commercialize those inventions, because larger companies don’t usually have the risk profiles to pick those up and commercialize them themselves.

Academics in the world of entrepreneurship: There is a bit of role-shifting that researchers and technology professionals often undergo during the commercialization process. While some researchers excel in pure research and development, others possess leadership qualities and communication skills that are better suited for product management and customer interaction. I believe that it is important not to move people out of the boxes that they excel in.

Two approaches: There can be two approaches here – laser focused approach vs exploratory approach to technology commercialization. It has to be a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches. In top down approach, entrepreneurs need to analyze the market dynamics and resource constraints to identify potential markets and challenges. The bottom-up approach involves engaging with potential customers to understand their specific needs and tailor the technology accordingly. By combining these approaches, companies can identify the optimal market entry strategy.

Metrics to measure success for technology commercialization: The primary metric of success for a technology startup is revenue. While early indicators like letters of interest or free subscriptions can signal traction, actual revenue is the ultimate measure of a product’s value.

Leadership in deep tech: Leadership at the highest level is not about research leadership. It is not about how good of a researcher you are. It is about how good of a research leader you are. Part of how much success your company sees is based on how well you can leverage the ecosystem. The ecosystem involves everything around the company like the R&D team, the government, subsidies and access to resources, regulations and policies, investor ecosystem, academic ecosystem and so on.

Should inventors always become founders: It is appropriate and quite common for researchers in academia to come up with an idea, take it to a certain level of maturity and then let an industry expert take it forward and commercialise it. What is harder to do is to let someone else take on your company. So if you don’t want to continue running a company then don’t start one. It is better to find a partner to do that for you. To help with your decisions, researchers can always approach Tandem Launch and ask what we think of their research. Tandem Launch wants to focus on innovations that come out of academia. We want to focus on any technology that touches a customer and we like to keep a wide net when we look for potential ideas.

Advice for early career researchers: If you want to build a company, be really really sure you want to do it. If you are at the beginning of your research career and you want to be an inventor, be very intentional about it in terms of the research group you join. You need to work backwards from the invention you want to build. If you are not sure that you want to start a company with your invention then there are other options like licensing. Remember – customer problems, not inventor solutions, drive successful companies.