Creating a start-up as a researcher: a demanding but exciting journey
What problem does your innovation address? What will it allow you to do that other technologies cannot? What does it do better than other approaches?
Will it bring a cost advantage, feasibility advantage, a new service?
Who will be your first customers? Is this a growing market? Which business model will be best suited for them and for you?
How will you manage to convince investors of the potential of your project?
Do you have serious barriers to entry for future competitors such as a solid patent portfolio with demonstrated value for example?
For a researcher, embarking on the creation of a start-up is both an exciting adventure but will also involve a lot of questioning.
What could be more satisfying to note with a few years of hindsight the positive impact on society of long and uncertain research work? But how can you also know how to detect poorly met needs on the market, pivot, change target or even give up when the market is not ready, or when the disadvantages induced by your technology turn out to be more significant than initially imagined?
So many questions, dilemmas and uncertainty that you will face.
However, it is not enough to arrive with a revolutionary innovation to be welcomed with open arms by the market . The best science in the world, if it does not respond to any critical need or if it does not bring significant improvement to existing processes and technologies, will not succeed in breaking through the wall of innovation.
Entrepreneur researcher: how to identify the right market?
The first question you need to answer is: “What problem are you really going to solve for your next customers?” » .
Answering this question will allow you to define your value proposition, to clearly list all forms of competition (and your competitors) and to have a clear vision of the market segments to address as a priority. Indeed, there is a good chance that your innovation will respond to several problems, for very different markets. There is also a very good chance that you will have very limited visibility at the start.
Coming from the academic world, you obviously already have a clear vision of some very specific areas of application; they are often linked to your collaborations with manufacturers and this is very valuable. But it may be the case that other markets, other segments that are much less obvious or even completely unknown to you, will ultimately prove to be much more relevant to ensuring the success of your start-up. Pivots are expensive...sometimes essential but expensive...and sometimes also triggered too late.
The importance of taking a step back when doing market research and broadening your area of research.
To have a chance of not choosing the wrong market to investigate, you will need to carry out a 360° analysis as the first stage of your market research. In practice we often do exactly the opposite… we dive into two or three market segments… and if we fail, we go back up. This exercise is very intellectually expensive and difficult to implement, especially when the clock is ticking... and the clock for a start-up or an SME is called cash flow!
Let's take the example of a researcher who has developed an ultrasound generator capable of characterizing liquid solutions in real time . Having completed his thesis in the hospital world, the first obvious area of application for creating his start-up consisted of developing a medical device intended to monitor the patient's condition during open heart surgery.
Niche market, very long time to market.
The need met was clearly critical and the proposed solution interesting. But it also seemed obvious that setting up the start-up by immediately addressing this first market would prove complex (regulations, fundraising, certifications, etc.).
In other words, it will be necessary to devote years of work and development, and invest hundreds of millions of euros before the start-up generates 1 euro in turnover . The immediate question from the researcher and the incubator was the following: is there a more accessible and more promising market. Instinctively two other markets were cited: chemicals and the agri-food industry. Without further ado, a market study was launched on these markets, but unfortunately with inconclusive feedback: the technology in question did not make it possible to resolve any critical problem or one identified as such by the industrialists interviewed.
Back to square one!
It was only after carrying out a quick 360° analysis based on technical and scientific literature that new and very surprising functionalities and areas of application were identified . They then made it possible to investigate significantly different markets such as the building and public works sector and to very quickly identify market segments with very rapid access and offering great potential.
This example illustrates the need for researchers to have a 360° panorama of all the markets likely to be interested in their technology..
It is also very real: the start-up in question called on the services of TKM which, after analyzing all the world's scientific literature, advised it to develop its activity in construction on a very specific and critical application (this is that is to say with associated economic issues estimated in millions of euros…). Since then, this start-up has worked exclusively with cement manufacturers and builders, offering them in-situ monitoring solutions for the hardening of concrete structures.
Without the intervention of TKM, it would have taken months and a combination of happy coincidences for this researcher to think about approaching a cement manufacturer. With TKM, it only took 5 days of studies to have a market on his radar – and therefore customers! – which he would never have considered .
TKM: reduce your time-to-market by targeting the right markets from the outset
Specialist in state of the art, market research, technology monitoring and intellectual property strategies, TKM has developed Software: TKM Software (formerly IPMetrix). A multi-source monitoring tool, capable of analyzing and processing documents from all scientific and economic literature. Thanks to this tool, you benefit from a clear vision of your environment and have all the relevant information to select the right market . Enough to structure your project and strengthen your chances of raising funds from investors.
By using TKM, you will also be able to access a much more detailed vision of your competition, without limiting yourself to your direct competition. Because the same problem can be addressed with many technologies... And you cannot afford to ignore an indirect competitor.
