Deep Tech Venture Builder: Accelerating solutions from research to market

What unique challenges do innovators from research backgrounds face when growing their businesses? As EIT Health launches its new Deep Tech Venture Builder Programme aimed at innovators in academia, we spoke to two experts on why researchers get stuck in the so called valley of death and how to overcome these hurdles so they can flourish.

Read on to hear from Matheus Provinciali, Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at StartUB! and Laia Pascual, an entrepreneur-turned-Investment Manager at Ship2B Ventures.

Matheus has encouraged and empowered more than 200 entrepreneurship projects in different technology sectors during initial phases, contributing with their business plan elaboration, marketing, sales, private and public seed fundraising and team building. Here’s his take on the most common hurdles academic and research teams face on transferring research to market-ready solutions:

The challenges innovators from research backgrounds face

“The most common challenge innovators from research and academic, rather than industry, backgrounds face is in identifying new business opportunities. There is a need to use their knowledge to see market gaps and transform the research in a useful way to improve the societal products or services. Developing a business mind-set is the biggest challenge.

The business mind-set is about the ability to observe the possibilities that has market has to offer and validate a demand. It is important to understand that there are unmet needs or clear business pains in many areas, and it allows to develop innovations to solve those problems.

As well as nurturing the business mind-set, it is important to build a structured team that accounts for the fact that the researcher, with a technical background, may not have the experience or aptitude to administrate all the business aspects of a company. For example, the company organisation, definition of business strategies, management of IP protection and legal issues, or how to develop the collaboration with stakeholders and connection to partners to prepare an effective market access strategy. So, acknowledging this, and hiring a team with the right business skill set is essential,” Matheus Provinciali, Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at StartUB!

How to avoid common pitfalls

In her role at Ship2B Ventures, impact investor Laia invests in start-ups with healthcare solutions that are economically viable and have a strong business case, but also solve a pressing need for society. Well-versed in spotting investment-worthy start-ups, Laia had this advice to share with innovators to help them avoid common pitfalls on their journey to market access: “My key advice would be to plan your critical path and choose your first indication wisely.

Innovators need to be strict on what they spend their limited resources on, to maximise their value, and unlock subsequent financing. Scientists tend to want to validate all their hypotheses. When translating science into a product, it is key to define which are those high impact experiments that will prove the value of the technology, and that will serve as a “go/no go” decision? Maybe it’s not important to study the by-product of a reaction or how one small molecule interacts with a secondary target, but rather to clarify 100% its mode of action and potential benefit, for example.

It’s also key to have an eye on the market and think about the complete path: take your time to validate the first indication, for instance how easy is it to select patients, how long and large are the trials, which endpoints can be defined to get robust results and so on. 

Sometimes exciting science is validated in the wrong indication, meaning innovators have to re-do experiments to show the applicability to other diseases that make more sense from a value creating point of view. This requires additional resources which can make it particularly tricky to raise funds,” Laia Pascual, Investment Manager at Ship2B Ventures.

Growth comes from seeking guidance

Laia Pascual continues, “As a biotech company founder myself, I would give my younger self a lot of advice. But mostly talk to experienced people with different expertise. Do not try to do it all by yourself as it will take you much longer and you will most probably fail. Also, talk early to investors, ask them what they’d like to see, and they will help you draw your roadmap.”

What excites you about Deep Tech Venture Builder?

Both StartUB! and Ship2 Ventures have contributed to the development of the Deep Tech Venture Builder programme. We asked Matheus and Laia what motivated them to help us evolve it.

“Being part of building this programme is so important to me. The StartUB! was started with European funds, so working with a European organisation like EIT Health as a Partner is meaningful. As a Partner, here at the University of Barcelona, we’re responsible for sharing our knowledge with EIT Health’s innovation network, for the benefit of the whole health ecosystem. Together with EIT Health, StartUB! is leading the way start-ups are receiving support in the different stages – our mission is to help them grow and positively impact with relevant solutions to make our community life better,” commented Matheus.

Laia said, “Ship2 Ventures believes innovation is the engine for a better society and a better planet, and we love to contribute to the initiatives at the very early stages. All profiles have different points of view and contributions to make to new programmes, and we are happy to bring ours to the table.”

Could we help your research team build your next venture?

We’re pleased to announce that the registration for the Deep Tech Venture Builder Programme Matchmaking is now open!

We are excited to offer a unique online matchmaking opportunity for leading academics, venture builders, early-stage investors, and tech transfer experts interested in applying for the  Deep Tech Venture Builder (DTVB) programme. 

This matchmaking aims to enable and accelerate strategic collaborations, boosting technology transfer and the creation of Deep Tech start-ups across Europe. 

Our online platform supports meaningful community networking and aims to catalyse projects between EIT Health partners and non-partners by providing the opportunity to arrange one-to-one meetings, helping you establish new and fruitful collaborations. 

Learn more and register now.