from cern to entrepreneurship: we don’t know what we don’t
TRANSCRIPT
From CERN to Entrepreneurship: we don’t know what we don’t know.
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What it’s about:Subjective knowledge from a first-hand experience.
From Particle Physics at CERN to the creation of new Companies and Products (“Entrepreneurship”).
Cut for:
A) Possible CERN scientist willing to jump
B) CERN scientist peek beyond the HEP horizon
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What it’s not:
A substitute for advisors, business incubators, specific (self) education, angels, your skills, sweat…mistakes and good luck.
Above all, not an ego celebration - but a honest sharing with the Community that helped me becoming whatever I am.
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Legend
My Journey
Leave the Harbor
Land!
Settle
Conclusions
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15 Years in Particle physics (1987-2002)
• 1987-91 SLAC: CRID development (M. Cavalli-
Sforza) & SLD Bs oscillation Thesis (G. Saitta)
• 1991-2002 CERN: PhD on Hadronic Calorimetry
(G. Saitta), Research Fellow, Staff EP Division (K.
Winter/J. Panman CHORUS Analysis coordinator
& Harp TPC Leader)
• 1995-2002 INFN tenure track researcher
(Ferrara)
• 2002: the beta-beam (430x citations, 1x
international award). A 2-minutes idea,
probably my largest achievement in HEP.
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What I had achieved?
• Limitless confidence of being able to deal with ANY technology
• Vaccinated to the “not-invented-here” syndrome
• Doped with the “I-can-learn-it-myself” drug (in any field)
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15 years after (2002-present)
• 2002-2010 SpinX Technologies Founder & CTO
(with B. Van de Vyver, CERN Fellow)
• 2010-Present Andrew Alliance Founder & CEO
30+ star team among GENEVA, BOSTON, PARIS
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One-page SpinX History
• Invention of a fully programmable, zero marginal cost microfluidic valve (the microfluidic transistor) for LIFE SCIENCES users
• Still, a very unique and impressive technology solution
• Idea incubated at Index Ventures, one of the most successful Venture Capital worldwide (Skype, Dropbox, Facebook, Stackexchange, ….)
• 30M+ investment, 40+ employees, great management team: technology validated, transformed into a product, put on the market…
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• …Market adoption lagged, corporate partners walked away, company winded down, technology transferred!
• A de-facto failure for investors, employees, founders.
Andrew Alliance
A new venture, with the support of the same SpinX Business angels/directors, started with great colleagues from the SpinX development team
Same business field, same market, new company approach/culture
Very successful business, multi-awarded product, hundreds of customers worldwide (Pharma, Biotech, Diagnostics, Research)
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Andrew, the liquid handling robot using conventional pipettes
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The Convent Invisible Walls
Difficult to exit an environment we appreciate for an environment that’s uncertain.
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Pushes/Pulls to change
1. Publish a paper, know in advance who else will read it
2. Loss of motivation/ROI towards left HEP objectives
3. Physics as a multi-facet, continuously varying job
4. Choice of colleagues/fellows
5. Am I creating NEW knowledge?
6. Many years in a culturally homogeneous environment
7. Create Tangible Value (not necessarily monetary value)
8. Teased by “new pure science”: molecular biology
9. Teased by the idea of applying what I had learnt at CERN
10. “Make money and work less!”
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•Unique experience in complex science & technology projects
•Outsider perspective (in any field)
•CERN Brand for life
• Lack of specific business network
• Lack of specific business understanding
•A risky superiority feeling
•A lot to lose…
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Leaving CERN for Entrepreneurship
Riding two horses at the same time?
Experimentally, very few examples of dual-track scientists/entrepreneurs.
When it happens, a strong connection between the application and the research activity.
Even more rarely, joint ventures with a business partner (Sidney Brenner & Sam Eletr, DNA sequencing)
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The unanswered question:What will I feel passing by?
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What’s a Startup?
Definition: “a human institution designed to create a new product or service under conditions of extreme
uncertainty”.
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Entrepreneurship
“The act of organizing and managing an enterprise, especially a business, with considerable initiative and risk.”
Corollary 1: starting an enterprise is just foundership!
Corollary 2: “handle with care” success myths, that are unique inspirational exceptions.
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HEP Entrepreneurship
Knowledge (Problem)
Idea
Feasibility study
Project definition
Put things together
Proposal (financing)
Organization (Collaboration)
Experiment
Construction
Execution
(data-taking)
Results (articles)
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Business Entrepreneurship
Knowledge (Problem)
Idea (Solution)
Market study Know Your Customer
Business plan
Put things together
Proposal (financing)
Organization (Company)
Product/Service
Development
Commercial
Execution
Results (EXIT/Profits)
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Problem=Market
A problem to be addressed population asking/looking for a solution, e.g. a Market.
B2C (Consumer) or B2B (Business):
- either you are ONE user
- either you are an outsider
…To find a new solution, better be a biased or an outsider?
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Know your customerWho is the CERN Customer, e.g. the recipient of the service? Market Segmentation:
a) The CERN employees (B2C)
b) The CERN summer students (B2C)
c) The EU/WW physics community (B2C)
d) The CERN member states (B2B)
e) The national HEP institutions (B2B)
f) The EU/WW population (B2C)
g) The EU/WW Industries (B2B)
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People for the Ethical
Treatment of Hadrons
(PETH) are worried about
the health of the subatomic
particles.
ADVICE#1
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…For new solutions and market understanding, make good use of our secret CERN weapon: Ability to see problems in multi-dimensional spaces!
1. Rotate/project the space for a simpler model
2. Identify better solutions by seeing the invisible extra dimension
3. Then, experiment & analysis!
“Sell me this pen”
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Interesting exercise at hiring.
Most scientists focus on the pen characteristics, not on the decision-maker.
They don’t ask why I would ever want a pen - or try to know me.
Classical thinking inside “your own” box, not addressing the problem: a human brain making an emotional decision.
ADVICE #2: don’t do it!Don’t start with a technology in the search of a possible market
Early market understanding and validation is – by far – the most successful strategy.
Forget about the secrecy syndrome, the value creation is in connecting the dots (not in the dots themselves)
Corollary: If you are going to create a new market, it’s a windy road…
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How to pay for the Fuel?Finance is the fuel of your company.
From Whom? What you give back?
Cake sharing:- Yourself- Family & Friends- Business Angels- Venture Capital
No cake sharing:- Customers- Crowdfunding- Public grants/loans
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Sharing value by capitalFounders, by definition, end up in having a smaller stake in a larger value company. It’s the way it should be, it’s a sign of success!
• Against founder feelings: “I don’t share my baby!”
• Please remark you don’t create value by financing rounds, it’s the consequence of value creation by solving a customer problem! Otherwise: bubble/pyramid/Ponzi scheme….
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EXIT StrategyA company has its own life cycle and “Happy” End:
• Acquisition
• IPO (public stock offer)
• Stay private forever (and pay dividends)
• Failure
Choosing your exit strategy is a fundamental part of business creation: it defines your possible investors.
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The Elevator pitchIf you can explain effectively your business in 30 seconds, you have a good chance of success.
Corollary #1: an effective business plan is 20 pages & 10 slides.
Corollary #2: the technology is secondary in importance.
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Experience: www.leanstartup.org
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…A global movement of Entrepreneurs, discovering an effective way to create value…after an existing (failed) business, its analysis and subsequent learning…
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What’s a LEAN STARTUPCreation of Value under conditions of uncertainty by VALIDATED LEARNING –the asset of the Company.
GENCHI GEMBUTSU = GO AND SEE FOR YOURSELF.
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The Lean Development mantra
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Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Commercial
Validation
Smallest Cost,
Shortest time:
Muda, Muri, Mura
Business
StrategyTechnology
Creation
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…Almost the HEP Process!!!
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HEP Experiment
HEP Run
Smallest Cost,
Shortest time:
Muda, Muri, Mura
Data Analysis
HEP Proposal
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Experiment
Nature
What else to learn?
HIRING Effectively:
you need great fellows to run a company -different from yourself and different knowledge!
Universal COMMUNICATION
Asking for HELP, anywhere
FOCUS: Time is money (100CHF/hour rule)
Fair NEGOTIATION skills
FINANCE Principles
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY basics
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Conclusions: challenges…
1. Go back to the naïve enthusiasm of your FIRST day at CERN (to learn what you don’t know yet - as you did then!)
2. Know who is your customer (beforeyou even think about starting)
3. Understand their problem/need before finding your solution (definition of value creation)
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Conclusions:…advantages
1. Capitalize on your unique HEP experience: large scale, collaborative, top-level Science & Technology.
2. Business plan: the HEP Experiment Proposal in a different context.
3. It’s as hard/motivating/challenging as what are used to do (the market, not nature, now says the final word)
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M. Petitpierre, stakeholder
F. Bloch, the Entrepreneur
The happy Customer?