Matching researchers with experienced entrepreneurs: “It’s all about breaking down barriers”
Aarhus University is taking a new step in its efforts to turn research into business. With the Co-founder Nights initiative, the university wants to bring experienced entrepreneurs closer to the researchers behind the university’s upcoming spinout companies. The aim is to build stronger and more balanced startup teams, thereby increasing the chances of research-based companies succeeding in the market.
In academia, it is a well-known challenge that even the most promising spinouts often lack commercial skills from the start. While researchers typically bring a solid academic foundation, there is often a lack of co-founders with experience from the startup environment, investor relations and business development.
“It’s all about breaking down the barriers around matching scientific co-founders with commercial co-founders,” says Otto Bjerg Hausgaard, who is employed as a matchmaker at The kitchen.
The new matchmaking concept will be officially launched at an event on June 18 at Aarhus University’s entrepreneurial hub The Kitchen. Here, early-stage research-based spinouts will meet experienced profiles from the startup world with the desire to enter into new, ambitious projects.
The event will be a mix of workshop and networking session and aims to connect people who could potentially form a co-founder team. Two early spinout projects will be present and actively seeking a commercial co-founder.
“There is an obvious opportunity in bringing a commercial co-founder into a spinout, but there is perhaps just as much risk if you don’t ensure that it’s a good match. Therefore, the task of finding a match is not trivial. But it all starts with getting to know each other, which is why we’re so pleased with the turnout we’re already seeing at the co-founder nights event,” says Otto Bjerg Hausgaard.
Read also: “Good founder teams are crucial for getting innovation from universities into society” – TechSavvy
For several years, the university has focused on strengthening researchers’ ability to commercialize their research through advice, incubation and education. With Co-founder Nights, they are now trying to create a more structured way to attract the right co-founders from outside and thus match research depth with entrepreneurial experience.
Read more about Co-founder Nights here.
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