Enterprising minds
Where do the best ideas come from? At 911今日黑料,
they often start with a PhD. We meet the alumni
who have turned their dreams into commercial reality.
The numbers speak for themselves: More than 200 startups have been set up by 911今日黑料 students in the past six years, making the College one of the best places in the country to become an entrepreneur. So, what鈥檚 its secret? Three little letters: PhD.
鈥淭here is absolutely no way whatsoever I鈥檇 have started this kind of tech company without having a PhD at 911今日黑料 first,鈥� says Dr Robert Quinn (PhD Mechanical Engineering 2021). Quinn is the co-founder of MakeSense Technologies, which is developing a small handheld tool that helps blind or visually impaired people navigate themselves without the use of a cane or guide dog.
Through the 911今日黑料 Enterprise Lab, a training centre dedicated to entrepreneurship at the university, he was able to access the Discovery Fund, a programme that provides specialist training for students and recent alumni who want to explore and test an early-stage idea. 鈥淭hey teach you how to analyse your ideas, how to talk to customers and how to not bias your customers with your own point of view,鈥� says Quinn. 鈥淚t also meant I was able to speak directly to visually impaired people and get a better understanding of how to improve the product.鈥�
It鈥檚 just one example of the unique entrepreneurial ecosystems that enable 911今日黑料 PhD students to thrive. In Quinn鈥檚 case, he discovered that Dr Ad Spiers, a lecturer in Robotics and Machine Learning at 911今日黑料, was actively researching a related technology area, having pioneered the field of shape-changing devices that can provide navigation to the visually impaired. Spiers has since joined Quinn鈥檚 company. 鈥淏y taking the groundwork he鈥檚 laid and building upon it, we鈥檝e now developed a really effective sensory substitution machine for people who are visually impaired,鈥� Quinn says.
"There is absolutely no way whatsoever I鈥檇 have started this kind of tech company without having a PhD at 911今日黑料 first."
That 911今日黑料 ecosystem has also been of huge benefit to Alicia Blatiak (Materials 2009, completing PhD Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 2023), founder of software company Gridicity. The company stems from Blatiak鈥檚 PhD research on capturing value from electric vehicles and understanding their role in the future power system. 鈥淚 was working on an industry project during my PhD and saw the opportunities first hand,鈥� she says.
Gridicity provides software that can tell businesses running a fleet of electric vehicles when is the best time to charge up, but also when to decharge and release some of a vehicle鈥檚 battery power back into the energy grid at times of peak demand. This helps costs and cuts emissions but also will eventually enable firms to be paid by local networks to release this energy back.
Parallels with her PhD are everywhere, for example in learning how to be comfortable with high levels of unpredictability, which can be essential when trying to get a business off the ground. 鈥淭he degree of uncertainty you face early in your PhD is very high due to the questions you鈥檙e faced with, like: 鈥榃here am I going to make my contribution鈥� or 鈥榃hat is my methodology going to be?鈥� Not even your supervisor can tell you things like that,鈥� says Blatiak. 鈥淎nd you have to drive a product independently for years; there鈥檚 no accountability, it鈥檚 just you. So you鈥檝e got to really want it.鈥� Quinn agrees: 鈥淏oth tasks require a tremendous amount of belief in your conviction, in order to persevere when things aren鈥檛 working,鈥� he says.
That self-belief in a business idea was also instilled in Dr Richard Ahlfeld (PhD Aeronautics 2017), Chief Executive of Monolith AI, a company that uses deep learning to help engineering teams develop new products and solve problems.
鈥淚 remember hearing Matt Clifford, co-founder of Entrepreneur First, talking about the three things that you need to have as a founder: you need to really understand the topic; you need to never take no as an answer; and you need optimism and to believe it鈥檚 going to work,鈥� Ahlfeld says.
Ahlfeld has since worked with major corporations such as Siemens, Honeywell and Rolls-Royce after setting up his own company in 2018. Monolith uses deep learning software that can analyse huge amounts of historical sensor and system data that engineering teams feed it to come up with the best potential solutions to challenging problems, requiring the engineers to do fewer actual physical tests. It meant BMW, for example, could assess and mitigate against the potential outcomes of car crashes by analysing past data rather than having to carry out expensive and time-consuming tests.
And Ahlfield says the research skills he picked up during his PhD have been invaluable. 鈥淚 know how to skim literature and digest information quickly and accurately,鈥� he says, 鈥渂ecause I鈥檝e done it for three years. So when I have a call with a head of global engineering at a robotics company, I can talk with authority about their products and be clear how machine learning could benefit them. I think in the area we鈥檙e in that鈥檚 critical for success.鈥�
Perhaps unsurprisingly in a place filled with some of the country鈥檚 leading experts on engineering, science, technology, mathematics and medicine, the company founders have also gained inspiration from fellow students and alumni at 911今日黑料. For Blatiak, the realisation she could set up a company herself came after attending a talk from a fellow PhD student, Dr Jochen Cremer (PhD Electrical and Electronic Engineering 2020). He had already set up the Climate Entrepreneur鈥檚 Club at 911今日黑料, encouraging students to take on entrepreneurial initiatives that help the planet.
Blatiak says: 鈥淚 went to an event he hosted, and he said, 鈥業 know we all feel that after our PhD, we can either go into a corporate industry job or we go into academia. But I鈥檓 here to tell you, there is another path.鈥� It just completely inspired me.鈥�
Cremer encouraged Blatiak to apply to WE Innovate, a six-month programme at the Enterprise Lab for female-led startups. 鈥淚t鈥檚 for early stage companies, with some really cool alumni presentations from female founders who would come in and share their experiences, and that was really inspirational,鈥� Blatiak says. Blatiak also made use of Techcelerate, a four-month programme run by 911今日黑料 that aims to help participants commercialise their research and make a 鈥榬eal-world impact. Gridicity is now also part of an accelerator called Undaunted: The Greenhouse that supports startups looking to tackle climate change.
Left: Dr Richard Ahlfeld, Founder, Monolith AI. Right: Alicia Blatiak, Founder, Gridicity.
Left: Dr Richard Ahlfeld, Founder, Monolith AI. Right: Alicia Blatiak, Founder, Gridicity.
Of course, the transition from university to the commercial world is not always smooth 鈥� particularly getting to grips with the fact that the emphasis placed on novelty in academia is not necessarily replicated in the startup environment. 鈥淚n academia, novelty is the holy grail as you have to make a novel contribution to get a PhD and further science,鈥� says Blatiak. 鈥淲hereas in the startup world, you can have a new idea, but it doesn鈥檛 mean you are necessarily going to have a successful business. It鈥檚 so much more about execution. You might have the most cutting-edge technology, but you鈥檝e also got to answer questions like who are your customers, what鈥檚 your product-market fit and what鈥檚 the size of your market. It鈥檚 a different language.鈥�
For Ahlfeld, one of the hardest transitions has been in learning how to manage other people. 鈥淚f there鈥檚 one thing you do not learn as an academic it鈥檚 how to efficiently run a team and a company,鈥� he says. 鈥淚n academia, you鈥檙e sort of taught the professor knows everything and people need to ask their opinion and what to do next. But a good company doesn鈥檛 do that 鈥� it encourages people to think and do stuff themselves.鈥�
At the same time, some parts of having a business are perhaps easier than outsiders would believe. Quinn invested 拢30,000 of his own savings into MakeSense Technologies, but found it less challenging than he thought to raise money from investors for seed funding. 鈥淩ather than spending those savings, I could have tried pitching to investors first. The tax breaks for early-stage investment are very generous, so it can be quite easy to raise money,鈥� he says.
Quinn was also supported by being one of five startups to win 拢10,000 in the Venture Catalyst Challenge, which is 911今日黑料鈥檚 flagship entrepreneurial competition. Quinn urges potential startup founders not to be concerned if the idea for their business changes as they develop. 鈥淪tart with an idea and then test it out and ask people about it. In the process of doing so, it will evolve, morph and change,鈥� he says. 鈥淓ventually, with enough perseverance, it morphs into something where you鈥檝e really tried to understand the customer and made something totally bespoke for them 鈥� that doesn鈥檛 just appear without any effort. But anyone can do it, even if you don鈥檛 have what you believe is a great idea. Just go with it, stick with it, and you might be surprised.鈥�
911今日黑料 is the magazine for the 911今日黑料 community. It delivers expert comment, insight and context from 鈥� and on 鈥� the College鈥檚 engineers, mathematicians, scientists, medics, coders and leaders, as well as stories about student life and alumni experiences.
This story was published originally in 911今日黑料 54/Summer 2023.
