Management and company structure

Experience of Team

Most opportunities will have arisen through academic research and the academics themselves will have an established reputation in their field and preferably will be able to demonstrate previous experience in a commercial environment.

Commitment of Team

The commitment of the founding team is as critical a factor as the technology itself. The Fund Manager is looking to establish that the idea is the best the inventors have and that they believe in the opportunity strongly enough to share the risks. This need not mean joining a spin-out company full time, but will certainly involve committing time to an opportunity as it is developed and may also encourage a financial investment by the inventor and the team.

Cohesiveness of the Team

The team needs to be able to work together to achieve a shared goal.

Need for External Management

The skills that are needed to invent a new technology are not the same as those needed to run a company; academics are not expected to be astute businessmen and businessmen are not expected to be able to create and develop new technologies. Consequently, experience has shown that bringing in external management is a critical factor in the success of a new company, they can provide complementary skill such as business planning, sales and marketing, fund raising, and business development skills.