Unicorn Bio Founder | New standards/approaches to Cell Bio Automation | Dragon Bio Founder | Entrepreneur | Builder
I am seeing a lot of posts on LinkedIn from various organisations celebrating the independent spinout review. I am very grateful to Nathan Benaich. In my opinion, he and his spinout FYI database (https://www.spinout.fyi/) was the catalyst for this review to take place in the first place. His permission-less review captured the underlying and hidden-in-plain-sight dinner table-type conversations many of us will have had. It catalogued a series of issues which has hampered the growth of Biotech in the UK and directly contrasted with the business-as-usual approach of many organisations (many of whom are now celebrating this review). Obviously, this spin-out review is focused on spin-outs. There however is another path for deep tech (including bio) founders. One which I chose, and many more founders choose to follow (again hidden in plain site). Many of us are building without authority, outside ivy-clad buildings, from the ground up, building it all as we go. Others can follow this path if they wish and here is hoping the apathy and false barriers created by some institutions fade away. Here is hoping this review also further helps catalyses a much-needed culture change in such institutions with a renewed emphasis on solving real-world problems and most importantly with urgency. There is nothing stopping people from all walks of life, all across the country (UK), from just starting up and most importantly doing (and this includes deep tech). This is not just a thing for "special people" from "special places". It's also not a zero-sum game and we all win if more of us build stuff and get it out into the world for others to benefit from, be it spin-out or start-up (we can even work together, as long as we remove the endemic bureaucratic nonsense 😉). We should also continue to further encourage people of any station to challenge the status quo openly and frustration, properly channelled, is a fuel. Onwards. Jeremy Hunt, George Freeman MP, Rishi Sunak, Innovate UK #SpinoutReview #innovation #startups