Peter Bunus

Co-Founder and

Director of Business Development

SenionLab AB

peter.bunus@senionlab.com

European Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Thought Leaders (ME421)

Stanford Engineering – 28 January 2013

The Tales of Two Cities:

A Story of European

Academic Entrepreneurship

SenionLab AB

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SenionLab is a Swedish expert

company focusing on research and

development of signal processing

and sensor fusion systems for

indoor positioning navigation.

Founded in 2010 by a group of

leading scientists

• Experts in sensor fusion, signal

processing diagnostics and

computer science.

• More than 10 years experience in

the area of sensor fusion and signal

processing

Main office in Linköping SWEDEN

US Office: Palo Alto, CA

Grant Seed funding from:

VINNOVA: The Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation System

The Swedish Energy Agency

Professor vs. Entrepreneur

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…but I’m here to tell you about what does it mean to be an Academic Entrepreneur

Setting up the Stage

Sweden and United States Competitiveness

5

Market Size is the Major Differentiator

6

Swedish entrepreneurs are coming to Silicon Valley because of the market size and not because of the climate

Academic Entrepreneurship

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Government Industry

Academia

Education Research

Entrepreneurship

Academic Entrepreneurship – Is it popular in Sweden?

Only 0.9% off all academics become full time

entrepreneurs every year in Sweden

Negative selection into entrepreneurship: those with

lower pre-entry earnings are more likely to become

entrepreneurs

Less than 1% of the academic obtaining capital gains

higher than half the average pre-entrepreneurship

earnings.

¼ of all academics who become full time entrepreneurs

already operated as part-time entrepreneurs while

employed at their university

60% quit full time entrepreneurship within two years

and 66% of those return to academia.

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Source: Pontus Braunerhjelm, Anders Broström and Thomas Åstebro - Does Academic Entrepreneurship Pay? – Working Paper 2012:20 Research Network Debate – Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum

Fashion Trend for Swedish Academic Entrepreneurs

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We don’t have a process for innovation. We hire good people.

Do you have an innovation process at your company?

“We don’t have a process for innovation.

We hire good people.”

Steve Jobs

Do we have a European Academic Entrepreneurship System?

“We don’t have an European Academic Entrepreneurship System.

We hire good people.”

What are the

Challenges

for an Academic Entrepreneur?

Challenge No. 1

How to be disruptive

without risking your

academic career?

"Alice laughed:

'There's no use trying,'

she said; 'one can't

believe impossible things'.

'I daresay you haven't

had much practice,'

said the Queen. 'When

I was younger, I

always did it for half an

hour a day. Why,

sometimes I've

believed as many as

six impossible things

before breakfast."

This is a pretty remarkable statement for someone who just step through the magical mirror. You would expect that this experience

should have convinced Alice that impossible things are possible

“I daresay you haven't had much

practice”, said the Queen. “When

I was younger, I always did it for

half an hour a day. Why,

sometimes I've believed as many

as six impossible things before

breakfast."

Both the academic researcher/educator

and the Entrepreneur need

to have the same “dreamer” personality

To dream six impossible things

before breakfast is part of the job.

Challenge No. 2

How to deal with the

Market Risk

Invention –Market Risk

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High Invention Risk

High Market Risk

Personalized medicine

Biotech

Medical dev. Healthcare Cleantech

Electronic Design

Automation Semicon

Game Software Consumer

Electronics

Comp. Software

Comp. Hardware

Enterprise Hardware

Faculty of Electrical Engineering Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Faculty of Computer Science

Faculty of Electrical Engineering Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Faculty of Computer Science

Faculty of Medicine BioChemistry, Chemistry

Medical Research Involves a very high Invention risk

Invention risk ≠ Innovation risk

I you are lucky enough to find the “cure for cancer” then market adoption will automatically came

3D TV

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High invention risk High market risk

Invention –Market Risk

21

High Invention Risk

High Market Risk

Personalized medicine

Biotech

Medical dev. Healthcare Cleantech

Electronic Design

Automation Semicon

Game Software Consumer

Electronics

Comp. Software

Comp. Hardware

Enterprise Hardware

Genentech, Amgen, Biogen Idec, Chiron were founded by university professors

Walter Gilbert and

Phillip Sharp the

founders of Biogen

Idec later won the Nobel Prize

Mostly dominated by college dropouts: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Michael Dell,

Challenge No. 3

How to work

countless hours outside

the reward system

Academic Reward and Promotion System

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Government Industry

Academia

Education Research

Entrepreneurship

The Academic reward and promotion at most universities does not include or favor entrepreneurship

Challenge No. 4

The Stockholm

Syndrome

Remember the 1%?

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From where all this reluctance came from?

Stockholm Syndrome describes the behavior of kidnap victims who, over time, become sympathetic to their captors. The name derives from a 1973 hostage incident in Stockholm, Sweden. At the end

of six days of captivity in a bank, several kidnap victims actually resisted rescue attempts, and afterwards refused to testify against their captors.

Academic Entrepreneurs are suffering of the Stockholm Syndrome

What causes Stockholm Syndrome?

Captives begin to identify with their captors initially as a defensive mechanism, out of fear of violence. Small acts of kindness by the captor are magnified, since finding perspective in a hostage situation is by definition impossible. Rescue attempts are also seen as a threat, since it's likely the captive would be injured during such attempts.

Challenge No. 5

Which path to take?

“One day Alice came to a fork in the

road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree.

"Which road do I take?" she asked.

"Where do you want to go?" was his

response.

"I don't know," Alice answered.

"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."

Actually an Academic Entrepreneur knows exactly which path to take.

We just wish that it should be no fork in the road. One path should the be normal continuation of the other path.