The Accelerators of World-Changing Ideas
Five part Q&A with Miles Kirby, CEO of DeepTech Labs
1. What is the purpose of accelerators within the Arc, and what is DeepTech trying to achieve?
Having worked for Qualcomm in California for 18 years and ran an accelerator and incubator in the US and venture capital groups in the Europe., I’ve come across a huge variety of talented academics, engineers and entrepreneurs who have ground-breaking ideas. For those experiencing a ‘lightbulb’ moment, it’s relatively easy to obtain seed funding from angel investors. The challenge lies in developing a deep tech idea; what is essentially an original thought, into a commercially viable business.
Often first time founders and especially those that come from an academic or engineering background struggle to make this jump, they may not know to ask key questions like: “Which market do I target?” “What’s the commercial application?” “Where is the value added?” They don’t necessarily home in on the right areas for business development. Moving from a high-level idea and prototype, to getting initial seed capital engaged, to then attracting Series A investors with a coherent and cogent business model and plan for developing the business, requires more than having a great idea.
This is where accelerators like DeepTech Labs can step in. What DeepTech Labs is doing, as you’d expect, is focussing on the deep tech sector, that being new technologies or existing technologies combined in a unique way, which seek to solve our greatest societal, scientific or engineering challenges. Where we see potential, we invest at the outset before providing advice and guidance to ascertain the scalability of their offering and assist in commercialising their initial proposal. Then we bring like-minded entrepreneurs together as a cohort in a 13-week programme designed to plug them into the wider deep tech community. Like the proverb that it takes a village to raise a child, so too do we believe strongly that it takes a community to build a successful start-up.
We’re now on our second cohort, bringing those that have exited accelerators and incubators such as the founders Arm, CSR, Imagination Technologies, Hotel.com, and others with real experience in this space and experience of taking great ideas to market in contact with current start-ups. New businesses are at the bottom of the mountain and looking up at the daunting peak thinking “How do I reach the top?”. We connect them with the people who have been to the summit before, to give them valuable advice and networking opportunities.
2. In your experience, what are the key needs and constraints for start-ups and spinouts?
Money has historically been a key constraint, though there’s a lot of different sources surfacing. On reflection, a lot of what is necessary is guidance and help, and advice to build the right team. If you happen to be a first-time entrepreneur, great academic or engineer, you must be able to bring commercial and operations experience into the company, something DeepTech Labs and other accelerators help to facilitate. We like to describe this ecosystem as a virtuous circle, or flywheel, where successful entrepreneurs who have exited the system can return to give their expertise to new start-ups.
DeepTech Labs can offer the financial side – generally our ticket size is £350,000 to start-ups to help prove their technology – but more importantly we offer strategy and long-term planning, suggesting cogent metrics and milestones for future business development, and forum days where the community is brought around these new companies. We work on their roadmaps and business models, discussing how to attract venture capital and Series A funding, from operations to focussing on key issues like intellectual property.
3. What do you think the benefits are for a new start-up or spinout in partnering with an accelerator like DeepTech?
Some start-ups have occasionally described themselves as ‘too busy’ to participate in accelerators, but the accelerator model helps to streamline business operations and make things quicker and more efficient. Companies can benefit from a much larger community and a diversity of thinking from across research, commercial and operations sectors to really energise and expedite the process.
In accelerators like DeepTech Labs, start-ups build great connections that can support them throughout their development. These companies are provided with a launchpad to update their thinking and operations, but also are introduced to a holistic ecosystem of support both regionally and across the start-up community. What’s been fantastic is that the community have really come together over this, with over a thousand hours of time volunteered by previous entrepreneurial founders and those that have in-depth experience of achieving success through the start-up model.
What is the ultimate purpose of DeepTech Labs for a start-up? What we’re trying to do is take the fantastic research and ideas, and then build those ideas into solid plans for business, which can then attract further investment. We’ve sometimes been described as a ‘finishing school for start-ups’, but having seen so many companies fail with great ideas, we’re perhaps better seen as an accelerator that allows these ideas to succeed in a more commercial environment.
4. What makes the Oxford-Cambridge Arc attractive as a place for accelerators to operate?
One of the unique advantages of the Oxford-Cambridge Arc is its critical mass as a pre-existing ecosystem for knowledge capital. We have a highly skilled workforce with great human capital metrics already in place to meet the needs of growing start-ups and new businesses.
One of the key things that the Arc can boast is connecting back to academia, particularly the University of Cambridge which DeepTech Labs works extensively with. Companies can connect with individual professors in university departments and can recruit from an enviable talent pool in the form of world-class postdoctoral students already located in Oxford-Cambridge Arc.
The Arc also supports a venture capital ecosystem. Our last forum for start-ups had 66 venture capital firms sign up to attend, many of whom are located within or close to the Arc. This existing momentum works as a catalyst for the accelerator model to really deliver results.
5. What do you see as the future of investment and mentorship in the Arc?
I think the ecosystem is growing, the flywheel is accelerating, and the momentum building. Deep tech is ever expanding, and investment can result in world-changing outcomes. DeepTech Labs focuses on brand-new technology ideas that are highly patentable, and we’re picking out all kinds of fascinating ideas from the wellspring of entrepreneurs within the Arc: from a company building next generation processors, companies doing machine learning for object recognition, and one looking at fruit harvesting using drones and assessing yields in agriculture. These ideas have the potential to completely transform our everyday lives and help us to meet climate and social goals with the right mentorship in place.
Accelerators like DeepTech Labs expect further interest in the Arc as investment continues to snowball: something which develops the national economy, unlocks social prosperity, and helps to solve some of the key issues of our age.
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