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Stephen Flint: Bringing tech ideas to life

27 May 2021
UniServices Director of Commercialisation Stephen Flint participated in a Techweek panel discussion on how New Zealand universities are leading in deep-tech innovation.

The path from university research to successful product isn’t a straightforward one. That’s especially true in tech. Deep tech requires long timeframes and a lot of uncertainty, both technical and market related. Typically, this means a lot of investment over a long period.  Finding the right investors that understand and commit to the journey is important.

However, universities these days have a lot of initiatives to encourage entrepreneurship. They provide mentoring, training and workshops, and run hackathons and maker spaces. At the University of Auckland, the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship provides an extensive range of these programmes to staff and students, engaging with around 10 percent of the student population – that’s 4,000 participants.

The university’s flagship entrepreneurship programme is Velocity. Since 2003, it has ignited more than 130 ventures, including PowerbyProxi, Kami, StretchSense and Tectonus. Together, these 130+ ventures have created more than 800 jobs and raised over $280 million in capital.

Stephen Flint

For ideas a little further along in the entrepreneurship journey, UniServices runs the University of Auckland Inventors’ Fund, a $20M fund investing in ideas from staff and students at the University of Auckland. Our active portfolio is currently made up of 38 companies and we invest in approximately 10 new start-ups each year.  

UniServices also runs Return On Science and Momentum, which provide advice to researchers and students nationwide who are looking to commercialise their ideas. They also provide investment recommendations to technology transfer offices and allow investors and companies to see what is coming through the pipeline in New Zealand’s research organisations. The Return On Science committee are domain-specific while the Momentum committees are student-led. 

So, what makes the difference between entrepreneurs who succeed and those who don’t? One key ingredient is passion. Making a go of a start-up is extremely challenging, requiring enormous dedication and time commitment. Juggling capital raising, product development, marketing and sales on limited resources requires great determination in the face of many unknowns.

“Entrepreneurs must be willing to listen to advice. However, that has to be balanced with the ability to make decisions and commit to action. Different experts may give conflicting opinions because nothing is certain. I’ve seen a lot of companies get into a ‘paralysis by analysis’ state because of conflicting or unclear data. At some point, they have to make a hypothesis and test it.”

Stephen Flint

Another key is coachability. Entrepreneurs must be willing to listen to advice. However, that has to be balanced with the ability to make decisions and commit to action. Different experts may give conflicting opinions because nothing is certain. I’ve seen a lot of companies get into a “paralysis by analysis” state because of conflicting or unclear data. At some point, they have to make a hypothesis and test it. They might be able to pivot later if the need arises, but not if they never do anything.

A third important trait is the ability to focus. It’s too easy to get distracted. Founders must be flexible but ultimately they must focus on the tasks that add the most value.

Not every key to success, however, has to do with personal traits. Timing is critical. Take the “internet of things.” Ten years ago, it was being widely hyped but the infrastructure wasn’t yet there. If you were trying to get into it then, you were probably too early. Now, however, it’s probably too late to jump in because a lot of other companies have gotten there first. It can be hard to gauge when you’re in the right place at the right time, so you have to put yourself into position to get going when an industry takes off. Sometimes that means going outside your comfort zone.

In many ways, though, now is a great time for tech companies to grow in New Zealand. There has never been so much early-stage capital available. In the past, it used to be very hard to get companies through what was called the “valley of death” and to the point where they were deemed investable. Now a lot of universities are setting up funds like ours. KiwiNet is bringing together organisations to turn science into business. This is encouraging private investors to get in earlier too, often through co-investment. 

The culture is shifting as well. People used to do PhDs with the sole goal of getting into academia, though there have long been many more PhD graduates than academic jobs. Now more doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows are seeing start-ups as a viable option. This, together with the fact that there has never been more early-stage investment in New Zealand, presents fantastic opportunities for both founders and investors.

Contact Stephen Flint