Seasoned science entrepreneurs tell Adam Levy how to take the daunting first steps to commercialising your research.

Perfect pitch: Adam Levy learns how budding science entrepreneurs can wow potential investors.

If you want your product idea to succeed, one of the first steps is to interest potential investors.

This can be hard for academic researchers, whose previous focus will have been on getting published, winning grants and teaching classes, says Javier Garcia-Martinez, a chemist at the University of Alicante in Spain, and founder of Rive Technology.

Daniel Batten, who coaches chief executives and research scientists and is a managing director of Auckland-based venture-capital company Exponential Founders Fund in New Zealand, outlines the four steps needed to deliver a winning investor pitch.

Levy is joined by Barbara Domayne-Hayman, entrepreneur in residence at the Francis Crick Institute in London; Patrick Anquetil, founder and chief executive of bioengineering company Portal Instruments, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Wei Wu, chief operating officer at HelioHeat in Offenburg, Germany.

They talk about the importance of prototyping, networking and market intelligence.

Read more at: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01003-0