How do you turn a laboratory discovery into the backbone of a business? Over the past generation, the bench scientists and engineers who generate potentially world-changing innovations have increasingly had to shoulder the burden of entrepreneurship. Centralized research operations funded from the balance sheets of publicly traded corporations have given way to scrappy start-ups backed by private investors.
But chemistry entrepreneurs don’t have to go it alone. Science-oriented business accelerators have emerged to help scientific founders along the start-up route. Each has its own nuances and is driven by its own motivations. Researchers who find the right one can turn an impossible task into one that’s just extremely difficult.
Accelerators are like business school boot camps. They focus on giving founders the boardroom skills and investor connections they didn’t get from, say, a PhD in chemistry. Accelerators provide an intense educational program that lasts anywhere from 2–12 months.
Participants typically meet in person with their cohort for multiple-day workshops several times during the program and complete other activities asynchronously. Almost all programs end with a “demo day,” in which the accelerator invites venture capitalists to hear the participants describe why their start-up is worth investment—like a science geek episode of the TV show Shark Tank.
The financial models vary widely. Some accelerators collect payment, cash or equity in the fledgling company. Some are free and get their funding from governments, universities, or philanthropists. Others are paid for by investors who show up at the end to identify and cultivate investment opportunities.
An accelerator is not to be confused with an incubator, which is basically a WeWork for laboratories, with lab space to rent and shared access to instruments and facilities. But while it’s easy on paper to draw a line between accelerators and incubators, many are a hybrid of the two models. Shara Ticku, CEO of the palm oil replacement start-up C16 Biosciences, says it pays to dig deep into an accelerator’s structure, offerings, and financial backing before applying. “The important thing is to be very clear about what you’re looking to get out of the program and what you have to give in exchange for it,” she says.
C16 participated in Y Combinator, a famed San Francisco–based accelerator, in 2018. “The numbers change, but when we did it, in exchange for their investment, they got 7% of the company,” Ticku says. “A lot of people think that is really expensive, that it’s a lot of your company to give away.”
For C16, letting go of a 7% stake made sense. “We were looking for credibility and the ability to raise a lot of funds,” Ticku says. “Y Combinator has been one of the best communities I’ve been a part of. The spirit of giving back, and the peer-to-peer learning, has been invaluable,” she says. “That’s on top of the efficient seed round we were able to raise.”