»From University to Unicorn 2022« celebrates the innovation ecosystem surrounding Danish universities.
This publication explores how students and scientists convert their knowledge to businesses with the potential to become the next unicorn; how the established business sector plays an essential part through partnerships and collaborations; and how the effort within digital entrepreneurship across the universities shapes the talents of tomorrow.
»From University To Unicorn 2022« is published in collaboration between TechSavvy.media and Digital Tech Summit.
We would like to thank the following partners, sponsors and advertisers for making »From University to Unicorn 2022« possible:
»From University to Unicorn« is produced by TechSavvy.media
Editor in Chief: Sebastian Kjær Journalists: Erik Lillelund and Sebastian Kjær. Layout: Vratislav Pecka Frontpage: Aurimas Baciauskas Partnerships: Jesper Emil Jørgensen Contact: sales@techsavvy.media
For university startups and entrepreneurial students, opportunites are there for the taking The entrepreneurial spirit is everywhere. In every corner of the university buildings, students, researchers and entrepreneurs can find support to cultivate their good ideas and turn them into businesses.
How universities help students realise their entrepreneurial dreams: KU and AAU
panel: How do we turn more research into business?
Overview: The universities’ comprehensive offerings for entrepreneurs and
The big gains come when collaboration happens across silos A business profile joined Aris Robotics by chance, and this has left its mark on the company’s business model. Those bridges, where collaboration happens across competencies, silos and ecosystems, are exactly what Thirdroom wants to support with its new, digital and open collaboration platform.
DIREC only supports researchers who collaborate across universities
How universities help students and researchers realise their entrepreneurial dreams: AU and RUC
Student intern kick-started security company’s journey to becoming an IT company
There is great growth potential in digitising small and medium-sized enterprises that already have a healthy business. For security company Actas, the starting point was a collaboration with a student from Aalborg University - who is now the head of the company’s IT department.
challenged to invent the future of
How universities help students realise their entrepreneurial dreams: SDU and DTU
Young talents, what do you want? Almost all companies are competing for the coveted graduates who are hot commodities in the global labour market. But to attract them, you need to understand what they want.
»It’s often the new developers who come up with brand new ideas«
ITU-professor has been on more startup adventures than most While some academics still find it hard to see themselves in spinout companies, ITU professor Martin Pichlmair has established his own startups several times. And it’s an adventure he thinks more people should pursue.
How universities help students realise their entrepreneurial dreams:
to uni-entrepreneurs: »Team up, so you’re on a journey together«
The dream was to become a social worker. Instead, he became a serial entrepreneur The dream of being a social worker fell through and took Sverre Dueholm past both RUC and ITU before he found his new calling: tech entrepreneur. Today, he has a number of tech startups behind him - including podcast service Podimo - and the humanistic and pedagogical tools have been important.
Ayear ago, we were in the midst of a historic time of change. We still are, but since the latest From University to Unicorn, the his toric time of change has taken a new and unexpected turn: from a global pandemic to war on European soil, galloping inflation and the prospect of a major recession.
The crisis is apparent and it is global. The security situation is new and the eco nomics are different - both for individual families and for knowledge startups that rely on the investment community to build their solutions.
But necessity breeds creativity, and in times of change, entrepreneurs are a special breed. They both see and create new opportunities. Some of today’s great companies were founded during the last financial crisis in 2008.
The startup scene is a contingency. When a crisis hits, the startup scene eyes new opportunities - and quickly adapts and seizes them. Who was the first to come up with a new vaccine when the pandemic hit? A small startup called Biontech.
The example shows how important the pipeline of knowledge-intensive startups is for society. Right now, there is someone out there with unique knowledge and unique solutions - and when their niche suddenly becomes relevant in a new way, they can quickly move to meet new needs.
We see this reality emanating not least from the universities, where a broad and long-term desire for knowl edge forms the basis. Deep knowledge and deep tech startups become a partic ularly important part of the entrepre neurial ecosystem when we don’t know where the world is heading. We see this not least in cybersecurity, quantum
technology and crypto right now, which have great potential in security.
The challenges are great, but so, fortu nately, are the opportunities. The green transition is really starting to gain mo mentum with a burgeoning ecosystem where we are seeing heavy investment from governments, venture capital and business angels, moving into the field. Both challenges and opportunities were also discussed when Open Entrepre neurship held its annual conference last month. Open Entrepreneurship is a col laboration across all Danish universities to mature research with the common
goal of developing commercial business. At the Annual Meeting, we only con firmed how central this maturation is to the green transition and other major so cietal challenges - because new technol ogy is not a solution in itself, but needs to get out of universities, into production and to the market to make a difference.
Fortunately, Open Entrepreneurship is just one of many efforts going in the right direction when it comes to build ing the ecosystem. This is reassuring, as we need more connections than ever - in line with this publication, which aims precisely to bridge and inspire across the innovation ecosystem’s innovators. Enjoy your reading!
When do we go on?« A student nervously asks a lecturer, who is leaning casually over a high table equipped with a few bottles of water and a microphone. Behind the table, a large canvas towers - the ‘stage’ of the New Nordic designer hall, Arena, with its large windows, green six-man tables and rough concrete walls.
A female student joins in. »Remem ber, I’ll start with the description and then you’ll take over,« she inter rupts, placing a reassuring hand on the shoulder of her partner, who is wearing a formal oxford blue shirt for the day. He nods conspiratorially and spends the wait alternately tripping on the spot and walking in small circles around himself.
The broker couple will pitch their startup in front of all the other assem bled students, who are also following the DTU X-Tech entrepreneurship programme - an accelerated learning programme that combines engineering, business and marketing students with inventions, patents and technology needs from industry partners.
»We’re going to start by warming up,« the moderator of the day shouts into the room.
An enthusiastic buzz replaces the initial hesitation and around the room the different teams start presenting their ideas to each other. Although DTU is located in Lyngby, the room is filled with Eastern European, American, South American and Asian accents. Everything is done in English.
» It’s not ‘just’ classroom teaching, it’s learning by doing,« laughs Danny Gryd holt-Jantzen, programme manager for DTU X-Tech, proudly.
All master’s students at DTU are now required to take entrepreneurship classes. But X-Tech is a relatively new initiative where students are put togeth er in teams (typically six people) based on competencies. Then the semester is spent solving a concrete project proposal from a partner company.
»The students in the course are very diverse. Some already have a startup and want to be better at the discipline. Others have ambitions to become entrepre neurs. And the rest dream of becoming more of an intrapreneur, but would like to have the entrepreneurial skills in their toolkit,« the program director says.
An inventor’s dream Outside the lecture hall, the rest of the DTU Skylab, the university’s cardinal point for (aspiring) entrepreneurs, trembles; 5,500 square metres of laboratories, workshops, auditoriums, open spaces and project rooms. Students, researchers, partner compa nies, mentors, teachers and business developers meet here to develop solutions to concrete and abstract challenges.
Through the startup NexTrade, founders Matias Burvad, Robert Gers and Anders Parslov use artificial intelligence to understand key events in the stock market.
• Skylab was established by DTU in 2013
• In 2021, the house has supported 289 startups and pre-startups and 284 prototypes
• More than 73,000 visited Skylab during 2021
• The Lab has registered more than 2,000 ‚night owls‘ who have been working on their startup or prototype between 22-06
for the many students who want to see their particular solution become part of the future.
Like the startup StaySeat, founded by Marcus H. Vang and Jon Bob Sø dergreen, who both study Process and Innovation at DTU and are behind a cushion solution for restaurant and café guests that could eventually replace heat lamps by using up to 50 times less energy.
»We started StaySeat through a DTU entrepreneurship course, and that led to us, as engineering students, instead of reading math books, suddenly sitting and watching YouTube videos about how to sew cushion covers on the sew ing machines we borrowed from our grandparents,« laughs Marcus H. Vang.
On the other side of the Developer Hall, Sara Lopez and Andrei Chirtoaca are fully occupied with their robotic solution. Through the startup Yuman Robots, they have developed a robot to help nurses transport instruments, medicines and the like around hospital wards. The aim is to free up nurses’ time for patients.
The two entrepreneurs met through an online DTU course. And it wasn’t long before they were up and running with their startup.
Stepping through the main entrance, it immediately looks like an inventor’s dreamscape: a huge room with infinite ly high ceilings and hardware projects, drones, robots and all sorts of proto types all over workshop-like stations.
»When Skylab originally started in 2013, it was in the basement with some paint and some dated workshop machines. This created a very free and exploratory approach to things, where it was okay to make mistakes. And that spirit is definitely still present today,« Mikkel Sørensen, Director of DTU Sky lab, describes.
Developer Hall is the name of the large space, a vibrant deep-tech envi ronment where DTU students and startups in need of workspace have access to workshops and laboratories for con crete product and technology develop ment. But most of all, it’s a showcase
»We quickly realised we wanted to do our own startup when we wrote our entrepreneurial master’s thesis on the po tential of robotics in different industries. And we are happy that we did. Right now we even have five master’s students writ ing their thesis based on Yuman Robots. We hope to have the funds to continue working with them when they finish their studies « explains Sara Lopez (CEO).
And it could well become a career path for master’s students. Because one of the major contributions of Danish universities to society is the creation of around 600 new companies in Denmark every year, which has grown to almost 7,200 companies in the period from 2008 to 2019.
In 2019, the 2,000 largest universi ty-based entrepreneurial companies employed more than 9,300 full-time employees and had a total turnover of DKK 12.6 billion, while the startup eco system at large employs close to 60.000
Meat Tomorrow are working on a producing sustainable and animal-friendly meat from stem cells.
is
that
to 50
by
people, according to a new study by Danske Bank.
Startups that
Climb the
from the
soon come across SkyLab’s startup incubator. Here
and
along on the
who are
side and ready
enter the next phase of development. »In the incubator, we help partici pants to draw up a targeted plan for the company’s development, and then to execute it. This also means that we constantly take stock of where they are with financing, development, market segmentation and customer base,« says Alexander Egebjerg, Incubator Manager,
who runs the day-to-day operations of the unit.
One startup that has reached that point is Meat Tomorrow, founded by David Valbjørn and Matias Ankjær. The two entrepreneurs are working to produce stem cell meat - and make it so cheap that it can eventually end up in regular supermarkets.
»There are many companies in this space. So instead of trying to develop ev erything ourselves, we specialise in spe cific phases of production and let others become skilled and cost effective at other parts,« says Matias Ankjær.
Across the table are three incubator participants who think about things other than food. Through the startup NexTrade, DTU founder Matias Burvad, Robert Gers and Anders Parslov use artificial intelligence to understand key events in the stock market. And it’s been a stroke of luck that they’ve got to know each other at all.
• Concept: mobile robots to help nurses transport small items in hospital wards. Our aim is to reduce the time nurses spend on routine tasks, so they can spend more time with patients.
• Founded 2022
• Founders: Sara Lopez MSc in Computer Science and Andrei Chirtoaca MSc in Computer Science (Both DTU)
• Where did you meet? At DTU, during COVID in an online course.
• Expect to be in market: September 2023 where the MVP is ready for hospitals.
»We didn’t know each other, but were put together by skills through the X-Tech programme. And then we quickly found out that we complimented each other really well. We’ve been working together ever since,« explains Anders Parslov.
»Remember: We give concrete, construc tive and caring feedback. The mission here is that we all get better at present ing,« the lecturer almost shouts clearly into the microphone after the students have finished warming up. Now it’s on to the big challenge of the day: pitching in front of everyone in the lecture hall.
After the first teamhas finished, I look out over the audience to see a forest of waving feedback hands. But they fail to appear. Instead, the trainees consistently sit staring down into their laps, clearly ab sorbed in the bluish glow of a smartphone.
Suddenly there is movement on the big screen behind the speakers. Little blue speech bubbles appear as students log on to a dedicated grading app and give feedback on the presentation they’ve just witnessed.
»Good job «, »give out snacks«, »more energy on stage« and »required more clarity at the end,« are the messages from the anonymous audience.
Eventually, the number of respondents reaches an appropriate level. The teach er lights up and immediately grabs the microphone.
»Okay, thanks for good answers. Let’s see if we can get this presentation ready for investors!« he shouts to the room enthusiastically.
affects our marine environment. At the same time, there are a lot of good nutrients in the wastewater that are lost in the process. That’s why we’ve devel oped a solution that recycles resources from wastewater to bio-resources via so-called vertical farming. This cleans the water, stores CO2 and reduces the waste of resources.
from RUC with a great understanding of how nature and society interact.
How has The Inkubator (AAU) helped you?
We both have a very technical backg round, so we got help to commercialise the idea. Both through mentoring, but also the ‘Summer Camp which is for entrepreneurial students, with talks, courses and pitch training. It helped us define the idea and the business part.
What are you working on in your startup?
In short, the waste water from most sewage treatment plants negatively
I (Kristian) have previously completed a production education in game design and then a bachelor in Communication and IT from KU.
Nicolai is an environmental planner
Overall, through the incubator environ ment we have become much sharper about our idea and solution, the commercial aspects of the business and how to conti nue the positive development we are in.
We have started an indie game studio that focuses on making games that are entertaining and give players insight into the history that helped create our world. Our mission is to make meaningful games where players feel they get more than just entertainment out of playing them. We often get asked, do you make learning games? And we don’t, as we don’t force anyone into a quiz, our games simply deliver an authentic gaming experience.
I (Andreas) went to a game design college and then took a bachelor in
Communication and IT from KU.
Jónas has both a bachelor and master in History from KU and Rasmus has a bachelor in Media Studies from AAU.
How has the Human & Legal Innovation Hub (KU) helped you?
At the hub you get to be in charge of your own business, we have been able to book some talks about our business. In addition, we have participated in works hops on strategy, customer validation to monetization and investments.
Through our hard work we have built a strong business and are now in dialogue with many investors. We continue to
expand and in October we will publish and show how far we have come with the game on Itch.io.
From cleaning wastewater with water plants to meaningful history computer games – University of Copenhagen and Aalborg University’s hubs help students combine research and business and take the entrepreneurial route.Founders of Biomend: Kristian Klougart Hansen (AAU) og Nicolai Thomsen (RUC) Founders of Gamucatex: Andreas Jørgensen (KU), Jónas Terney Arason (KU) and Rasmus Nielsen (AAU) Biomend, Kristian Klougart Hansen (AAU) og Nicolai Thomsen (RUC) Gamucatex, Andreas Jørgensen (KU), Jónas Terney Arason (KU) and Rasmus Nielsen (AAU) Expert panel:
Danish universities are among the top in the world. But how do we get more research translated into new technology, startups and large companies for the benefit of society? We asked four experts.
Why do we need more students and researchers to embark on a startup adventure?
Christian Vintergaard CEO, Foundation for Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurs and innovative employees are crucial for Denmark and the world to solve the huge challenges we face. For example, we will not solve the green transition or our health challenges without new ideas and solutions to avoid food waste, help patients and healthcare workers or make new healthy food through sustainable methods. Students and researchers play a crucial role here, as it is their innovation, research and ability to act on ideas and create new businesses that will take us forward as a society.
This year, I will be reviewing around 700 appli
cations to our Microgrants scheme from students seeking capital to start businesses based on ideas developed during their studies. Among these are solu tions that advance Denmark and the world.
What is the role of established industries?
The established business community plays a key role in bringing students’ and researchers’ ideas from the drawing board to reality. Every talent or idea needs mentoring, role models, capital and collabora tion, which is why we at the Foundation for Entre preneurship always work to involve the established business community in our work with students, researchers and educational institutions.
Being an entrepreneur or working in a startup is hands-on learning at speed. As an entrepreneur, you learn to cut corners and focus on delivering tangible value. It fits perfectly with theory and immersion in your studies or life as a researcher.
It is certainly not for everyone, especially at a time when young people are experiencing greater pressures, but the opportunity to combine study and entrepreneurship has until recently been very difficult or at worst invisible.
I think many people only find out what their studies are about when they solve real problems for startups. It gives extra motivation to become sharper
in your studies/research and a broader and sharper perspective on the direction you choose afterwards. Conversely, it can also provide clarification on whether you want to go all in on research.
What is the role of established industries?
We have huge untapped resources such as data, sales channels, brands, infrastructure and a lot of customers with challenges that require completely new approach es to solve them. Entrepreneurs can bring that to us.
This is the intersection we want to contribute to in AURA, where we are both a case and thesis com pany at Aarhus University, through our involvement in The Kitchen and as an investor in startups via AURA Ventures.
Morten Ugelvig Andersen CEO, Venture Cup Denmark LabWhy do we need more students and researchers to embark on a startup adventure?
I believe that there is great latent potential for innovation and entrepreneurship among students and researchers at Danish universities. By activating and cross-pollinating their knowledge and skills, we can create a catalyst for growth and innovative solutions for a better society. To realise this, we need to strengthen the framework conditions for entrepre neurship at universities and create more opportuni ties for both students and researchers to engage in entrepreneurship. Thus, students need to be intro duced to entrepreneurship both curricularly and extra-curricularly, so that more are inspired to embark on a startup adventure.
What is the role of established industries?
Learning in practice is increasingly used in Danish universities, where business is invited as case companies or sparring partners. This linkage is important to reduce the distance between teaching and business, while giving students an understand ing that their solutions can make a difference in society. By highlighting current market opportunities and providing resources, companies can offer a stepping stone that can turn students into successful entrepreneurs much faster. To succeed in this interaction, it is important to also lift up national entrepreneurship initiatives, where universities collaborate and learn from each other to create better opportunities for researchers, students and startups.
Lars Spicker Head of FutureLab, GrundfosWhy do we need more students and researchers to embark on a startup adventure?
Denmark is a relatively small country with fewer inhabitants than Madrid. Alongside well-estab lished companies, we need to promote entrepre neurship and entrepreneurship in general, to create new business and keep us relevant as a country. As part of this, students and researchers can play an important role, helping to inspire, think more freely and perhaps raise the novelty and innovation level of the businesses that can be tried out. Conversely, looking specifically to create business can be an excellent driver to both chal lenge and guide parts of the research towards specific goals and, not least, towards applications that can provide value. Successful or not, the
startup journey itself is valuable for those involved and the experience, battles and rollercoaster ride(s) hugely skills-building in ways that may be hard to find elsewhere.
What is the role of established industries?
Alongside the energy and fresh breath of inspira tion that naturally comes from following startup companies and environments, the established business community could have different roles to play in the other direction towards entrepreneurs. In some areas, simply by being a customer; In other areas, as development partners or in the form of sparring and mentorship. Finally, as potential investors and scaling partners when and if startups need to take the next step towards growth.
Students: 19,975
Startuphubs & Incubators: AAU Science & Innovation Hub, Impact HUB, Health HUB, Create HUB, Bridge HUB, Ocean HUB.
Number of startups: 110
Startup heroes: GOMspace, Ambolt, Lyras.
Students: 38,000
Startuphubs & Incubators: The Kitchen, Level 2, Orbit Lab, Startup Factory Early, Hat chITLab, Business Factory, EIT Food Seedbed Hub, ESA Business Incubation Center
Number of startups: 40 + 150 prestartups (only The Kitchen)
Startup heroes: Teitur, Danish Graphene, Emplate.
Students: 26,700
Startuphubs & Incubators: SDU
Entreprenurship Labs, Startup Station, MakerSpace, Makerlab.
Number of startups: 180 + 569 pre-startups
Startup heroes: humAid, Aris Robotics, QuasiOS
Students: 20,843
Startuphubs & Incubators: Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship
Number of startups: 117 + 250 pre-startups each year.
Startup heroes: Blue Lobster, DonkeyRepublic, Chabber
Work to promote and showcase entrepreneurship among university students, and help eliminate the gap between the academic world and the business community.
Supports research-based spinouts from Danish universities.
Students: 7,084
Startuphubs & Incubators: Open Entrepreneurship Lab, Fablab RUC
Number of startups: 3-4 + 5-10 pre-startups each year
Startup heroes: Thirdroom, Work/d, Autoshopper
Students: 13,414
Startuphubs & Incubators: DTU Skylab, DTU Science Park, Futurebox, DTU Link, PowerLabDK, PreSeed Ventures.
Number of startups: 74 + 289 pre-startup (2021)
Startup heroes: 3shape, Corti, Radiobotics
Students: 36,897
Startuphubs & Incubators: KU Lighthouse, Science Innovation Hub, SUND Hub, Human & Legal Innovation Hub
Number of startups: 110 new + 247 active teams (2021)
Startup heroes: Forecast, Syncsense, Smallbrooks
Connecting and empowering technical and commercial talent to unleash their digital startup potential for society.
Have established an effort with focus on innovation and entrepreneurship, eg. The Young Researcher Entrepreneurship Academy.
Students: 2,740
Startuphubs & Incubators: ITU Startup
Number of startups: N/A
Startup heroes: Unity, Flow Robotics
Supports the Danish startup ecosystem from initial idea to investment and scale by providing founders with the right network, knowledge, and navigation tools.
The Innovation Foundation Development programme for entrepreneurs (Innofounder) and grants for companies and entrepreneurs who want to launch an innovative, knowledge-based development project (Innobooster).
The number of offers and programmes for entrepreneurs and startups at Danish universities is growing. But there is still much to be done before world-class research is translated into explosive startups fast enough.
Along with the Silicon Valley startup wave came an ideal of dropping out of education as soon as possible to start a busi ness, so that you could become as suc cessful as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. But in reality, dropping out doesn’t increase your chances of succeed ing with your startup. On the contrary.
This is why Danish universities are increasingly focusing on how much can be achieved by combining entrepreneur ship with a university education. One way is through the Venture Cup Denmark association, which has worked for 22 years to strengthen entrepreneurship at universities.
»Danish universities have been on an impressive journey in entrepreneurship, where individual universities have gone from having no offerings for students or startups to today having strong envi ronments and a wealth of programmes that are strongly integrated into teaching and research. The advent of the univer sities’ own hubs means that Venture Cup is increasingly becoming an umbrella organisation that seeks to strengthen and develop cross-cutting networks and col laboration,« says Morten Ugelvig Anders en, CEO of Venture Cup Denmark.
The Digital Tech Summit brings together research and industry to build new con nections across the board. Because the solutions of the future must be found at that intersection.
The same view is shared by the Innovation Fund, which has supported entrepreneurship based on knowledge and research results with the Innoex plorer programme with DKK 50 million
annually since 2019. And it still sees significant untapped potential in all disciplines.
»In Denmark, we can pride ourselves on producing world-class research. The big challenge for us is to translate this excellent research into concrete value for society: new business ideas and new solutions. This is one of the purposes of the Innovation Fund: to act as a bridge between knowledge and research on the one hand and companies, and other customers on the other,« says Sidsel Hougaard, head of Innostartup at the Innovation Fund.
The private sector is also increasingly interested in linking up with the knowl edge environments at Danish univer sities. One example is the venture fund PreSeed Ventures, which, in addition to investing in early-stage startups, is
also involved in GreenPact, for example, in collaboration with DTU, which aims to commercialise more research in the fight against climate change.
»Universities have made great strides in offering and developing various initiatives aimed at supporting entre preneurship. Everyone wants more successful, fast-growing startups that we spin out of Denmark and build from the goldmine of research that our universities hold. But talented entrepre neurs and results don’t come naturally. We can only accelerate development fast enough in collaboration with even more foundations, companies and other business stakeholders who support the expansion of universities’ entrepreneur ial ecosystem. In concrete terms, this requires even more of the good initia tives to be co-funded by private founda tions and companies,« says Christel Piron, CEO of PSV Core.
A
Sina Pour Soltani walked past a rubbish bin - and wondered.
The bin may have had four holes at the top for sorting waste, but it was all collected in the same bag at the bottom of the bin.
»I thought we could turn the process upside down so there was only one hole at the top, and then use artificial intelligence to recognise the rubbish as it goes into the bin and sort it for us,« recalls Sina.
His wondering turned into a bache lor’s project in robotics at SDU, where he would try to make the idea a reality. This brought him into contact with various waste management companies, which gave him an important insight: it can actually be done, but if it is to make a real difference in waste sorting and reduce resource wastage, the machine needs to be scaled up. It must not just be a smart bin, but a smart plant that can sort waste for people.
»Most people agree that we need to recycle, but what we’re saying is that instead of teaching the whole popula tion to sort waste, it’s easier to train one artificial intelligence to do it,« says Sina.
Last year, the idea turned into the company Aris Robotics. Along the way, he has brought another robotics engi neer on board, and a business partner from CBS has joined the project. And while the latter happened by chance, it has been crucial to the way the compa ny is now approaching the market.
A unified platform for cooperation We know the story of the lonely ge nius who, through wild experiments, researches his way to a Nobel Prize. We know the story of the strong entrepre neur who puts everything aside to make his business a success. But both stories are the exception that proves the rule; In reality, researchers and entrepre neurs alike almost always succeed only through teams and collaboration.
Universities are increasingly collab orating with the business communi ty in research, student collaboration and startups. At the same time, new cross-cutting initiatives such as Open Entrepreneurship and DIREC are creating new incentives for universities to collab orate across.
The move towards more collaboration
is exactly what Danish company Thirdroom wants to support with a shared digital platform that will make it easier and more efficient for universities, startups, established companies and investors to come together on sustain able and green problem solving.
The three founders of Aris Robotics (from the left) Ann-Mia Ambjerg, Sina Pour Soltani and Christian Eberhardt. The startup has already received both a CBS Startup Grant and the Odin Award.
»Far too much knowledge and innova tion is being lost in silos and translation. We need to accelerate collaboration across people and organizations to scale impactful solutions. The world stands on a critical edge and the most sustainable way to react to the current crises, is to collaborate across people, sectors, disciplines, cultures and countries,« says Alfred Birkegaard, founder and CEO of Thirdroom.
The company has already delivered collaboration platforms to Novozymes, Grundfos and Roskilde University, among others. Now Thirdroom is taking the experience from these and bringing it together in a new, unifying so-called multi-stakeholder platform. And the vision is big: to create the digital infrastructure connecting re sources and facilitating deep systemic collaboration across the innovation ecosystem.
»Today there is no core digital knowl edge-sharing platform where students, startups, corporates and organizations connect, create and collaborate on the grand challenges. Thirdroom is born to bridge this gap,« says Birkegaard.
During the test project of the first smart bin, Sina and his project partner found themselves in a car park spray-painting a bin all black to give the AI cameras a controlled environment to scan. Ann-Mia Ambjerg happened to see the session, and out of curiosity, she had to seek out the two roboticists to find out more.
»At first I thought it had something to do with activism,« laughs Ann-Mia, who lived near the crime scene, and continues:
»They told me about their project, and I told them that I was studying business administration economics at SDU. So it was a very casual first meet ing, but it sounded so exciting that I couldn’t help but get involved. And when I overheard them talking about the business part, I had to jump in and offer my thoughts.«
When Aris Robotics was established as a company in the summer of 2021, Ann-Mia had become a natural part of the founding team, even though she had moved to CBS in the meantime. Along the way, it had become clear to the two robotics engineers that they needed her and her business skills in the company.
»It happened quite instinctively, but it follows the theory very well that you have to be in control of the technical side as well as the business. We just comple ment each other - also in terms of per sonality - and if we hadn’t met Ann-Mia, we’d be pretty much on our own without the business insight,« says Sina. New collaborations on purpose
At the heart of the Thirdroom’s collabora tion solution is visual project management timelines that make it easy to collaborate on problem solving and project progression digitally. But the experienced team behind the solution has also added a range of tools to help collaboration happen, so it doesn’t have to start by chance in a car park.
The tools include artificial intelli gence-based matchmaking, which helps find the right candidates for a project outside the project owner’s own close net work. And as a new feature, the platform is also working to make research articles from all Danish universities searchable, so they can be automatically suggested for projects where they might be relevant - benefiting students, researchers and startups alike.
»Research is not just about writing papers; it’s about being able to put new knowledge into action. If you’re a climate researcher, you also need to be able to com municate to companies and politicians, for example, but that’s difficult, and that’s why there’s so much valuable knowledge out there that just isn’t being put into practice,« says Alfred Birkegaard and continues:
»That’s why we start by meeting and collaborating on concrete problem-solv ing. It doesn’t really matter whether you’re a researcher, a startup or a company. The world is changing dramatically these years, and in order to respond to current and future crises, such as the climate crisis, we need a much stronger and more effective culture of collaboration,« he says, adding that Thirdroom wants to do this in a particularly Nordic way:
»Our communications technologies are creating dramatic new opportunities for networked productivity. But this requires that we trust the technology, which is why we are working to introduce a number of Nordic tech principles that we hope will help restore trust; e.g. fair use of data, transparent AI and no advertising or purchased content on the platform.«
Although the Thirdroom platform is brand new, it is built on 14 years of experimentation and research in digital and physical collaboration by its founders Alfred Birkegaard and Katja Gry Carlsen.
Alfred Birkegaard, CEO and founder of Thirdroom.
Robot startup without robot Today, Aris Robotics is close to being ready for the market. And although the company is robotics-based and has »Robotics« in its name, its first solution will be based entirely on artificial intelligence and a small camera.
»During the development we have found out how much data is missing in the waste industry. That’s why the first thing we’re going to deliver is a monitoring solution that can collect data,« says Sina.
The startup has already developed the software, which can help recycling centres, companies and hospitals to find out what their waste actually consists of using just a simple camera. In this way, they hope to launch a product much sooner than if they had to develop the big robot waste sorting system first.
»We want to recycle more, so we save resources and emit less. But that requires us to know what resources we’re throw ing away right now - that’s why it’s a problem that we don’t have the data. Only when we can collect that data in a scalable way, so that we know what it is we’re throwing away, will we be able to change that,« says Sina.
Thirdroom.org is a Danish so-called collaborative edtech platform that works on 3 Levels:
1. A Student Hub with student portfolios and visual progression timelines for collaborative problem solving, entrepreneurship and masterships.
2. A Startup Incubator that facilitates the full startup journey, from prototype to scale-up with global solutions and connects startups with required resources, needs and competences across the innovation ecosystem.
3. Challenge+ for Partnerdriven Innovation, where corporates collaborate with students, researchers, foundations, corporations, NGOs and public to solve grand challenges and accelerate the green transition.
Thirdroom will officially launch in the collaboration zone at the Digital Tech Summit on October 25th, where it will be free for students, startups, impact investors and mentors to get a profile at www.thirdroom.org
Denmark’s talented researchers must improve their collaboration across universities and industries. Only then do we stand a chance against the big foreign knowledge institutions.
Written by Sebastian KjærDenmark has researchers in the absolute world elite. Morten Meldal proved this most recently when the professor of chemistry at the University of Copenhagen received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022.
Of course, this does not mean that Danish researchers are the best in the world in every field, but the universities each have niches where they are at the forefront. And that’s why it’s so obvious that researchers should be working more collaboratively across the strengths of each university, says Thomas Riisgaard Hansen, Managing Director of Digital Research Centre Denmark (DIREC).
»Danish researchers can easily compete with the best from Stanford, Berkeley and MIT - it’s just in very narrow areas. That’s why it’s important that we bring research ers together, because new ideas emerge when you meet someone you don’t work with every day,« says Thomas Riisgaard Hansen, Managing Director of DIREC.
Artificial intelligence researchers know each other across Danish universities. But there are also researchers in other fields - such as robotics - with whom they could collaborate. And here DIREC expects to make a difference by facilitat ing matchmaking and at the same time financially supporting projects that cut across Danish universities.
»It’s all about matchmaking. It starts in a very practical way with meeting each other - for example at the Digital Tech Summit - so that some trust is built up. We hope to see both new research and new business ideas emerge from the match
making,« says Hansen.
Quantum technology is just one ex ample. The new technology cuts across digital specialists as well as physics and chemistry. That’s why researchers need to be brought together, and DIREC is do ing this by financially supporting more than 35 projects that strengthen collabo ration across universities.
World champions meet Knowledge is increasingly the founda tion for new solutions and new busi nesses. That’s why strengthening bridges between universities and industry is crucial to our international success.
»We’re up against fierce international competition, and in Denmark we just don’t have the same resources to throw
at research like American or Chinese universities, and so what do we do? Our suggestion is to say that if we are small and want to compete with the big ones, we have to be better at collaborating than they are,« says Hansen.
At the same time, DIREC is strengthen ing the startup sector - for example with a course for young researchers to equip them for the entrepreneurial movement.
Digital Research Centre Denmark (DIREC) is a Danish research centre that aims to conduct world-class digital research to ensure that Denmark is at the forefront of new digital technologies.
RUC and Aarhus University do everything they can to promote and encourage students and researchers to pursue their startup dreams. A step, both Coana, an IT-solution that optimizes software development and Work/dPlays Aps, a work related language game developer, have experienced first hand.
of time when existing components can be reused in new applications.
New versions of these components are continually released, but updating them is a time-consuming and er ror-prone process. Therefore, we have developed a tool that helps the update process to be completed faster and with a lower error rate.
How has The Kitchen (AU) helped you?
The founders behind Coana: Benjamin Barslev Nielsen (AU) and Martin Torp (AU)
Modern software is built by combining components, which can often save a lot
What is your educational background?
Benjamin and I (Martin) both have PhDs in computer science, where we worked on program analysis of JavaScript, which is also the cornerstone of our startup.
The Kitchen and our associated business developer Steen Villadsen have been a great help on many fronts: they have helped us find a co-founder (Anders Søndergaard), who comes with a background as an experienced entrepreneur and therefore increases the chances of Coana becoming a success significantly; they have offered courses in, among other things, pitching for investors. They have been helpful in finding various funding opportunities that have ensured that our startup has gotten off to a really good start.
What are you working on in your startup?
At Work/d Plays, we develop digital, industry-focused language learning games for workplaces with employees who have difficulty understanding Danish. They provide a motivating, language up-skilling experience and are built around specific work functions, so the user always enters the environment they are working with. In this way, the game trains vocabulary through linguistic instructions and links between words and objects.
What is your educational background?
I am Associate Professor in Cultural Studies at the Department of Communica
tion and Humanities at RUC and head of the research group Language and Learning.
How has RUC’s Open Entreprenuership Lab helped you?
Open entrepreneurship has been involved in application processes, further development of the idea and sparring about how I, as a researcher, could get copyright released from RUC. It’s always complicated when a researcher wants to develop something that needs to be commercialised, and it was good to have specialists in the legal and business aspects involved.
Then they supported the company by
helping to sharpen and define the devel opment path and provided lots of input on business models, pitch decks, etc – the things that we researchers often struggle with.
Join as a VENTURE PARTNER Make a change for startups across the eco-system Help build strong investment cases out of the Danish universities. Put your knowledge into play and get under the skin of exciting deep-tech startups at an early stage, while they are developing in the research environments.
As a Venture Partner, you will be invited into the universities’ startup eco-system, and you will be part of creating the framework for maturation and investment in the research-based companies of the future. At Digital Tech Summit, Open Entrepreneurship has taken initiative to bring together Venture Partners to debate the challenges, and make solution proposals, which can aid in creating valuable collaborations between researchers and investors.
The Venture Partner initiative starts at Digital Tech Summit, and it continues after the event as a community that is brought into action with startup cases and where models for collaborations are developed.
Get in touch Find us at the Venture Partner Lounge at Digital Tech Summit. Or get in touch by reaching Rasmus Stig Beck Jensen at rsbje@dtu.dk
There is great growth potential in digitising small and medium-sized enterprises that already have a healthy business. For security company Actas, the starting point was a collaboration with a student from Aalborg University - who is now the head of the company’s IT department.
Written by Sebastian Kjær
Alarms, surveillance and locking systems. Actas grew from a small startup to North Jutland’s leading security company in ten years. By 2016, the company had grown to 60 employees, and the core business was still growing. But at the same time, one of the founders had an idea for a new division in Actas. To make it a reality, it just required IT skills that the company didn’t yet have.
»We had a single academic employed as finance manager, and then there were 59 staff who were not academics. So it wasn’t something the founders had experience with, and they hadn’t looked into the IT part at all. The founder just thought it was exciting and had some good ideas,« says Lea Drejer Raunslund, HR and QA manager at Actas.
The first major step in IT development was the ABA-info system, which was de veloped as part of a collaboration between Actas and a study group from Aalborg University. The next step was through an internship, where a student from Aalborg University joined the company. Today, he is the head of the development depart ment at Actas, which has seven employ ees; a department that is responsible for a new, and important part of the business in Actas - which in the meantime has grown to 115 employees.
In North Jutland, 14 percent of compa nies collaborate with a Danish univer
sity, making the region the leader in Denmark for university collaborations, according to figures from Statistics Denmark. A survey by Aalborg University (AAU) shows that this kind of collabora tion is a great idea for companies: 3 out of 4 companies collaborating with AAU estimate that the collaboration leads to increased turnover, while 3 in 5 expect increased exports.
But the collaborations are not just for the companies. According to Morten Dahlgaard, Acting Director of Innovation at AAU, it is also in the students’ interest.
»There are many benefits for students in entering into collaboration. For some students, it’s a matter of empirical data for a project. For some, the collaboration can be used as part of a research project. But for most students, it is a collaboration with a potential employer and an oppor tunity to test academic skills in practice,« says Dahlgaard.
AAU is already collaborating with industry in various ways and Dahlgaard sees these partnerships as an integral part of the university’s mission.
»We have a goal to deliver knowledge to the world, and the best way to do that is through collaboration. We want to be recognised as a mission-driven universi ty, driven by a meaningful purpose that extends beyond the university itself and contributes to the sustainable devel opment of the world. And for us, that means being even closer to our part ners,« he says.
The security company Actas has doubled its number of employees in the past 7-8 years - and the new bet on IT development has played a significant role in this growth.
With its own IT solutions developed inhouse, Actas has a range of products on the shelf that gives it a clear competitive edge in the industry. In fact, other securi ty companies are now buying IT solutions from Actas.
»Our web access, developed by dedicat ed people who started out as interns, is a very special product in the industry. It makes it possible for the various security systems to talk to each other - and no one else can do that. It’s been created through collaboration with universities, and skilled academics who have helped build it,« says Raunslund.
Today, IT solutions have become a significant income stream for Actas, but the first step in the new direction was nevertheless a big one. After all, the business was healthy and growing, and they didn’t want to risk the entire shop on investing in a major IT project. That’s why the collaboration with Aalborg University was also a great opportunity to get started and prove the model before scaling it.
»The interns have been crucial. They’re the ones who make it happen; you can try something new without major con sequences if it doesn’t succeed. Our IT products are one of the fastest growing parts of the businessright now - so Actas
would be a completely different company today if we hadn’t gone down that road,« says Raunslund.
•
enters into between 300-400 research agreements with private companies annually.
•
collaborates with more than 10 percent of the innovation-active companies in the Central Jutland region annually.
• Half of the partners are small and medium-sized enterprises with no more than 50 employees.
• 90 percent of companies suggest that collaboration has led to innovation to some or a great extent.
• 72 percent of companies estimate that cooperation will lead to increased turnover, while 60 percent expect increased exports.
• Over eight years, companies that collaborate with AAU experience productivity growth that is 12 percentage points higher than those that do not collaborate with AAU.
Heidi Dahl Larsen, there is still a lot of opportunity, including commercially, in getting the industry to adopt new tech nologies like AI, IoT and blockchain.
»That’s why we’re also linking up with initiatives at universities where students are already working on inno vation and new business ideas. Their first idea may not be a startup success, but if they’ve seen the potential of the tourism sector, the next one might be,« says Larsen.
In addition to allowing students to address concrete challenges, HIT also contributes with trends and tendencies in the industry and advisory from spe cialists. The winners of each challenge will be offered an extended mentoring programme worth 25,000 DKK and the opportunity to join HIT’s startup acceler ator as a next step.
The Challenge project will run until June 2023, and the Hub for Innovation in Tourism is still interested in collaborat ing with more knowledge institutions on the concept.
•
The tourism sector holds huge business potential for startups coming up with new digital business models. That’s why the Hub for Innovation in Tourism is challenging university students to invent the future of the industry.
•
25 students are challenged to find innovative solutions for the tourism industry based on data and IoT at a hackathon during Digital Tech Summit 2022.
The winner will receive a cash prize of DKK 10,000 and a mentoring programme worth DKK 25,000.
the hackathon in the startup area.
•
How do we make tourism sus tainable? What can data and IoT do for meeting tourism? And can digitalisation improve the tourist experience? These are just some of the questions university students have been working on in challenges from the Hub for Innovation in Tourism (HIT).
»We want to put tourism on the radar of those who will develop the solutions of the future. This applies both to the experience dimension, but also to themes such as green transition and more techheavy solutions for the infrastructure of the industry. This is important for the in
dustry, but also holds huge potential for new startups,« says Heidi Dahl Larsen, HIT’s secretariat manager.
The tourism challenges are presented in collaboration with the universities AU, CBS, DTU, KU and AAU.
In Denmark, there is not yet a strong tradition of researchers and students thinking of the tourism sector as the first consumer of new tech-solutions, but in fact the majority of innovation in the tourism sector globally has been driven by startups. And according to
A group of students started their idea for the challenge „Innovation in Engeneering» and have gone on with the idea for the challenge „X-tech» and want to turn the idea into a startup.
• With their solution, the group wants to make the lives of marinas and boat owners easier by digitalising the ports and bringing them into the digital era.
•
The solution will optimise the port and berths for the benefit of owners and users, help guest sailors to book and find a suitable berth so that their holiday can be spent sailing and, not least, help harbourmasters with dayto-day operations.
SDU og DTU go far and beyond to instill an entrepreneurial spirit in their students as well as researchers. And whenever the idea is right, the university hubs are ready to assist and cultivate it into opportunities.
What are you working on in your startup?
We are developing a digital sign language translator that can translate text or speech into sign language. In addition, we are also working on going the other way, by translating sign language that is performed in front of a webcam into text or speech in order to translate whole conversations.
What is your educational background?
I (Mads) have a degree in Advanced Robotics (SDU) and my co-founder Mikkel
Bytoft has a degree in Software Engine ering (SDU).
How has the SDU Entrepreneurship Lab helped you?
SDU has been there from the start. They have challenged us to think in new ways and to reflect on how to solve complex problems in our studies. In addition, they have helped with how to stack up a startup and secure the essential funding needed to start the journey.
What are you working on in your startup?
We are working on a visual aid, AI-EYE, that leverages cutting edge extended reality glasses and eye tracking and machine learning, to benefit people with low vision or visual impairment. We aim for our software running on emerging lightweight AR and XR glasses, so that people with low vision can maximise their visual percepti on and function, and we can add enhance ment according to their individual loss profile and environment.
What is your educational background?
I (Fiona) am a Senior Researcher at the department Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science at DTU
and hold a PhD from ITU in Neuropsycho logy with a speciality in visual attention, perception, and cognitive science.
How has the DTU Skylab helped you?
SkyLab has been essential to this project, since we initially had small funds for the basic research only – an x-tech course at SkyLab brought several students, some still with the project now, who’s work has contributed significantly to our first prototypes.
Beyond our initial funding from Synop tik Fonden, we have since gotten a small discovery grant, a proof of concept grant, and an InnoExplorer grant that allows us to keep going and develop this idea,
and run trials with a small group of users with low vision as we develop. We have also had excellent support from our Innovation Partner at SkyLab, Christian Dalsgaard Nielsen, throughout the process.
Almost every company is competing for the coveted graduates who are hot commodities in the global labour market. But to attract them, you need to understand what they want.
Written by Erik LillelundMany of the world’s countries are crying out for skilled labour at the moment.
In particular, the battle for university graduates has become global as the corona pandemic, virtual attendance and remote culture have dissolved physical constraints. That’s why more and more companies are standing in front of the mirror, taking a close look at their faces and taking stock. Because what does a good work place really look like in the eyes of the younger generation?
According to the Swedish recruitment agency Academic Works’ annual Young Professional Attraction report, good colleagues and a good working envi ronment are among the most import ant things for the younger generation
(68%). And this result is no coincidence, according to Iris Engelund, a speaker and founder of Play Your Talent, from where she teaches strategic talent development.
»The working environment and the social aspect are among the most im portant things for the new generations. And the pandemic has only pushed this development forward. Many recent grad uates or students are generally looking for more cohesion and security in the workplace - that people are working to gether in a meaningful way,« she says.
For many companies, this will also mean flatter hierarchies and more fluid structures in the future, with more op portunities for employees to move and develop within the company.
»Many young candidates are less com
fortable in traditional, fixed structures. They have grown up in 7/7 schemes in a world that is constantly changing, which means many are adaptable, professional ly mobile and easily bored if not chal lenged or developed,« Engelund estimates.
For newcomers to the job market, it’s not just a question of a table football ta ble, beanbag chairs or cosy team-building sessions. They expect much more involve ment in decisions and a more transpar ent form of management.
»When I meet companies, it is often the large coorporate organizations that have difficulty adapting to candidates’ expecta tions. Because young people are less au thoritarian and hierarchical. Here, values such as transparency and the meaning behind management decisions resonate more with them,« Iris Engelund says.
Iris Engelund, public speaker and founder of Play Your Talent
»An important priority for me is personal development. I prioritise work assignments where you can actually initiate activities/projects and see a greater meaning in your work.«
»For me, it is important that my workplace provides me with the best conditions to perform highly professional work. This requires a healthy work environment, nice colleagues and managers you feel comfortable with, as well as decent and healthy working hours.«
Bachelor student at HA Almen, Aalborg University Business School (AAUBS)
»I want to feel like I’m making a difference to the company I get to work for. It’s important to me that I don’t get to do the same task every day, but that every day offers new tasks so that everyday doesn’t just flow together.«
»The biggest priority for me is that I can see a meaning in my work. I need to be able to see that I am making a difference with the work that I do.«
Bachelor student, Engineer, General Engineering: Future Energy, DTU
»My priority is meaning in my work. If the content doesn’t interest me, I get completely lost in it and quickly lose motivation«
Master student in Political Science, Aarhus University
»The most important thing for me is that I find my work interesting. This means that, first of all, I have to be able to see a greater meaning in what I do. Secondly, it means that I find the specific tasks I have and the methods I use exciting and challenging.«
If you’re a developer driven by curiosity, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a seasoned senior or a fresh talent. At Planday, they pride themselves on letting all employees take responsibility - because that makes for the best product in the end.
It’s not many years since Planday started as a Danish entrepreneurial dream to replace the handwritten schedules of small businesses with a smart, digital solution. A dream that has turned into a fast-growing, international company that helps keep track of work ing schedules all over the world.
Morten Hulvej Andersen has seen the growth from the inside. He joined the company as a developer just over six years ago. Then, he was supposed to be just a developer, but he quickly got involved in other tasks and is today vice president of Technology at Planday - at the age of just 35.
And it’s that startup quality, where ev eryone gets to take responsibility and try their hand at new tasks, that he prides himself on maintaining today. Even when the company has grown from 60 to over 360 employees since he started:
»One of the things we focus on a lot, and that I think we’re good at, is that new employees - and especially new graduates - shouldn’t feel like ‘the new team member’. Of course there is a lot they have to learn, but we also know that the new graduates bring new skills and perspective. It’s often the new develop ers who come up with brand new ideas. With us, it’s basically just about being curious; if you’re hungry for new skills, there’s no limit to what you can work on at Planday,« says Morten.
An established company with a startup vibe Claudia Ioana Satnoianu had a student job at a tech startup while she was doing her Master’s in Computer Science and Engin nering at DTU. This gave her a taste for startup life, which made Planday the per
fect match after graduating three years ago.
»I didn’t know about Planday before, but after a few interviews I felt that fa miliar startup vibe to the way we work. At the same time, it was a scaleup with a lot more resources and plenty of colleagues to collaborate with, which is nice. And now I’ve been here for three years, which I think speaks for itsself,« says Claudia, Senior Android Engineer at Planday.
Particularly the empowerment that the growing company is very keen to offer its employees., is important to Claudia. At Planday, teams are free to work and organize their backlog the way they want. They get insights into what tasks and projects are coming up, which gives them both the freedom to solve the tasks and get involved in projects where they can learn something new.
»It’s like a startup. You don’t just do what’s on your work contract - you are
encouraged to learn more and evolve your mindset. You can actually grow if you want to, you can be a part of all the processes you want,« she says.
Claudia comes from Romania, but she now lives in Copenhagen where she gets to meet the whole world: At Planday’s office the working language is English and the staff is made up of more than 35 nationalities.
The staff have even organised their own »Social Club«, of which Claudia is president, which organises restaurant visits, parties and outings - which usu ally involves more than 50 staff mem bers who want to spend time together privately. This is also something the company backs.
»I really think Planday has a brilliant work culture. It’s hard to put into words;
Sponsored:»It’s often the new developers who come up with brand new ideas«
Planday has made it their mission to change the way shift-based businesses operate.
when you come to work you don’t feel like you come to work. The connection we build and social activities is really helping
•
Through Plandays leading shiftscheduling platform and industry expertise, the company empowers businesses to build an engaged, high performing and flexible workforce. By uncomplicating day to day workforce management, they help their customers, and their users, to focus on their passion and achieve more.
• Established in 2004 and headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, Planday operates in more than 10 countries and employs more than 350 plandayers that everyday go the extra mile to make their customers’ day work.
to create a nice work environment. We also have a spark of all cultures and people love to be social,« Claudia says.
Morten Hulvej Andersen also believes the company has managed to maintain a »pretty fantastic culture« through growth and the many new colleagues.
»I’ve been on a journey that has given me an insane amount of opportunities. We are at a time where there are a lot of appealing companies out there. Yet Plan day has managed to retain me and a lot of other skilled team members - because we also care about each other,« he says.
He believes that the culture, combined with the opportunity for personal devel opment in the fast-growing company, is why many of his colleagues have stayed for years.
»I was driven by the fact that there was a growth journey - which, by the way, we’re still on. After all, that’s what keeps people here. We have a lot of people who have 5-6-7 year anniversaries, which is a bit unusual in this industry.«
Claudia Ioana Satnoianu
Senior Android Engineer at Planday
Morten Hulvej Andersen Vice president of Technology at Planday
While some academics still find it hard to see themselves in spinout companies, ITU professor Martin Pichlmair loves creating startups. And it’s an adventure he thinks more people should pursue.
Written by Erik Lillelund
Working on LAIKA, an AI cre ativity tool. Actually a Doctor of Technology.«
So says Martin Pichlmair, professor and head of the games de partment at ITU, in his Twitter bio. And if that last part sounds almost like an interpolated sentence, a footnote in an extensive body of work, it’s not entire ly wrong. For although the Austrian has already enjoyed a distinguished academic career, he is one of the few researchers for whom it comes natural ly to work commercially too.
He started his academic career in 2004 as a PhD-trained assistant professor at the Vienna University of Technology, where he taught and conducted re search specializing in computer science. But after just a few years at the Austrian university, he was itching to get started.
»When I do one, I miss the other. I love teaching and delving into the subjects, but when you’re doing re search, you’re often really far away from the application of what you’re research ing. Instead, you’re training others to go out and produce real things.
And I have too much creative power to settle for one side of the table.«
In 2009, he quit his job to devote his time to a two-man micro-game studio, Studio Radiolaris, which released several iOS games - including Radio Flare and Zombies vs. Sheep - in just one year.
The following year, he left the company and founded an indie game studio, Broken Rules, where he was involved in both game design and busi ness development.
»Some things are best solved as research projects. Others as a commer cial project. People become researchers because they are curious and want to find out something new. Curiosity can
take you many places - including com mercial places,« says Martin Pichlmair about the bridge between the commer cial and the academic.
Are scientists afraid of the C-word?
Although the commercial life drew him in at university, he was always aware of the dividing line that discourages many researchers from starting their own businesses: many fear for their academic integrity.
»It was definitely part of my thinking. That’s why I made a conscious effort to maintain links with the research institute when I started my first business by con tinuing to teach. And then when I returned to academia, it was the other way around:
I didn’t want to be seen as doing only dusty research work. I always made sure I had a leg in each camp,« Pichlmair smiles.
At Tech Trans Office, University of Co penhagen, KU inventions and rights are best realised through external partner ships or spinouts. And resistance among researchers to the commercial is soon a thing of the past, according to the unit.
»We don’t have that stigma so much anymore. And it has a lot to do with the times and the culture. The younger generation of scientists is much more likely to see it as an alternative career path where you can mix academia and business in an exciting way. Most have realised that one is by no means mutually exclusive,« explains.
•
The KU Tech Trans Office receives between 75-80 notifications from researchers, PhD students and lecturers about inventions every year
•
On this basis, the unit files around 25 patent applications with a view to establishing a business with external players and investors.
Is there really still a contradiction between running a business and conduct ing research, I ask the Austrian researcher?
»The danger is real, of course. If you start a business with products that compete in the market you’re hired to research and analyse, you lose objectivi ty. It’s just very rare that that’s the case,« Pichlmair says, continuing:
»In my own case, I experience as much envy as stigma. Because, like me, many colleagues would like to be able to jump between several different areas.«
University and startup go hand in hand Today, seven years after Martin Pichlmair joined the IT University and settled in Copenhagen, he’s ready to dive into the deep end again. Together with co-found er Charlene Putney, a game developer and university lecturer, he is behind the ITU spinout LAIKA - an artificial intelli gence-based creativity tool for writers.
The idea is that the sender can start a sentence and make LAIKA wiser and more aware of everything from personal expres sion to linguistic tone. And hopefully, in
•
A spinout company is a company based on a patent developed at and owned by a university.
•
The creation of spinout companies is either based on formal agreements drawn up at the research institution or a formal agreement between the institution and the researcher, which gives the researcher the right to use the research in the creation of an independent company for an agreed fee.
time, the tool can open up a whole new world of written communication.
•
The number of spinout companies has grown from 13 companies in 2017 to 27 companies in 2020.
»Ultimately, we hope to reinvent the way people write. Imagine that in the future, autocorrect knows who you are and how you express yourself. We want to develop that kind of support tool,« says Pichlmair.
LAIKA’s case, the spinout is based on in tellectual property owned by ITU, which is transferred to the company in return for an ownership stake.
•
In 2021, Danish universities acquired 219 invention rights and were granted 40 patents.
Spinout companies are typically based on patented inventions or technologies, which the university’s dedicated patent offices help to commercialise in return for a stake in the company. However, in
Spilstartuppet has received an InnoEx plorer grant from the Innovation Fund and ITU has agreed in the new year to let Martin Pichlmair dedicate 80% of his time to the company over a period of time.
»This spring I can start calling myself CEO and co-founder again,« laughs Martin Pichlmair, clearly happy to be trying his hand at the commercial world again.
rhyme with students and researchers. And the opportunities for support are many when allied with the universities’ dedicated startup hubs.
At CBS and ITU, startups and commercialisation
Flow Robotics founders: Kasper Støy (ITU) and Andres Faina (ITU)
What are you working on in your startup?
We have developed a pipetting robot that can move liquid from one place to another with great precision. It frees up resources, avoids work injuries via repetitive motion and automates the entire process.
What is your educational background?
Kasper Støy is Professor of Computer Science (ITU) and Andres Faina is Associa te Professor of Computer Science (ITU).
How has the ITU Business Develop ment-hub helped you?
Initially by supporting us financially, which gave us a foundation to work and explore the area. In addition, through the opportunity and freedom of ITU professors (Kasper Stoy and Andres Faina) to work in the company from the beginning.
In addition, we still have ITU as a ma jor auctioneer and every time we have had a funding round, they have chosen to participate. And of course that means that they still follow us and keep their staff and that we still have access to their expertise to this day.
What are you working on in your startup?
We help sports schools in skiing, surfing and mountain biking to give their students a better hybrid learning experience. We’ve developed a mobile platform from which instructors can share personalised feedback and content with students before and after physical sports lessons. Students can then access the learning when and where they want, extending the value of sports lessons.
What is your educational background?
Lasse has a bachelor in software
engineering from Aalborg University and I (Anders) have a bachelor in business administration and business communica tion from Copenhagen Business School (CBS).
How has the DTU Skylab helped you?
First of all, through CSE we have become part of a great network of young entrepreneurs. In addition, we have benefited greatly from the mentors at CSE, who have helped us put our startup into perspective and set a direction for the further development of Instructr.
More and more students are embarking on startup adventures. And while the trend is positive, entrepreneurs need to be better at allying themselves with skills other than their own, investors say.
Written by Erik LillelundThese years, entrepreneurship is flourishing at Danish universi ties. That’s why CVR numbers are abundant at Danish univer sities. In the period 2008-19, almost 8,800 new, genuine entrepreneurial businesses were created by researchers, students and recent graduates from the eight Danish universities. This corresponds to about 733 new enterprises per year.
And young companies need capital to grow. But what do investors require to invest?
»It’s important to be ready to jump in as an entrepreneur. Because that
journey can mean oatmeal for breakfast and ups and downs. That’s when you have to hold up a mirror and ask your self: Why do I want to do this? The more clarity you have, the better.«
So says Jacob Madsen, Managing Partner of the venture capital studio and fund Kring, which both co-creates and founds companies with researchers, students and other actors right down to the pre-CVR stage, while also investing in early-stage technology startups.
And while progress is generally being made in turning research into business
and getting students to try their hand at entrepreneurship, Jacob Madsen still sees trends that might put him off investing.
»Typically we’re dealing with young people who have met each other at university and almost all of them are su per-skilled in technology. But many lack knowledge and experience of the whole commercial set-up. As an engineer, for example, you have to respect that market segmentation, development plans and spreadsheets are at least as important,« says Madsen, who himself graduated as a computer engineer from DTU.
Smaller and then bigger University entrepreneurs are smaller in their startup years than other entrepre neurs in the same industries. But they grow faster and create more jobs. Uni-en terprises established in 2008-2011 had a job growth rate of 116 percent in the period 2011-2019, compared to 31 percent among traditional entrepreneurs, according to an analysis conducted by Iris Group for Danish universities.
You are few, until suddenly you are many. That is why the founder group, the core of the business, is absolutely essential when investing. And the Inno vation Fund, the government’s early-stage venture investment fund for knowl edge-based startups and solutions not ready for the private market, knows all about that.
« Especially at the early stage, the team is hugely important. They’re the ones you’re investing in to a large extent and the ones you’re trying to get a feel for as an investor. And then of course there has to be a reasonably clear plan for develop ment, « Sidsel Hougaard, Head of Entre preneurship and Startups at the Innova tion Fund, explains.
A special analysis of firms with at least one full-time employee shows that university startups are growing signifi cantly over time. University-based firms established in 2012-15 increased turnover from DKK 2.4 billion to DKK 4.2 billion in the period 2015-19.
And you have to be ready for that
journey as a company. That’s why it’s no use having created constellations that are inappropriate in terms of The business.
»In my experience, the companies that go furthest are those where the inventor is not necessarily also the director of the company. It’s a common misconception that because you’re behind the technolo gy, you have to be. Ally yourself with skills other than your own and put together a team of both technical and commercial people. Be a few, so you’re together on a journey,« says Jacob Madsen.
And in the future we will see more people trying the journey, Sidsel Hougaard believes. Many students have woken up to the fact that through entrepreneurship you can make a difference in society.
»Most graduates are not in a financial situation where they are tied down by a house, a car and children. This provides a unique opportunity to try your hand at entrepreneurship. Fortunately, we also see that many new graduates want to become entrepreneurs,« says Sidsel Hougaard.
The dream of being a social worker fell through and took Sverre Dueholm past both RUC and ITU before he found his new calling: tech entrepreneur. Today, he has a number of tech startups behind him - including podcast service Podimo - and the humanistic and pedagogical tools have been important.
Written by Sebastian Kjær
I actually wanted to stay, but I just couldn’t handle it. I couldn’t help but take the work home with me: I was too affected by working with these people who are hav ing such a damn hard time.«
For Sverre Dueholm, working with young criminals was his calling. Or so he thought. Halfway through his studies to become a social worker, he realised that it would simply be too hard for him to handle as a job.
Parting with the dream meant having no plan for the future. When he was admitted to the basic course at Roskil de University, it was really just to still leave the doors to the future open. But it was here that he found his direction:
»A friend and I were always the ones who started one world company after another over beers in the Friday bar. And at some point, we couldn’t just talk any more; we had to give it a try, because all our friends were laughing at us and had long since stopped listen ing,« Sverre Dueholm recalls.
While building the first company, he found that he needed some IT skills if he wanted to be an IT entrepreneur. So he complemented his Bachelor’s degree in Danish and Communication with a Cand.it. in E-Business at ITU. And after a few startup attempts, he hit his biggest success to date as co-founder of Podimo: a podcast service grounded in 2019 that to day has over 200 employees and recently raised an investment of 436 million DKK.
»Looking back, my education has had quite an impact on me. My very strong focus on working with people has pretty
much never changed, and that’s often reflected in the way I build businesses: it starts and ends with people,« he says.
In tech startups, the focus is usually on engineers and developers who can deliv er the product, combined with business people who can sell the new solution. But in recent years there has been more focus on what humanities and social science skills can do for a startup.
The University of Copenhagen has launched the Human & Legal Inno vation Hub in 2017, with an approach to the humanistic, legal and theolog ical perspectives on innovation and entrepreneurship. Roskilde University, which is particularly strong in the social sciences and humanities, opened the »RUC Entrepreneurship Lab« in 2020 to create more startups with this approach. And at DTU, the first class of Technology Entrepreneurship has just graduated: a programme designed to create startup founders, with only a third from engineering backgrounds and the rest from other disciplinesfrom humanities to nursing.
»We want to make sure it is diverse, so it’s not just engineers and business students. We believe the best ideas and business are made with differ ent viewpoints. When we share this different points of view, we broaden the idea generation,« says Carina Lomberg, Associate Professor and Head of Studies at Technology Entrepreneurship.
The programme is team-based, with students trying out different ideas in
different teams in the first semester. Only then do they come together in teams that will spend the rest of the programme creating a startup.
»The startups the students are gener ating are definitely more diverse. It’s not just on the background of the students. We also see that students are coming back to universities for this program, and that is great. They bring in relevant expe rience. And all this results in some very interesting ideas,« says Corina Lomborg.
By the end of the first year, 14 of the 20 students are working on their own startups - and one has even raised DKK 5 million for growth.
Diversity - also in education Sverre Dueholm has helped grow Pod imo to 150 employees, and is currently in the process of finding the right team for a new startup. Along the way, he has gained a growing respect for the impor tance of corporate culture and diversity. It’s often something that only gets a seri ous focus once a startup has reached 100 employees. But today, he sees great value
in hiring a high-profile person to focus on people and culture much earlier in the growth journey.
»I could imagine hiring some com pletely different people to tie the company together. Who knows, maybe it’s two social worker who should be in management po sitions - simply because they possess some alternative skills that could be a good fit for a tech company,« says Sverre Dueholm.
He firmly believes that culture and people are the foundation of success. And broadening the understanding of what skills you can benefit from - so it’s not the same profiles you choose every time - im proves the chances of success. So diversity is not just across age, gender and nation ality - but also educational background.
»It’s not just for the sake of diversity, of course; success starts and ends with people. If you bring the right people together and give them what they need individually and, more importantly, as a group, they will build something really great. And if they do, everyone will make a profit. I’m convinced that bringing diversity into a business pays off, and
I’m also quite sure that you can’t skip the first steps if you want it to be a longterm success,« he says.
•
Three out of five companies founded by students and graduates of the University of Copenhagen between 2001 and 2016 have students from either the humanities, theology or social sciences among the founders.
•
In total, students and graduates from the University of Copenhagen have created 4,600 new businesses in the period 2001-2016 - or almost 290 businesses per year. If only students are counted, the figure is close to around 100.
•
The companies with either one fulltime employee or a turnover of more than DKK 1 million employed 4,800 full-time equivalents and had a total turnover of DKK 6.3 billion.
Source:
