There is a lot of interest in the commercialisation of research work these days; especially for work coming from the AI arena. This makes investors more receptive to hearing about ideas but they still need to get a coherent picture of how the proposed research will be commercialised within the context of a startup. In particular, investors need to see that you will be able to provide a plan of how the technology can be used in a specific product and that you are able to describe the benefits of the approach to potential customers.
In this seminar I would like to share my own experience of talking to investors and customers about the benefits of research output and how to make that output relevant to their needs. I will also share lessons about what to watch out for when in negotiations around levels of investment and ownership attribution. This will help students start to think about how their research might be developed in commercial settings and provide direct insights around what are some of the key challenges and how to navigate them.