The number of start-ups at DTU increased almost exponentially in 2014, a year in which staff and students founded 51 new companies.
DropBucket, Eupry and Nordic Power Converters are perhaps some of the new names that have come to your attention over the past year. The number of new start-ups has skyrocketed from 19 in 2013 to an impressive 51 enterprises in 2014—a new record, in fact. Of these 21 were founded by students and 30 by staff.
Marianne Thellersen, Director for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at DTU and Senior Vice President, is delighted with the result and believes that DTU is achieving great success by supporting the current trend for increased entrepreneurship. It is a trend backed by political intent and new ways of financing start-ups—crowdfunding, for example—along with media coverage of major enterprises such as Skype and serial entrepreneurs that is encouraging others to find the courage to start their own businesses.
“I think that entrepreneurs influence one another. It seems that we have completed a long period of evolution towards a ‘critical mass’ of entrepreneurs in Denmark, and are now developing a culture like the one in Silicon Valley, where people draw inspiration from and help each other.”
“I have noted that a number of entrepreneurs who have founded new businesses in Denmark are keen to give something back by acting as mentors, participating in advisory boards or taking on the role of ‘business angels’ for new go-getters. This generates an infectious enthusiasm and helps spread knowledge and experience. As such, it is hugely positive,” adds Marianne Thellersen.
Environments at DTU:
She goes on to emphasize that innovation environments such as Skylab at DTU serve as places where like minds can meet, test ideas, and develop prototypes. What is more, innovation is actually part of the syllabus for all DTU students.
The increased focus on innovation has helped expand the variety of inventions. Whereas entrepreneurs previously focused almost exclusively on ‘gizmos’, a broad range of inventions has now arisen, encompassing everything from a market platform devoted specifically to wedding solutions, to anti-venom intended for developing countries, and a system for leasing out 3D products.
“In 2014, three-quarters of the departments and students from 13 different study programmes contributed to one or more start-ups, which goes to show the sheer diversity of DTU’s innovation environments. This is due in no small part to the fact that innovation is accorded equal weight to scientific advice, education, and research at DTU, and that all institutes have an innovation supervisor whose responsibilities are to support, help, and inspire,” explains Marianne Thellersen.
Research or needs
Marianne Thellersen has noted that many of the students’ start-ups are founded on a specific need in society, such as identifying a system for collecting refuse or developing a chair that is easy to carry around with you at a music festival.
The employees’ businesses, in contrast, tend to stem from a given area of research and typically take as their starting point a technology that can be used for a variety of purposes. This is true, for example, of Nordic Power Converters, which has developed a compact power supply unit that provides better performance than conventional units.
“You could say that the students come up with solutions looking for a technology, rather than a technology searching for a solution. This is a different business case to those of our employees. However, I think we need business cases of both kinds, and I believe that in future we will see the researchers influencing the students’ way of thinking—and vice versa.”
Article in DTUavisen no. 5, May 2015.