A Brief Guide for the Chemistry Entrepreneur - American Chemical

Chapter 11

A Brief Guide for the Chemistry Entrepreneur Alexander Sachse1 and Javier Garcia Martinez*,1,2 Downloaded by CORNELL UNIV on August 23, 2016 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date (Web): August 17, 2016 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2016-1219.ch011

1Department

of Inorganic Chemistry, Universidad de Alicante, 03690 Sant Vicent del Raspeig, Alicante, Spain 2Rive Technology Inc., 1 Deer Park Drive, Suite A, Monmouth Junction, New Jersey 08852, United States *E-mail: [email protected].

“When starting a company, you can study and get prepared, but oftentimes, this will be of little help. If you do not live it, you will not learn it”. This is generally the answer that we get when asking an entrepreneur the question: what does it take to bring an invention to the market? Yet, there exist many valuable tools designed to support successful business creation around an idea and to identify its key steps. The first, and one of the most important things we need to bear in mind when aiming at creating a company, is the capacity of self-assessment, i.e. the ability to know and to evaluate oneself. It is indeed crucial to be aware of one’s skills, strengths and expertise, as well as, to own a precise idea of our envisaged business and its implementation. Whilst, appropriate work experience and some basic knowledge concerning market and industry are fundamental, we should not be afraid to venture out into the unknown. Essential business skills can be learned with the appropriate diligence. Yet, launching and growing a new business is a very demanding task and we should be fully convinced before deciding to dedicate the next years of our life to becoming an entrepreneur. It is crucial to have a good business idea, which should identify a key niche and satisfy an unmet target need. There should be no ambiguity whether our idea presents the requirements to becoming a real market opportunity. We should hence be in the position to define a given target market. Equally,

© 2016 American Chemical Society Cheng et al.; Chemistry without Borders: Careers, Research, and Entrepreneurship ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2016.

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it is fundamental to identify potential competitors and to assure by intellectual property (IP) the protection of our business idea. Once these initial issues are clear, the next step consists in building the business plan. This is an extremely useful tool as it permits to bundle ideas while generating an efficient business strategy leading to success. The business plan allows determining the course of action, assessment of responsibilities and laying out the company’s milestones. The business plan is meant to be versatile, including new developments we learn over time. It is yet crucial to analyse our idea, concrete our plans and organize tasks and priorities. Finally and most importantly, we need to determine the financial structure of our company. This means we need to identify cost and revenue stream. Those who are interested in starting a business will find here the most essential steps for realizing an invention to become a business idea from its beginnings to the realization of a successful company. Further we will depict Rive Technology as case study to successful business creation.

The Birth of the Business Idea: The Eureka Moment One of the best things of being a chemist is the feeling of joy inherent to the solving a major problem through hard work. This is the sensation we have when we achieve something new for the first time, such as the synthesis of a new molecule or the resolution of a complex structure; the well-known Eureka moment. Yet, an even better and by far more fascinating adventure is to bring the invention to the market. Along this intriguing yet exhausting journey many new concepts have to be learned and applied, such as cost structure, revenue stream, intellectual property, value proposition; concepts to which chemists are oftentimes not very familiar with. Many constraints arise throughout this challenge and we need to be prepared in order to circumvent major inconveniences that could hinder and infringe successful commercialization of our technology.

From Academia to Industry and Back: The Need for Chemistry Entrepreneurs There is an important amount of excellent research developed at universities and research centers. At the same time, there exist huge market needs that seek for efficient solutions. The missing links between these two worlds are entrepreneurs ready to live up to take on the challenge to bring their invention to the marketplace in order to that society can benefit from it. In order to efficiently bridging the gap between industry and academia entrepreneurs must combine a complementary set of attributes, such as deep scientific knowledge and commercial instinct, rigor and sense of urgency, 92 Cheng et al.; Chemistry without Borders: Careers, Research, and Entrepreneurship ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2016.

curiosity and capacity to deliver. It is those, who disclose ways to commercialize ideas from academia by creating spin-offs. This challenge-solution approach needs to go hand in hand as graphically summarized in Figure 1.


Figure 1. Challenge-solution approach: from academia to industry.

Key Factors for a Successful Business Idea As chemists, we import numerous skills that can be used at excellent effect when commercializing our technology. Our critical thinking and evidence-based training are very valuable skills, yet we should keep in mind that bringing a technology to the market is not a research project. It is worth emphasizing that proposing a single product is not enough for creating a company, as competitors can easily propose an alternative solution. This is a typical mistake for academic entrepreneurs. Ideally our company should be based on a technology platform that permits us to realize various products that meet a need that market has yet not done. This prerequisite furthermore supports us to be versatile and to adapt to rapid market changes. Competition is vigorous and it is not because we produce the best product that competitors will not put something on the market that works even better at a keener price. It is essential to sediment in our minds that it is the clients that determine our business strategy. A vision is hence crucial to have a greater picture beyond a single product or even a whole technology platform.

To have an idea is definitely the first step in any entrepreneurs’ life. Yet, we should bear in mind that it is how we implement this idea that really matters. The market opportunity is a key aspect that needs to be considered. Thus, the first test that our idea should pass is its ability to produce enough revenue to support our company. We should fully be in the position of answering the question: how are 93 Cheng et al.; Chemistry without Borders: Careers, Research, and Entrepreneurship ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2016.


we going to create revenue and what is the cost structure of our company? The size and strength of our business depends on the price we can sell our product at and to how many purchasers and on the cost of keeping the business running. Having an idea and knowing the market are essential attributes that need to be assessed before of any realistic consideration of company realization. Yet, the process of building up the company is tricky, as many unforeseeable trap doors exist. A typical mistake many academic entrepreneurs slip up with is to believe that they are self-sufficient. It is thus important to recognize our limitations and to share duties by forming a very strong team. This can go as far as hiring a CEO who himself has nothing to do with the conception of our initial idea, but who is able to lead the team to success. The financial needs of a company develop in function of its evolution. In the same way should the funding sources adapt. Every entrepreneur should be conscious of the needs and opportunities of its venture and deliver a strong plan. All of these aspects will be considered within detail in the following sections and a comprehensive overview on essential concepts will be presented as fundamental key requirements.

Reasons Why Many Companies Fail A number of companies fail in their infancy mainly due to avoidable mistakes. Many researchers have an idealized idea of the commercialization of their technology or product and are not aware of the wind that blows out in the business world. A typical mistake of entrepreneurs coming from academia is creating a company out of love for the technology or for the mere desire of advancing technology. Launching a company is not a research project. Moved by the increasing pressure to support research and the ever-growing difficulties to achieve funding, we could be tented to launch a company to support our research. Yet by no means should we try to fund a research project through investors. We must be aware that investors expect to be paid back several times the amount of money they have invested; hence, we should be convinced that our technology has the capacity to generate revenue to be self-sufficient and to pay back our investors.

94 Cheng et al.; Chemistry without Borders: Careers, Research, and Entrepreneurship ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2016.


Another typical pitfall is the idea that launching a company could be beneficial to improve our CV. Starting a company represents years of hard work and intense dedication in which we will hardly publish scientific papers. If our goal is to boost our academic CV then we should focus on our research and try to publish high quality papers. Becoming an independent researcher is indeed very difficult nowadays and many young scientists fell frustrated of being unable of attaining a fixed position within academia. In this respect, creating a company represents an attractive alternative. Indeed founding a company is a very gratifying experience and allows us to realize many of our aspirations allowing us at the same time to take our own decisions. Yet, being the founder of a company rarely feels like being “the boss” but rather part of a team with a common goal.

How To Assess if Our Business Idea Is Promising for Setting up a Company? Researchers oftentimes have the doubt whether an idea has what it takes to be converted into a successful business. The first question we need to be able to answer is: is there a demand for our product? In other words, are customers willing to pay for it and to what price? To answer these questions we need to identify a target market and more importantly our customers. Then we should be sure to understand if our technology is unique and free of any legal implications. The best way to answering this question is actually to talk to potential customers. This is what the Customer Development Strategy, conceived by Steve Blank suggests and which will be developed in the next sections.

Business Plan: On the Way To Creating Our Business The concept of the business plan has evolved greatly during the past years. Previously, a business plan was meant to be a highly developed and lengthy document to which the company had to adhere rigorously and that would not be altered after its approval. This rigorous conception of the business plan does not allow for the flexibility needed to adapt as we move forward. Indeed, nowadays the notion of the business plan has radically changed. A successful business plan is meant to serve to clarify and crystalize our idea, define our long term objectives and provide a blueprint for the financing of our business. The business plan must include a valid business concept, disclose markets and competitors, define sales and marketing strategy, draft the management team and the financial requirements and finally assess possible risk our company runs to fail. Herein, we will use the model proposed by Steve Blank known as the Lean LaunchPad (Figure 2) (1). This Pad consists out of nine distinct elements that determine the development of the business plan and are summarized in Box 1. 95 Cheng et al.; Chemistry without Borders: Careers, Research, and Entrepreneurship ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2016.


The Lean LaunchPad further insists in the idea of “pivoting” as we advance in the development of our company and merely implies to create hypothesis, which need to be verified with our clients or potential clients. It is essential to realize customer needs and to validate the invention with our customers. By doing so, we are able to easily and rapidly redefine our original idea and to adapt it to the real needs of our potential customers. This is a fundamental as it is the clients who drive the success of our business.



Figure 2. Lean LaunchPad developed by Steve Blank.

Communication: An Indispensable Key Skill of the Chemistry Entrepreneur Communication is a key skill to attract investors, create new customers and close successful deals. Communication further enables us to inquire about market needs and to identify those how are willing to purchase our product. Thus, continuous communication with customers to refine our value proposition is of upmost importance. A great variety of tutorials exist that expose the principles of efficient communication. We here merely aim at emphasizing some of the most important aspects of business-minded communication. It is always smart to keep in mind to the nature of the audience we are referring. Therefore, we need to determine and to adapt our speech. It is not equal exposing our idea to a research colleague or to an investor. Conveying our vision with clarity and passion is of extreme importance, yet we should be able to distil the essence of the innovative aspects our technology we aim at commercializing presents. We should bear in mind that potential customers and investors get many similar proposals and therefore we must be convincing, clear and honest throughout our presentation. When being at the situation of talking face to face with potential customers or investors we should consider that eye contact and body language are of upmost importance as we do not merely communicate through oral language. A reposed yet dynamic attitude is important to make an impact. Finally we should be prepared and we should know exactly at all times what we are talking about. The loss of confidence represents a major risk when planning at creating a business. The best advice here is practice and practice until reaching perfection. 97 Cheng et al.; Chemistry without Borders: Careers, Research, and Entrepreneurship ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2016.


Identifying the Market: Who Are Our Customers and How To Approach Them? A chemical company can produce a great variety of products, services and technologies. Despite the nature of our offering, we need to identify who our real customers are. The best way of identifying potential customers is to focus to customer groups, which can generally be disclosed by market survey. Once we establish a group of potential customers we should determine their opinion on the product we aim at offering. A key question to address is: is our product a valid alternative the potential consumer would buy? And if yes, under which conditions? It is further important to keep in mind that generally the first contact with a potential customer is just a step towards making a deal. The first contact will hardly lead to an appointment for presenting our technology. When invited by a potential customer, we should precisely listen to what he has to say in order to realize his real needs. We should pay particular attention to outer constraints that could give us an insight to the customers’ business and its reality in order to adapt our business strategy. A further good approach is to ask customers in how our product or technology can help them maintain and grow their business. A good strategy to understand customers’ decisions is to ask for feedback. This allows us to learn and improve the way we approach and negotiate with consumers. This approach further helps us to realize limitations our product may feature.

Figure 3. Summarizing the refinement strategy for our business model and value proposition. 98 Cheng et al.; Chemistry without Borders: Careers, Research, and Entrepreneurship ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2016.

Figure 3 summarizes the major key aspects dealt up to know. The most important tool of all of the resources we need for designing our company is the refinement strategy. In communication the refinement strategy is characterized for asking feedback. When it comes to the business model and to the value proposition refinement is similarly conceived, i.e. through testing and learning from the test results what to change in our initial plan or proposition.


How Do We Disclose Our Rivals? Before creating our company we should be in the position to know who our competitors are and how to succeed in an increasingly complex and competitive environment. Two strategies exist that help us at determining our potential competitors. The first and most obvious way is to search for companies producing similar products we aim at commercializing or companies that have very similar expertise as we have. The second strategy is to disguise competitors by their customers. These approaches together will provide us with a wide view of existing competitors and to realize the threat they present for our company. If our idea is to bring a new catalyst for a given reaction on the market than we should understand which commercial alternatives to our catalyst exists. Competitors may have being producing a similar technology for years. One alternative is to partner with one or more of the major producers and sellers in the field of our technology with the aim of accelerating our time to market and reduce competition. In the chemical sector the need to produce large scale is frequent, and therefore partnerships are smart ways to enter into a competitive environment. Later on we will develop this idea through the partnership between Rive Technology and Grace that allowed for the fast and successful commercialization of mesoporous zeolites for oil refinery.

Patents: A Useful Tool to Chemistry Entrepreneurs A patent is an extremely useful tool and often essential if we aim at building a business around an invention. A patent is a legal document that prevents others from possessing, using, selling, manufacturing and importing the patent invention or offering it to do any of these means within a defined geographical area. In order to protect our invention we need to make a patent application. A patent may be granted if our invention respects the so-called patentability criteria’s. These define that a patent is to be granted for any invention that presents sufficient novelty (i.e. beyond the state-of-the-art) and industrial applicability. Patents may be granted for any invention concerned with the functional and technical aspects of products and processes, i.e. product patents and process patents. Yet, it is important to be conscious that we are not allowed to apply a process-patent to a given product if the product is covered through intellectual property by a third party. 99 Cheng et al.; Chemistry without Borders: Careers, Research, and Entrepreneurship ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2016.


The geographical extension of our patent extends to the national borders of the countries in which protection has been claimed. Intellectual Property for a given invention can be sought at national patent offices or by solicitation an international patent through a so-called PCT (patent cooperation treaty) application. It is important to bear in mind that though the patent application may be international an international patent does not exist. After granting we will end up with a bundle of national patents. It is furthermore important to be aware that patents have an important cost that varies in function of the geographical area for which protection is sought and duration of the patent. Indeed patent maintenance costs throughout the life of a granted patent can be very important. Once the patent expires (the maximal possible duration of a patent is limited to 20 years) anyone can use our technology and produce liberally our product to offer it on the market. It is important to be ahead of our competitors and keep innovating to maintain a healthy production of patents. This highlights the importance of creating the company around a technology platform instead as on a single product. We should fully size the importance of intellectual property and make ourselves very familiar with its fundamentals. It is therefore of upmost importance to develop a solid and efficient patent strategy and to review it as the company grows. Some tips to this are given in Box 2.

Life Cycle of the Entrepreneurship Project Figure 4 represents a typical life cycle of a company. The first years of a chemical company are typically devoted to development and production, which represents a major investment, before any sales take place. Revenues hence take some time to ingress. This situation generates a negative cash flow. Hence, this stage is frequently referred as the Valley of Death. It is the depth and length of this valley that decides on the survival of our company. Indeed many companies do not manage to overcome this crucial stage. Eventually, sales increase by finding new customers willing to pay for our product. During this stage our company starts to take off, yet cash flow is still negative and it is important to develop an efficient growth strategy. Once sales exceed costs a positive cash flow is registered, which means the company is generating a surplus. This stage is designed as the maturity phase of our company. 100 Cheng et al.; Chemistry without Borders: Careers, Research, and Entrepreneurship ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2016.


Yet, our venture is not protected from decline, which is the case when income drops to or below the level of costs. Independent of the stage in which our company stands we need to be fully aware of its cost structure and revenue stream. Further we need to be certain to generate sufficient profits to innovate, support research and development and be prepared to face eventual market changes.

Figure 4. Example of the life cycle of a chemical company. 101 Cheng et al.; Chemistry without Borders: Careers, Research, and Entrepreneurship ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2016.

Especially in the chemical sector the costs related to development and production correspond to an enormous cost effort, which means that the duration of the Valley of Death is particularly extended. Funding is essential throughout this period to assure that we can get to the break-even point with enough resources. Therefore, efficient fundraising is required to survive this stage and must then adapt to the growth phase of the company.


Fundraising: Get the Money We Need For Getting Started During the first stages of our company we need to survive without registering any positive cash flow. This can only be achieved through efficient fundraising, as represented in Figure 5. Through the achieving of essential milestones the risk to fail decreases. A milestone is represented by a major achievement that can be registered. In the chemical sector the first milestone is oftentimes constituted by the granting of the first patent (an important prerequisite to protect our product or technology). Typically, in this first instance the amount of money needed is relatively small and can be supported by so-called Business Angels (i.e. affluent individuals who provide capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange of convertible debit or ownership equity). This first financial injection needs to permit us to achieve a subsequent milestone, which is generally represented by a portfolio of clients. At this later stage our company should have overcome the Valley of Death, which means that the risk of our company to fail has substantially diminished. At this point more important investment can be sought through so-called Venture Capitalists, who permit our company to grow at a steady state up to the stage of industrial production. Venture Capitalists are usually formed by institutions that invest other people’s money which they manage for them. Once our company established itself as well-working profit producing industry, growth should be assured through sales.

How and When To Finance Our Company? Throughout the creation of our company, we should be aware that there are two basic types of financing possibilities, which can be divided in equity financing and debt financing. Whilst in equity financing we receive capital in exchange of a part of the ownership of our company, in debt financing we need to pay back the loan we obtain. A chemical company is usually funded through equity financing. This means that we will have to cease share of stocks of our company. A share is indeed defined as a unit of account for investment. In other words we as founder of our company have to realize that an essential part of the company will no longer belong to us but is disposed to the integrity of shareholders. When presenting our idea to a potential investor we should expose our full vision, as investors are oftentimes interested to a window of opportunities instead as in financing a one-product company. We should also highlight the market potential of our product, for this a strong and clear objective is essential. It is of upmost importance that the business plan reveals our background, experience and drive to launch the company. 102 Cheng et al.; Chemistry without Borders: Careers, Research, and Entrepreneurship ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2016.


Figure 5. Financial life cycle of a chemical company.

It is important to convince investors of our vision. This can only be done by presenting a clear, transparent and satisfying business strategy. We should be aware that potential investors have the choice between an important number of business plans, hence we should make sure that ours sticks out of the lot. Though the principal idea should be clear from the first glance, the plan must be sufficiently completed and throughout convincing. Therefore, we should present a strong management structure, ideally by proving previous experience. Furthermore, we should make sure that our technology is protected through intellectual property rights, as no investor will be willing to invest in a company which product can readily be commercialized by anyone. 103 Cheng et al.; Chemistry without Borders: Careers, Research, and Entrepreneurship ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2016.


Case Study: Rive Technology - An Example of Successful Business Creation around a Vision Rive Technology (2) was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Boston (MA) with a research-and-development branch in Princeton (NJ) and beholds additional offices in Denver and Houston. The MIT Executive Summary Report from February 2009 depicted Rive Technology as young and fast-growing company, funded by the MIT alumni Dr. Javier Garcia Martinez (3). At that time, Rive Technology was still in its innovation and development phase, employing merely two people and working hard to determine whether the designed technology could be effectively translated into a business opportunity. Today, Rive Technology employs over 50 people and commercializes nano-structured catalysts for large-scale processes, such as those used to refine petroleum, produce chemicals and biofuels, and purify air and water with increased process efficiency. In 2010, Rive and Grace (a global leader in the production of inorganic catalysts) entered into a joint development and commercialization program to combine Rive’s innovative technology with Grace’s capabilities in catalyst formulation and manufacturing. Since 2013, these companies are commercializing the marketing breakthrough fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) catalysts (4). Rive has raised more than $85 million from business angels, venture capital firms and large companies such as Black Stone, Mitsui Chemicals, Saudi Aramco and Shell. After successful scale-up and extensive pilot plant study, the prepared catalysts are being used in commercial refineries providing enhanced flexibility, better selectivity, and profitability that are used to expand the technology to new processes (5).

Molecular Highway Technology Technical Context and Understanding the Problem Most catalysts used in the refining industry rely on zeolites. These are crystalline inorganic materials characterized by an open framework structure that is build up of silicon, aluminum and oxygen. When taken together, they form an open structure of micropores (with dimensions below 1 nm). This structure makes zeolites very effective catalysts providing access to reactants, or feed molecules. In petroleum refining, long hydrocarbon chains, or feed molecules, enter the zeolite crystal through the micro-pores and are channelled to the active sites within the zeolite crystal. Once inside the pores, the long hydrocarbon chains are converted, or “cracked”, into small, more valuable product molecules, such as gasoline, diesel, or other products. Yet, these actually employed zeolites present a major performance limitation related to the size of their micropores. As a result, longer hydrocarbons cannot enter the small micropores, which impede their transformation through cracking into high value products. Moreover, hydrocarbons that enter the micropores risk over-cracking, which often result in the production of undesirable byproducts, 104 Cheng et al.; Chemistry without Borders: Careers, Research, and Entrepreneurship ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2016.

such as light gases. This diffusion limitation decreases product yields, product efficiency, and ultimately, profits.


Rive’s Product Solution Realizing the drawbacks related through the use of conventional zeolite catalysts, Rive Technology offers a nano-engineered solution called Molecular Highway Technology (Figure 6). When applied to zeolites, Molecular Highway Technology creates larger mesopores (2-50 nm in diameter), or “molecular highways”, in the zeolite framework. These molecular highways improve diffusion into and out of the structure, allowing feed molecules improved access to the zeolite structure and hence to the active sites, where reaction takes place. This allows for the longer hydrocarbons, which previously where hindered to accessing the structure, to diffuse through the catalysts and be converted into the desired products. Furthermore, the molecular highways are large enough and allow that product molecules exit the structure rapidly before over-cracking can occur into undesirable byproducts.

Figure 6. Rive’s proposed product solution: Zeolites with molecular highways (6).

The Molecular Highway Technology permits to control and optimize the concentration and size of the introduced mesopores across a wide range of zeolite structures for specific applications. This technology is applicable to a wide range of zeolite processes that are diffusion-controlled, which improves product yields, efficiency, and economic performance (7, 8). 105 Cheng et al.; Chemistry without Borders: Careers, Research, and Entrepreneurship ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2016.

The estimated economic uplift was assessed by a laboratory tests and amounts to approximately $2.00/barrel of FCC (fluid catalytic cracking) feed for a commercial refinery. The conclusion of this commercial trial is that the additional revenue that is delivered to the refinery by replacing the incumbent catalyst with the FCC catalyst developed by Rive Technology that contains the new nanostructured zeolites, was estimated to be over $2.50/bbl of the FCC feed. As a result, Rive Technology began in April 2013 the on-going supply of a commercial FCC catalyst based on nanostructured zeolite Y. This represents the first large-scale industrial catalytic application of hierarchical zeolites (7).


Company Evolution In the beginning, the company operated very cheaply, moving to Oklahoma to develop and improve its core technology. Since then, Rive Technology has raised a significant amount of money for a total of $85 million. This is a serious amount of money, yet a necessity. Many chemistry entrepreneurs will face the need to rise a lot of money and work several years on the development of the technology, the production of the solution and its commercialization. This all implies a lot of time, resources and money. Keeping up with its large financial scale, the company has a range of very sound investors, such as Blackstone, Mitsui Chemicals, Shell and Saudi Aramco. Since its modest beginning in Oklahoma, Rive has scaled up significantly and become an international company (Figure 7).

Figure 7. Rive Technology has successfully scaled up and commercializes advanced nanostructured catalysts to the energy sector (6).

Some of Rive’s global partners are from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, with a portion of production in China. As a result, issues revolving around logistics, intellectual property, and working well with international partners are of critical importance. 106 Cheng et al.; Chemistry without Borders: Careers, Research, and Entrepreneurship ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2016.

The global scale of Rive is a natural evolution of its industry. When attempting to change global energy production, the company cannot be limited to just one market and thus needs to have a wide, international presence. It is, thus critically important to own partners.


Conclusion To conclude with, we hope to have emphasized the most essential and basic concepts to which business creation rely on, from the actual invention to the formulation of the business idea and to the creation of the company. The basic key aspects that need to be considered, as product technology, the business plan and financing have been stressed out. When starting a business it is important to be prepared. This starts by knowing yourself and to assess your ambitions in life. It is fundamental to be aware of your limitations and all the things that need to be learned. The next step is to create your team with the scope that others do what you cannot. We provide you with basics on how to design a solid yet flexible business plan based on the customer development program proposed by Steve Blank. Most companies founded by chemists are based on new technologies and therefore patents are typically an important part of your business strategy. Finally be aware that each company has its individual life cycle with its proper financing strategy.

References 1. 2. 3.

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Steve Blank’s homepage; http://steveblank.com/about/ (accessed Feb 25, 2016). Rive Technology; www.rivetechnology.com (accessed Feb 25, 2016). Roberts, E. B.; Eesley, C. Entrepreneurial Impact: The Role of MIT; 2009; URL: http://cdn.executive.mit.edu/17/a2/bdcaf61a49479de51861040707ac/ mitimpactfullreport.pdf (accessed Feb 25, 2016). García-Martinez, J. G. The Third Way: Becoming an Academic Entrepreneur. Science Careers 2014 March20. García-Martínez, J.; Li, K.; Krishnaiah, G. A Mesostructured Y Zeolite as a Superior FCC Catalyst – From Lab to Refinery. Chem. Commun. 2012, 48, 11841–11843. The figure is a snapshot of a simulation video. To see the full video, go to http://www.rivetechnology.com/video-animation-molecular-highwaytechnology/ (accessed Feb 25, 2016). Li, K.; Valla, J.; Garcia-Martinez, J. Realizing the Commercial Potential of Hierarchical Zeolites: New Opportunities in Catalytic Cracking. ChemCatChem 2014, 6, 46–66. Mesoporous Zeolites: Preparation, Characterization and Applications; Li, E., García-Martinez, J., Ed.; Wiley-VCH: Weinheim, 2015.


A Brief Guide for the Chemistry Entrepreneur - American Chemical

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