Hannah Murnen, CTO, Graphyte; Miguel A. Modestino, David Fernandez Rivas, Aimee Rose, Susan Schofer, Stafford W. Sheehan & Richard Wang
Chemical engineering entrepreneurs stand at the forefront of solving some of society’s most pressing challenges. The path from breakthrough technology to successful venture is complex and often unclear — especially for those entrepreneurially curious scientists and engineers who are working on future solutions in the laboratory but have never commercialized technology. This Viewpoint draws from the real-world experiences of academic researchers, founders, investors and start-up mentors to guide future entrepreneurs through each critical stage of the entrepreneurial journey: from initial ideation and research, through market discovery to determine possible applications and establishing product–market fit, through piloting and scale-up, to growth and eventual exit.
Hannah Murnen: growth and expansion
Leveraging pilot success: having successfully completed a pilot, your focus should shift to maximization of its impact. Create white papers, conference presentations or academic papers documenting your success. These artifacts will become how you convince the rest of the market of your technology’s potential. Joint publications or presentations with your pilot partner(s) add crucial credibility and help validate your technology to potential commercial partners. Convert pilot success into a larger commercial deployment with your existing partner(s), as this progression demonstrates real commercial value and validates your technology’s market readiness. Identify and connect with potential users across your target market, using pilot results to accelerate new commercial deployment discussions. Finally, focus on essential growth enablers — manufacturing capacity, global deployment capabilities, maintenance infrastructure and interim funding — until sales revenue stabilizes.
Strategic financing decisions: companies at the post-pilot stage face critical choices between continued fundraising and strategic acquisition. As valuations exceed US$100 million, acquisition becomes more challenging, potentially necessitating independent growth. Consider alternatives to traditional venture capital, including equipment financing, venture debt and project equity, each offering distinct risk–benefit profiles. There are of course examples of companies acquired for billions after raising Series C, D and E rounds. However, those are quite rare and require many things to go right.
Demonstrating commercial viability: success ultimately depends on showing a concrete pathway to multiple commercial deployments. This requires maintaining commercial adoption momentum while carefully managing growth resources. The focus should be on converting pilot success into a clear trajectory of sustainable commercial expansion.
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