There should be more research pitching events

Last week, I took part in my first Tech Research Showcase. As a researcher who is interested in entrepreneurship I wondered afterwards why I had never attended a pitching event where the sole focus was my research. The tech research showcase event was organised by Icebreaker.vc at the startup hub Maria 01.

Icebreaker invited tech researchers from around Finland to come and give a five minute pitch on their research to an audience of business people, developers and designers. The event was motivated by the world-class research conducted in Finland and by the several companies that have started as a result of it, for example, Relex, Beddit, and Callstats.io.

I was attracted to the event, first because one could pitch their research even if you were at the state where no commercialization value had been identified – the aim of the event was to put researchers in a room with experienced people that have the ability to collaborate, point you in the right direction or give some business  advice. And since commercialization is something that has come up in my current work project Immersive Automation, I wanted to gauge the interest and potential of our research. Secondly, I was challenged by presenting my research in five minutes. Normally, I have done research presentations in conferences, seminars, lectures, etc., events where I have anywhere between 20 to 1 hour, significantly more time. But 5 minutes, in front of people who might not know the field was a challenge that I wanted to undertake.

For the pitch itself, we as the presenters were advised by the organizers to follow a format where we presented the following:

1. The problem that is being solved – put in a way that it could be understood by a non-expert.
2. How the problem is solved today. What is the state-of-the-art?
3. What it is you have discovered in your research. What is the new idea?
4. What the results are using your method compared to the best solution today.
5. What you are looking for. For example, particular skills, co-founders, or guidance. This should be as concrete as possible.

In total we were 12 researchers pitching, with majority of the presenters being from Aalto University and University of Helsinki. Machine learning, as might be expected was the dominating theme among the presentations and the presentations ranged from ideas to already launched startups.

Having participated in a few business pitching events, one advice I could give to fellow researchers, myself included, would be to participate in more training on selling ones research work and ideas. A few presentations went into too much detail about the technicalities of the research such that it was difficult for some of the audience members to fully grasp the potential of the idea. A good training course that is focused on how to sell research work and ideas is the one provided by the brothers Andy and Steve Langdon. The two-day course is practically oriented, one learns a lot of selling techniques, and its organised in a fun and relaxed way.

Actually, I think many universities should internally organize events like these as a way for researchers to learn and practice selling their work, a skill I believe is needed in today’s competitive world. I found having to think and prepare a five minute pitch interesting and it does make you look at your research from various other angles besides research publications.