2 minutes

Start-ups and Entrepreneurship

Moving into entrepreneurship
How to seek start-up opportunities
Insights and challenges of launching a new business

Whether or not you’ve thought of it in this way, it is likely that you have acted entrepreneurially as part of your postdoc. “Selling yourself” and your ideas via funding proposals is analogous to pitching to potential investors and clients.

Working in start-ups

The fixed-term nature of postdoc contracts means that postdocs are always looking for the next opportunity, much like those starting up or seeking to grow a new venture. The level of risk, uncertainty and potential reward in research is comparable to that of starting and growing a business.

To date we have worked with a number of former postdocs turned entrepreneurs, as well as small and innovative businesses. We’ve also been working with The Innovation Centre at Sci-Tech Daresbury and the Alderley Park Accelerator, who offer scale-up support to growing businesses and understand what small companies need to succeed.

If you are interested in the attributes and mindsets needed to succeed in research commercialisation, setting up your own business unrelated to your research specialism or in gaining an insight into the cultures, challenges and rewards of working within a small, high growth company, this cluster will help you find out more.

The content on this page features entrepreneurs who have created their own start-ups. They offer insight into different opportunities and some of the challenges involved in launching a new business.

Below is a curated collection of videos and resources around specific topics. You can navigate the blocks using the arrows and click on the one you wish to view. Playlists will load into the space above.