A series of films commissioned by the University of Bristol in which company founders, researchers and academics talk candidly about their personal experiences working in the enterprise space has attracted widespread interest and praise for its diverse subject matter and honest, stereotype-busting approach.
Called The Enterprise Sessions, the broadcast-style interviews see Professor Michele Barbour, the University’s Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor: Enterprise and Innovation, interview a range of guests about the challenges and opportunities of forming spin-out and start-up companies, raising funding, collaborating on industry partnerships, and the joys of seeing the impact of their research realized.
Michele’s guests include company founders and SETsquared Bristol members Tom Carter (Ultraleap), Neciah Dorh (FluoretiQ), Konstantina Psoma (Kaedim) and Martin Challand (Zentraxa), alongside Amber Probyn from Peequal and academics and researchers from the university who are working in industry partnerships or as consultants.
The series was created to inform and inspire other academics and researchers about what it’s like to work in this space, but the advice given has appealed to wider audiences, attracting over 3,000 views with the UK and globally on the University’s YouTube channel to date.
Amber Probyn, Co-founder of Peequal, the UK’s first women’s urinal, recounts that as a young female founder she hit barriers in raising investment but found in the end “the right investors who believed in them”. Tom Carter, CEO of hand tracking and haptics company Ultraleap, talks about how “running startups means you’re gonna get punched in the face a few times” but it’s the personal fit with the investor that’s going to stand the test of time.
Mahmoud Mostafavi, Director of South West Nuclear Hub, talks about the long-term partnership between the University and EDF which sees academics and EDF engineers work together to secure the future of reliable and safe sources of energy, and Konstantina Psoma, CEO of 3D software company Kaedim, shares that her motivations in running a company have shifted over time and her incentive now is being a role model to future entrepreneurs.
Professor Michele Barbour, host of the series said:
“This series has been a delight to make. The University of Bristol has an impressive track record of enterprise and innovation, ranked first amongst UK universities for the return on investment by its spinouts and in the top 3 for equity investment in its spinouts.
“The Enterprise Sessions has allowed us to develop rich conversations with our interviewees and share that knowledge within our community as well as wider audiences involved in research, innovation and enterprise.”
More information
The Enterprise Sessions is hosted on University of Bristol’s YouTube channel – Enterprise Sessions
Working with business & industry – https://www.bristol.ac.uk/business/