I have conversations with university startup spinouts and frequently find that founders are pulling the short straw vs the university.

This piece outlines some great tips. Unfortunately in the UK, these ideal terms are far from reality in most cases.

https://blog.ycombinator.com/how-to-spin-your-scientific-research-out-of-a-university-and-into-a-startup/

And in my opinion, the root cause is the UK universities (perhaps Europe more broadly?) are short-term greedy vs US universities are long-term greedy.

By that I mean:

- short-term greedy: monetise spinouts through heavy equity ownership, taxing royalties and IP rights. Most will fail anyways. The ones that succeed will have a painful journey.

- long-term greedy: monetise alumni who make bank through their success = Donations

UK universities put almost zero effort in building and nurturing an alumni network, and complain they have tiny endowments as a result. This leads them to monetise spinouts, which have to compete while wearing handcuffs. Few succeed. And the dreadful downward spiral repeats.

US universities nurture an alumni network even before students arrive on campus in their first year. Alumni support students early in their careers and help them get a leg up in professional life. Spinouts are given freedom to swing big. Successful alumni pay back in spades.

I can see this with my undergrad @WilliamsCollege, whose Society of Alumni is the oldest continuing college or university alumni organization in North America, established in 1821, 28 years after the founding of the College in 1793. For 2k students, the endowment is almost $3B.

According to crunchbase, companies founded by @WilliamsCollege alumni have raised 174 rounds worth $2.6B.

https://www.crunchbase.com/hub/williams-college-alumni-founded-companies

By contrast, @ucl and @imperialcollege have awesome CS, engineering and bio departments w/postgrad. Both have <$200M endowments for 10-40k students. UCL clocked 611 rounds worth $8.3B and Imperial has 1310 rounds for $9.7B.
https://www.crunchbase.com/hub/imperial-college-london-alumni-founded-companies
https://www.crunchbase.com/hub/university-college-london-alumni-founded-companies

So universities with up to 10x more students, with postgrad research departments in areas that are primed to product startups perform several fold below (by funding) an undergrad-only college with no significant research or startup culture adjusted for student body size.

To me the moral of the story is clear:
- optimise for successful alumni
- proactively invest in your alumni community
- don’t exert short-term greedy policies that handcuff your spinouts

If you do the opposite, you’re playing the wrong game.

I’d love to help!

If you’re at a university and feel this pain or you’re at a tech transfer office or alumni association or endowment, hit me on [email protected].

I really want to make this better for everyone involved, whether @airstreet invests or not