Earlier this year, Berlin launched a €10 million fund especially for deep tech spinoffs from universities and research institutes, funding about 50 ventures at €100k–€300k each. That, alongside a wave of new programs, like incubators, and public–private efforts, shows something is brewing: a rising interest in startups born out of science.
But is it just interest?
According to Deep Tech Entrepreneurship Professor, Bastian Halecker, 28% of scientists say they want to start a spin‑out, but only 3% actually do. This says everything.
If you’ve ever found yourself wondering whether your research could go further in practice, it’s clear you’re not alone. The desire is there. The funding is catching up. But figuring out the move from research to real-world commercialization is still a mystery for many researchers, like you.
Just like in the world of research, the entrepreneurial path is one filled with truth-seekingness and inherent curiosity
Alyssa Kirst, Head of Startup Incubation at Silicon Allee at Fraunhofer HHI
In the first part of our new series: The Researcher’s Guide to Entrepreneurship, we sit down with deep tech startup expert, Alyssa Kirst, to create a simple guide that helps researchers spot if their work could be spun into a high growth venture.
1. Do you want to found?
The first question is simple but deeply personal: Do you actually want to found something? There’s more than one way to bring your research to market – and not all of them involve starting a company. Before choosing a path, check whether your institution owns part of your IP — your tech transfer office can help clarify this and guide your next steps.
For research-based work, two common commercialization paths are licensing or spinning off.
- Licensing is usually more hands-off. You allow an existing company to use your intellectual property (IP), like a patent, in exchange for payment. It’s a way to see your research applied in the real world without having to build a business yourself.
- A spin-out means starting a company around your research. This could be a anything from a modest small/medium scale business (SMB) to a high-risk, high-growth startup. It’s a more hands-on, entrepreneurial route.
It’s not about what’s “better,” but more what fits you. That includes your interests, your risk tolerance, and your long-term goals.
In our researcher-founder onboarding discussions, we cover everything from personal financial situation and risk tolerance to personal goals and startup aspirations to help researchers choose the right path.
Alyssa Kirst
2. What kind of business is your tech suited for?
Some research naturally leans to low-risk ventures like service businesses. Others are high-risk high-reward and have the potential to become high-growth startups, solving big problems in large markets, often with backing from external investors like venture capital (VC) firms.
Not every idea is a fit for fast scaling. And not every founder wants to pursue that path. The key is understanding what fits –your technology, your market, and your personal goals.
| SMB ventures | High-growth, VC-backed ventures |
|---|---|
| Moderate risk and investment | High risk and investment |
| Steady, limited growth | Designed to grow rapidly |
| Usually by majority founder-owned | Shared-ownership with external investors, like venture capitalists and angel investors. |
| Focuses on incremental innovation | Focused on disruptive and scalable innovation |
As the decision often comes down to alignment. Ask yourself:
- What am I passionate about? How big are my aspirations?
- What’s my personal situation? What’s my overall risk tolerance?
- What kind of environment do I want to work in (fast-paced, high pressure)? How much work am I willing to put in?
🧭 Some technologies and founders just align more with VCs than others. The trick is knowing which path fits you. And if yours is a high growth case, then:
Germany needs at least €30bn invested, per year, into its ecosystem to close the gap with the US
KfW CEO, Stefan Wintels via Sifted
3. Think you’ve got a high-growth case? Here’s a checklist.
If you’ve got a technology or idea that seems like it might have high-growth potential, the first step is to evaluate it properly. Alyssa breaks this process into three pillars – starting with the biggest early question for researcher-founders:
Desirability: Do people want it?
This is where your mindset shifts from your research to understanding whether anyone actually wants what you’re building. You need to figure out what real-world problem you are solving and for whom?
Think of this as testing a hypothesis, but with human feedback. Alyssa recommends The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick – a book that teaches how to talk to potential customers to gain valuable customer insights for your business.
| Customer Discovery Task | Research Equivalent |
|---|---|
| Defining a real-world customer problem to solve | Identifying a research problem or gap |
| Formulating hypotheses about your customer and their needs | Formulating testable research hypotheses about your study subjects’ needs |
| Identifying primary target customer segment to validate your hypothesis with | Defining and segmenting your study population for focused investigation |
| Designing and conducting customer interviews | Designing and conducting qualitative fieldwork or interviews |
| Synthesizing interview insights to refine your hypotheses | Analyzing qualitative data to iteratively refine research hypotheses |
💡 You’ve done this before, but in a different language.
Feasibility: Can you build it?
You’re likely already proving your tech works through your research! Congrats!🎉 To see how close you are to real-world use, Alyssa suggests using the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) framework to understand where you are, and what it takes to move forward.
Feasibility is what researcher-founders usually worry about the most — but ironically, it’s often their strongest suit. When researchers at Fraunhofer HHI come to us, they’re usually already at TRL stage 4 or 5. The reality is, most startups are built by people who don’t have a PhD and years of research to build on. So have confidence, you will be able to figure out the tech.
Alyssa Kirst
Viability: Should you build it?
This means asking: Can you make it work as a sustainable business? Will the money your solution creates be enough to cover the costs?
To explore that, Alyssa suggests using frameworks like the Business Model Canvas and conducting market and competitive analysis to build a strong and sustainable business model that works.
At the intersection of desirability, feasibility and viability is what the startup world calls: product–market fit — this means when your solution hits the sweet spot of solving a real problem, that people are willing to pay for, in a way that works for you financially.
Chances are, as someone deep in the solution space, you're more founder-fit than you might think
When turning your research into a startup starts to feel possible, the next steps aren’t always obvious. But you don’t have to figure it out alone. Support for science-to-startup journeys is growing, from grants to resources like this article. And the demand for your expertise is also increasing!
We hope this guide helped you see your research through a business lens.
🎯 So now the question is yours to ask: does your research have startup potential?
Insights from Alyssa Kirst
Head of Startup Incubation, Silicon Allee at Fraunhofer HHI.
Silicon Allee is the startup department embedded inside Fraunhofer HHI, Germany’s leading institute for AI, photonics, and telecoms. We work at the intersection of research and entrepreneurship by supporting internal researchers spinning out their work and external founders building with Fraunhofer technologies. Through our Talent Network, people can express interest in joining early-stage startups from our portfolio.
How to get involved.
💡Want to join a startup working with cutting-edge tech?
Whether you’re ready to found or curious about joining a team already building, there’s more than one way to take that first step.
We’re always looking for technical and business experts to match with early-stage teams across our portfolio. Drop your details to get exclusive co-founder and early team opportunities tailored to your expertise.
🚀 Are you building something disruptive?
Thanks to Fraunhofer HHI, we have world-class tech and research expertise in-house! We support early-stage deep tech startups that have nailed business desirability and viability, and now want strong technical development support through our program.
We offer access to the institute’s labs, patents, resources, and office space on founder-friendly terms!