Replacing a broken system

Attracted to the problem

Like a moth to a light bulb, for some reason I have always found myself gravitating towards the source of the problem, fixing what I can, and holding things together.

My family point out that I would have solved the “Apollo 13 Square peg in a round hole” problem in a blink, with alternatives and backup.

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

— Steve Jobs, 1997

Just out of interest I did the math and a Square peg fitting in a round hole is 63% vs a round peg in a square hole at 78%.

So what is the problem that I am moving towards these days?

“I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it” - Mae West

Some facts to start with

Sometimes to fix a system it has to be recognised as really broken.

If you knew of a system that only had a 17% delivery rate what would you do?

“€80 bn was spent in Europe on supporting university R&D between 2014 and 2020,(this will be €95.5 bn to 2027) but with little publicly communicated return on investment.”

“Too many universities lack the skills, experience and resources to commercialise the R&D/IP they develop. As a result, up to 83% of research results remain unseen and undeveloped.”

“The effect of the chasm between the IP Creator, the IP Exploiter and effective, early stage sources of capital is to decrease the number of new technologies and solutions seen (by 83% according to Forbes), increase investor risk (90% of early stage projects fail according to Anderson Law) and increase the cost of investing (it costs 3 times more to achieve the same return in the EU than it does in the US according to the OECD).”

We recognise that the current process of getting university Research to Reality is broken for most participants. We informally also use stronger language.

The Light at the end of the tunnel (it's more work approaching)

“University spin-out businesses are 4 x more likely to survive and thrive than non-university start-ups. In fact, only 1-in-20 university spin-outs ‘fail’ (95% success rate) compared to 1-in-2 (50% success rate) of non-university start-up projects”

• Failure rate of angel investment is now 50%-72% of all projects. Principle risk mitigated at c.50 investments+
• Only 10% of non-university projects produce 90% of returns
• The ROI on university projects equals 250% over 4-years
• 95% of university projects produce returns over 4-years.
• Failure rate of university projects is 5%. Principle risk mitigated at c. 5 investments+

Chipping away at the problem

You might say we are trying to start a revolution, or maybe, just fast track the overdue evolution of a broken system.

You might say we are trying to shift the mountain, one rock at a time, or maybe, start an avalanche that will level the playing field.

You might say we are biting off more than we can chew, or maybe, gnawing until the tree falls and we can get back to building that dam.

What we are doing , is building a future that has more of todays ideas brought through to reality, that strives for a win-win, is more interested in the results than the rewards.

Its bad enough that we see little financial return from the billions spent on R&D in Europe and the UK. A lot of taxpayers money goes in for very little taxpayer benefit out the other end. Its a lot worse that we do not manage to use even that which we do invent, in any meaningful way.

One part of the problem hurts our pocket, the real casualty is our future, and tragically, our children's, and generations to come, in a never ending cascade of compound dis-interest.

As a society, we are in danger of walking like a phone zombie, concentrating on our own little private universe, out into the traffic of a world that owes us no favours, and we do not even have life cover in case we do step under a rail-replacement bus.

But making money is important

“Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will.” - Nelson Mandela

We know that 'money' is important, even if only because everyone believes it is. It pays the bills, and some ideas have bigger bills to pay to get up and running than others. Money is a way of keeping score, and of one process helping another.

But the approach has to be, things that work and make money because they work, not just things that make money for me.

A change of perspective.

A change from artisan craft to industrialisation.

We aim to be the Henry Ford of the sector. There will still be the Rolls Royce, and we may be turning out Model-Ts but you know how that story goes.

“Statistically to reduce Principal Risk to almost zero, an investor needs to back >15- 20 projects of different kinds and the PIPE Platform provides the DAO with c.100+ projects (minimum) of varying solutions from across the European region every year.”

“The person who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” -Confucius

Chasing after the next 'Big Thing', looking for gold

Hunting mythical beasts can be frustrating and as we know, sometimes it turns out to be just that, a myth, so costly as well.

The lure of finding that big nugget of gold, or winning the lottery can create target fixation, and lose sight of the much more plentiful gold dust being trampled in the rush. But in every gold rush there are a variety of sectors that always make money. Service providers (of every nature) from food, to shovels, to R&R relieve the prospectors of their gains.

We aim to supply most of those necessities (not the non-essentials) to the projects that we take through the system. No surprise we will make money out of that, but hopefully no surprise either that we will not be charging 'what the market will bear' but what is the most efficient for the long term success of all involved.

Conclusion

It would be easy to point the finger and try to lay the blame for the current situation, but we are not as interested in how the mess was created as in ensuring that it is cleared up properly.

“When we wish to correct with advantage, and to show another that he errs, we must notice from what side he views the matter, for on that side he is usually true, and admit that truth to him, but reveal to him the side on which it is false. He is satisfied with that, for he sees that he was not mistaken, and that he only failed to see all sides. Now no one is offended at not seeing everything; but one does not like to be mistaken, and that perhaps arises from the fact that man naturally cannot see everything, and that naturally he cannot err in the side he looks at, since the perceptions of our senses are always true.” - Blaise Pascal

With that in mind we expect that we will have increasing numbers of participants in this field who begin by thinking that we are out to make gain from their loss, and come around to realising that our gain is their gain, both in the short and long term.

"Fire in the hole" - Me