A surf-shop in Valdevaqueros
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Spin-outs – A Guide
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“Oh no, not another one! That’s the last thing we need, not another guide!”
This is not yet another guide to spin-outs; it is instead a guide to the existing guides on spin-outs.
In case anyone is thinking of producing a guide to spin-outs (and I know some people out there who are), a good place to start is with one of the existing ones. And then tweak it as little as possible, and present it is as yours, with the necessary and appropriate permissions of course.
Together, these existing guides provide more information than you could ever need on the fine art of spinning-out. It is a good thing there is more than one guide as each is presented from certain specific perspectives: university administration, university researchers, technology transfer offices, lawyers, investors. The voice of the outside entrepreneur-manager is not well represented, and perhaps a guide with their thoughts would be helpful.
In no particular order:
Universities of The Netherlands - 2023
The ‘Universities of The Netherlands’ organisation, representing 14 Dutch universities, published their guide in February 2023 - 'Spin-off deal term principles - For scientific founders who are committed to working full-time for their spin-off'.
TenU – A quick start guide - 2021
Back in 2021 TenU published the far shorter and very helpful 'University Equity Stakes in Spin-outs – a quick start guide'. Maybe a general introduction to the topic before wading into the USIT Guide.
https://ten-u.org/news/university-equity-stakes-in-spin-outs
TenU - USIT Guide - 2023
The TenU group published the highly detailed ‘University Spin-out Investment Terms’ guide in April 2023. This is the recent ‘big-one’ from the leading UK universities, with extreme detail on the contents of agreement and possible equity and licence/royalty numbers.
Royal Academy of Engineering – Entrepreneurs Handbook
The Entrepreneur's Handbook is a practical guide for entrepreneurial academics to spin out engineering and technology ideas into business.
The handbook was researched and written by the Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Hub and condenses nine years of experience mentoring and training academics to found bold and disruptive spinouts.
UKTN – The home of UK Tech
‘A guide to university spinouts’ is a website with a series of pages and clips from various perspectives, including entrepreneurs
Edinburgh Innovation
The University of Edinburgh’s TTO, Edinburgh Innovation, has produced a readable and helpful ‘Spin-out Support Guide’ for university researchers.
Oxford University Innovation
OUI’s website links to the ‘Starting a Spin-out Researchers' booklet, which looks to be a little bit out of date. On the currently popular subject of university shareholdings, Oxford’s approach now is for the university to have 10% or 20%. This is a change from the previous approach of ‘up to 50%’ that prevailed from about 2000 to September 2021.
Imperial College – Founders Choice
Imperial has a series of web pages rather than a booklet guide. These include an explanation of the recent changes to their Founders Choice approach.
Columbia University
Term Sheet Recommendations for Launching University Life Science Startups
In early 2020, members from seven US university tech transfer offices met with partners from six US venture capital firms to discuss challenges both parties routinely face when working on life science deals together. They produced a set of best practices, meant to benefit universities and VCs more broadly.
Cornell Centre for Technology Licensing – FastTrack Startup License
Cornell University in the US introduced the FastTrack Startup License program in July 2018 for new ventures based on Cornell technologies. It’s an experimental approach to licensing Cornell technologies to startups, designed to enhance our pro-startup ecosystem at Cornell, and increase the transparency and speed of the licensing process. There are three separate approaches for: Engineering, Medical Device, and Software projects.
Knowledge Transfer Ireland
KTI has produced two detailed guides. The KTI Practical Guide to Spin-out Company Agreements and the Companion Guide to KTI Practical Guide to Spin-out Companies.
University Technology Transfer – What It Is an How to Do It
And for those who want a really good read, my book covers various aspects of spin-out company formation and growth.
[That’s enough guides – ed.]
Please do let me know of others, and they can be added to the list.
On the currently popular subject of university founder shareholdings there has been a significant shift in various universities positions, in general from the 50:50 of a few yeas ago to: Oxford 10% or 20%, Imperial 10% or 20%, TenU 10% to 25% the Netherlands up to 25% (in these cases where the balance up to 100% is held by the founding researchers, and no anti-dilution protections).
For the UK, the government is planning to publish its independent review on spin-outs shortly; this could change everything ... or nothing ...
Readers may also be interested in a post from 2021 on sources of a wide range of Standard Agreements for various aspects of university-business collaboration ‘New Wheels – Standard Agreements’ here.
Or, you could go Spin-out surfing ...
Tom Hockaday, October 2023.
This is not yet another guide to spin-outs; it is instead a guide to the existing guides on spin-outs.
In case anyone is thinking of producing a guide to spin-outs (and I know some people out there who are), a good place to start is with one of the existing ones. And then tweak it as little as possible, and present it is as yours, with the necessary and appropriate permissions of course.
Together, these existing guides provide more information than you could ever need on the fine art of spinning-out. It is a good thing there is more than one guide as each is presented from certain specific perspectives: university administration, university researchers, technology transfer offices, lawyers, investors. The voice of the outside entrepreneur-manager is not well represented, and perhaps a guide with their thoughts would be helpful.
In no particular order:
Universities of The Netherlands - 2023
The ‘Universities of The Netherlands’ organisation, representing 14 Dutch universities, published their guide in February 2023 - 'Spin-off deal term principles - For scientific founders who are committed to working full-time for their spin-off'.
TenU – A quick start guide - 2021
Back in 2021 TenU published the far shorter and very helpful 'University Equity Stakes in Spin-outs – a quick start guide'. Maybe a general introduction to the topic before wading into the USIT Guide.
https://ten-u.org/news/university-equity-stakes-in-spin-outs
TenU - USIT Guide - 2023
The TenU group published the highly detailed ‘University Spin-out Investment Terms’ guide in April 2023. This is the recent ‘big-one’ from the leading UK universities, with extreme detail on the contents of agreement and possible equity and licence/royalty numbers.
Royal Academy of Engineering – Entrepreneurs Handbook
The Entrepreneur's Handbook is a practical guide for entrepreneurial academics to spin out engineering and technology ideas into business.
The handbook was researched and written by the Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Hub and condenses nine years of experience mentoring and training academics to found bold and disruptive spinouts.
UKTN – The home of UK Tech
‘A guide to university spinouts’ is a website with a series of pages and clips from various perspectives, including entrepreneurs
Edinburgh Innovation
The University of Edinburgh’s TTO, Edinburgh Innovation, has produced a readable and helpful ‘Spin-out Support Guide’ for university researchers.
Oxford University Innovation
OUI’s website links to the ‘Starting a Spin-out Researchers' booklet, which looks to be a little bit out of date. On the currently popular subject of university shareholdings, Oxford’s approach now is for the university to have 10% or 20%. This is a change from the previous approach of ‘up to 50%’ that prevailed from about 2000 to September 2021.
Imperial College – Founders Choice
Imperial has a series of web pages rather than a booklet guide. These include an explanation of the recent changes to their Founders Choice approach.
Columbia University
Term Sheet Recommendations for Launching University Life Science Startups
In early 2020, members from seven US university tech transfer offices met with partners from six US venture capital firms to discuss challenges both parties routinely face when working on life science deals together. They produced a set of best practices, meant to benefit universities and VCs more broadly.
Cornell Centre for Technology Licensing – FastTrack Startup License
Cornell University in the US introduced the FastTrack Startup License program in July 2018 for new ventures based on Cornell technologies. It’s an experimental approach to licensing Cornell technologies to startups, designed to enhance our pro-startup ecosystem at Cornell, and increase the transparency and speed of the licensing process. There are three separate approaches for: Engineering, Medical Device, and Software projects.
Knowledge Transfer Ireland
KTI has produced two detailed guides. The KTI Practical Guide to Spin-out Company Agreements and the Companion Guide to KTI Practical Guide to Spin-out Companies.
University Technology Transfer – What It Is an How to Do It
And for those who want a really good read, my book covers various aspects of spin-out company formation and growth.
[That’s enough guides – ed.]
Please do let me know of others, and they can be added to the list.
On the currently popular subject of university founder shareholdings there has been a significant shift in various universities positions, in general from the 50:50 of a few yeas ago to: Oxford 10% or 20%, Imperial 10% or 20%, TenU 10% to 25% the Netherlands up to 25% (in these cases where the balance up to 100% is held by the founding researchers, and no anti-dilution protections).
For the UK, the government is planning to publish its independent review on spin-outs shortly; this could change everything ... or nothing ...
Readers may also be interested in a post from 2021 on sources of a wide range of Standard Agreements for various aspects of university-business collaboration ‘New Wheels – Standard Agreements’ here.
Or, you could go Spin-out surfing ...
Tom Hockaday, October 2023.