1. The Tales of Two Cities:
A Story of European
Academic Entrepreneurship
European Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Thought Leaders (ME421)
Stanford Engineering – 28 January 2013
Peter Bunus
Co-Founder and
Director of Business Development
SenionLab AB
peter.bunus@senionlab.com

2. SenionLab AB
SenionLab is a Swedish expert
company focusing on research and
development of signal processing
and sensor fusion systems for
indoor positioning navigation.
Founded in 2010 by a group of
leading scientists
• Experts in sensor fusion, signal
processing diagnostics and
computer science.
• More than 10 years experience in
the area of sensor fusion and signal
processing
Main office in Linköping SWEDEN
US Office: Palo Alto, CA
Grant Seed funding from:
VINNOVA: The Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation System
The Swedish Energy Agency
2

3. Professor vs. Entrepreneur
…but I’m here to tell you about what does it mean to be an Academic Entrepreneur
3

4. Setting up the Stage

5. Sweden and United States Competitiveness
5

6. Market Size is the Major Differentiator
Swedish entrepreneurs are coming to Silicon Valley because of the market size
and not because of the climate 
6

7. Academic Entrepreneurship
Academia
Education Research
Entrepreneurship
Government Industry
7

8. Academic Entrepreneurship – Is it popular in Sweden?
Only 0.9% off all academics become full time
entrepreneurs every year in Sweden
Negative selection into entrepreneurship: those with
lower pre-entry earnings are more likely to become
entrepreneurs
Less than 1% of the academic obtaining capital gains
higher than half the average pre-entrepreneurship
earnings.
¼ of all academics who become full time entrepreneurs
already operated as part-time entrepreneurs while
employed at their university
60% quit full time entrepreneurship within two years
and 66% of those return to academia.
Source: Pontus Braunerhjelm, Anders Broström and Thomas Åstebro - Does Academic Entrepreneurship
Pay? – Working Paper 2012:20 Research Network Debate – Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum 8

9. Fashion Trend for Swedish Academic Entrepreneurs
9

10. We don’t have a process for innovation. We hire good people.
Do you have an innovation process at your company?
“We don’t have a process for innovation.
We hire good people.”
Steve Jobs
Do we have a European Academic
Entrepreneurship System?
“We don’t have an European Academic
Entrepreneurship System.
We hire good people.”

11. What are the
Challenges
for an Academic Entrepreneur?

12. Challenge No. 1
How to be disruptive
without risking your
academic career?

13. "Alice laughed:
'There's no use trying,'
she said; 'one can't
believe impossible
things'.
'I daresay you haven't
had much practice,'
said the Queen. 'When
I was younger, I
always did it for half an
hour a day. Why,
sometimes I've
believed as many as
six impossible things
before breakfast."
This is a pretty remarkable statement for someone who just step
through the magical mirror. You would expect that this experience
should have convinced Alice that impossible things are possible

14. “I daresay you haven't had much
practice”, said the Queen. “When
I was younger, I always did it for
half an hour a day. Why,
sometimes I've believed as many
as six impossible things before
breakfast."
Both the academic researcher/educator
and the Entrepreneur need
to have the same “dreamer” personality
To dream six impossible things
before breakfast is part of the job.

16. Challenge No. 2
How to deal with the
Market Risk

17. Invention –Market Risk
High Invention
Risk
Faculty of Medicine
BioChemistry, Chemistry Faculty of Electrical Engineering Faculty of Electrical Engineering
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Faculty of Computer Science Faculty of Computer Science
Personalized Biotech
medicine
Medical dev.
Healthcare Cleantech
Electronic
Design
Automation Semicon
Game
Software Consumer
Electronics
Comp.
Software
Comp.
Hardware
Enterprise
Hardware
High Market Risk
17

18. Medical Research Involves a
very high Invention risk
Invention risk ≠ Innovation risk

19. I you are lucky enough to find the “cure for cancer” then market adoption will
automatically came

20. 3D TV
High invention risk
High market risk
20

21. Invention –Market Risk
High Invention
Risk
Mostly dominated by college
dropouts: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs,
and Michael Dell,
Personalized Biotech
medicine
Medical dev.
Healthcare Cleantech
Electronic
Design
Genentech, Amgen, Automation Semicon
Biogen Idec, Chiron Game
Software Consumer
were founded by Electronics
university professors
Comp.
Software
Comp.
Walter Gilbert and Hardware
Enterprise
Phillip Sharp the Hardware
founders of Biogen
Idec later won the
Nobel Prize
High Market Risk
21

22. Challenge No. 3
How to work
countless hours outside
the reward system

23. Academic Reward and Promotion System
Academia
The Academic reward and
promotion at most universities
Education Research does not include or favor
entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship
Government Industry
23

24. Challenge No. 4
The Stockholm
Syndrome

25. Remember the 1%?
25

26. From where all this reluctance came from?
Stockholm Syndrome describes the behavior of kidnap victims who, over time, become sympathetic
to their captors. The name derives from a 1973 hostage incident in Stockholm, Sweden. At the end
of six days of captivity in a bank, several kidnap victims actually resisted rescue attempts, and
afterwards refused to testify against their captors.

27. Academic Entrepreneurs are suffering of the
Stockholm Syndrome
What causes Stockholm Syndrome?
Captives begin to identify with their captors initially as a defensive mechanism, out of fear
of violence. Small acts of kindness by the captor are magnified, since finding perspective
in a hostage situation is by definition impossible. Rescue attempts are also seen as a threat,
since it's likely the captive would be injured during such attempts.

28. Challenge No. 5
Which path to take?

29. “One day Alice came to a fork in the
road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree.
"Which road do I take?" she asked.
"Where do you want to go?" was his
response.
"I don't know," Alice answered.
"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."

30. Actually an Academic Entrepreneur knows
exactly which path to take.
We just wish that it should be no fork in
the road. One path should the be normal
continuation of the other path.