Understanding the potential market for your innovation is key to determining the best approach to maximising its benefits. There are a number of ways that we will work with you to develop an understanding of that market.

Licence vs Spinout

Assessing the market is a major factor in deciding whether your innovation is best accelerated as a licence (to an existing company) or a spin-out opportunity. We consider many factors:

  • Is there a clear need for the underlying science and technology?
  • What applicable markets are there and how would a new innovation typically launch in those markets?
  • What is your own participation and interest?
  • What gaps might you have in the team?
  • What are the likely investment and return projections?
  • What positive impact could your innovation have on the world?
assessment
plan

High-level plan

Once we have reviewed the market and if, when combined with the IP validation from step 2, we find there is strong potential for a spin-out, we will develop a high-level business plan with you and your team. The plan will more thoroughly define the innovation’s commercial opportunity and the impact it could have and will typically include:

  • A short summary of the innovation and its key features and benefits
  • Market potential
  • A summary of the IP, where it is protected and any restrictions on how it can be sold
  • Key risks
  • A high-level project plan, including a timeline to product launch and possible mechanisms for revenue generation

Once this plan has been created, it will be combined with the initial IP review to clearly communicate the value of your innovation and used as a tool to identify key areas for improvement as commercialisation work begins.

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Detailed market insights

With this information we then start validating the assumptions we have made about your innovation through focused discussions with the target market. Once IP protection is in place, we are able to discuss the benefits of your innovation more freely with relevant stakeholders and together we will work to:

  • better research and understand the target market
  • consult industry experts to learn about the innovation’s potential ‘pain points’ such as where it may not meet the needs of the customer, and
  • assess the strategic fit of your innovation across three main categories:
    • Financial return
    • Application across government departments
    • Wider societal benefits (including environment, economy and people)

Getting the opinion of potential users and experts on your innovation means key questions can be addressed in an unbiased manner. By analysing these responses we can understand how the technology may perform in a competitive market, ultimately helping to de-risk a spin-out’s development and growth.

Through the market validation phase we will continually improve answers to these key questions:

  • What is the primary purpose and origin of the innovation? What was its intended use by the government department?
  • Who is the competition? Are there already providers of similar or alternative solutions to the problem that this new innovation solves?
  • How will the spin-out differ from its competitors? What is its unique selling point? What are the benefits of the innovation?
  • What are the other alternative uses of the innovation?
  • Are there any new products that could be developed from the core innovation and what would their uses be?
  • What is the potential go-to market strategy? What is the best way to reach the intended audience of the new business — is it through conferences, trade shows, media events?
  • What are the key commercial and execution risks?

[The inventor] had previously spent 25 years researching electronic support measures (ESM) for the UK Ministry of Defence. This new innovation came about due to a problem noticed by the Royal Navy as some of their ESM systems were producing ambiguous answers. [They] formed a team to solve the problem which resulted in a novel piece of software they called Palantir.

Impact report, 2021

 

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About the Playbook

Build out a commercial business backed by unique government led innovation, with the Ploughshare Spinout Playbook