Deep Tech Spinouts: Inside Albion Ventures' Decade-Long Partnership with UCL| Dave Grimm

Dave Grimm | Partner | AlbionVC

Podcast Episode Description:

University spinouts represent the foundation of Deep Tech innovation, yet too few successfully make the journey from laboratory breakthrough to market success. Dave Grimm, Partner at Albion Ventures, has dedicated the last decade to solving this challenge through a revolutionary partnership with University College London that's redefining how academic innovations become thriving companies.

Unlike traditional university-VC relationships characterised by antagonism and misaligned expectations, Albion has embedded deeply within UCL's ecosystem, building trust through patience, long-term thinking, and genuine partnership. The results include successful spinouts like Phasecraft and Oriole Networks, plus a pipeline of breakthrough compute companies that demonstrates what's possible when the process works.

Dave reveals the key insights that make the difference: why setting CEO transition expectations before company formation prevents later conflicts, how the 5% equity model transformed UCL's software spinout success rate, and why pace beats perfection in building momentum from academic discovery to commercial product. He also explores the false security of patents, using Apple's click wheel as a cautionary tale about the dangers of slow execution.

The conversation extends beyond individual companies to examine systemic challenges facing UK Deep Tech: the scale-up capital gap that forces ambitious founders to moderate their vision, the need for successful entrepreneurs to ‘unretire’ and contribute their experience, and the vital role government procurement could play in creating global champions from British innovation. With insights on founder archetypes, talent recycling, and the structural challenges facing pension fund investment in venture capital, this episode offers a comprehensive view of what it takes to build a thriving Deep Tech ecosystem from academic excellence.

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