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Quick overview
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Topics
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Goals:
Presenters & panelists
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The following presenters have confirmed their participation
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Notes
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What’s here? Collecting at least 5 key blockers and 5 key enablers to spinning off
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Q: What is the secret recipe that makes R&D results appropriate for commercialisation?
A: (i) right team coming together; (ii) having an impact; (iii) right timing
Q: Do GenAI tools remarkably improved your pitch presentation? How is the experience so far?
A: (i) if you know what to present, the AI tool can improve the form; (ii) Canva is best for pitch decks; (iii) it can help with supportive tasks, like taxes, legal questions etc., but if you have money, pay for a human expert 🙂; (iv) “for AI, the answer is only as good as the question was”
Q: How challenging is to balance VC’s expectations in the context of university ecosystem? (fight for equity, do or die approach, cash burning phase)
A: (i) whether to engage VCs depends on exit strategy and growth expectations - bootstrapping/FFF/angels are better to start, corporate buyouts are viable exit strategies too; (ii) get R&D grants as long as possible and use also for customer discovery to de-risk the business (the time is not ticking when on grants); (iii) “VCs are not charities”
Cap table: (i) let active shareholders/founders be more active and take more shares, passive shareholders/founders take less; (ii) do not have too many shareholders in cap table, rather give out options to advisors
Q: Is there any SOP aka Standard Operations Procedure should the young researchers aware while initiating a spin-off?
A: (i) do what you love, then you’ll have enough energy to stand the stress; (ii) don’t get discouraged by different expectations - be honest and open; (iii) “simple: start today”
Schedule
Photos
The event is organized by IEEE Estonia Section, jt. Chapter IM/ED/EMB and co-organized by IEEE Estonia Young Professionals Affinity Group and Thomas Johann Seebeck Electronics Club. vTools event: 574036.
The Deep Tech Commercialization Doctoral School took place on 5 October 2026 at TalTech Student House as part of Baltic Electronics Conference 2026, with approximately 30 audience participants. Organised by IEEE Estonia Section’s Joint IM/ED/EMB Chapter and co-organised by IEEE Estonia Young Professionals Affinity Group and Thomas Johann Seebeck Electronics Club, the event explored how research results can be translated into viable deep-tech ventures.
Presentations covered university technology-transfer support, entrepreneurial experience, prototype-to-product development and commercialisation challenges in areas including defence, MedTech and biotechnology. Speakers included Andri Sokka, Rasmus Kalep, Marko Lehes, Alexandros Pantazis, Vladimir Kuts, Ray Yang and Airiin Laaneväli. Ferenc Ender led an interactive discussion of audience startup ideas, and Sreenath Sukumaran moderated a panel on aligning academic and industrial careers. Tamas Pardy and Yannick Le Moullec opened and closed the event.
The discussions highlighted barriers in technology transfer and commercialisation, customer validation and investment-sensitive IP arrangements. Key enablers included complementary teams, proactive university support, a clear customer need, appropriate timing and early compliance planning in regulated sectors. The panel examined funding choices, grants for customer discovery, founder ownership and AI-assisted pitching. The event enabled knowledge exchange and networking between researchers, entrepreneurs and innovation-support representatives, offering practical guidance for developing academic spin-offs.
Reporting note: The page title gives 10:00–16:00, while its quick overview gives 10:00–15:30. Confirm the end time against the vTools event record when submitting.