I set off (formally) on 27 September 2014, with little more than a survival instinct, and what I considered to be a modest network and a good number of supporters who were wishing me well and (I had the sense) looking to help me get established. Those supporters offered early opportunities to undertake consulting work, getting the business established, and finding my feet in a world where I now needed to do both business development and product delivery! (Until then, I had been all in on the business development side of corporate life with good people around me to deliver products and services – suddenly it was up to me to do both!)
Relationships and networks were critical to the early establishment of Spiegare and a flow of work that enabled an equilibrium between business development and delivery. There were some wild swings as too much was taken on at times and too little at others, but, as time passed, judging and managing this equilibrium improved. Little did I know in the early stages, the importance of networks and colleagues that weren’t clients but were there to offer advice, support, and insights into what was happening. I was told that one of the challenges is that you are effectively on your own; so coffees and catch ups with people were a critical foundation from which I built the confidence that there was a financially and intellectually sustainable business to be built.
Over the first three to four years, we delivered some notable pieces of work. From this period, I am most proud of the work undertaken with Arista Cereal Technologies—working with the board and their commercial partners to finalise their North American licensing. We had great interactions across the research, research funders (mainly the Rural Development Corporations), and private sector through this period. It offered some validation of the market thesis that I had, in that commercialisation and technology transfer capabilities and capacity were scarce beyond major research institutions, yet there was demand for these services in the private and research investment sectors.
As we moved into 2018, feeling established in the market with repeat engagements and subcontracting partnerships building scale, our first full time employee arrived! A few folks had advised that this would be a major moment, not just in confidence in what we were doing, but in shifting the equilibrium between business development and project execution. This also allowed a little bit of bandwidth to get involved with new opportunities, which included an attempt to get an ag orientated venture fund going in Australia (as part of a global team); and the establishment of AgTechCentric, a venture focused on delivering solutions to Australian producers, with Leecia Angus and Rohan Rainbow. The broadening of our activities included taking on clients based abroad.
The period from 2018 – 2021 also presented new opportunities and (external) challenges. Notwithstanding the disappointment we experienced around the commercial opportunities we saw with a novel protein biopolymer platform, an opportunity arose to partner with CSIRO around the commercialisation of the Biomass Oil technology. This took on a different risk sharing model that was co-developed with CSIRO. It led to Spiegare identifying a strong potential partnership that CSIRO then pursued and subsequently finalised with a commercial arrangement. This period also saw us move into some more strategic (foresight) pieces of work that were rewarding in terms of the complexity that we worked through, the teams that we built around the assignments, and the resulting products that we delivered. However, COVID struck through this period, bringing things to a near total stop at one point and, for many of those we were connected with, great uncertainty around the immediate future. We found a pathway through this period, and then got a little inspired to launch the Tech Transfer Talk podcast, with our first episode going to air in September 2021.
As we emerged from COVID, the last three years have seen some geographical expansion and with that has come a little more ambition! We have had strengthening engagements with partners in Canada and the UK and have turned our mind towards new opportunities and segments. This has led to some challenging moments as outcomes diverged from plans and ambitions, but also some great new opportunities through the podcast and the small steps to a third venture, including establishing BioBridge Additives. I have personally enjoyed the “growth” of the podcast, not only from feedback from listeners but also the thought-provoking discussions that have triggered my revisiting of assumptions and cultural norms that could, and should, be disrupted.
We have reflected more deeply on the innovation system and the role of technology transfer through our journey. The podcast has proven to be a great catalyst for my thinking, as the generous time of our colleagues to share their perspectives also allowed me to gather my own thoughts on how tech transfer is done and why it matters. While we’ve written and spoken about these (as I am sure those reading know), I feel that our activities could be boiled down to how we carry ourselves and the relationships that flow from our thoughts and deeds. While at times we may have had what looked like an ounce of luck, I really subscribe to one of my favourite North Melbourne coach adages, which is that “luck is all that’s left over after you’ve done everything else”. I think how we have engaged with those around us, both long-standing and newly in orbit, has given us opportunities to do great things with great people over the past decade.
It has certainly been a journey of great joy and stress at various times, with personal and organisational goals interwoven throughout. The relationships we have forged, and those we have been connected to over the past years, have enabled us to deliver thoughtful insights that I believe have not only helped our clients get better but helped us get better at how we go about our future partnerships with all those around us.
I am eternally grateful to all those that have worked alongside us. There are far too many to thank individually, but at the risk of forgetting some (or most), I want to especially thank Gina Drummond (who has been a calming influence through the journey, particularly under the pressure of document finalisation,) and Faisal Younus (who is our first full time employee and a wonderfully generous person who I have had the privilege to befriend). To Leecia Angus and Rohan Rainbow, your patience with, and support, of me through the AgTechCentric journey has been immeasurable. To Allan Green, who has been one of many notable supporters from my time at CSIRO, I am grateful for his counsel and wisdom. And to Kerrie Warburton, my life partner of the past 8 years, who has been an incredible pillar of support and I am not sure that all this could have unfolded without her love and kindness through a few ups and downs.