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BookletDeciding Whether to Start a Spin-Out
Setting up a Spin-out is a stressful activity and will distract you from your research. You will need to work with business managers and investors whose objectives may be different from your own.
Not all research is suited to becoming the platform for a new business. Isis staff will help evaluate the business opportunities arising from your research.
Business and management skills will be needed for the spinning out, as well as running the subsequent business. Therefore it is important to identify a source of these early on.
If you intend to remain an employee of the University, you will need various consents from the University to participate in a spin-out. The University will not generally give permission for its employees to take executive directorships in spinout companies. Therefore, if you take a directorship it should be non-executive. Also, some funding agencies do not allow researchers to be directors.
There are potentially onerous legal responsibilities attached to being a director of a limited company. Before deciding to spin out you must understand these, and decide whether the benefit is worth the potential risk.