Description

Supporting entrepreneurship

The supporting entrepreneurship part is the third module of our project’s implementation aspect. The two firsts are “Use of SynBio to solve an unmet need of astronauts” and “Implementation technical and sustainable constraints in our system”, you can read more about them [here] . In the first part, we identified our potential customers and their unmet needs not yet covered by other existing solutions using a market study. In the second part, we showed that our solution is possible, scalable, and inventive through the specifications, the issue table, the 3D model and the life-cycle of our solution.
In this section, we present logical product development plans with realistic milestones, timelines, resources, and risks. In short, we took an entrepreneurial approach to develop our project outside the framework of the iGEM competition.

We collaborated with a business incubator named “Le Catalyseur” which helped us in this process through workshops throughout the project.

1- Our partners for the implementation of our project

Le Catalyseur is a pre-incubator that encourages the culture of innovation, supports project leaders and enables the development of original activities in terms of employment, while maintaining high social added value. We followed their pre-incubation program which consists of three phases. We have done 6 work sessions, one every month since May. They gave us tools such as market study to implement our idea in the real world and such as business models or risk analysis to have an entrepreneurial approach. The work that we have done with them is presented here. Now, we are at the end of the first phase and we have the opportunity to continue our project after the iGEM competition.

Toulouse White Biotechnology (TWB) is a catalyst weaving links between fundamental research and the industrial world. On the one hand, it offers collaborative public/private R&D projects and services. On the other hand, it supports start-ups in order to accelerate their start-up and growth. They support us financially and we had a meeting with them in order to be advised on the path to take. We also participated in the TWB starts-up day of 2020 which was on “Bioproduction for sustainability” where we met Randy Rettberg.

2- Goals and missions of the company

The first questions that arose when thinking about launching a start-up focused on what the company's mission and objectives are going to be.
The company's aim will represent the global idea of the company and its activity. After reflection, we have come up with this:

"To develop alternative food supplements to prevent or contain nutrient deficiencies through the innovative coculture of microorganisms".

On the other hand, we had to think about the different missions of our start-up. They represent the short- and long-term goals that the company will aim at. They are listed in chronological order to make it easier to understand. For our project, we have come up with four different missions:

1. To design a yeast modified by metabolic engineering, producing pro-vitamin A (or other vitamins) and allowing for the production of distinct taste via photo-induction.

2. To design and develop an innovative coculture system adapted to space that allows the production of the modified yeast.

3. To optimize coculture growth and production.

4. To develop a range of coculture devices that respond to dietary deficiencies.

To achieve this mission and objectives, the opinion of each project member was considered through a brainstorming session where each person expressed his or her point of view on the project as well as on the creation of a start-up.

3- Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

The SWOT is a project management tool to determine whether the various options are favourable or unfavourable. It allows the identification of internal and external factors that influence the company’s objectives. The SWOT makes it possible to anticipate strategic risks, to decide on a commercial positioning, or to refine an economic model.

The greatest strength of our project but also one of its weaknesses is that it takes place in the context of the iGEM competition. This includes having advantages such as the international exposure and its network but disadvantages such as the fact that it is an open source competition. As our team is made up of science students, we have a strong background in this field and a network through our universities (INSA/UPS) and the After iGEM community. Moreover in the field of space, biotechnologies are more and more used to bring new solutions. Our system has several technical advantages. It allows us to close certain cycles in order to avoid the loss of resources which is a major problem in space, where they are not unlimited, using the advantages of coculture. This aspect of closed cycle can be applied on Earth in the framework of an ecological approach. When we look at the market, our project fits into a niche market since it is used for a particular purpose. Moreover, the current popularity of space discovery allows us to develop projects around the thematics of travel to Mars.

On the other hand, we are not yet graduated and we have a lack of experience and certain capacities. For example, we have a very scientific view of the market which could lead us to hire someone with marketing knowledge in order to have another point of view. Furthermore, our project is in the very early stages of development, so there are still many phases to go through to get to the final system, such as real space testing. All this research and development is a high-risk investment .After the iGEM competition, which is open source, we will have some problems to effectively protect our work, especially as we could have to compete with companies producing food supplements.

4- Risk analysis

One of the workshops we have done with the Catalyseur was on risk management and analysis. Risk analysis is a tool to enumerate and analyze the risks in a specific contexte, here the creation of the startup IGEMINI. To estimate the severity level, impact and probability scores are used. It is established at a specific date, which means that it may evolve over time.
The table below summarizes our risk detection in the context of the creation of the start-up iGEMINI.

The aspects most at risk are those of project management, finance and business. If we want to set up a start-up, we will have to organise ourselves differently than for the iGEM project because the objectives of the competition are not the same as those of a company. Finances are essential to start up. We have managed to raise funds for the iGEM competition but now we have to find a way to transform the project into a company. On the other hand, we will have to surround ourselves with people who know the biotechnology market to be able to develop our business. Thanks to this tool we now know where our efforts should go.

5-Business model

Overview

In detail

The business model makes it possible to check if our project is feasible and if it is possible to set up the company. It also allows us to identify any weakness in the project or advantages in developing our product. There are nine points to check to see if our model is feasible or not.

Value Proposition: the value proposition can be translated into which system or product will we market. Moreover, this is also the time to talk about the advantages of our project compared to what already exists. These can range from ecological benefits to reduced production costs. This will allow us to put forward our project. It is also judicious to identify the different sectors that we want to target (space, agribusiness...).
We have therefore decided to deliver a complete system that will be specific for a space mission. The technology of our system is to provide a microorganism coculture that will allow minimal use of resources and recycling of unused resources. The space environment being a hostile environment with many constraints, it was necessary to adapt our system to these constraints. Not only will microorganisms be able to grow, but the goal is to produce a nutritive yeast as food supplements. We also use optogenetic regulation to induce tastes to meet astronauts' taste expectations. What our project offers is not brought by the current food supply solutions for space.

Customer segment: this part allows us to determine who the potential customers will be. It can be local authorities, companies, individuals…
For the space field, this is limited to the different agencies (CNES, ESA, NASA...). Our system would be delivered in two ways. The first one would be for short missions that would serve as a test to ensure its proper functioning in this environment. Then after this test phase, we would provide a system that will be intended to be embarked for a long-term mission.

Communication channels: these are the tools we have at our disposal to contact and/or communicate with the various stakeholders. This can be by direct contact (appointment) or indirect contact (mail) for example. It is necessary to list all the ways to communicate, taking into account the practical aspect. It is easier to make direct contact with one person than several around the world.
Within the framework of a unique and specialized system for a mission, it will be easier for us to communicate directly with agencies or people interested in our system. This is the most efficient way to meet the specification requirements.

Customers relationship: the customer relationship aspect can be divided into three areas: "I hear about", "I'm interested", "I buy". It is necessary to find the different ways in which a client can move from one stage to another. It is in this part that we must also use the advantages of the project, of the igem contest, of the wiki taken as a whole.
For the communication aspect and exchanges with agencies, this will be done directly or through partnerships. Indeed, being partners with the CNES we can use this way to communicate with them. This is in line with the customer relations aspect of our thinking. We have decomposed this aspect into three parts. "I hear about" which is the means by which we will make ourselves known. For this dimension, we can count on conferences, exhibitions and the iGEM competition exhibition, but also on the participation of our partners, who can talk about our project, "I'm interested", which is the way to get information about our project and the problems that make it interesting. This search for information is done through our wiki, video and poster. But also through conferences and meetings with space professionals, an active presence on social networks and demonstration phases of our system. And finally, "I buy" is the element that will trigger the investment in our project. This element is the fact that we produce a unique system that will respond specifically to a need for a particular mission. We would work for our customers and they would pay us to develop the food supplements production system but they would not buy the system.

Key partners: this part allows us to list all the structures and networks that have helped us or can help us in the future.
We also had to reflect on our future partners who will support us throughout our project and startup. These actors can be present for different purposes, some will finance the project (“TBI”...) , others will bring us information to complete our research (“CNES”, experts) and others will be there to help us in the creation of business (“Le Catalyseur”) In the partners who have accompanied us during the period of the iGEM competition, there are all the experts we have met, the structures that have given us financial or intellectual help. But there are also the different communication networks such as our university network but also that of the igem community. We also thought afterwards that they could be the key partners we needed.

Key activity: this concerns all the activities that the company will have to carry out, whether internal or external, related to the system, from a legal point of view etc.

Key resources: gathers all the people, provider, premises, purchase, partner etc ... that the startup will need to meet different key activities.

6- Business plan

Before considering starting a business, we need to structure our idea to make it more concrete for ourselves, our future partners and our funders. Writing a business creation project consists of building a business plan. This tool allows us to highlight the real needs of the company at its inception, its legal status, patents and market strategy.

Financial strategy
Due to the special nature of our business we had to adapt our financial strategy. In fact, the goal of our business is to create a single system that will have a very specific use. It is therefore not intended to be sold in numerous units. Based on our research and the costs that we had during the iGEM competition, we were able to calculate an investment cost over one year that we will extrapolate over the next three years. These three years correspond to the incubation period with our partner "Le Catalyseur". On this investment, we took into account that 4 persons are working full time on the project and that the laboratory is hosted by a partner (either the “Spaceship” incubator of the CNES or Fondation Pierre Fabre). The financing will come from public investment funds as well as from private investors who will help us to develop this technology. In order to consider the costs we have taken into account the development and production of a single system. That is why we have dissociated the costs with the production of the system and those without the production in order to better visualize the global investment. Of course this is a preview with only one system but we may have to design different prototypes which will have an impact on the total cost.

For the calculation of the different costs we based ourselves on an average of different sources of information. For the laboratory costs³[3] we took the expenses we had during the summer during our handling period. For the costs of the employees¹[1], salary charges²[2] as well as those related to the creation of a company are calculated in accordance with the average costs on the French territory. We have proceeded in the same way for the different components of the reactor⁶[6], setting the prices according to various models present on the market. Of course our reactor is custom made, the costs will be different but we have exaggerated the prices so as to avoid big surprises. Concerning patent application⁴[4] and brand name/logo⁵[5], we have only considered the registration of a single brand name/logo and patent. In order to ensure a better coverage of the intellectual property of our project other patents may be necessary to be submitted.

B2B: Business To Business model
We also chose the Business To Business model (B2B). This model has the advantage of exchanging directly from company to company, which is a real advantage for a company that wants to develop a precise and specialized system for a specific mission. Moreover, it also allows to have a stable and reliable funding. But the disadvantages of this model are that the profits will be lower and that there may be some constraints imposed by the partners.
We did not choose the B2C (Business to Customer) model because our project does not adapt at all to this type of model. We offer the development of a technology, we do not sell a mass market product.

Legal status
For the legal status of our company we had several choices, but not all of them are suitable for a start-up. The french status SARL (Société À Responsabilité Limitée, corresponding to Limited Liability Company) has some drawbacks: the capital is shared in social parts, without any distinctions of profiles. New associates cannot simply join the social parts: complex procedures are needed. The status is not flexible enough for the creation of a start-up.
In contrast, the status of SAS (Société par Actions Simplifiée, which has no english equivalent but could be translated as a “simplified limited liability company”) seems much more flexible and suitable to start-ups. Different social parts associated with different rights are available, the governance body can be modified and finally, there are lots of liberties for status definitions as well as for the arrival of new associates.

Patent and intellectual property
In France, the INPI (National Institute of Industrial Property) is the main institute for brand and patent deposit. The brand deposit will be necessary for the startup name and logo. The patent deposit will protect all the scientific and technological parts: the engineered microorganisms, the concept of a coculture between Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Clostridium ljungdahlii and the reactor of this coculture. In Europe, microorganisms can be patented since 1982. Patented biotechnological inventions are protected by the directive 98/44/CE (European Parliament and Council). In the iGEM competition, every synthetic part (Biobrick) is submitted to the open-source Registry of Biological Parts and is off patent. For the synthetic biology part, it is possible to make some modification in the gene that was sent to the igem register to make it patentable. Moreover, it is possible to patent all the technical aspects of our system such as the coculture, the production parameters....
It is important to note that the period of protection is no longer than 20 years, starting from the filing date. Its cost increases according to its existence because it is considered that the company makes money on it. But it is important to note that a patent guarantees only freedom of exploitation. It is different from preventing another company from developing the same business.

Conclusion of the Business plan
To summarize, the business plan tool allowed us to define our marketing model, B2B, and our legal status, SAS. We also set a total investment cost for a three year period of 836 109€. At the end of the iGEM competition we considered several hosting possibilities. The Fondation Pierre Fabre and the CNES are two possibilities for our project to continue.

7- Milestones for space application

Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) are a type of measurement system used to assess the maturity level of a particular technology. We used the TRL of NASA to evaluate the maturity of our system for space application. Each technology project is evaluated against the parameters for each technology level and is then assigned a TRL rating based on the project's progress. There are nine technology readiness levels. TRL 1 is the lowest and TRL 9 is the highest.
We are currently at the TRL4.

8- What is next

After these analyses, we know that our technology is valuable. We have several opportunities to develop our technology for space application or for other applications.

Our project got the attention of the Vice President R&D Operations and Innovation from Pierre Fabre. He advised us to continue to develop our technology as a start-up and he thinks that we could be hosted by the Fondation Pierre Fabre. IWe still have to define the mutual benefits of such a collaboration. The production of vitamins or other nutritive agents could be of interest for them.

Toulouse White Biotechnology is a cluster whose members share common social-economic goals in relation to industrial biotechnology. TWB also hosts and supports starts-up. As our partner, they are an opportunity for technological transfer to other applications.

The CNES (French National Centre of Space Studies) is with the Catalyseur, our main partner. The CNES launched the project Space Ship France to find solutions to space constraints for interplanetary ships. Its objective is to facilitate the exchange of information between experts in the field and projects under development in order to boost the projects and allow them to mature faster.

We explained the aim of the Catalyseur in the beginning of this page. This is a free public help for students for the development of innovative projects and starts-up. We followed their pre-incubation program which is available for three years. We finished the first year and the first step, the state of play. We can continue this program to learn how to make this iGEMINI project a company.

References

[1]

“Salaire ingénieur : classement des salaires ingénieurs.” https://www.ingenieurs.com/infos/salaire-ingenieur-1535.php (accessed Sept. 14, 2020).

[2]

“Charges sociales : le montant à payer sur un salaire.” https://www.expert-comptable-tpe.fr/articles/charges-sociales-montant-salaire/ (accessed Sept. 14, 2020).

[3]

Our wiki: https://2020.igem.org/Team:Toulouse_INSA-UPS

[4]

“Tarifs | INPI.fr.” https://www.inpi.fr/fr/tarifs (accessed Oct. 8, 2020).

[5]

“Coût des formalités de création | Bpifrance Création.” https://bpifrance-creation.fr/encyclopedie/formalites-creation-dune-entreprise/formalites-generalites/cout-formalites-creation (accessed Oct. 8, 2020).

[6]

“How Much Does a Bioreactor Cost?” https://www.infors-ht.com/en/blog/how-much-does-a-bioreactor-cost/ (accessed Oct. 8, 2020).

[7]

“Heidolph - Pompe péristaltique monocanal [Pompe à liquides péristaltique].” https://www.grosseron.com/heidolph-pompe-peristaltique-monocanal_48-378-1-3776-1-5949.html (accessed Oct. 8, 2020).

[8]

T. Mai, “Technology Readiness Level,” NASA, May 06, 2015. http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/scan/engineering/technology/txt_accordion1.html (accessed Oct. 8, 2020).

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