‘Remember… it's all about the money’: Professor Anthony Finkelstein shares his entrepreneurial insights
Professor Sir Anthony Finkelstein leads City St George’s, University of London as President and has worked as Chief Scientific Adviser for National Security, but he is well-versed in the world of entrepreneurship.
With a strong commitment to science-based innovation, Sir Anthony has developed two successful companies or ‘spin-outs’ throughout this career and serves on numerous advisory boards.
His advice to budding entrepreneurs? “It’s all about the money.”
Speaking to journalist Bex Burn-Callander, former enterprise editor at The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, at the Bayes Entrepreneurs Talk on May 28, Sir Anthony said:
It’s one of my big lessons and one of the things I always say to young entrepreneurs. When you’re starting a company, it’s not about the technology. This took me a while to realise as I came from a research background. Companies are built to make money, so it’s about what people are willing to pay for.
Sir Anthony based one of his spin-offs, Systemwire/ Message Automation, on his research on consistency checking of distributed data. His other company, Satalia, was based on advances in the field of optimisation, scheduling and routing. Both companies have exited and both have made substantial economic impact.
Host of Sound Advice: Entrepreneurs Unfiltered, Bex, asked Sir Anthony what advice he would give to people who want to build innovative companies themselves. She asked, “Is there a silver bullet when it comes to finding innovations that matter?”
“Innovative people don’t kill their ideas too early,” said Sir Anthony. “I speak with a lot of researchers. While many of them are very clever and come up with great ideas, they immediately see the downsides of these ideas. They pick at the holes. They are skilled analytically, but they need to give their ideas more time to breathe.
When you have the wild idea, don’t listen too much to the voice either inside your head or over your shoulder that says, ‘that’s mad.' Listen instead to the voice that says, ‘let’s give it a whirl.’ Time might be wasted but it will be wasted creatively - and that’s okay.
Sir Anthony currently advises Gallos Technologies, Polecat, Sepia Labs and Conscium. He is on the Board of BusinessLDN. He was on the founding board of UCL Consulting and UCL Enterprise and set up both the IQT-I and the National Security Strategic Investment Fund, the first UK Government strategic investment vehicles using venture capital to drive innovation into government.
Addressing the audience at Bayes Business School, Sir Anthony spoke about his advisory work. “The biggest proportion of the advice I give is networking. Who to talk to and how to talk to them. I share my network and my contacts and if I do that well, there’s usually two people that are happy. The rest of the time, I’m a vehicle for people to formulate their thoughts and try out their ideas.”
The talk with Sir Anthony was one of a series of talks hosted by Bayes Business School, City St George's, focused on entrepreneurship. The talks cover topics like building a compelling vision for a startup and sharing entrepreneurial journeys.