#124: Simon Rittmann on Innovating on Two Fronts: Founding a Company while Thriving in Academia

You might have always wanted to be an academic, but what if your academic research brought up a groundbreaking technology that you knew could dramatically revolutionize industrial processes? Would you choose to stay in academia or pivot to industry and bring your idea to market? Well, it is possible to do both! This episode's guest, Simon Rittman , shares with our host, Tina Persson , all about his experience with founding a company while still holding a position in academia. Simon Rittmann is the CSO and co-founder of Arkeon , a biotechnology company focused on alternative food production technologies. Additionally, he serves as the Principal Investigator at the Archaea Physiology & Biotechnology group at the University of Vienna , where he also shares his passion through teaching. Simon and Tina discuss the crucial steps and the strategic planning that go into building a start-up as an academic, highlighting the importance of finding the right people to help bring one's entrepreneurial vision to life. Further in the episode, they delve into the personal qualities needed to take the leap. They also talk about the concept of a dual career, how to keep "one foot in academia, one foot in the industry", the motivations behind that choice, and how to manage both. With Simon's advice, you will learn that you can have the best of both worlds, if only you are flexible, open to personal growth and pick the right business-minded people to complement your scientific skills and build a great team! Stay tuned! For the transcript, please click here: PhD Career Stories is on all major Social Media channels. To receive more content regularly,

You can listen to #124: Simon Rittmann on Innovating on Two Fronts: Founding a Company while Thriving in Academia online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

#124: Simon Rittmann on Innovating on Two Fronts: Founding a Company while Thriving in Academia is an episode from PhD Career Stories by Tina Persson.

This episode is 33:39 long.

This episode was published on Jul 14, 2023.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from PhD Career Stories when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.