In their early stages, science start-ups require solid commitment, with founders and their teams clocking up long hours with little financial reward.

Despite the uncertainty, company leaders also need to think about business growth. This includes transferring knowledge and skills to junior colleagues, planning organizational structure, product development and quality control, and considering customers and competitors.

Charles Christy leads contract development and manufacturing at Ibex Dedicate, part of Lonza, a Swiss pharmaceutical and biotechnology company headquartered in Basle. He describes how science entrepreneurs should approach this crucial stage. Christy is joined by investor Daniel Batten and science entrepreneurs Javier Garcia Martinez, Wei Wu and Patrick Anquetil, who discuss their experiences of scaling up.

“In an early-stage company, people can’t be half-hearted about things. They really have to commit,” says Barbara Domayne-Hayman, entrepreneur in residence at the Francis Crick Institute in London.

This episode is part of Business of science, a six-part podcast series exploring how to commercialize your research and launch a spin-off.

The series looks at investor pitches, patents, and how to survive the inevitable setbacks along the way.

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