Anecdotes and ideas
I thought I'd start my blog with a long list. I typically have a few dozen ideas in progress - while I'd love to write about these topics myself, if you'd like to write on any of the topics, I'd be pleased for you to take these ideas (if you can call them that).
Woodlawn Wanderer 9
The Woodlawn Wandered 9 - a fully analogue, completely
automated
mammalian cell culture system.In 1973 NASA launched Skylab 3 - a 59-day, manned, orbital
mission. Aboard this spacestation was an automated cell culture system - the "Woodland Wanderer 9". Over
the next 50 years no-one has cracked automated mammalian cell culture. What can we learn from their
system?
The NASA Technical Report Server
If you're working on a problem in science, engineering, or medicine then NASA has already thought about it. NASA's work touches every part of STEM and fortunately for you they write about most of it on their technical report server (NTRS). No one should start a project without first checking there! And as a second shot - the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC).
Consultancy as a model for DeepTech VC
Cambridge Consultants has spun out twenty-seven startups and four unicorns - a track record better than any UK venture capitalist or university. If CC were in the Silicon Valley, we would all know how they achieved this, I want to tell this story better and bring more information about their heyday to the startup community. David Connell’s piece “Exploding the Myths of UK Innovation Policy” is a great reference text for this.
Devolved authority thinktank
UKG are devolving more decision making and spending power to the regions (Mayoral Combined Authorities), but the ecosystem required to support policy making has not moved. In London there are clusters of thinktanks proposing and supporting new policy ideas. What would it look like to have a local South Yorkshire thinktank with inside views on policies for South Yorkshire?
Sheffield projects
I’ve always got a rogue pitch for something that I’d like to be built in Sheffield:
SYMCA should buy Stanage Lodge and turn it into an “investor retreat venue”. They should then wine and dine US VCs pitching Sheffield as the outside city with an engineering heritage.
Crookes needs a hub. There is no natural meeting point for group rides or runs. The Crookes sports club could easily be turned into a cafe / community space that becomes the outdoor sports hub of Crookes.
Business canteen. I love the Moor Market - I want cheap, adequate food served in a large hall (school dinners?). The goal of this is to bring together Sheffield’s business community each lunchtime - forcing knowledge spillover.
Phone masts the length of the train line
I write this from the comfort of the 7:00 Sheffield to London train. The journey has been an “offline Google Docs” only affair. Occasionally I get really fast mobile data and can attempt to quickly catchup with emails but communication with the outside world is limited. My understanding is that this is not a technological problem but one of market incentivesThis thesis might be wrong - more research needed.. Network providers are incentivised by UKG to install phone masts based on where people live. Changing these rules to cover major commuter routes could be a quick and cheap upgrade to the UK rail network.
Why is melatonin not over the counter in the UK?
Since 1995, melatonin has been a prescription-only drug in the UK, why is this and what would have to happen for this to change?Deep Research has given me a pretty good answer to these questions already. A full cost-benefit would consider the impact it would have on nightshift workers including doctors.
Personal microgrants programme
December 2016, after Church I sit excitedly in the Grindstone pub, pitching my friends on giving out mince pies to our whole engineering cohort. Without request Mark Russel whipped out £20 to pay for the idea. This small amount of money had a huge impact on me - Mark encouraged high-agency, funded me, and counterfactually made the mince pie handing out happen.
£100-1000 has a huge impact on students. I for one would have dedicated all my free time to something if given that much money. I’m now fortunate to have a little money and can feasibly give out £1-2k per year. Should I have a tiny grant pot to incentivise people to pickup projects?
PS. I already give >10% of my salary to effective charities and this wouldn’t replace that.
Funding mechanism failure case studies
I’m often in conversations about how to help UK startups raise investment. A classic question is “how do we support founders who are too early for UK venture capital?”. As I spoke to one policy maker about these very question I realised I didn’t really know if these “unfundable” people or ideas existed. I want clear case studies for funding mechanisms failing - without these it is really difficult to properly diagnose what is going wrong. I fear that in discussions about startup funding people are talking over one another as they do not have a shared understanding of what ideas are not being funded.