Theodor Nielsen was kind enough to spend an hour chatting with me on Skype. Find out how important trade shows are to new start ups; what it’s like to transition from university to running a start-up; the advantages of being in Denmark for a high tech start-up; and other first hand accounts of entrepreneurship.

Alex Farcet (Q):  Can you describe what your company does?

Theodor Nielsen (A): Our company NIL Technology is working with a fabrication technology called nanoimprint lithography (NIL). NIL is a technique to produce nano-scale patterns on a surface, i.e. patterns with dimension in the sub-100 nm regime. NIL is a pressing type technology, where a structured stamp is imprinted (pressed) into a soft (typically) polymeric film on the surface to be patterned. Typically, the surface is a glass or Silicon wafer and the structures are being used in the semiconductor, optical, life science and hard disc industries

NIL Technology provides the stamps (or templates), the process, product development based on NIL and production of components by NIL

(Q):  What kind of companies are your customers; and how did you get the first one?

(A): Our customers both private companies and universities. Most of them are currently working with NIL for research or product development purposes, but a few are testing NIL in production of products.

The day after we started our company we had given ourself the task to call at least one potential customer. We called a research group at Aarhus University and they ended up buying from us already 1-2 months later.

(Q):  Was the product part of research you did for University? Did you patent it yourself, or with the university and were there any issues around that?

(A): The product was fabricated by our technology. Our technology is patented – but our customers have the right to the products they order from us.

The products we delivered were part of a research project – that is all I can say about that part.

(Q):  What was it like to transition from being a student to running your company? You had one partner to start up with, right?

(A): Yes, from day one we have been two full time employed people in the company. Brian Bilenberg and I took a leave from our PhD studies at MIC – Department of Micro and Nanotechnology at DTU.

The transition was a big difference. It is hard to compare. One day you are a student being responsible for you own education and projects – the other day you are talking to world leading companies from all over.

(Q):  You’re obviously very high tech, but what is the balance between lab and business, for you personally? I mean time and focus wise.

(A): We of course have many new products and technologies which we like to develop – but our strategy was to start selling what is possible today.

Therefore, we had no lab work until we got the first order. Brian became CTO of the company and has been responsible for the production. I became CEO and is now rarely in the lab.

(Q):  In what ways have your customers surprised you?

(A): We have been positively surprised by the high number of customers already being willing to buy our products. The number of companies already working with NIL or are considering starting up NIL activities is much higher than expected.

(Q):  Do they ever have any unexpected demands or approach your products in ways you had not expected?

(A): Different companies within different market segments do not necessarily have the same specification. Some companies have had product specification we were not able to meet right away -so yes. At this stage I can not be more specific.

(Q):  One area many start ups seem to struggle with is how to price their first products or services. When you were in dialog with the Aarhus researchers soon after you launched, how did you come to agree on pricing? And how do you price today?

(A): I will like to keep our pricing strategy to ourself – but I can say that it is not easy to find the right strategy. We are working together with a company (Toft Business Development) that are specialists in busines development and they have been giving us very valuable input regarding this question – input we did not have from our time at the university.

(Q):  That brings the next question; have you brought in people to do finances (billing, etc.) and HR, IT and so on or have you outsourced?

(A): We are to a great extend outsourcing such tasks that are not focussed on our core business

[pagebreak] (Q):  Does it matter that your company is based in Denmark? What I mean is, are there local advantages or disadvantages (financing, recruiting, location of customers, etc.)?

(A): Production: We are working in the cleanroom at DTU which makes Lyngby one of the only candidates for our location in Denmark – but in principle we could be working in any cleanroom having the right equipment.

Financing: Our first investor was Danish and we met them due to our geographical location. Our second investor was not Danish and we got in contact with them during our network and www presence.

Recruiting: Of course we are dependent on highly educated technical people and DTU creates a good pool of that – this is an advantage.

We only have one Danish customer – but in some markets (especially in Asia) we have local representation. Most of the world is within 15hr travel distance – that is OK.

(Q):  Interesting. Regarding local representation, is it mostly a sales function? And how did you find them?

(A): Yes, it is a sales function. We have been approached by most of them at trade-shows around the world.

(Q):  That’s a good sign, they can see the potential of your products. Do you personally attend these trade shows, are they important (for sales, networking?)

(A): The first year Brian and I attended more than 10 trade-shows. This gave us a personal relation to many of our customers and future customers.

The trade-shows have had and still has a significant improtance in our sales approach and networking (only truly valuable if it turns into sales)

(Q):  I guess the fact that your products are so high tech that there are ‘few’ people on top of it and they tend to get together at these events. How important is the internet to your business; how much of your business comes from that channel?

(A): You approached this topic earlier. Since we are located in Denmark and almost all of our customers are outside Denmark we use the internet a lot. It is hard to divide our business into categories of ‘internet based’ and ‘not internet based’ – our activities should be seen as part of an overall strategy to approach the customers.

(Q):  But do you actually trade on the internet? Book orders, etc.?

(A): No

(Q):  Now, cliche question of the day: “If you could give yourself some advice back in day one, what would you tell yourself?”

(A): Believe in yourself and focus on the goal. Use advisors in those areas where you are not strong. – At least that is what we have been doing and so far it has worked

(Q):  Do you have an advisory board, a management board, or both? How do they support you concretely? And how did you recruit them?

(A): Both. (if management board = executive board of directors)

The board of directors are business professionals and we have a technical advisory board consisting of two persons with impressive know-how on the NIL technology.

We recruited them simply by asking.

(Q):  OK and how often do you meet and what do they bring? Could you live without them or are they vital, for example, in helping set strategy?

(A): The board meets 8-10 times per year. The advisory board 1-3 times.

I think both boards are bringing in valuable input. We could ‘live’ without them, but I do not see any reason to do so – for now

(Q):  Let’s talk about funding. What kind of money have you raised (seed, vc, angel?) and tell me about that experience. Were the negotiations difficult or straightforward? Are you investors actively involved and do they require a lot performance info from you?

(A): Negotiations are never straight forward. Of course everything is relative – but both parties are always trying to optimize…

Our firts investor was Forskerparken CAT – a seed investor – the second investor was an international VC.

Currently we have a mutually agreed clear strategy and we have freedom to operate. Of course we are keeping our investors up to date.

(Q):  I meant to ask: is there a difference between the Seed investor and the international VC; in their level of involvement, the way they work?

(A): I can not say anything in general – I have only done this once (this time).

But, our seed investor was local and we had naturally a close dialogue (same time zone). Our international VC investor is not that much into the details. This could be due to the time difference or that we have proved ourself to be able to run the company at a satisfactory manner.

(Q):  Let’s talk about you; how much time are you putting in right now; what are you long term goals; and how do you recharge your batteries?

(A): I am working about 60+ hours per week.

The long term goal is to make a profitable company

– and my batteries are always charged

Thank you very much