This week on Build Mode, Isabelle Johannessen speaks with Capella Kerst, founder and CEO of geCKo Materials.
For a successful deep tech startup, the laboratory breakthrough is only the first step. To spin out an innovative technology into a scalable business, a founder has to navigate a complicated legal process.
But translating a lab discovery into a startup is less about the “eureka” moment and more about everything that comes after.
“I got up the courage to really address my advisor in a very like we need to have a serious conversation about me spinning out this company and starting it,” Capella said. And that conversation was the beginning of a long process of building geCKo materials.
Here is a roadmap for founders spinning a product out of academia.
Five years later, geCKo Materials is continuing to scale and develop new ways to apply its adhesive technology which is being tested in applications ranging from robotics and manufacturing to automotive and even space. The company’s material is already in use on the International Space Station, and Kerst says the long-term vision includes replacing traditional attachment methods like Velcro or suction systems.