AEInnova: From Science to Business

"Scientists and technologists encounter and develop great ideas, but usually have difficulties finding a way to take them to the market. Once they decide that they want to make a business out of their technology, a wobbly path of enrolling people, developing prototypes, protecting technologies, getting funding, and launching a company starts. This case explains how an entrepreneur, Ra l Aragon s, converted an innovative technology into AEInnova, a heat harvesting company. After explaining the incorporation of AEInnova and the change of CEO to David Comellas, the case explains the development of the heat harvesting technology. Initially, they worked on an application of their technology for cooling PV-panels to improve their performance. Then, they found an interesting application in industrial waste heat recovery, what later was named as the Waste Heat Recovery Unit (WHRU). Finally, by pure serendipity, they found another application for their technology: powering IoT sensor devices (Indu-Eye). They knew that to succeed with their start-up, focusing was very important. Additionally, they did not have either the resources nor the time for developing and commercializing the three applications of their technology. Moreover, they had started to feel the pressure from investors that wanted to see some commercial results from their investments. So, they had to decide on which application to concentrate their efforts and take first to the market. Part A - Where to play, focuses on the decision to choose which application of the technology to commercialize first by analyzing the business opportunity and the associated risks. In the end, they decided to focus on the business development of the Indu-Eye application, a wireless and batteryless IoT-device to monitor industrial processes. Additionally, they wanted to convert AEInnova into a scale-up that could become the reference company in the IoT industry. All these are treated in Part B - How to play. Throughout the case, the participants will be placed into the role of AEInnova's founder, Ra l Aragon s, as to introduce them into how science and technology entrepreneurs make decisions and set-up new ventures. ESADE's case collection