Dear Founders and CEOs,
Just a reminder that if you need help with your fundraising, sales, marketing, social media let us know as we offer many free & paid resources:
Free one-on-one mentoring and networking for startup founders who are members of OneQuantum (contact Andre to set it up).
We’re currently helping various founders enter new markets, improve their sales pitch, advance their brand story or think about fundraising strategically.
Professional consulting services from PR to Lean Startup with the leading experts in the world
Data, analysis and insights on the Quantum Tech ecosystem
OneQuantum Ideas
“While it’s true that every company needs an entrepreneur to get it underway, healthy, innovative growth requires a smattering of intrapreneurs who drive new projects and explore new and unexpected directions for business development.” Richard Branson
Building a quantum tech business is hard work more so because there is a lot that still has to fall into place in terms of research, skills, engineering, tools, instruments, methods, processes, use cases and support systems (talk of support systems-OneQuantum is our effort to build a community and change that).
One of the biggest roles of a founder or CEO especially at the beginning is to put in place an engaged, motivated and committed team that can deliver. Making sure that as part of that team there are people who embody the entrepreneurial spirit while being able to work within a corporate environment—call them intrapreneurs, is one of the most important tasks of a start-up founder. Intrapreneurs differ from the traditional employee in the way they perceive problems within a company and approach their solutions. They are out-of-the-box thinkers who push boundaries and go beyond the traditional confines of their job title to facilitate the overall growth of the company and push it forward. Despite not being the founder or owner of a company, intrapreneurs often become immersed in their roles and don’t feel like employees working for someone else which is very important in quantum tech business where one usually ends up leading efforts that go against the grain.
This may sound commonplace but it is worth repeating: as a business leader you need to empower your employees so that they can make good decisions. From the onset you must ensure that you build a comfort zone in which people can express themselves and discover limits of their own convictions. While guidelines are useful for establishing a framework for the tasks ahead, build a soft-shell that promotes experimentation, creativity and risk taking. In today’s new reality of working remotely, the ability to hire, integrate and nurture intrapreneurs is more important than ever.
OneQuantum News+Events
One of our own Denise Ruffner is leaving her role as Chief Business officer Cambridge Quantum Computing and we wish her well. She does amazing work work with our Women in Quantum chapter and we can’t wait to see what comes next for her. Read the announcement here.
Boxcat Inc. is the first company to render an image using a quantum computer and we had an interesting conversation with the CTO, Ystallonne Alves.
The Airbus Quantum Computing Challenge team have shortlisted 5 finalists: Capgemini, Machine Learning Reply, Niels Backfisch, Origin Quantum, Universidad de Montevideo. Learn more about their proposals and how quantum computing could solve key questions for the aerospace industry.
UBS new billionaire's insights is out and really important for every #quantum#tech entrepreneur to read. In summary, “The technology sector has become the largest contributor to billionaire wealth over the last decade. And, amongst them, those who disrupt the industry instead of merely innovating lead that charge.” says Andre M. Konig. Read more here.
Which potential unicorns do you see in quantum tech? Check out our data to see the companies currently leading in that race.
Signing off
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Your Farai