It’s better not to get bogged down: In the seed stage, spin-offs present potential investors with a prototype in hopes of convincing them to fund its further development. | Image: Lucas Ziegler

“It was like an adventure ride!” During a virtual meeting, Sreenath Bolisetty talked and gesticulated with infectious passion about the ups and downs of the spin-off he’d founded: the water purification company BluAct. Its new technology started very well in 2018 with a substantial field test in Peru, followed by pilot installations worldwide and a large plant in Italy. The 2020 pandemic brought operations to a sudden stop. Since then, however, the company has bounced back resiliently. My conversation with Bolisetty was one of a total of nine that I conducted for the feature topic of this issue of Horizons. I wanted to know how the start-ups we’ve previously portrayed in our column ‘How it works’ have gone on to fare in the real world.

These turned out to be exciting reports. Some of my interviewees gave the impression that they’d just come straight from working in the lab before our video call, while others looked like they’d had plenty of practice gliding with ease through carpeted corridors, currying favour with big investors. But one thing was the same for all of them: the joy with which they described how their ‘baby’ had grown. “Six months ago, I could never have imagined the state the company is in now”, said Dimitrios Terzis from the spin-off Medusoil, which uses biocement for various purposes including stabilising the ground alongside roads and railways.

I would naturally have loved to allocate plenty of space to every one of these nine spin-off stories. It hurt when I had to omit some of these impressive encounters from my article, just because they didn’t fit properly into the overall context. But that’s the daily bread of a journal editor. You often have to ‘kill your darlings’, as the saying goes. And it’s very similar for the founders of start-ups. They can’t make all the products they might want to make, they can’t target every exciting, potential market, nor can they cater to every interesting customer. It’s painful to have to bury your favourite projects, but it’s necessary if a young company isn’t going to drown in its own diversity. Making choices and keeping your focus are essential, whether you’re trying to achieve a compelling narrative or establish a confident company.