Technology Entrepreneurship
Read the attached case study and write analysis and answer the case study question in APA 7th edition with 2 and a half-page
Note: My assignments will need actual references from EBSCO host, google scholar, and semantic scholar With a website link at the end.
Case Study 8.1 Celtic Catalysts Written by Dr. Brian Kelly.
Celtic Catalysts is a specialist supplier of niche chemical products and processes for the pharmaceutical and fine chemicals industry. The company’s research and development operation and corporate headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland. The company also has a manufacturing site in the northeast of England, UK where it manufactures large-scale quantities of products using the technologies developed in its research facility in Dublin. The company is a spin-out from University College Dublin and was founded in 2000 with intellectual property developed by the group with Professor Declan Gilheany at its core. Professor Gilheany remains as the company’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to this day. The decision to commercialize the IP was driven by one of Professor Gilheany’s students, Brian Kelly, who identified a commercial opportunity related to the research he was undertaking at the time for his PhD.
The particular IP in question formed the basis for the creation of a potential platform technology that could ultimately render the production of certain pharmaceutical products much cheaper and much more environmentally benign than the production processes being employed by Big Pharma at the time. However at the time of Kelly’s identification of the commercial opportunity, the IP was not at a sufficiently mature stage of development to bring directly to market and thus licensing it to a pharmaceutical or fine chemical player was simply not an option. Nor was it feasible for either Gilheany or Kelly to use the IP as the basis of a service that could be offered to industry clients. Having also unsuccessfully sought the possibility of winning grant funding to further develop the IP, Kelly and Gilheany decided to form a new venture called Celtic Catalysts and in-license the sub-optimal IP from University College Dublin.
At that time, unlike now, the sources of public funding for research were pretty scarce… so really we had no other option if we wanted to commercialize this IP – we just had to form a company and seek investment to develop the technology fully and bring it to market. (Brian Kelly (Co-founder)) We had the makings of a really good platform technology, but there was no way anyone (other than ourselves) would license it at that stage of its development. (Declan Gilheany (Co-founder))
In these initial meetings with the investment community, it became clear that the initial business model on which Gilheany and Kelly had based the company did not stand up to intensive and rigorous commercial scrutiny. It was also apparent that their lack of commercial track record was a hindrance to their efforts in having their investment proposition being taken seriously or their business model and financial projections being credible. The first few occasions pitching to the VCs turned out to be very salutary – although at the time it felt like we were being thrown into the lions’ den. How-ever most of the VCs were very helpful and constructive in their assessment of our proposition and made recommendations on how we could improve the overall proposition in such a way as they might be interested in the future. (Declan Gilheany (Co-Founder of Celtic Catalysts))
The feedback received from their initial engagement with the venture capital world, gave the pair a roadmap for what they needed to put in place in order to make their fledgling company an investible proposition to the VC community. Top of the list of requirements was finding someone with experience in the fine chemicals/pharmaceutical industry to lead the company as CEO. The pair were introduced to Brian Elliott – a veteran of Big Pharma having over 20 years senior management experience with Johnson and Johnson and who had subsequent senior management experience with a successful Belgian biotechnology start-up called Tibotec. He agreed to help the company raise its initial amount of seed venture capital (of approximately €750k) and to subsequently act as a part-time CEO of the company. His involvement with the company helped to accelerate the process of securing this first round of venture capital funding. In securing the services of a new CEO, the company was also able to demonstrate a level of momentum and progress when revisiting potential investors who Kelly and Gilheany had met at the beginning of their commercialization journey.
Once we had brought Brian [Elliott] on board it certainly helped with the VCs. Neither our vision or our message had really changed all that much – although admittedly by that stage we were much better at articulating things in a much clearer manner than when we started out. However, the crucial thing was that what we were saying carried much more weight once we had someone of his commercial experience there in the room with us, backing us up. (Brian Kelly (Co-founder and Former CEO Celtic Catalysts))
With Elliott as an integral part of the investment proposal, the company secured its first round of investment from a Dublin-based venture capitalist (4th Level Ventures), who Kelly and Gilheany had originally met over a year previously. The funds raised were used to develop the company’s core IP to the stage that it was market-ready. The company subsequently raised further funds to accelerate the roll-out of this technology in the marketplace.
Case Questions 1. What were the key factors which eventually led to Celtic Catalysts securing its first significant round of investment?
2. Comment on the main concerns likely to have been articulated by potential investors prior to the recruitment of the CEO
3. Comment on the main concerns likely to have been articulated by potential investors post the recruitment of the CEO
4. If they were starting again today, what would you have advise the promoters to do differently?