Knowledge can be its own reward—or the gateway to a discovery with commercial potential.

Creating something that may have market value introduces academics to unfamiliar territory in the business world. How they navigate that territory depends in part on the role they are prepared to play in a fledgling enterprise.

“In academics, our end goal is generally publications, and those are important. It lets us build up the basic science knowledge base,” says Brian Gorman, professor and Faculty Startup Fellow at Colorado School of Mines. He founded the low-carbon building materials company Minima Scientific PBC in 2021 and serves as its chief technology officer. “The gap to commercialization is not easily bridged, mostly because, as academics, we don’t think that way. Changing the mindset is the first big challenge.” Once that mindset hurdle is cleared, the paperwork—and networking—begins.