Updated: 17 November 2009
One of them made their discovery by chance, the other through sheer hard work. Both can put their success down to research and their own keen foresight. Today, they operate two of Sweden’s hottest growth companies.
Saeid Esmaeilzadeh is a chemist at Stockholm University. He succeeded in creating the world’s hardest glass with a refractive index almost as high as diamond. It all began with an experiment that went wrong. From there, he created Diamorph, a company founded on the patented technology behind his “super glass”, and additional companies based on the discoveries of other researchers.
Maria Gröndahl is also a chemist, but from Chalmers University of Technology. With the company Xylophane, she has developed a new packaging material based on xylan, an agricultural waste product. It serves as an organic barrier which can contain or exclude oxygen, fats and flavourings. Due to its useful properties, renewability and low cost, it has major potential in the food industry.
These are just two of the Swedish researchers whose ideas are underpinning new companies. Both have had successful innovations, won various entrepreneurship competitions and been nominated year on year as being involved in two of Sweden’s hottest technology companies.
What challenges are you facing at the moment?
Saeid: “Excitingly many! We have a world-leading knowledge platform and are trying to evaluate areas where we can use it. Just at the moment, there are sheep leaping around at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala testing out our knee implants, and our ceramic rollers are ready to go into production as wind turbine bearings.”
Maria: “Building up interest in the packaging industry at the same time as trying to create processes to manufacture xylan in large volumes. We’ll be starting a pilot factory with some of the 3 million Euros in venture capital we recently received.”
Your ideas have developed into new opportunities. How have you developed as people?
Saeid: “As an innovator, you have to do a lot of juggling. The most important lesson is that your idea is only one part of the success. As a researcher, new knowledge is your goal and money is the means. As an entrepreneur, money is the goal and research is the means. There is an inherent conflict in this which is good! I believe the key to our success lies in the fact that by respecting different points of view, we’ve managed to assemble a good team around us.”
Maria: “Absolutely! A colleague and I were alone in the company for a long while. Then, when we both had children just three months apart, we hired an external MD and several technical people. To begin with, I found daring to let go a struggle. However, I soon realised that plenty of things worked without my direct involvement. I’d also thought that the staff would be less dedicated than me, but I was quite wrong. The company’s doing better than ever!”
Saeid: “As a researcher, I was used to just concentrating on my research and I guess I saw most things as black or white. Because of the innovation work, I’ve also gained a broader perspective on life beyond the lab. I now see my research in a wider context.”
