“Accelerators and incubators get you to a certain level. But you’re down here and you need to get up there, and you have to cross this chasm in between.”

This is how Dr. Mirella Koleva, Cofounder and CEO of quantum photonic software design startup, Quantopticon, describes the conundrum facing many entrepreneurs after they have participated in startup support programmes.

In fact, Mirella had participated in a number of incubators and accelerators in North America and ended up living in the USA for four years.

She returned to the UK and joined the third cohort of the UK government-sponsored ChipStart.UK semiconductor incubator programme earlier this year.

There’s something else you might find interesting about Mirella.

The other cofounder of Quantopticon is renowned quantum photonics physicist, Dr. Gaby Slavcheva - Mirella’s mother!

It doesn’t matter whether you can tell your entangled photon sources from, well, your untangled ones, there is much to learn from Mirella’s experience bringing a deeptech software startup to market.

You can hear it in this BritChips podcast, Quantopticon - Crossing the Chasm.

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