The Academic Adventures Podcast

Gillian Fleming is Co-Founder and Managing Director of women-led angel investment network Mint Ventures. She is also an Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Stirling.

Gillian shares the rewards and challenges of being an Entrepreneur in Residence including

• Why supporting women-led businesses is so important to her
• How working in university commercialisation got her interested in investing
• Her personal connection to Stirling which motivates her to give back
• The rewards of being trusted with people’s ideas and aspirations

Connect to Gillian via LinkedIn

Visit the Mint Ventures website

Follow Mint Ventures on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or X (@MintVentures)

Follow the Academic Adventures podcast on LinkedIn 

This podcast was a collaboration between the University of the West of Scotland, Converge and Sarah McLusky, working in partnership with Ross Tuffee and The Connect-Ed Network. The podcast team includes Orla Kelly, Adam Kosterka, Jen Black and Sarah McLusky. This season of Academic Adventures is supported by the Scottish Funding Council.

Emily Doolittle is a lecturer and research fellow at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow. She is also an independent composer, working on commissions and personal projects alongside her academic work.

Emily shares how she combines these different roles including:

• Why she identifies as stubborn rather than entrepreneurial
• The ways that her academic and freelance work are intertwined
• How coming to the UK has allowed her to have a more varied career
• Her goal of getting 100 rejections a year

Hear some of Emily’s compositions on her website
Connect to Emily via her Royal Conservatoire profile
Find out about Emily’s interdisciplinary collaborations via SHARE

Follow the Academic Adventures podcast on LinkedIn

Kavi Jagadamma is a senior lecturer in physiotherapy at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. He is also one of four directors at Health Design Collective, a social enterprise which co-creates shoes for people with long-term health conditions.

Kavi shares the company’s journey to date including:

• The huge value of mentoring and support
• How applying for enterprise funding differs from research funding
• Celebrating small wins and gradual progress
• Redefining creativity and entrepreneurship 

Connect with Kavi on LinkedIn or X
Find out about Health Design Collective on their website, Facebook or X

Follow the Academic Adventures podcast on LinkedIn

This podcast was a collaboration between the University of the West of Scotland, Converge and Sarah McLusky. The podcast team includes Orla Kelly, Adam Kosterka, Jen Black and Sarah McLusky. Proudly supported by the Scottish Ecosystem Fund 2023-24.

Duncan Graham and Karen Faulds are both chemistry professors at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. They were part of the team which founded the diagnostics spin-out company D3 Technologies in 2007.

Duncan and Karen share what they learned from both starting and closing the company including:

• Their long, slow journey to try and make D3 Technologies a viable business
• The importance of talking to potential customers to make sure they actually want the product
• Why they are only now considering a new spin-out opportunity
• How university support for spin-outs has improved since their first attempt

Connect with Duncan on X
Connect with Karen on X

Follow the Academic Adventures podcast on LinkedIn 

This podcast was a collaboration between the University of the West of Scotland, Converge and Sarah McLusky. The podcast team includes Orla Kelly, Adam Kosterka, Jen Black and Sarah McLusky. Proudly supported by the Scottish Ecosystem Fund 2023-24.

Anne Muir is Director of Portfolio at EOS, an organisation that invests in university spin-out companies. Prior to that she was Head of IP and Commercialisation at the University of Dundee.

Anne talks about what she has learned from a long career in technology transfer and business development including:

• The art and science of successful commercialization
• Why everyone needs sales training
• Getting satisfaction from helping develop talented entrepreneurs
• Encouraging academics to take advantage of the support on offer

Connect with Anne on LinkedIn
Find out more about EOS

Follow the Academic Adventures podcast on LinkedIn 

This podcast was a collaboration between the University of the West of Scotland, Converge and Sarah McLusky. The podcast team includes Orla Kelly, Adam Kosterka, Jen Black and Sarah McLusky. Proudly supported by the Scottish Ecosystem Fund 2023-24.

Anton is the founder of Quas Drinks, a company he set up in 2021 whilst completing a PhD in synthetic biology at the University of Edinburgh. A serial entrepreneur, he established his first venture while still a Masters’ student but closed the business in 2019.

Anton shares what he has learned from his journey including:

• How his entrepreneurial dreams were inspired by an ex-girlfriend’s mum 
• When he realised that his first business One Cherry wasn’t viable
• Taking advantage of all the support, funding, events, and competitions on offer
• Treating everything as a learning opportunity

Find out more about Anton’s work -

• Connect with Anton on LinkedIn
• Find out about Quas Drinks

Follow the Academic Adventures podcast on LinkedIn

This podcast was a collaboration between the University of the West of Scotland, Converge and Sarah McLusky. The podcast team includes Orla Kelly, Adam Kosterka, Jen Black and Sarah McLusky and is proudly supported by the Scottish Ecosystem Fund 2023-24.

John Storm is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen Business School, as well as being an independent consultant. He lived and worked in China for 10 years and continues to work with companies all over the world.

John shares how he uses this business experience to support the next generation of entrepreneurs including:

• Why he often relates more to his students than his academic colleagues
• Finding the synergies between his teaching and business roles
• How bankruptcy taught him the importance of trust and integrity
• That success means being able to say no
• The importance of relationships and reputation for entrepreneurs

Find out more about John’s work

• Connect with John on LinkedIn
• Read about some of his different ventures

Follow the Academic Adventures podcast on LinkedIn

This podcast was a collaboration between the University of the West of Scotland, Converge and Sarah McLusky. The podcast team includes Orla Kelly, Adam Kosterka, Jen Black and Sarah McLusky. Proudly supported by the Scottish Ecosystem Fund 2023-24.

Catriona Liddle is Head of the Scottish Centre for Food Development and Innovation at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh. Before this Catriona spent over 20 years as a product developer in the food industry. 

In this episode Catriona shares the journey to developing palm oil substitute Palm-Alt and what she has learned about collaborations between academia and industry including:

• The challenges of industry collaboration during COVID
• Why she cares more about the research process than commercialisation
• Playing to her strengths and getting support for her weaknesses
• Supporting the next generation of food and drink innovators via the THRIVE Programme

Find out more about Catriona’s work

• Connect with Catriona on LinkedIn
• The Scottish Centre for Food Development and Innovation
• The Palm-Alt project
• The THRIVE Programme for food and drink entrepreneurs

 Follow the Academic Adventures podcast on LinkedIn

This podcast was a collaboration between the University of the West of Scotland, Converge and Sarah McLusky. The podcast team includes Orla Kelly, Adam Kosterka, Jen Black and Sarah McLusky. Proudly supported by the Scottish Ecosystem Fund 2023-24.

Professor Andy Porter is a part-time academic and director of the Scottish Biologics Facility at the University of Aberdeen. He also holds exec and non-exec positions in several life science and drinks businesses in Scotland.

In this episode Andy shares the highs and lows of 20 years in academic entrepreneurship from his first big venture Haptogen to the portfolio career he has today, including:

• Why his first business venture was more about preventing brain drain than making money
• How a Royal Society of Edinburgh Commercialisation Fellowship changed his life
• The experiences and failures that have made him more calm in a crisis
• Why he still finds emerging science more exciting than anything else

Find out about Andy’s various academic and business ventures -

· Scottish Biologics Facility at the University of Aberdeen
· Therapeutic drugs company Elasmogen
· Diagnostics company Microplate Dx
· Microbiology company NCIMB
· Cultivated meat company Roslin Technologies
· Aberdeen cocktail bar Orchid
· Porter’s Gin distillery
· Cocktail retailer White Box

Follow the Academic Adventures podcast on LinkedIn.

This podcast was a collaboration between the University of the West of Scotland, Converge and Sarah McLusky. The podcast team includes Orla Kelly, Adam Kosterka, Jen Black and Sarah McLusky. Proudly supported by the Scottish Ecosystem Fund 2023-24.

Dr Genevieve Patenaude is an environmental scientist (formerly University of Edinburgh) and CEO of environmental mapping company Earth Blox. 

In this episode Genevieve shares how she evolved from academic to entrepreneur and what she has learned along the way including: 

• Why she always wanted to be an entrepreneur and why Earth Blox was the right business at the right time
• The importance building an agile team that can learn fast, fail fast and pivot
• Surrounding herself with experts and taking advantage of all the support on offer 
• Creating a workplace culture that embraces family and flexibility 

Connect with Genevieve on LinkedIn
Find out about Earth Blox
Follow the Academic Adventures podcast on LinkedIn

This podcast was a collaboration between the University of the West of Scotland, Converge and Sarah McLusky. The podcast team includes Orla Kelly, Adam Kosterka, Jen Black and Sarah McLusky. It was funded by the Scottish Ecosystem Fund 2023-24.