“If you have an invention, don’t sell it to someone too soon,” warns Janne Poranen, a Finnish inventor. “Keep an eye out for the biggest customer you can locate, and you’ll receive the best deal.” Mr Poranen, the CEO of a company called Spinnova, spent six years developing a new form of fiber for clothes manufactured from waste items like wood pulp, and then another six years waiting for the proper partners to come along and exploit his ground-breaking technology. He has now reached agreements with H&M and Adidas to use the new textile in some of their products. Spinnova’s fabric is a cotton-like thread. However, unlike cotton, it does not require a large amount of water or chemical additions to manufacture. Mr Poranen claims, “We are the only ones who can create textile fibres without using any chemical dissolving method.” “The textile may be made from any form of biomass, including wood pulp, straw, and even old clothes. The textile industry as a whole is undergoing a transformation.” Spinnova’s textile is created by breaking down biomass into micro-scale fibres and aligning them in a chain, allowing them to be sucked out through a tiny nozzle into a cotton-like thread. Mr Poranen adds, “I was inspired by a university lecture where a biologist discussed how a spider creates silk from its body to make a web.” “I spent years learning how to imitate this mechanism in a Finnish government laboratory.” The key is to precisely align the micro-fibres so that the thread may smoothly extrude as it passes through the nozzle.” Mr Poranen and his colleagues founded Spinnova in 2015 and enlisted financial backers as shareholders. They then went out into the market to find firms who were interested in using their technology. The first bidders were small businesses, including a fishing net manufacturer. They did, however, desire exclusive rights to the technology. Mr Poranen explains, “We were not willing to offer any tiny company exclusivity since we wanted our technology to proliferate across the textiles sector on a global scale.” One issue they faced was determining how long they could afford to wait for a significant offer. What if they declined a possible partner and subsequently received no better offers than the one they had turned down? Spinnova’s image is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Un Fortunately, Mr Poranen explains, the stockholders were willing to wait. “In a typical start-up, when you’re at a very early stage, you’re thinking very carefully about what you’re missing out on if you don’t take that money in,” he says. “Perhaps some stockholders will agree that we should take that money in and move on.” It’s not simple to persuade investors that you’ll finally land the big transaction. So, even if people keep asking when the profits would be realized, you must persuade them that it will take a few years, but everything will work out in the end.” Finally, Spinnova persuaded multinationals Adidas and H&M to consider using their fiber in clothes. Mr Poranen said, “They are the greatest brand partners to take it to the global scale.” “They’re considering creating coats, for example.” Mr Poranen advises young inventors not to sell their inventions for too little money. “Always ask yourself, “What is my big goal?” when you get offers. It’s all too simple to make major errors at first and [accept] the incorrect kinds of ideas.” EntrepreneurshipFinlandH&MA Clothing industry, didas/n
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