In September 2020, Liam Hardey started the trainee program Entrepreneurs in Residence at LEAD without prior entrepreneurial experience. During the six months program, he worked together with other trainees on a portfolio of different cases from Linköping University and Östergötland with the goal of validating markets and developing entrepreneurs’ skills to commercialize innovative deep-tech ideas and technologies. When the program was over in February 2021, the big question was: will he continue or not?
And he did, becoming the co-founder & CEO of Cellfion, a Swedish cleantech startup that is a pioneer in bio-based ion-selective membranes for next-level electrochemical energy and conversion devices. An important puzzle piece in improving clean energy devices. During the short time since the company was founded, Liam has expanded the team, sent the first invoices, and is now standing in front of the company’s seed investment round.
We will talk about how Liam’s entrepreneurial journey started and unfolded, how it is to work with deep-tech cases in the very early stage, what you learn and do during the trainee program, and what you do when you become CEO of a startup.
We’ll also touch upon topics such as, What are your motivations to become an entrepreneur? How is it to commercialize someone else’s idea? And what are the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur and why it is important to have an open mindset?
Welcome to this Startup Talk, where we hope to inspire you, who are thinking about becoming an entrepreneur but don’t really know where to start.
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StartupTalks is a monthly webinar where LEAD invites inspiring and exciting entrepreneurs to share their experiences and thoughts when it comes to entrepreneurship. Hopefully, the webinars will inspire you to take the step towards the startup world.
