From Lab to Market: Insights on Commercializing Deep Tech with Morten Lindblad
Morten Lindblad, business angel and investor, shares how he helps turn university research into business, tackle growth challenges, and draws on his IPOs experience.
Morten Lindblad is a business angel and major investor whose impact spans multiple companies, from serving as chairman to an active board member. What unites his diverse portfolio is his ability to bring value where it matters most—through insight, networks, capital, and collaboration.
Every company he touches is treated as unique, with solutions tailored to unlock its full potential. As he puts it, “I am an economist, a pioneer, and a business developer who loves companies in all their forms.”
In this conversation, Morten shares how he identifies promising technologies, accelerates deep-tech startups, navigates scaling challenges, and prepares companies for both private investment and IPOs. We begin by exploring his hands-on approach to turning university research into viable businesses.
Morten, you’ve been deeply involved in transforming university research into successful startups, often speeding up the technology transfer and team-building process significantly. Can you walk us through your approach?
The founders or researchers explain what they’re working on. If I see a path forward — and I know the right people — I’ll say, “Alright, I can build the strategy for your first sales.” I like to start selling even when customers think they don’t need it yet.
Sometimes I’ll call in a favor to get operations moving, and suddenly the company is using something they’d never have implemented on their own. I don’t dive deep into the tech — with my portfolio, it’s impossible to fully master it all. My focus is on building the business.
I don’t plan the entire strategy upfront. Sometimes I shape it with the founders, but I prefer to get moving fast. Deep tech is tricky because there’s often no ready market — you’re creating a technology without a natural home.
Every company is different, but the core process is always the same: find the market, shape the product, and match them together.
Each company is unique, yet the key steps remain consistent: discover the right market, develop the product, and align the two.
How do you decide whether a technology or company is worth your involvement?
I look at utility — what can this technology actually do? If a professor says they can build it, I believe them. That’s not the risk.
When it’s a researcher, I never doubt the technical side. The challenge is building a product, finding a market, raising capital, and running a company — things far outside most researchers’ experience.
If it’s an entrepreneur I haven’t met before, I care a lot about whether they understand the business they’re in.
What role do you play in the company once you get involved?
I invest heavily in growing and promoting the company, getting the first shares for free. Building a deep-tech startup is costly, but that’s what makes the shares valuable.
When the market starts to get excited, I begin selling my shares gradually. That’s a natural part of the cycle.
What makes deep tech so challenging compared to other industries?
Deep tech is for grown-ups. There’s no ready market waiting for you. You can make something ten times better than what exists, but customers might not know or understand why they should care.
In deep tech, there’s no waiting market. You can create something ten times better than anything out there, but convincing people to care is the real challenge.
Most founding teams are researchers. Scaling from lab to production requires building bureaucracy — and that’s where many stumble. Here’s the usual life cycle:
Lab-level tech
Find customers
Make a few sales
Try to scale sales — many break here
Hit ~300 employees — many break again
It’s a cultural challenge. In research, you work with elite, motivated people. In business, you discover not everyone has that drive or skill. Researchers also usually lack marketing, sales, and commercial know-how.
Turning science into industry means scaling a product. That’s where the cultural crash happens — and why scaling is far harder than starting. I’m most useful early on, when access, deals, and fast decisions matter. Once a company is large, leaders often want less board involvement, and that’s fair.
You’ve been involved in several IPOs — the first with your own company, Dataproces Group in 2020, and later with others. How do you approach handling IPOs and public listings, from preparation to execution, and what do you see as the key factors for success once a company is publicly traded?
I always join as an owner, not a consultant. Having experienced ownership during an IPO is critical — the technical process is easy to learn, but handling the judgment calls, timing, and emotions takes practice.
The mechanics of an IPO can be learned, but handling the judgment calls, timing, and emotions is what counts.
Its important to have someone experienced because when you move from a few shareholders to thousands, governance becomes a completely different game. A successful listing can transform a company, providing access to capital, credibility, big-name partners, and a network of shareholders who contribute ideas, contacts, and influence.
Still — only list if you’re truly ready to win. The market won’t save an unprepared company. Public life means more regulation, more scrutiny, and slower decision-making. If you need total freedom, it’s not for you.
Done right, a strong listing makes you powerful. Shareholders can become defenders and ambassadors. A healthy share price gives you leverage, more funding options, and a base of supporters to amplify your reach.
Can you tell us more about your portfolio and what your current priorities are for your companies?
I have a handful of software companies and a handful of low-tech ones, ranging from 1 to 300 employees.
My focus now is scaling the companies I already have, expanding their market presence, and turning solid operations into even bigger successes.
I’m also looking for corporate partners to co-develop products — for example, pairing one company’s tech strength with another’s production capabilities. Cooperation, joint deals, and applying for soft funding together — that’s what moves the needle now.
Morten’s Portfolio
Morten’s investments span a balanced mix of deep tech, software, data-driven solutions, and practical low-tech innovations. His portfolio includes:
Dataproces – AI and Big Data solutions for municipal financial management.
Sternula – Denmark’s first commercial satellite operator.
Bookbites – Digital reading platform for schools.
Dacoma – Wave stabilization systems for vessels.
Lundgreen’s Capital – Investment and wealth advisory.
I-TRUST – IT and data security solutions.
Mash – CO₂ removal and sequestration technology.
Power electronics – Silicon Carbide power module design.
FiberJoints – Reinforcement patch technology for composites.
BioX – Human-machine interaction and exoskeletons.
Venue Manager – Event management software.
HyNeron – E-mobility solutions for construction equipment.
What a mindset! "I always join as an owner, not a consultant."
Love this!