EF News
By Jordan Byers, Senior Manager at Northern Accelerator
Northern Accelerator believes that great ideas become world-changing businesses when the right people come together at the right time. Jordan Byers, Senior Manager, shares why she is urging the Forum’s entrepreneurial members to be part of their Executives in Business program.
Across the North East, our universities are home to groundbreaking research with the potential to solve real-world challenges. But to turn that research into successful companies, we need more than innovation. We need experienced leaders who know how to build, grow and navigate fastmoving businesses.
Northern Accelerator, a partnership of Durham, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside Universities, supports the creation of spinout businesses with strong leadership teams. Our Executives into Business programme matches experienced business leaders with academic founders, ensuring spinouts have the best chance of success.
A recent example of this partnership’s impact is InSync Labs (insync-labs. com), a behavioural science spinout from Durham University. Their journey shows the power of bringing entrepreneurial expertise into early-stage academic ventures.
Making an idea investable
InSync was founded by Prof. Richard Crisp, a behavioural scientist and senior university leader who understood first-hand the frustrations of traditional employee surveys. He saw the opportunity to build a platform to give organisations real-time insight into how their people feel, and why. Something faster, smarter and more meaningful than the long annual questionnaires so many businesses rely on.
Instead of lengthy forms, InSync uses continuous sampling and AI-powered analytics to deliver real-time insights. Managers can track sentiment, test engagement strategies and link morale directly to business outcomes such as productivity, safety and customer satisfaction. Like many academic founders, Richard knew the company needed commercial leadership to match the strength of its research foundation. With the support of Executives into Business, he was able to step back from academic duties and focus fully on developing the business.
Making a difference
The business began as a partnership between Richard and software engineer, Dr Richard Hoare, who together built a prototype of the platform. Then, through our programme, Richard connected with experienced entrepreneur and HR specialist, now InSync CEO, John McConnell. Initially funded through our Executives into Business programme, John joined to help shape the company’s strategic direction.
He brought commercial discipline, operational know-how and the ability to translate research-driven ideas into a compelling value proposition for customers and investors. The team developed the prototype into a fully functioning commercial product, secured beta users across charity, education, healthcare and leisure sectors, and began preparing for investment. They’ve since entered the market and are now seeking capital to scale their sales, product and platform teams.
Calling all entrepreneurs
Executives bring invaluable expertise to a university spinout, including commercial experience, confidence to drive growth, networks that open doors and the leadership to turn innovation into impact.
In return, they gain the chance to shape a business from the ground up, working with research that is often years, even decades, ahead of the market. A rare opportunity to build something meaningful, future-focused, and commercially exciting.
Shaping the next-gen
The region has the talent, the research strength and the entrepreneurial energy to build globally significant companies. But we can only do it by working together, with academics, founders, investors, and experienced entrepreneurs who help guide great ideas into commercial reality.
If you’re interested in joining our network of potential Executives into Business, we’d love to hear from you.
Visit our website to find out more and register your interest.
