Advisory
A person to think with who understands what being a founder means — on a regular cadence or when a decision lands. Second opinions from someone who’s done it, rather than learned about it in business school.
Deeptech experience, on demand.
A decade founding and running a venture-backed deeptech company, from first experiment to commercial deployment. Fundraising & grants, operations, building a team, compliance & regulation, enterprise customers — every function a deeptech founder has to learn on the fly, done already, and available to you.
10 yrsRunning a frontier deeptech company
Tier A investorsPre-seed to Series A
$25mRaised — $22m equity, $3m non-dilutive
1 → 50People, from first hire to a full team
Concept → commercialFirst experiment to deployment with blue chip clients
AboutMiha Pipan
Biochemist by training, company builder by trade. I read Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge and, while still a student, founded Better Origin — a Cambridge deeptech company that used AI-controlled insect bioconversion to turn food waste into protein. Raised institutional rounds from Tier A VCs like Balderton Capital, built a multi-disciplinary fifty-person team running complex, compliant supply chain operations, shaped policy and regulation for a frontier sector in Europe and the UK, created & managed an international patent portfolio, and deployed commercially with some of the UK's largest retailers.
ApproachWhat being a founder operator means in practice
Helping you execute better, based on first-hand experience.
Everything on this page comes from having been there and done it, not just from having read about it. I ran a genuinely novel, frontier deeptech company for a decade — cutting-edge science, industrial hardware and AI, in a highly regulated market.
Whether you’re looking for someone to help you tackle a complex challenge in your own deeptech, or help in assessing a prospective investment opportunity without easy comparables, I can help you execute and make a decision.
What I bringBeen there, done that
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Technical leadership
A decade of hands-on technical leadership at the intersection of biology and engineering: R&D roadmaps, lab-to-plant scale-up, resulting in marketed commercial products.
Taken a TRL 1 concept to a commercially deployed TRL 9 on a completely novel, frontier technology -
The operating layer
Hiring plans, org design, finance and legal foundations, compliance in unchartered territories, board and investor reporting.
Built a fifty-person team in a novel industry, from R&D to commercial stage — multi-annual budgets, and first-hand experience of deep cost-saving and restructuring -
Fundraising & grants
From angel-led pre-seed to Series A from venture and large institutional investors: narrative, model, data room, process and terms. Detailed, multi-stage due diligence, prepared for and passed. UK and EU grants, consortium bids and R&D tax credits at multi-million scale — written and led, not just reviewed.
Raised >$20m from a top-tier VC and angels; secured over $15m in total consortium project funding since 2015 — of which $3m to my own company -
Regulation & compliance
Building everyday compliance into a permanently evolving, operationally complex business in a regulated sector (food and feed). Novel-product approval through to sector-wide harmonisation in UK and EU environmental, food and feed regulation, including a Novel Foods application.
Founded a frontier-industry trade association; ran workshops for UK and EU regulators; successfully challenged UK regulators and was proven right — more than once -
IP strategy
Patent and trade-secret portfolios built to survive both diligence and dispute: drafting, multi-jurisdiction prosecution, enforcement.
Named inventor; managed an international portfolio and the legal actions around it -
Enterprise commercial
Selling a new category directly to senior and C-level buyers: pilot design, procurement, contracting, account growth.
Tesco · Morrisons · Whole Foods · Veolia · Biffa -
Ecosystem & sector-building
Convening the people a new category needs — conferences, government delegations, standards and the politics around them.
Founded a new global trade conference, attended by >150 people from >30 states; thought leadership and representation on international delegations
FormatsWays to work together
Defined scope
From a grant application, a complex deal’s due diligence, to a regulatory strategy, a first enterprise pilot or wider deployment. Clear, defined scope that suits your needs.
Embedded
Become part of your team as a contracted generalist who’s been there and done it first hand. Shaped around what you need, with the flexibility of scope and role that you require.
ContactTell me about your challenge
A few lines on what problem you could use my help with. You will get a straight answer on fit.