1 6 A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 2 the job market that is working to align the interests of investors, founders, and employees, then we can begin to craft business models and retention programs that deliver higher value for everyone involved in the process—instead of focusing on maximizing just one variable, often profit. Mozolic: You are not alone. Your network, your colleagues, your friends, your accomplishments, and your reputation are all there to help. Just ask and share. You will be surprised by how many people will step forth to help you. Don’t be bashful that you are starting a business as an entrepreneur or inventor. Shout it out to the world. There are so many ways to do this: social media, professional societies, publications, presentations, and patents. Be creative; be inventive. If you are too reserved to shout it out, hire someone to do it for you or train you to do it. Just make sure you know what your message is and how to effectively deliver it. It’s all part of branding yourself and your business. Chan: The biggest lesson I’ve learned is the profound importance of maintaining a sense of both reality and imagination when implementing a project as the leader. To run a business or be an inventor requires a totally different set of skills and interests. When a new, possibly groundbreaking idea was being discussed, it was easy to get transactional, and become managerial and corporate-like without a true understanding of what problem this idea could solve. But if we are only realistic, we become pedestrian and will fail. I believe that the ability to invent comes from a natural interest in creating, which can be perfected through STEM education. thermal spray industry, I rose through the ranks of sales and business management with my last corporate job as North American Business Manager for H.C. Starck. In 2006 when I parted ways with that company, I was at a crossroads. I could continue the path I had been on and get another job or I could go down another path. I chose the other path of starting my own consulting business with a focus on helping small to mid-size companies with their business expansion/business diversifica- tion plans in the thermal spray industry. It is now 2022 and I am still working, enjoying, and traveling the entrepreneur path. Christian Palmaz: I founded Vactronix Scientific in 2016 with the goal of commercializing a new atomic additive into higher precision devices enabling innovations across a range of industries from medical to aerospace. Vactronix’s IP portfolio encompasses materials, devices, processes, and equipment patents. This landscape is covered by over 360 patents in 18 countries. What is the biggest overall lesson you’ve learned in running a business or being an inventor? Birt: People are the key to everything—this means it is critical to have the right team in place and to take care of them. But this alsomeans you have to understand that removing one person from the team can help the whole team work more effectively. It’s a unique balance of empathy for both the individual and the team, and the hard part is balancing both. This is why at Solvus, every pitch deck begins with the following statement: “Ideas are cheap. Execution is hard. People are everything.” If we as entrepreneurs and inventors can begin to understand the shift in Per Christian Palmaz, PVD Nitinol (top) results in increased purity and improved microstructure compared to wrought Nitinol (bottom). manufacturing technology the company developed, HE-PVD (high energy-physical vapor deposition). The cylindrical magnetron PVD tools that we design and build allow for net shape devices with high properties and tight dimensional tolerances. This disruptive technology allows a new era of “super materials” (focused on shape memory alloys) to be created and then fabricated Aaron Birt, at Solvus Global’s ribbon cutting event. SMST ENTREPRENEURIAL WORKSHOP A unique 1.5-day event for shape memory alloy (SMA) entrepreneurs across all fields, existing and emerging, will be held on March 14-15, 2023, in Fort Worth, Texas. The SMST Entrepreneurial Workshop will include the opportunity to: network with entrepreneurs, suppliers, and investors; hear from successful SMA entrepreneurs; learn about cutting-edge technologies and processes; gain connections to call on when troubleshooting and planning new products; and pitch your idea at the first-ever SMST SMArt Tank. Submission deadline is January 30, 2023. For more information, visit asminternational.org/web/smst-workshop or email kathy.murray@asminternational.org.
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