I’m working one-to-one with a small number of scientists and engineers in Scotland over the next six months (starting August 2026). The starting point is a serious technical idea, a problem you keep circling, or the ambition to take on bigger problems in your field. From there we work out what it could become (a startup, a spinout, a BBN, a FRO, a public good) and test whether it deserves the next stage of commitment.
You might be the ambitious postdoc or early-career researcher cycling between academia, startups, and BBNs/FROs, unsure which fits.
Maybe you're the scientist or engineer from the startup that stalled, working out what's next without being able to say so publicly. The same goes if you're working in someone else's company and want to build something of your own.
Or the former Enterprise Fellow (RSE or RAE) now thinking about a new project.
Whichever it is, you've likely bounced off the innovation and startup theatre, or taken one look and stayed away.
And if this sounds like someone you know rather than you: send it their way.
We work together over a few months, exploring the biggest version of the idea and how it interacts with the world, and testing whatever it needs to prove or disqualify itself. In practice that means talking to the people who might use, buy, or fund the thing, working out the model that would sustain it, and designing the experiments that would settle the biggest unknowns. There’s no curriculum to follow and no demo day. The work is built to fit around your research or role.
Either the concept builds enough evidence that you have the beginnings of the material to stand it up, or it doesn't get there. Either answer is worth having, and you find that out over a few months. And whichever way it lands, you leave in much better shape for whatever comes next.
I’ve spent the last few months around deep-tech researchers, founders, and the people building new ways of funding science, mostly in the US and London, and I’m exploring building something new in that vein. Before committing further, I want to spend proper time with the best technical people in Scotland and the biggest ideas within their reach. That's what I get out of it, and for the avoidance of doubt: there's no fee or equity.
Some things I keep coming back to: the magic laptop thought experiment, 10x thinking, and why you don’t need permission from a university to do research. If any of those get you going, we’ll probably get on.
If you’re reading this, chances are we’re one or two degrees apart – Scotland is a small place. Email me a few lines about what you’re working on, or the problem you keep circling, and what you think it could be: [email protected]. Whatever you send stays between us, including that you got in touch at all.
Calum Forsyth - I run Tanis Labs, a small studio working a few engagements at a time with startups, research institutions, and funders. STEM PhD, then ten years working with hundreds of early-stage founders from day zero: co-founded Seed Haus, then nearly six years investing at Techstart Ventures.