OrbiCom · Cambridge & UCL spin-out · LBS advisory team · Jan to Apr 2026
Quantum chip commercialization: innovation to market
Taking a deep-tech spin-out from foundational physics to an investor-ready commercial strategy, as commercial strategy advisor during my London Business School exchange.
- years of physics translated
- 20+
- fabrication cost advantage, the core moat
- 70%
- projected year 3 revenue in the model
- £2.2M
The context
OrbiCom is a Cambridge and UCL spin-out founded by Prof. Sir Michael Pepper, co-discoverer of the Quantum Hall Effect, and Prof. Crispin Barnes, built on more than 20 years of physics research. Its all-electric Spin-FET quantum architecture targets three problems that have kept other approaches from scaling: wiring complexity, magnet dependency and fabrication cost. The science was real. What it lacked was a commercial strategy that matched the technology.
The problem
- Translation. The physics had to become a product story an investor could evaluate.
- Market entry. A large market means nothing without a believable first customer, first product and first price.
- Capital reality. The plan had to fit a seed round and show credible Series A readiness, not a ten-year moonshot.
What I did
1. Translated the technology into a value proposition
Not a list of specs: the first quantum processor a national lab can buy, install and run without building a new facility around it. I identified a 70% fabrication cost advantage over the nearest competitor as the core moat.
2. Defined the beachhead and validated the entry price
The first customer is a university research lab that already has a cryostat and a budget for specialist instrument access. I mapped that beachhead across 20+ institutions in the UK, US and EU and priced experimental access and chip sales against existing benchmarks.
3. Sequenced a three-phase go-to-market
Market entry sequenced across quantum sensing, chip sales and government contracts, with clear logic for why each phase de-risks the next and the path to funding.
4. Built the pitch deck and financial model
A milestone-gated financial model projecting £650K in year one to £2.2M in year three, and a pitch narrative with a "why now" built on material advances, public funding and incumbents' scaling limits.
5. Stress-tested the go-to-market through primary research
The sequence followed institutional logic: accelerator, national lab validation, government procurement, then strategic partnerships. I validated it through interviews with the UK National Physical Laboratory's programme team. Each step de-risks the next, which is what makes the plan fundable rather than just plausible.
What made it hard
Holding two kinds of conviction at once. Founders have deep scientific conviction; investors want a customer, a price and a path to the next cheque. My job was to know which technical details built credibility and which created confusion, and when to lead with the market versus the technology.