Many scipreneurs think the first step to get started is to find a CEO for the company they are creating.

I have seen this over and over when professors are tightly involved and don't trust their PhD or Postdoc to lead the company.

However, for a spin-off to get off the ground you need builders, not administrators. The first steps involved translating what was developed in a lab into a product. You'll have to discuss with customers and translate their pain points into value propositions. You'll have to spend time coding, soldering, screwing things together, polishing, painting, or whatnot.

The most successful startup teams are those that have people with overlapping skills and complementary personalities.

I have seen countless companies that hire CEOs whose role is only to raise money. While it is a very important task, in the early stages the company needs to focus on understanding what problems they are solving and not only on collecting resources.

I am a strong believer that the best founding teams are those who share responsibilities and at the same time understand what tasks each one should focus on.

Most university spin-out companies operate in complex environments, with long product development times and high capital expenditures. That means that it's harder to adapt playbooks that were developed for fast-growth contexts (such as internet-based B2C solutions).

Experienced operators, people with industry-relevant connections, will come when the time is ripe. Too early, and they'll only consume resources that would be better allocated at building.