In situ with Jon-Paul Griffiths

Jon-Paul Griffiths is the chief technology officer and founder of Oxeco, which develops and manufactures coatings for the clean tech and transport sectors. Oxeco’s technology platform is based on one developed by Griffiths during a postdoc at the University of Oxford, UK. He is also a mentor for the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Change Makers initiative, which provides a programme of structured support specifically designed for founders of early-stage deep tech chemistry ventures. 

I’ve been interested in chemistry ever since I was a kid. I loved fireworks – bangs, flashes, explosions, colours, all the things that are fun when you’re a small child.

Fundamentally at my core, I love making things. As I started to go through my education, I realised the other thing I really enjoyed was the R&D side. I liked trying new things, pushing the boundaries of where the knowledge was, and that combination led me to doing a PhD.

I finished my PhD and didn’t really have an idea about where I wanted to go next, and I thought a postdoc for a year wouldn’t be a bad idea. I could take that time to decide what I wanted to do in my life. I came down to Oxford, and I started researching a technology that was amazing and had real world applications, and I fell in love with it. My life has spiralled out since then.

I personally realised we had something to spin out about three or four months into my postdoc, when the project was going really well and we could see some of the real world applications for it. With hindsight now, they were completely the wrong applications.

My one piece of advice is to understand your customer. As scientists, I think we all get really excited about new technology and where it can go, but we lose sight sometimes of what the customer wants to buy as a product. Those two things are rarely the same.

After we span out, I went from being a postdoc researcher, in the lab constantly, to being the chief technology officer. I was suddenly travelling around the world, visiting massive multinational companies pitching our technology, having to present to audiences who were very different from academic audiences or conferences. And I had to learn that just by doing it, really.

You need passion, that drive to go forward and create something

The first time we sold a product to a customer was the best thing. Knowing there is something out there with your product on it, and actually being able to see that in the real world is truly inspiring.

New tech development is difficult at the best of times. New tech development in a small company that you’re also growing is even more difficult. You need passion, that drive to go forward and create something of your own that’s new.

There’s never a steady state. There are always ups and downs. You have to roll with them and plan for them as much as you can.

You can’t force someone to have an idea, and you can’t force someone to be entrepreneurial. But if they have that and they have a technology, then they need a support network. Change Makers is a great example of one such network that can help with the IP front and legal front, and all of those other things that are really important when you’re trying to make a company that you never pay any attention to if you are a researcher.

I’m really passionate about chemistry, new technologies and new companies. So it’s great to be involved in Change Makers and see these companies come through. It’s great to see people who are as passionate as I am. And if there’s any advice that I can give from my own experience that helps them out and makes their lives slightly easier, that’s a benefit.

Advice in a peer-to-peer network is important as well. There’s something that makes you feel better when you’re struggling with something and you talk to someone else in the same position and they’re having the exact same struggles. It makes you realise it’s not you, it’s how things are.

There is a divide between industry and academia, but I think there should be a divide as well. Spin outs are great, but academia also needs to be pushing forward the blue sky thinking that isn’t necessarily commercial. Otherwise all we will do is stagnate and we will never get any true technological advances.

Starting a small company is a phenomenal experience. It is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life. You get to do everything. It’s really fun.

I have three interests. I have woodwork, which is my making things, whittling things down. I play a lot of mixed co-ed slowpitch softball – I spend all summer with those guys, just playing and having fun. And then I do some martial arts. I’m a keen fencer. That’s really good for managing my stress levels, because it is quite cathartic. It’s pretty good for my health as well.