From lab to industry: how one researcher built four spinout companies from audio AI research

Can you tell us a bit about your company and the research it came from?

I am actually the co-founder of 4 spin-out companies! 

I co-founded the spin-out company LandR based on my group’s automatic music mixing research. The company is valued at over $40 million, with over 100 employees, and over 2 million subscribers to its online music mastering service.

In 2022, I co-founded RoEx, based around a holistic approach to automatic mixing. Optimised audio mixes are produced by manipulating a suite of audio effects in order to minimise auditory masking. RoEx has also secured investment, grown rapidly, has major contracts, and reached profitability in late 2025.

I am co-founder on two further spin-outs from my research team. WaveShaper operate as a consultancy, offering real-time neural network-based audio solutions, and have secured investment and two major contracts.

Nemisindo is based on my team’s procedural audio research. They offer generative sound effects for interactive applications. They were awarded two grants from Epic Games, and in 2025 won the Game Audio category at the International Sound Awards.

What made you realise your research had commercial potential, and what was the first step you took to act on that?

I didn’t realise at first the importance of this research. But I remember giving a talk once at a convention in a room that had panel windows all around. The academic talks are usually half full. But this time it was packed, and I could see faces outside all pressed up against the windows. They all wanted to find out about this idea of automatic mixing.

Its a unique opportunity for academic research to have transformational impact on an entire industry. It addresses the fact that music production technologies are often not fit for purpose. Intelligent mixing systems automate the technical and mundane, allowing sound engineers to work more productively and creatively, opening up new opportunities. Audio quality could be improved, amateur musicians can create high quality mixes of their content, small venues can put on live events without needing a professional engineer, time and preparation for soundchecks could be drastically reduced, and large venues and broadcasters could significantly cut manpower costs.  So we saw that the potential impact of our work was commercial. Companies wanted to talk to us. They wanted to know if they could license the technology. 

Around the same time, I heard about a venture fund company named Tandem Launch visiting Queen Mary. They have an interesting business model. They talent scout universities the same way premier league clubs talent scout the smaller leagues. Tandem Launch realized that universities have great tech, but often lack the skills, resources and even the inclination to commercialise it. So Tandem Launch will partner with the university to create and invest in a start-up company that holds the Intellectual Property. The expectation is that if a larger company want the tech, they will acquire the start-up company.

Well, I managed to get a short demo of my technology squeezed in between other demonstrations of QMUL research. And they liked it enough to want to invest.

What were the biggest challenges in transitioning from academic research to running a business?

The biggest challenge is time. There simply isn’t enough time to fully pursue entrepreneurship while also doing all the things expected of an academic. So time management is crucial, as well as learning how to compromise in terms of focusing effort.

Also, the goals of academia and entrepreneurship are different. Academia focuses on high risk research with unknown outcomes, whereas industry is interested in real world problems with assured solutions. In academia, we seek new ideas and knowledge, whereas commercialisation requires market validation.

There is also a difficult gap to fill. Academia ends with proof of concept, but commercialisation starts with a prototype. Funding is usually required to go from one to the other, but its not the sort of thing that most funders are interested in.

And with academic research, one is expected to share the knowledge- so publish it and disseminate widely. In industry, one typically protects the Intellectual Property- so patent it and otherwise keep it secret.

However, these viewpoints may seem quite challenging to reconcile, but they are not mutually exclusive. Dissemination generates interest. And often, the assets are the team and their knowledge, the value is in the research and the Unique Selling Point is in the research breakthrough. So one can protect the IP, but there is huge value in publicising the research and achievements. As examples of that, both the companies LandR and Waveshaper got off the ground because investors and businesses heard about the research.

How did you find your first customers, and did the market respond the way you expected?

Different business models for different companies. LandR tried getting large contracts, but settled on a quite successful online, software as a service company, targeting consumers not businesses. RoEx targets both. Waveshaper operates more like a consultancy, and Nemisindo has had to pivot a bit but mainly targets game development studios.

The market exceeded expectations for LandR and Roex. I also believe the market is there for Waveshaper and Nemisindo, but it’s a lot more work. They are both getting contracts, but not growing that fast without investment.

How important was the university in helping you get the company off the ground whether through funding, facilities, networks or support?

Absolutely crucial. Not so much for facilities or networks, but supporting IP, legal, administrative concerns and much more.

What do you know now that you wish you'd known at the start of the spinout process?

Too much to mention! I knew nothing about it at first, so read books and studied Entrepreneurship. I strongly recommend The Founder’s Dilemma by Noam Wasserman.

What advice would you give to a researcher today who thinks their work could become a company?

Go for it!

To find out more about EECS spinouts, visit our Spin-out Portfolio page.