What Chemical Engineers Should Know Before Launching a Startup

Luisa Rondon says that for chemical engineers, entrepreneurship is not a leap into the unknown, but an extension of engineering thinking into the market

CHEMICAL ENGINEERS are uniquely positioned to become founders: we are trained to translate ideas into safe, scalable and economically viable technologies. Yet most of us receive little formal exposure to entrepreneurship, which can discourage us from trying it.

Moving across academia, industry and startup environments, I have seen persistent gaps between \academic discovery and commercial deployment. 

Reflecting on this, I realised the most important lesson I carried from R&D and process engineering into co-founding a startup was not technical – it was a mindset shift. Here’s the advice I wish someone had shared with me early on.

Rethinking entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship can seem mysterious, yet in reality, it is about how much uncertainty, risk-taking and experimentation you are willing to accept to achieve economic and social value. Every time I heard the word “entrepreneurship”, I associated it with large companies like Facebook, which felt far removed from chemical engineering. Over time, I realised entrepreneurship is fundamentally a mindset shift: a willingness to act, to test ideas and to learn from mistakes – much like engineering itself.

Types of ventures

Chemical engineers can explore several venture pathways:

• Software-based: apps, platforms or websites – low-cost
  and quick validation
• Product/process: new technologies or chemical products –
  where safety, scalability and economics matter
• Deep-tech: lab discoveries translated into commercial solutions (eg advanced battery materials)

Whatever path you choose, entrepreneurship is about turning ideas into action and learning along the way. 

Lessons learnt from R&D and process engineering

I completed an extended placement year at Sensient Technologies, working across R&D and process engineering roles and came to see R&D as science at small scale and process engineering as risk-taking at large scale. Switching between these roles taught me valuable lessons that became the building blocks of my entrepreneurial journey:

• New product development: Rapid ideation must be matches with rapid structuring through documentation and clear objectives. Execution involves defining objectives, running lab or pilot trials and conducting economic and feasibility studies 
• Project delivery: Clear communication makes stakeholder alignment easier. Focusing on budgets and aligning projects with strategic plans helped me secure buy-in
• Data analysis: Keeping tidy lab records simplifies interpretation, reporting and technical writing