 Look at me. Do you see a sophisticated system? 3.8 million years of nature's engineering to learn from? In the natural ecosystem everything that lives circulates forever How? It all started with a crazy question. Can we create textile fiber by using nature's own process? By learning from the master nature herself by imitating nature Like how a spider produces its web That question led us to invent a brand-new way of making fiber out of wood and waste A revolutionary natural fiber the first of its kind 10 years of scientific research Thousands of trials and vigorous industrial scaling has led us to this moment Benefiting the entire global textile industry with a process so clean and pure with zero harmful chemicals and dissolving zero No compromise Because all t-shirts should be produced with only one liter of water No harmful chemicals side streams or waste Just like nature designed it. We produce a textile fiber that breathes, lives, endures, warms over over and over again and again That's the way nature has always done it Spinova It's interesting It's so great to be here I'm here to talk about how to bring a transformative innovation to the market what to do what not to do and the role of partnerships My name is Lotta Kopra chief commercial officer at Spinova and Previously a founder and an entrepreneur in the digital space Let's go Spinova is a transformative textile innovation We are the only company in the world that can produce textile fiber out of many different raw materials Completely with no harmful chemicals or dissolving our vision is To transform the raw material base of the entire global textile industry and this is a tall order for a small company But we do think it's possible to achieve firstly. We have a game-changing innovation at hand and secondly We have the strongest partners standing alongside us Today is about partnerships. So I put here in the deck a few of our key strategic partners. We work with We work with these companies these amazing companies very Concretely and strategically so their technical teams commercial teams together with our technical teams or commercial teams To build together a product that suits their needs and also is optimal for the environment We work with Adidas the Nord phase H&M Echo Burgans Marimekka icebreaker and Many others that are not public today. These companies are very special in the way. They are committed in sustainable innovation And also good to mention that we have very strong partnerships also in the area of raw material technology and finance Okay What's good to mention in this context is that every great success looks like an overnight success to the outside Same for spin-off. It is however everything but an overnight success The spin-off journey began 11 years ago when our co-founder Juha Salmela was visiting a lecture series in Oxford and The lecture was about how spider is spinning the spider web and the similarities between the spider silk protein and nanosellulose and Juha with his co-founder Janne Boranen got very excited about this idea and They combined this idea with the expertise in a rheology a field of science that studies how particles flow in a manner And eventually they asked a simple yet massively radical question Could textile fiber be produced completely with no harmful chemicals if it was possible The world would look very different There would be no land drying caused by the textile industry. There would be no chemical heavy textile dye There would be less social problems and there would be no micro plastics caused by the textile industry And this sets the scene for our talk today. Something obviously needs to be done and I Can be humble yet proud to say that spin-off can take a role in tackling these global challenges We can do our part and we can do more Today spin-off can produce a textile fiber with zero harmful chemicals and with very little water. We have a mechanical process That enables our fiber to be very natural It looks and feels like a natural fiber and it is fully circular meaning can be grinded into new fiber again and again As raw materials we can use many different waste streams that we are very proud of textile waste Agriculture waste like wheat straw. We can use leather waste like we do today with eco even food waste like potato peels and Of course certified wood our target is to produce 1 million tons of textile fiber annually in 10 years time This corresponds to 4% of the global cotton volume and it is a good start We are here to disrupt this industry, but we can't do it alone That's why we have built a strong network of partnerships in in raw material in brands and in technology and Now I'll be sharing a few concrete secrets from the battleground how is spin-off able to Commercialize this innovation together with partners. We have five learnings here the first one You don't need to be unique at first For an innovator it is an absolute dream To build something unique a unique product something that no one has built before it's something amazing and different So for an innovator it is a big dream to build a unique product, but For somebody who is trying to sell the product. It is a total horror like me why Let's take the textile industry as an example the textile industry is very stable And traditional It has seen very little actual material innovation in the past 100 years It's regulated. It's built to minimize risks and I can ensure you that it's not a good position to be in to sell Something that no one has seen before no one has used before So that's why to build a product market fit in the textile industry You need to at first be a copycat You need to build something that is easy for material experts to understand easy for designers to design easy to buy for sourcing So you want to be a copycat you want to build a substitute for something that exists in the market today How did we do that at Spinova? We needed to improve our focus We needed to put aside for a while all the great things that Spinova is and all the ways that our technology is superior and We took one product area that had high demand and good technical fit and for us it was the cotton So we built a product a Blended product that could substitute cotton today That would be easy for designers to design easy for material experts to understand easy for sourcing to buy and It's easy for them to understand. It's they know what cotton is like. This is like cotton just way more sustainable So the learning here is your innovation might be unique, but you want your product to be a substitute initially learning number two So initially you don't want your product to be unique to hit the market fast But later if you want the last thing sticky position in the value chain or even to disrupt an industry You want to be unique So when you enter a mature market as an innovator There is really only one luxury you have and that is that you can Define the market for yourself. You can slice and dice the market the way you want to create your competitive field Everything else the customer decides on really So to disrupt an industry you need to be better much better or cheaper and you have a massive work ahead of you to Launch a new value proposition to the market and there's the big big question about do you want to launch a new cat Decorate or do you want to be a part of an existing one? so in practice a Big enough share of your markets early innovators need to feel that you are the holy grail in the industry They need to be so convinced that they are ready to take action and again companies don't create categories customers do So my coaching would be that even if you have a radical technical innovation You might want to reconsider launching a totally new category Oftentimes it is best to define your market so that you are the leader of an existing category Secret number three Big fish is not always the best The innovators destiny is shaped through its partners partnerships are the single most important thing defining an Innovators position and reputation in the market and In as an early company, it's easy to get distracted by big shiny brands You start to look at their brand appeal and you start thinking How great their logo would look like on your website, but you need to look further For spin over we have had a very explicit partner criteria from the start Most companies prioritize based on two criteria market opportunity and technical fit first one is obvious the second one tells us How well are we able to fulfill the customer need and how easy and Quick it is for us to fulfill that need is it risky In addition to these two there is a third criteria that We look at and actually every pre-commercial company should look at it's the most important one for us We call it commitment We only partner with companies who believe what we believe The value alignment is a critical go-no-go criteria for us And if this one is a yes and only if Then we also look at two additional criteria within the commitment box One being that does this company have ability to innovate. So do they have in-house R&D? Do they have people or processes and tools and budgets to work with a company like us? Then we also look at their commitment in us as a company This also has many many ways to do it Oftentimes it's for example manifests in their willingness to co-brand with us So we want to be the ingredient market in the end product to be visible for the consumer So the learning here be selective on your first partners prioritize based on values commitment and agility initially secret number four Let your innovation benefit your partners first The way I see it is that by focusing initially in contract negotiations In bargaining the best terms from the get-go. You might end up optimizing your numbers in short term But if you are there for the big game if you want to have a Defendable great position in the value chain or even to disrupt the global industry You should first focus in being very close to your partner and create value for them first In my opinion if you succeed in creating massive value for your partners first You will find yourself in the middle of a leading alliance in your industry and suddenly everybody wants to play with you in practice know your value chain and Identify the party there that is the party of power and influence for us Typically a fiber producer would sell upwards in the value chain to fabric or material producer Our product is both the fiber and the fabric and we sell always directly to brand owner In addition, we also want to have a very strong ownership in the raw material box Focus on creating value for your partners first Secret number five the most important one Trust is your only currency We believe in extreme transparency and honesty One could even say that we believe in the Finnish type of brutal transparency and honesty you fins in the audience know what I'm talking about So in the early days, it's not really about building awareness. It's about building trust It's not about selling your product It's about creating pool So building partnerships is always between people. So in a way, you are never selling to a company. You're always selling to a person Here is an example stakeholder base of ours at an example customer And how it evolves over time So first there is innovation team then sustainability materials and later on a whole bunch of different Organizations and functions that are in your stakeholder reach first. You are under the radar You have a handful of people and then later you have tens and later hundreds of people within just one partner and All of these people and different stakeholder types have different questions and worries about your product So your message needs to be very sharp and also the message It needs to have enough depth to fulfill all the demands and requests data requests that each and every party has and Let me tell you that these people have a lot of appetite for knowing more about your product So what's critical here is that you first identify and you find your true fans within this stakeholder base And first create trust amongst them They will be your ambassador or Ambassadors all the way to the big scale. So very crucial audience. These were our five secrets today It's not rocket science nor complex, but it is demanding It requires guts and trust is the biggest asset you have on the way My name is Lotta Cobra. Thank you