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I am planning to start a tech company and raise some funds from investors. Unfortunately, the school where I did PhD is not well known. I have a fairly good track record of research, but sadly the investors only see where I came from. So, I thought about adding an extra line on my bio with a prestigious school that every investor love.

One of the professors that I know (I just met him a couple of times) runs a lab in a good school.

Would it be rude to ask him if I can do a short-term (3 months) self-funded postdoc at his lab?

I will bring him two papers that are likely accepted at the good journals in his field and coauthoring the paper is what I can do as his postdoc.

What do you think?

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    This may differ by culture (US, for me), but as long as you are honest about what you hope to accomplish, I don't see how it might be rude. If the professor agrees, you get what you want. If they don't, you can move on. Perhaps it might be advisable to use a little tact -- eg., find out if he is currently looking for postdocs; or if you graduated recently, you could also request your advisor to make an introduction. Also see: academia.stackexchange.com/q/23639
    – principles-investigator
    Commented Mar 21 at 4:50
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    I certainly don't know the VC industry well enough to answer whether a postdoc would actually help in this situation, but I do want to ask, for clarification -- [assuming the premise, that investors strongly favor some schools over others, is true] do you have any particular reason to believe that a short 3-month stint is sufficient to please the investors?
    – principles-investigator
    Commented Mar 21 at 4:51
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    Why do you think this would be considered rude? Beware that being employed at a university with 0% salary may still cost some money. At my university, 0% employees are estimated to cost 3000eur/year - the only ones in this situation are the colleagues hired by the hospital side, the 0% employment is just to provide them access to the university's infrastructure. Some postdocs that ended their contracts and wish to finish papers using the university infrastructure are also granted this scheme. Short term visiting scholars get only a visitor's card and no affiliation.
    – The Doctor
    Commented Mar 21 at 4:55
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    "Self-funding" refers to being a student, and paying your own tuition, instead of the department paying it. You cannot "self-fund" a job. You wouldn't "self-fund" employment at Google. You are volunteering to work for free, which is immoral and may be illegal, if you are on a visa.
    – Azor Ahai -him-
    Commented Mar 21 at 22:57
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    Not all investors are alike. You may have had a pleasant experience with the recent you had. But the ones attracted by big uni name can provide big funds ... they do not care about you or your company, they want to see their funds multiplied in short time. You and your CV would be the catalyst of that multiplication, but they do not absolutely care about what is left of you after their exit.
    – EarlGrey
    Commented Mar 22 at 8:59

2 Answers 2

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Instead of trying to do a postdoc before founding the company and looking for investment, why not use the money you would have spent establishing the company, and then get the company to collaborate with the professor?

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  • That's a good point too. But I have enough funds earned from another startup that I own and aiming for a very high amount of Series A for the new one. The lesson earned through the other startup activity is that my background is sometimes stupidly important to raise a good fund and gather talent. So, I am trying to be perfect in every aspect of the new company.
    – Chanoh Park
    Commented Mar 21 at 13:48
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    @ChanohPark what you are trying to do is to game the system, not to be perfect in every aspect. My forecast if you stick to your plan is that you will easily attract big funds, especially the one which will provide you absymal exit conditions and the ones that will make your life painful with their push. Since you have some money on the side, what would really be impressive to good funders is if you had some patent on your own/in the company. Spend the money to fund some research, get the patent, get the funds.
    – EarlGrey
    Commented Mar 22 at 8:43
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    My feeling is that professors are unlikely to view it as rude if you ask to do an unpaid postdoc, but for a range of reasons, there is very little chance of them saying yes.
    – Ian Sudbery
    Commented Mar 22 at 9:59
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Investors will still want to have your company funded before funding it. So the money you would spend in a 3-months postdoc is probably best spend already investing in your company.

Or towards funding some research to get your innovation patented.

Since it is your company, if you are smart in the way you put the money in the company and you do not spend them, you will recoup a large part of them quite soon.

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