What stage would be ideal for considering moving a project from research (at the graduate university level) to a startup? In this case I'm referring to a project that is based on custom nanoscale hardware components that rely on some pretty groovy physics. The applications are pretty immediate and the market already exists in the biotech/healthcare field.
I think startups are not well-suited for open-ended R+D unfortunately (hoping to do something about this). The best time to move from research to a startup is when you've developed technology and have a plan to make it into a product people will want.
Does this mean that startups are limited with regards to the level of innovation? I notice that a lot of startups don't really do anything new technology-wise, but have more of an emphasis on organization (for example, Uber reorganizes transportation, Bitcoin reorganizes money, but both use existing technology in the form of software languages). If I'm doing something really new (and I think I am because I sometimes have trouble convincing people that what I do is even possible), then the only recourse is to use the dated patent and licensing model with large established companies. If this is the case, then the startup model of innovation has failed at a fundamental level; ie the advantage of a small group doing something difficult only exists for an intermediate level of innovation, don't try to do something 'really' new. Would you agree?