The story of Publons is a great illustration of the power of vision and determination, and the impact you can achieve with a startup.
Publons was one of the 10 companies in our first startup accelerator programme, Lightning Lab 2013. They were also the first of all of our accelerator alumni to have an exit that returned significant value to their investors. We sat down with Daniel Johnston, one of the two founders at Publons to help us tell their story.
What is Publons?
Founded by Andrew Preston and Daniel Johnston, Publons tackled a significant challenge in the academic research space. It aimed to revolutionise peer review by creating an online platform that recognized and credited researchers for their review work, a critical yet undervalued component of academic research. This innovative approach sought to improve how researchers were evaluated, focusing on a broader range of their activities beyond just publication.
Stage of business at Creative HQ accelerator programme
When Publons entered the Creative HQ accelerator, it was at an early stage. Andrew and Daniel had been working on it part-time for over 2-years. With a strong mission and vision aligned between the founders, the company had foundational ideas but lacked a developed product, users, and a clear path to market. This early stage was characterised by a significant learning curve and the need to solidify their business model.
Learning from Lightning Lab
Participation in the Lightning Lab was pivotal for Publons. It forced the founders to focus intensely on their startup, moving from treating it as a side project to a full-time commitment.
“The most important thing was that it really forced you to change your mindset…it forced us to get serious, to obsess about it, to really learn our industry in order to justify our thinking.
This period was marked by constant learning, refining their understanding of the industry, and articulating their vision. Despite challenges in finding mentors with specific industry knowledge in the academic research area, they benefited greatly from the mentorship of Dave Moskovitz and Simon Swallow, who became key investors and supporters.
Highs and lows after Lightning Lab
After Lightning Lab, Publons experienced a series of ups and downs. The most stressful periods were marked by the times when they were getting short on money, and had to have tough negotiations with investors and face the prospect of abrupt failure amid signs of imminent success. However, building a strong team culture and achieving milestones in user growth and product development were among the highs.
“The team we created was amazing…The culture…continues to this day…It was always so incredible to look up from your desk and see all these amazing humans here working on this thing we had started.”
The acquisition
The acquisition of Publons was unexpected, as the company initially sought investment from a larger industry player, but not a sale. However, the strategic fit with Clarivate Analytics led to a successful acquisition by them. Although the acquisition period had its challenges, the integration of Publons into Clarivate was very successful, allowing the Publons team to stay together and operate independently within the Clarivate offerings, keeping and expanding the Publons brand.
“We had three beautiful years [the acquisition earnout period] of the combination of corporate resources and startup culture, of autonomy and influence. After all the dire warnings we’d heard of what happens after acquisitions, our experience was a dream. We produced an incredible amount of quality work over that time.”
Impact on the scientific community
Publons’ impact on the scientific community has been quite profound.
“We pretty quickly became the thought leaders about peer review and led a wave of appreciation and innovation in this critical aspect of research…from the humbling early days of being the sole voice for peer review on the conference circuit, we built a platform that had all industry stakeholders working with us to modernise all aspects of peer review, in ways that would have seemed impossible only a few years prior.”
As a catalyst for change, the company led the reshaping of perceptions around the role of peer review in science. Their platform facilitated faster peer review processes and experimentation in transparency, contributing to the acceleration of scientific research.
Reflection and advice for entrepreneurs
Reflecting on the journey, Daniel Johnston emphasised the importance of staying true to a vision and finding early investors who share that belief.
Daniel highlighted the critical role of support from accelerators like Creative HQ’s Lightning Lab in connecting with influential mentors and investors. While acknowledging the hard work and challenges of entrepreneurship, Johnston affirmed the rewarding nature of the journey and the value of building a team that shares a common mission.
“Find investors who are interested in putting money in but also time. The amount of time our investors spent with us over the years … it was undoubtedly a huge part of our success.”
