A month into my role at One Portal Way, I've realised the most useful thing I offer the founders moving in isn't actually on my job description. Yes, I'm the lab manager. But I'm also turning out to be a fixer, a connector and, I say this fondly, a chief confessor: the person who hears every company's growing pains and, hopefully, holds the key to shortcutting a good few of them.

Here's what makes that possible. I'm employed by the Imperial Incubator, but I'm based here at One Portal Way, Sciopolis' new lab and innovation space in North Acton, West London. A foot in both camps. For a founder setting up a lab, that combination is genuinely good news, so let me explain why, because if you're weighing up wet lab space in London for a biotech or deep-tech company, this is the part that matters to you.

What it means for you, if you're moving in

The early decisions in any lab are the ones that come back to bite you, where the benching goes, how your documentation is structured, whether your compliance is right from day one or painfully retrofitted later. Having an experienced lab manager on-site before those decisions lock in is the difference between a clean launch and an expensive lesson.

So this first month I've been quietly laying foundations our innovators will hopefully never have to think about, because they'll simply work:

• Coherence. Founders already have enough challenges without having to build every laboratory process from scratch. One of my priorities this month has been putting the right foundations in place: documentation, compliance expectations and laboratory processes that are consistent across the site. That means companies can spend more time focusing on their science, while also benefiting from systems that will support them through future audits, inspections and growth.

• Fewer costly mistakes. I've set up enough labs to know where the expensive missteps hide. Being there at the start means helping each innovator get it right the first time, not unpicking it in month six.

• The right connections. Because I get to know every company intimately as they set up, and I take the time to understand the science and them, I can point people to the right advice and solutions and connect them to the trusted suppliers in our combined Sciopolis and Imperial Incubator ecosystem. Very practically, that saves people from costly procurement mistakes and gets equipment through the door faster.

  
  

Why Chief Confessor, you may ask?

That third point is where "chief confessor" comes in. When you know everyone's challenges at the same moment, you stop being a single point of help and start being a switchboard, spotting when two companies are wrestling with the same problem and quietly introducing them so they troubleshoot together. I become a custodian of the community's growing pains, which means no founder has to face theirs alone, or solve from scratch what the company two doors down already cracked last week.

This widens over time. As the community grows, my aim is to connect our innovators to the academics, equipment, talent and events at Imperial College London, turning a great lab into a genuine gateway into one of the world's leading science ecosystems. You're not just renting lab space in West London. You're plugging into an Imperial-backed innovation hub.

Every founder, a different question

What's struck me most this month is the sheer variety of people and ideas. One conversation is about fume cupboards and air changes, the next about cell culture workflows, cold storage or supplier recommendations. Every founder arrives with a different challenge, a different ambition and a different story.

It's also reinforced just how valuable the Imperial Incubator team is. While I may be the person on site day to day, founders at One Portal Way aren't just gaining access to a laboratory and a lab manager. They're benefiting from a wider team with years of experience supporting early-stage companies, building communities and helping innovators navigate the challenges of growth.

A month in, I'm more certain than ever that the most important thing we're building here isn't the laboratory space: it's everything that happens once the people arrive.

Come and see what we're building

🔬 Check out our labs

👋 Book a tour: walk the site, see the setups, and picture your science here.

💬 Talk to me about your lab setup  Tell me what you need, and I'll help you get it right from day one.