The Honorable Entrepreneur

THE HONORABLE ENTREPRENEUR is the unvarnished memoir of physicist Philipp Baaske, who-together with fellow PhD student Stefan Duhr-turned a benchtop prototype into NanoTemper Technologies. This €56 million global biotech-tools leader remains 100 % founder-owned and VC-free.

From a near-fatal Swiss Disaster that almost stole their patents, to selling 29 hand-built instruments before a product even existed, to walking away from a US $60 million buy-out while still a 35-person firm, Baaske shows how trust, focus, and a seven-point Code of Honor can beat venture capital and power sustainable deep-tech entrepreneurship.

WHO IT'S FOR

• Scientists and engineers turning research into biotech startups or deep-tech ventures
• Founders bootstrapping global companies from Europe and beyond
• Leaders scaling technical teams without losing culture, control, or profitability
• Readers of The Hard Thing About Hard Things or Lost and Founder seeking a European twist

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

• Funding & ownership: how pre-selling, grants, and disciplined reinvestment financed growth while keeping equity
• Product & customers: why real pain, not clever tech, drove every pivot and launch
• People & culture: lessons from a 24-hour lay-off, firing a toxic star, and running a company on a Code of Honor, not bureaucracy
• Crisis leadership: daily pandemic calls that lifted revenue to €56 million without Kurzarbeit abuse
• Global sales: the messy reality of exporting lab instruments to 45 countries from a Munich basement
• M&A reality check: the SAW Instruments deal that flopped and why culture fit matters

TRUE STORIES INSIDE

• A fraudulent family "partner" nearly tanks the company before it begins (the Swiss Disaster)
• Christmas Eve 2009: a data-driven all-nighter wins the first €10 000 pre-payment and sparks 29 prototype sales
• Saying "No, danke" to $60 million and betting on independence instead of exit

Written with self-deprecating humor and Michael-Lewis-style narrative drive, The Honorable Entrepreneur offers scar tissue, hard data, and repeatable frameworks you won't find in any MBA classroom.

Ready to build a deep-tech company that lasts and stay honorable while you do it? Start reading The Honorable Entrepreneur today.