Nice company, but what does it do?

A vision for Aggie Branczyk Enterprises

…and then another 15 mins making memes about organizing my bookmarks.

Last month, I’ve been busy building the company’s organizational structure. It might seem a bit weird for a company of one person to have an org chart, but it’s a useful framework for organizing my ideas.

The org chart should help me:

• Align internal company structure with what clients see on the website.

• Make sure all the ideas and materials I’ve gathered over the years are captured.

• Isolate different initiatives, so I can put some on the back burner, while still collecting relevant materials.

• Eventually drop unviable initiatives without disrupting others.

• Eventually scale successful initiatives by outsourcing non-specialized tasks, without impacting others.

• Let me experiment with different business models.

• Organize my folders, bookmarks, company dashboard, task management system etc in a way that’s easy to use.

Brain dump

My ongoing problem is that I want to do too many things. I know I can’t do them all, so I need to figure out a way to prioritize. Before I can do that, I need to take stock of all of the things that I (think I) want to do. Cue the brain dump.

• Do research in quantum foundations ( = new & aspirational)

• Do research in quantum optics ( = familiar & fun)

• Improve the custom poling library I made a while back

• Explore possibilities to do consulting related to the custom poling library

• Consult for deep tech (initially quantum tech) startups (many ideas and directions this could go in)

• Get more involved with the local tech ecosystem

• Do a deep dive into quantum tech ecosystems, do some analysis, explore gaps

• NSERC Discovery Grant Evaluation Group (existing voluntary commitment)

• quantumoptics.fun (an idea for an educational website about quantum optics, aimed at grad students)

• Be able to visit universities and talk to researchers

• Be able to go to physics conferences

• Grow the Academics in the Wild community (many ideas and directions this could go in)

• Make Season 2 of the Physicists in the Wild podcast

• Make a YouTube Shorts channel for PITW/AITW content

• Finish and/or make a better version of the Writing Science course

• Turn some of my career presentations into bite-sized videos

• Develop hands-on career workshops for physics/math PhDs

• Create a paid community/workshops/coaching service for academics who already transitioned into industry and are feeling stuck in their careers

• Develop my proposed framework for doing research in public (DRiP)

• Do a deep dive into the idea of independent research, highlighting past and present independent researchers, discussing pros and cons of academia, how things have changed etc—starting off as a series of articles, but maybe eventually a book?

• Write and publish a picture book about interpersonal relationships/networking using physics memes

• Create a Montessori-style grad (grad-alternative?) program for physicists

• Document my entrepreneurial/independent scientist journey for people who might want to do the same one day

That’s all I can think of for now…😅

Decisions

I spent days iterating, making sketches, drawing diagrams, rearranging my bookmarks and folders. Maybe I was procrastinating, but it needed to be done to get the stuff out of my head. In any case, I have a hyperactive bias for action, so really forcing myself to slow down and get strategic is a good thing. I also have a serious case of aphantasia, so I have to externalize all of my thinking. Tinkering with the org chart was how I did that.

Some decisions I needed to make were:

• Should I include certain volunteer activities as pro-bono business activities or something I do as an individual?

• Should content creation be a division or something internal I do in support of other divisions?

• Should consulting be a division or something external I do in support of other divisions?

• Should my activities in meta research (DRiP & the independent researcher thing) go into the same Research division as the physics research?

• Should Academics in the Wild be part of ABE? [I decided: yes¹]

At one point, I thought I had it all figured out, but in the mean time, I had started talking to people, some of whom accidentally turned into potential and actual clients. This won’t surprise anyone who knows anything, but the clients had their own ideas for how I would be useful that hadn’t occurred to me. This led me to rearrange things again.

So it took longer than I hoped, but finally I’m at a point where I have a structure that I think I can operate in. It will probably change, but for now, it works.

Divisions

Aggie Branczyk Enterprises (ABE) will contain five divisions.

ABE Research

This division focuses on physics research (initially quantum optics and quantum foundations) and meta research (independent research & open collaboration models outside of academia).

Revenue model:

• Physics research: none; accepting external funding means accepting external influence and I want to have the freedom to pursue my own curiosity in this area.

• Meta research: grants; I’m less worried about external influence in this area, so am open to applying for external funding.

Current status

• Quantum foundations research: ACTIVE

• Quantum optics research: ON HOLD

• DRiP: ON HOLD

• Independent research chronicles: ON HOLD

ABE Quantum Solutions

This division offers consulting services and specialized products, including ecosystem insights and intelligence resources, tailored for deep tech startups, with an initial focus on quantum technology.

Revenue model:

• Consulting: consulting fees

• Products: one-time payments

Current status:

• Consulting: ACTIVE

• Products: PENDING

ABE Careers

This division offers career and professional development services for physics and math PhDs, during and after their transition from academia. Services are available to individual participants, but funding can come from universities and employers investing in professional development for their students and staff.²

Revenue model:

• Workshops: session fees

• Community memberships: subscription

• Coaching: hourly or package fees

• Educational partnerships: custom pricing

Current status:

• Workshops: ACTIVE

• Community memberships: PENDING

• Coaching: PENDING

• Educational partnerships: ACTIVE

ABE Education

This division offers specialized courses and resources for physics and math PhDs. Key offerings include quantumoptics.fun, a dedicated platform for quantum optics content and a scientific writing course designed to enhance scientific communication skills. This division is designed for scalability—after initial development, materials can be maintained and expanded with minimal hands-on involvement.

Revenue model:

• Partnerships with sponsors and relevant industry advertisers.

Current status:

• quantumoptics.fun: PENDING

• Scientific writing: ON HOLD

Academics in the Wild

This division mainly focuses on the AITW community, which hosts virtual and in-person events for physics and math PhDs transitioning from academia (before, during, and after the transition). It will also include related content and resources. The focus is on providing free services and products.

Revenue model:

• AITW community: most likely none; I’ve toyed with the idea of partnering with sponsors, but I think there’s a risk that this might negatively influence the direction of the community, so this idea is on hold for now.

• Video/audio content: partnerships with sponsors and relevant industry advertisers

Current status:

• AITW community: ACTIVE

• PITW podcast: ON HOLD

• PITW/AITW Shorts: PENDING

Final thoughts

So this is where I’m at now. Aggie Branczyk Enterprises is divided into five divisions, each with a specific focus: Research, Quantum Solutions, Careers, Education, and Academics in the Wild. This should help me prioritize and experiment.

Right now, many of the activities are ON HOLD or PENDING. I really want this whole enterprise to be sustainable, so the idea is to focus on a few initiatives, and then either drop unviable ones or automate (to the extent possible) successful ones before moving onto other initiatives.

The structure doesn’t explicitly include everything from my brain dump, but my head now feels quiet enough that I can move onto the next steps: getting incorporated, getting a business account, figuring out how to accept payments, making a landing page…and doing the actual “work”.

Fun stuff!

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Physicist back from the wild

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1. Initially, I didn’t intend AITW to be part of the company, but there are reasons for it that make sense. One of them is liability protection (situations where it might matter: I have a membership list with people’s personal data, what if I’m hacked; or if I hold in-person events and something happens). Another reason is that a lot of the activities that I do for AITW are closely tied with ABE activities, and AITW seems to be acting as a source of customers/clients for ABE. This is not something I planned, but it’s a pleasant surprise. So it makes sense to have it be part of ABE to allow for better strategic planning.

2. There will be some overlap between ABE Careers and AITW, but ABE Careers will focus on paid services and products while AITW will focus on free services and products.