www.FITT-for-Innovation.eu

FITT

Fostering Interregional Exchange in

ICT Technology Transfer

Entrepreneurial Bootcamp

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iBootcamp: the essence

Set of focused workshops

• Goal: Create a team that can deliver a business presentation that can survive a professional investment board

Based on your own business idea

• No case studies here; we go for the real thing

Executed with a multidisciplinary team

• … that you need to recruit

Workshops are a combination of:

• Teaching

• Coaching

• Doing

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What is this New Innovation Process?

Ideas

People

Gate 1Dating

Event

Entrepreneurial

iBoot CampGate 2 Gate 3

Jan March June

Internal

Venture

External

Venture

New

Project

Venture

Launch

To IBBT

Innovation Board

Connecting

people and ideas

Building Business

Opportunity Plan

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Fit within the organisation

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Who is eligible to join iBootcamp?

Every collaborator from IBBT research projects with a great idea and with an entrepreneurial mindset

Idea owners are helped to form winning teams with multidisciplinary skills

iBoot Camp Teams are coached by industrial coaches, Board members and Business School Professors

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Dating Event: Connecting People and Idea

Talented people everywhere but ... they are not connected!

Lara Donners will tell you more about the way to build a strong business team

Research

Engineering

&

Development

FinanceMarketing

& Sales Operations

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When? iBoot timeline: once a year

Submit your idea by Mid January.

Selected teams are notified by End of January.

Deliver your team recruiting pitch beginning of February.

On a residential location

(to promote the bootcamp feeling)

On a residential location

(to promote the bootcamp feeling)

4 June

Grand jury

26/27 March 23/24 April12/13 March10 Feb

Dating WE 1 WE 2 WE 3

©◊©◊

4/5 March

Team building

24 Feb

Present team

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(Residential) iBootcamp Program

Weekend 1 (Friday + Saturday)

How to develop a successful business plan

Opportunity Development & Freedom to operate

Weekend 2 (Friday + Saturday)

Business Models in ICT

Entrepreneurial Marketing

Weekend 3 (Friday + Saturday)

Entrepreneurial Finance

Human Resources

Presenting and Selling the Business

Opportunity Plan to Venture Capitalists

Ela

pse

d t

ime

= 2

mo

nth

s

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Where?

• All workshops occur on a residential location to promote the bootcamp atmosphere. The first edition was organized in a Monasterium (converted to a hotel), the second edition in a Castel.

• On the first edition (iBoot2008) there was a possibility for the teams to sleep over, to promote the team building. This facility was however not repeated in the next editions, but teams are left free.

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Software tool by Inceptum ®

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Pro’s & Cons

Pro’s

• Strength: create a winning team that is able to make a business idea happen.

• Innovation: coaching by doing by coaching

• Right to copy: Generic format applicable in all kinds of business environments (except Inceptum tool that is licensed)

Cons

• Problems: risk of rising expectations too high

• potential problems: ability to find the complementary skills to form a team

• Advice: take time to find the right team members around an idea

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Why ? Rationale iBootcamp

Context: mission of IBBT to create new business opportunities

‘problem’ solver: real life approach starting from the main assets = people and (good) ideas -> quickly identify hidden skills and expertise among iBootcamp participants in domains such as communication, presentation, entrepreneurship, innovation, leadership, business acumen, ...

The main bottleneck in a research organisation is not to find good ideas and competent (technological) people, but to find the lacking complementary skills available outside the organisation. With iBootcamp one creates the ideal platform to match those skills around a specific idea with great potential. Doing this you cover entrepreneurial awareness building, you identify business opportunities within the eco-system and you help to kick off new business.

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Why ? Impact iBootcamp

Evidence of success: most teams (8 of 10) convinced a professional venture board of their potential. Of the 10 teams so far (2008-2009) two have already started doing business, 5 have been accepted for further incubation, only 2 did not succeed.

Recommendation: strong format for quickly assessing real business opportunity and at the same time building a business team of skilled and motivated people

Impact on future performance: iBootcamp creates a lot of awareness of business opportunities lying within the eco-system of the organisation, it motivates skilled people to invest free time in developing ‘their’ idea and it creates a good deal flow of well prepared investment opportunities for internal or external VC money or at least for further incubation.

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Outcome of iBootcamp: today

Learning effect:

ideas and teams of second bootcamp were stronger and better

Steep learning curve within teams

Strong marketing effect on IBBT profile as an organisation able to support new business development, making the transition form idea generation to commercialisation

During second bootcamp there was a joined team that attended the Alcatel-Lucent bootcamp = open innovation extended to similar activities of business partners

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Outcome of iBootcamp: plans for the future

3th edition of iBootcamp (2010) will pay more attention to the team building, coaching for marketing of the business ideas and feedback to the teams (through dry runs) before the exposure to the final jury.

Feedback shortly after the final jury and follow up are also point of attention

Flemish feasibility study to establish a Flemish incubation center providing these kind of bootcamps for the Flemish industry

Find extra financial resources for follow-up of successful teams (through Proof of Concept funds, pre seed investment funds)

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Lessons Learned

Looking back now, what would you …

• … do different/improve? Pay more attention to the team building after the dating event and have the coaches better prepared before the start of the workshops

• … improve? Better use of software tool by teams

• … recommend to others? Just do it (learning by doing)

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Suggested Readings

Link to bibliography

Link to code book

Training

Entrepreneurship

Incubation

Link to related websites

http://www.ibbt.be/en/iboot-camp-0