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Ideadvance Lean Start Up
The document outlines the University of Wisconsin System's entrepreneurship strategy, detailing a program called Ideadvance that supports emerging entrepreneurs with funding and educational resources. The program offers two funding stages designed to help teams develop their business ideas through customer discovery and validation, with over 95% of funds going directly to the teams. Lessons from the program indicate that critical business thinking and coordination between university and state partners have been essential for accessing further opportunities and support.
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Ideadvance Lean Start Up
- 1. University of WisconsinSystem – David Brukardt and Idella Yamben, Ph.D. Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation – Aaron Hagar
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- 4. PROGRAMS TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT LOANS ACCELERATORS SEEDFUNDS RESEARCH GRANT MATCH BUSINESS PLANNING INVESTOR ATTRACTION COMMUNITY-DRIVEN PROJECTS
- 6. PARTNERS 2850 JOBS 314 111M IN WAGESBUSINESSES ASSISTED INNEW CAPITAL 385M$ 679JOBS ADDITIONAL COMPANIES 2215 Source: WEDC $ ENTREPRENEURSHIP IMPACT WEDC
- 7. IDEADVANCE INTRODUCTION STAGE 1:$25,000 to explore an idea STAGE 2: $50,000 + match to execute a strategy Funding not guaranteed but is earned as teams complete commercialization milestones Investment Committee representing state, university and entrepreneurial backgrounds select teams Broad eligibility: ideas range from Arts to STEM Over 95% of funds go directly to teams, not operation Education empowering subject matter experts to consider entrepreneurship
- 8. STARTUPS ARE LEARNINGUNITS not small versions of big businesses IDEA BUSINESS STARTUPS ARE LEARNING ENTITIES
- 9. IDENTIFY AND TEST ASSUMPTIONS Stage1 :Test the problem Stage 1- 2: Then test solution (Learn and Confirm) (Learn and Confirm) Customer Discovery Customer Validation Customer Creation Company Building Pivot STAGE 1 STAGE 2 Talk with 60-80 customer and industry contacts in 3 months.
- 10. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: EDUCATION =EMPOWERMENT Money is not guaranteed….but support is Networking support Customized metrics Concierge lowers activation energy for participation Business ideation Grant writing support Accountability We challenge assumptions building new skills Not business training but scientific training Talking to people
- 11. RESULTS/LESSONS LEARNED Lessons learned Education on critical business thinking skills helps teams access opportunities including funding, customers and new ventures. The program’s structure allows the Investment Committee to invest first in the team, and second in the idea. Program requires coordination between state and university partners 50 Teams; $1.8 Million (USD) awarded; I have two master’s degrees, and I feel like I have a third one because of Ideadvance ~Faculty Without the Ideadvance program I would not be where I am today. ~Student Entrepreneur This program really taught me the importance of customer discovery. I use this in my work with students. ~Staff (USD) reported capital $4.1 MILLION
- 12. @UWEconD @InWisconsin David Brukardt, Aaron Hagar,Idella Yamben David Brukardt David Brukardt, Aaron Hagar, Idella Yamben
Editor's Notes
- #4 Innovation – supporting tech-based companies, partnering with higher ed, working with tech transfer offices Developing entrepreneurs – entrepreneurship training, business planning, mentor groups, SBDC offices, conferences Companies – financial assistance, accelerators, lean startup, technical assistance Ecosystem – partner networks and relationships, resources that fit together to address complex needs, identifying opportunities and gaps, investor connections, seed funds,
- #6 Much activity in the Madison region Madison leads state in tech startup activity – on national stage Significant support resources Thriving ecosystem Capacity Building grant pilot program to address local and focused entrepreneurship opportunities. – Looking to make an ongoing program. WARF Upstart Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic
- #7 Results are de-duplicated 2015 annual reported numbers for WEDC operated programs Jobs are maintained and created rollup Payroll is estimated based on average wages reported Companies we work with are almost exclusively pre-profitability so the total impact is much larger as they grow
- #8 Ideadvance draws from existing operations infrastructure and business experts, thus saving money on infrastructure and personnel, and resulting in more pass-through dollars to teams. We reward Learning- Not a plan! (Mike Tyson punch picture Making the uncomfortable comfortable. Grant writing skills Teaching a technician/subject matter expert to consider business, Who is a concierge? Someone who is dedicated to training, mentoring. Someone with the ability to ask questions and lead someone to be curious. Empowers a team member. I bring unique skills in research, subject matter expertise- but not a business expert. My goals are to train a process and give them tools to identify SME in business that elevate them to the next level Getting out of the building and talking directly with people Companies are tracked for up to 5 years measuring impacts like jobs, capital, sales and so on.
- #9 Lean Startup process This paradigm of learning and confirming extends into Stage 2 where they present milestones towards scaling and customer acquisition Lean Startup process Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face (people want to tell me about their plan. They don’t’ want to admit their learning goals. I give them freedom to admit learning and freedom to invalidate a hypothesis
- #10 Critically, the search for customers is where we start. We leverage the scientific method teaching them to identify and test critical business assumptions. With more than 80 customer data points, they can draw conclusions about first the problem, and then secondly the merit of their solution. This is a repeatable, learning process of customer discovery that starts in Ideadvance and continues as they grow their business.
- #11 *Add here that support is augmented by the community of ecosystem players that Aaron spoke about earlier* Making the uncomfortable comfortable. Grant writing skills Teaching a technician/subject matter expert to consider business, Who is a concierge? Someone who is dedicated to training, mentoring. Someone with the ability to ask questions and lead someone to be curious. Empowers a team member. I bring unique skills in research, subject matter expertise- but not a business expert. My goals are to train a process and give them tools to identify SME in business that elevate them to the next level Getting out of the building and talking directly with people I’m so glad you have the opportunity to reach to people and help them walk through this process. I’ve never applied for a grant before. It is hard to translate what we do to the goals of the grant and into business language And apply critical thinking skills to ask new questions
- #12 Intangible success are what our awardees say about their learnings in Ideavance To date, participating Ideadvance teams have conducted more than 3,000 customer interviews in an effort to test more than 100 individual business-model assumptions. No one person should claim ownership of a team’s success. But we do track the teams efforts/outputs in the program before and after participation. Since its inception, 50 Ideadvance participants have received $1.8 million (U.S.) in grant funding to support their startup initiatives and have attracted an additional $1.4 million (U.S.) in additional capital through investments and crowdfunding support. Applications for intellectual property protection through WiSys have increased significantly over the same time period and licensing income exceeds $150,000 (U.S.). Ecosystem players SME Advisors (CTC), State Partners (WEDC) Business Advisors (free, generalists), Accelerators, Co-working spaces, Mentors, Community members, business leaders, University, Competitions