The idea of an Entrepreneur-In-Residence originally comes from the venture capital industry. It is a position or title typically held by an experienced entrepreneur or business professional. As this entrepreneur or business professional typically is very experienced in a particular area, his or her expertise is often very valuable to venture capital firms, universities or other organizations especially in the case these organizations would like to develop activities in that particular area. The Entrepreneur-In-Residence program helps a newly formed technology company to have access to the right person to manage it and take it forward. www.FITT-for-Innovation.eu

1. Entrepreneurship in Residence Program
FITT
– Fostering Interregional Exchange in ICT Technology Transfer –
www.FITT-for-Innovation.eu
Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

2. Entrepreneurs-in-Residence: The essence
Position or title typically held by an experienced entrepreneur or
business professional
Three primary functions:
• Launch a new entrepreneurial venture
• Assist in the evaluation of potential investments
• Provide functional expertise to assist with an existing investment
Ultimate goal: ensure a newly formed technology company that it has
access to the right person to manage it and take it forward
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3. What is EiR’s Program about?
The EIR Program is all about finding
• the right people
• and placing them at the right place
• at the right time
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4. The right people ?
WHO ?
Domain specific experience in a particular sector, e.g. ICT
Good strategic thinkers
Corporate background and/or have start-up experience
Extended network of industrial contacts
Looking for a new challenge
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5. The right people ?
WHERE ?
Events: Imperial Innovations frequently attends targeted and/or themed
events and choose conferences based on technical relevance and attendees
list
Networks: Interesting contacts via different networks
External consultants: Services of professional headhunting agencies, when
looking for specific experience, skills or knowledge in a domain unknown to
TTO’s @ Imperial Innovations
CV’s: Thanks to good reputation, spontaneous CV’s come in on a daily basis
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6. The right place ?
Spend +/- 1 year on consulting various start-up companies in the
Innovations Incubator
In general, two options after that:
• Continue to add value across the portfolio, for instance by giving advice
to different spin-offs
• Take on a full time placement in one of the newly formed ventures
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7. The right time ?
Needs start-up team:
• Early stage ‘before the company has attracted any external funding’
• Technical risk is still very high.
• No real need for executive staff
• Research & Development costs run up, no money left to pay executive
• ‘Entrepreneurial Chair’: central task is to refine the business plan; a temporary
substitute or an affordable alternative for an official CEO
• Only once external funding is needed
• Invest in an experienced CEO and appoint him to approach potential investors
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8. When is it organized ?
The program is organized on a continuous basis
First 3 EiR’s < 2006
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9. Who’s involved in the program?
The researchers: Learn commercial skills throug interaction with EiR’s, EiR’s as
coach;
Industrial partners: EiR’s come from industry; Market led approach ICBS
Technology Transfer Officers: Passive & active approach to look for new EiR’s
Commercial Services: cfr Technology Transfer Officers
New Ventures Team: cfr Technology Transfer Officers
External Consultants: Find specific skills (<David Collingham & Chris Reichhelm)
EiR’s: core of the program
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10. Resources?
Quest for EiR’s is time, money and energy consuming
15 people in total:
• TTO’s : 7 people
• Commercial Services: 3 people
• New Ventures: 5 people
Networking is part of their day-to-day job; no clear time restrictions
If they meet a potentially interesting EiR, they make a proposal for the
board of Imperial Innovations
Susan Searle – chief executive of Imperial Innovations – makes the final
decision
Once a new EiR joins the team, work can be divided
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11. Where is the program ?
Organized internally, but EiR’s come from outside Imperial Innovations
The underlying rationale of the program is embedded in all departments
Most EiR’s are from UK
London is an attractive and vibrant place to work & live
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12. Pro’s & Cons
Pro’s
• Using existing resources – connections/relations – to improve business
• Address a common problem within TTO: Finding the right people to take a
business forward
• spin-off companies can consult very experienced people at a very low cost
Con’s
• Time, money & energy consuming to build network
• Interaction business world & universities is normal in UK, not in continental
Europe
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13. Why ? Rationale EiR’s
Specific requirements start-up team:
- Investors need to be convinced of the business idea
- Technology needs to be translated into market needs;
- Customer base needs to be developed …
Someone with commercial skills & market insight; someone with the
right connections & rich experience
inventor himself seldom has good management capabilities
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14. Why ? Impact EiR’s
The performance of the new ventures with EIR’s as CEO can serve as
proxy for the success of the program
Example: EiR Daniel Green
Susan Searle – chief executive of Imperial Innovations – asked Mr. Green to look
around and see whether he could find anything that could make a particularly
good start-up. He selected technology from a veteran professor, Robert Hill, and a
younger researcher, Molly Stevens, that together could form the basis of a
company specialising in “smart materials that help the body repair itself”.
BioCeramic Therapeutics Ltd was founded as a small laboratory and office in the
Imperial bio-incubator unit. Within 9 months of the formation the company already
successfully raised £1.04 million. Daniel Green also succeeded in attracting highly
qualified people to the Board, like Sir Richard Sykes who was former Chairman of
pharmaceuticals company GlaxoSmithKline
EiR’s themselves are pleased with the program as well
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15. Outcome of EiR: plans for the future
‘The program reinforces the program’: The more Entrepreneurs-
in-Residence Imperial Innovations can attract, the more successful it
will be, the more widely the program will be known in industrial
society and the larger Imperial Innovations’ network will become
Imperial Innovations declares in its annual report to continue the
Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program
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16. Lessons Learned
Looking back now, what would you …
• … do different/improve? Start sooner !
• … recommend to others? Build up a network & stay close to the
industry
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17. Suggested Readings
Link to bibliography
Link to code book
Entrepreneur
Knowledge relationships
Team & Network
Link to related websites
http://www.imperialinnovations.co.uk/eceo
http://www.bioceramictherapeutics.com/people.html
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18. Entrepreneurship in Residence Program by
IBBT
Pilot Set-up
- Integrated within the IBBT iBootcamp, an entrepreneurship program
for researchers or external people with an ICT business idea
- Within the Bootcamp there was a real need for mentoring and feedback
for the market research
- On the other side the entrepreneurial community in Flanders for
mentoring is quite small, what made an “in residence” program very
difficult to establish
- Therefore IBBT established a “Board of Captains” during the
iBootcamp
- Bootcamp teams could address the board with specific questions on
their market and get in virtual contact (mail, phone) with one or more
captains on simple request
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19. Lessons Learned
- Much appreciated formula by teams during bootcamp
- Still some “hesitation” to contact captains of industry in this stage of
business opportunity identification
- Need for organizing a physical contact between teams and captains
before bootcamp
- Need of follow up between teams and captains after bootcamp
- Further investigate possibility to engage captains in further
development of bootcamp company
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