Demetris C. Hadjisofocli. This presentation was presented at a Cyprus Rotary Club to inform the members on the various issues on how to setup a business venture. A definition of systemic entrepreneurship, a termed and a process that I developed and coined and use the last 2 years, was given out.

1. RYLA-Cyprus Rotary District 2452
Unleashing The Power of …. ALL Together
Raising Funds
Demetris C. Hadjisofocli
Managing Director, Helix Business Incubator, Ltd.
Managing Director, Entrepreneurship Frontier Network, Ltd.
Director, Liaison Office University of Nicosia
Coordinated Induction of Entrepreneurship Education in Schools
March 22, 2014

2. Entrepreneurship & Car Paradigm
Common: Wheel, Tires, Body, Engine

3. Definition - Systemic Entrepreneurship®
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 Systemic Entrepreneurship® is a holistic approach to
entrepreneurship execution were the stakeholder environment allows
the user to use general frameworks and principles in a modular way
during the development of business leaders, business models,
monetization strategies and while the corporate strategic objectives
are met, to ensure that the end target of Economic, Political, Social,
Legal, Environmental equality across the societal graph is reached.

4. Definition - Social Entrepreneurship
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 Social entrepreneurship is the process of pursuing suitable solutions to social
problems. More specifically, social entrepreneurs adopt a mission to create and
sustain social value. They pursue opportunities to serve this mission, while
continuously adapting and learning.
 Possible Social Problems
 Unemployment among youth
 Poverty
 Civil Unrest
 Recession
 Closure of large number of SMEs
 Productive Entrepreneurship

5. Entrepreneurship
_______________________________
 Entrepreneurship is an agent of creative distraction
 Individuals NOT Corporations are the driving force
 Small agile companies as opposed to traditionally large companies
 Knowledge intensive
 Needs Policy shifts

6. What is the contribution to systemic
societal development
_________________________________
 Entrepreneurship focuses Solely on economic growth
 Blind focus on straight forward monetization contributes to scorch earth business
models, business strategies, business systems
 How does society as a whole contributes to the development of responsible
business leaders
 Education
 Culture
 Values discussion
 Ethics (not just business ethics but ethics in general)

7. What do we need Entrepreneurship to
address?
______________________________________
 How do we address the issue of social and financial equality?
 Society and quality of life should move forward in unison; not necessarily at the
same level but in unison
 The gap between social groups at worst should remain the same, but we
should strive to shrink it (capitalism needs free willing customers)
 Disparities, inequalities
 Entrepreneurship that brings economic justice, equality, environmental sustenance
 Economic, Political, Social, Legal, Cultural, Technological, Environmental Perspective
social, economic, political, religious considerations
 Correlation between Entrepreneurship and Development

8. Example of Systemic Entrepreneurship
 Developing agribusinesses in rural Africa, that strives to empower individuals and
communities
 It operates in several African countries. Researchers have introduced a system of vegetable production
that combines conventional farming with hydroponic technologies for healthy and high value crop
cultivation
 In partnership with the Sun International hotel group, a vegetable production network has
been established, allowing local groups of farmers to produce vegetables for sale to top
hotels serving the international tourism market
 This has led to the emergence of agri-entrepreneurs, and overall, the farmers benefiting earned income of
$1million annually since 2006. Beneficiaries include vulnerable groups like homeless, the visually disabled,
widows and orphans
 These are examples of the kind of systemic entrepreneurship that are needed. It takes a
social problem and utilizes knowledge transfer to come up with a solution that is not
about economic growth per se, but about human development

9. Funding - Due Diligence
____________________________________
 The process through which investments are decided
 Detailed, Broad, Deep
 Has some fixed elements
 Has some local elements
 Need expertise to perform
 It is important and critical to the success of an investor but it
should not delay the process
 Ideas will fail for sure; better chances are 2 in 50

10. Entrepreneurship Drive
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 The ability to identify new ideas
 Passion, determination and the drive to try them out
Willingness to listen and learn
 Have the character to know when it is time to pivot to a
better version…

11. Team
____________________________________
 Not everyone can become an Entrepreneur but ALMOST
everyone can be Enterprising ………..Teams that have GREAT
 Technologists
 Engineers
Operations
 Legal
 Individuals who are Agile and Flexible
 If someone is not an Entrepreneur but has those qualities, put
a GREAT Entrepreneur on their team
 Know what the team does not know – No Ego!

12. Position for Success
____________________________________
 KNOW A PITCHING EAR ….
 Not all money is created (or given) equally
 Not all investment people have the same philosophy, psychology,
interests, knowhow..
 Not all cultures/ecosystems are the same
 A pitching angle  Tech, Business Model, Operations, Monetization….
ADJUST IT

13. Value Proposition
_______________________________________
 KNOW Numbers
 KNOW Markets
 WHAT is the Problem to be Solved
 WHAT is the Monetization of the Solution
 HAVE a TEAM

14. Tool Box – Major Points
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 To the point Business Plan; Executive Summary (short & sweet)
 Only the “justified & confirmed” Facts; no blah blah!!!
 Sustainable Competitive Advantage
 Know your business inside-out
 Know what you don’t know
 Avoid Tunnel Vision Syndrome
 Confirm the viability of your idea
 Know and Respect your competition
 Think & Plan 2 steps ahead (market trends)
 Team with Chemistry & Know-How; Build a balanced team-gene pool
 Assess & know your cost
 Sales pipeline

15. Tool Box – Use of Funds!
___________________________________
 Why do you need the money?
 How will the money be used?
 Legitimate reasons
 Grow Sales
 Product Development
 Marketing
 Recruiting
 Training
 Infrastructure

16. Tool Box – Transparency
___________________________________
 What are the controls which guarantee legitimate use of
funds?
 Established Audit processes
 Weekly/Monthly reports
 Knowledgeable/Functional Board of Directors

17. What is all about?
____________________________________
 How is a company established, expand or grow?
 Finding money (capital) at a reasonable cost to try make your
dreams a reality….
Who: Business Incubators, Crowd Funding, Administration,
Venture Capital, Equity Markets, Angel Investors, Investment
Banks, Friends & Family….
 Cost: Equity, Interest

18. Angel Investors, Friends & Family
_____________________________________
 What is it?
 Where entrepreneurs and start ups usually go to get money for an idea
or proof of concept.
 Type of Financing
 Seed & Mezzanine
 Cost?
 Give away a piece of the company to investors.
 Around 20% of your idea.
 Examples
 Wealthy individuals, The Morino Institute, Corporate Investments

19. Crowd Funding
_____________________________________
 What is it?
 It is a public forum where Entrepreneurs go to get money for an idea or proof
of concept
 Type of Financing
 Startup, Seed
 Cost?
 Give away various incentives i.e. first products, lower price, incentives
 Around 5% fee to the site
 Examples
 Gofundme, kickstarter, indiegogo

20. Local Government and EU Level Funding
______________________________________
 What is it?
 Local Government/European Commission agencies make funding available through
various schemes
 Type of Financing
 Project specific
 Cost?
 Administrative Investment
 Low Interest rates
 Examples
 Jeremie program loans, Partnership Alliances, SME Instrument

21. Business Incubators
_____________________________________
 What is it?
 Where entrepreneurs, and start ups usually go to get money to develop & execute
a business plan at the early stages…
 Type of Financing
 Start up
 Cost?
 Equity position in the company! Give away a piece of the company to the people
with the money. Relatively ok cost!
 No more than 20% equity position
 Examples
 Helix Business Incubator , Diogenes et al

22. Venture Capital
____________________________________
 What is it?
 Where entrepreneurs, and startups usually go to get money to execute a business
plan at a later stage…after prototype, prove of concept stage
 Type of Financing
 Round A, B, C, D … , Bridge
 Cost?
 Equity position in the company!
 Give away a piece of the company to the people with the money. Very expensive!
 Examples
 Columbia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, The Raja Group etc…

23. Equity Markets
_____________________________________
 What is it?
 Where established companies go to get money for extraordinary growth
planning.
 Type of Financing
 Stock markets
 Cost?
 Give away a piece of the company to investors.
 Market defines price.
 Examples
 DowJones, NASDAQ, FUTSE etc.

24. Investment Banks
_____________________________________
 What is it?
 Where established companies go to get money for extraordinary growth
planning, or to address critical cash/liquidity issues
 Type of Financing
 Bridge, Loan, Growth
 Cost?
 Give away a piece of the company to investors or Loan type Terms.
 Need and Market defines price.
 Examples
 Most large banks and other financial institutions

25. Final Caution!
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Until the Money is in the Bank, in an account you
control, the deal is not done!