Fostering ICT Entrepreneurship in Europe

ITU Capacity Building, 20th September, 2017

Project Partners

Project Description

Recruited and trained 250 (target: 150) ICT entrepreneurs from 22 (target: 10) EU countries

Hosted Start-up Scrums (Summer Schools) in six countries (Denmark, Ireland, Germany, Greece, Poland and Spain)

Prototyped and implemented the first EU Virtual Incubator platform supporting 50 (target: 30) new multi-nationality start-ups

Inaugurated the EU-XCEL Born European Challenge Final

Key Activities

The Core Challenge

Fragmented Entrepreneurial Eco-System in Europe

Single Nationality Start-Ups – No European Vision

Local limits on access to co-founders, resources, expertise & markets

Limited collaboration at the entrepreneur and institutional level

European Context

% of Founders of the same nationality in the sample of EU Incubators

Objectives of EU-XCEL

Stimulate international collaboration in ICT entrepreneurship across Europe

Create a unique network of physical and virtual creative spaces for ICT start-up development

Coordination of European-wide intensive entrepreneurial action training events - ‘Start-up Scrums’

Fast-tracking the experience based learning and international networking of high potential young ICT entrepreneurs

Key Figures 2016

Applications Received 436 Female Participation 31%

Participants 187 (426) Team Task Completion Rate 90%

EU Countries Engaged 90% Participant Skills Growth 86%

Start‐up Scrums 6 Incubator Ready Teams 17

ExpertSpeakers/Advisers

86 Active Startups (Both Years) 20

Participants – Member State Representation

30 to 35 participants from each partner country

Also represented:

Belgium

Bulgaria

Cyprus

Estonia

France

Hungary

Italy

Latvia

Lithuania

Netherlands

Portugal

Romania

Slovakia

Slovenia

Sweden

United Kingdom

Participants - Education

The Scrum Programme

The Start-Up Scrums – Key Features

Formation of 50 multi-national ICT start-up teams

Key Activities: Trend Analysis – Ideation - Conceptualisation Business Modelling – Prototyping – Team Structuring - Action Planning - Pitching

Thematically aligned classes and workshops

Supported by business and technical platform resources

Focal Areas: Health Informatics - Big Data -ICT4Development - Internet of Things - E/M Commerce

Matching Entrepreneurs

International Team Building

Ideating

Business Modelling

Pitching

The Experience

Gaspar, Computer Science Graduate from Hungary

“If you contrast it with places like Harvard, where you are encouraged in every way to chase your ambitions, we don’t have any start-up culture here at all. There is zero encouragement”

“Because of this it had never occurred to me that it was even possible to do this”

Illustrating EU-XCEL’s Impact

Paulina, Medical Doctor from Poland

Joined with…

Juan, App Developer from Spain

Ben, Strategy Consultant from Germany

Ariadni, Marketer from Greece

“The first affordable multilingual solution for immobilized people”

To Create…

“Just being there was a fantastic and inspiring experience…I felt like I had been waiting for this all my life”

“I realised that I had a deep desire to do this…Finally the chance had appeared on the radar”

“This type of thing just won’t happen without a programme like EU-XCEL…It’s filling a huge gap…Otherwise it just won’t happen”

PhD in Computer Science

Co-Founders – Tom (UK, Management Consultant), Timo (Germany, UX Developer), Carlos (Spain, Engineer), Rui (Portugal, App Developer)

Founded – Deedr,

B2B CSR Solutions for

large companies

Illustrating lmpact – Stathis from Greece

“In Greek culture, the biggest fear is letting down the people around you”

“I preferred taking the safe route…Honestly I never thought seriously about doing this before I came to Cork”

“There is a part of myself I didn’t know existed…I never knew I could do this”

“I regret not doing this sooner…I’m excited about where we go with this”

Illustrating lmpact – Stathis from Greece

http://platform.euxcel.eu/

Start-up Scrum Deliverables

Team Structure and Manifesto

14-week Roadmap

Initial Idea Pitch

Virtual Acceleration Deliverables

Validation, Protyping, Proof of Concept

Business Plan

Overview of Virtual Incubation

Virtual Incubator Supports

Bi-weekly status reports – Validation, Iterations, Prototyping

Each team matched with an expert mentor (e.g. SpeechAngeland Dr Ciara Heavin - Co-Director of the Health Information Systems Research Centre, UCC)

Hosting of technical and business resources (e.g PhoneGap)

Full visibility of mentor-team interactions allowing for consultation and roll-out of responses to problems

Final Business Plans submitted at end of 14 week programme

Illustrating lmpact – Jonathan from Germany

“All of a sudden I have people in all these countries I can turn to…It makes you feel so much more confident about what you can do”

“It’s changed my sense of what’s possible”

Degree in Economics, Enthusiastic Entrepreneur but had no international network

Illustrating lmpact – Mapper: Diarmuid (Ireland), Dariusz (Poland), Antonio (Spain)

• Company formed with Irish, Polish and Spanish Developers

• Won incubation space in Munich

But…

• How to fund relocation?

• Is there a viable pathway for multi-nationality young start-up teams?

EU-XCEL Challenge Final – The Finalists

B2C – Social Platform -Recreation

B2B – E/M-Commerce

B2B – Data Analytics

EU-XCEL Challenge Final – The Finalists

B2C/B – E/M Commerce

B2B – E/M Commerce

B2B – Health Informatics

EU-XCEL Challenge Final – The Finalists

B2B – Health Informatics

B2C – Social Platform –Youth Employment

B2B – ICT4Development –Social Responsibility

EU-XCEL Challenge Final – The Finalists

B2B – E/M-Commerce

B2C – Social Platform –Legal Interns

B2B – Data Analytics

Thank You