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Copyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IULCopyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IUL1
ISCTE-IUL MIT-Portugal Venture Competition
A different Global Innovation & Entrepreneurship initiative
Gonçalo AmorimMPP-IEI Program Director
ISCTE-IUL Business School
© ISCTE-IUL, 2011 – All rights reserved
Copyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IULCopyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IUL
Copyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IULCopyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IUL 23
In a nutshell:
• International tech-based venture competition
• Held once a year, 3rd ed. Launched March'12• 4 Market-application tracks:
1. Lifesciences
2. Sustainable Energy & Transportation systems
3. Information Technology and the Web
4. Consumer Products and Services
Copyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IUL
ISCTE-IUL MIT-Portugal Venture Competition
What is it?
For whom? Teams with a dream:-
• Would-be Entrepreneurs• Innovators (Start-up's / Spin-off's under 5y and <2,5M€)
• An innovation & entrepreneurship, tech-based Venture competition
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ISCTE-IUL MIT-Portugal Venture Competition
Our results thus far (18 months):
• 80% of semifinalist's have launched start-ups
following e-teams I
• 69% of semifinalist's raised funding, €6.0M (over
50% from venture capital)
• 72 new, highly qualified jobs created.
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Copyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IULCopyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IUL6
ISCTE-IUL MIT-Portugal Venture Competition
Our fundamental principles:
1- It's all about people, the right people for the
right job
2- Time is money, and (the right) money can buy
you time
3- If you don't know what you don't know you
scare knowlegeable people away
4- Finalist's may be off to an easier start, but are
most often not garranteed successes
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ISCTE-IUL MIT-Portugal Venture Competition
Our Goals:
• Identify and reward projects at an seed/early stage
with a clear global value proposition
• Enable a 10x to 20x pre-money valuation within first
years of venture
• Connect global Innovators to global Investors
Copyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IUL
ISCTE-IUL MITPortugal Venture Competition
Up to €1 million
in financial support per edition
Copyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IUL
Caixa Empreender+ Awards
- Track finalists
Selection phase: 100k€ Venture phase: 100k€*
– Total: 200k€
- Grand finalist
Selection phase: 200k€ Venture phase: 200k€*Total: 400k€
- Expert Coaching (20 start-ups/year)
- Access MIT eco-system (12 Start-ups/year)
Copyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IUL
ISCTE-IUL MITPortugal Venture Competition
Finalists can double their
awards
How?Meet milestones and goals within first 2 years.
Copyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IUL
Ultimate goal for teams:
� Increase company value from 10 to 20x in the first 3 years
� Minimum pre-money valuation of €2 million � Get ready to raise VC money (series A), €2 - 5 million range
Copyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IUL
ISCTE-IUL MITPortugal Venture Competition
We're not reinventing
the wheel
• 33.600 companies founded by living MIT alumni (76% alive, employing 3.3M)• Annual revenues of $2 trillion (~10x the GDP of Portugal)!• Annual R&D CAPEX: $650M (54% privately sponsored); USD 2B/year budget• 500+ patents/y (280+ filed/y)• $90M license revenue ('08)• 72 MIT Nobel Prize winners (7 current faculty members)
Copyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IUL
Training / Start-Up accelerators:
– CoHitec (COTEC), GSI (Leadership), Y-Combinator (Stanford),
TED-x, TechStars (USA), Seedcamp (UK), Start-up Lisboa (PT)
• Competitions:
Ideas: eg. Jovem Engenheiro, I2P, Startup Weekend, Poli-
Empreende, EDP University Challenge, ArriscaC, iUP25, start-up
pirates,
Business Plans: ANJE (PT), EDP Richard Branson (PT), BES
Inovação (PT), MIT100k (USA)...
Venture competiitons: ISCTE-IUL MIT-Portugal (PT), Mass
Challenge (Boston/USA), IBM SmartCamp (USA), Vodafone
Mobile Clicks (UK), TT Ventures (IT)...
Positioning our venture competition
Copyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IUL
• Our Target: “Start” where Business Plan competitions
end
• Our Tools: 200+ hours of training and coaching in Go-to-
Market strategies with entrepreneurs, during Selection
• Our Focus: Execution, global leverage via International
catalyst ecosystem, during Venture
...designed to foster strong bonds with international
investors.
Unique aspects: What's unique in what we do?
Copyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IUL
ISCTE-IUL MITPortugal Venture Competition
In 2010 & 2011, 155 brave
teams submitted
Involving 600+ aspiring globalpreneurs
Copyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IUL
Some numbers (2011 submissions):
- Increasing quality applications, thanks to our TTO's colleagues
- Applicants from 6 countries: Portugal, Argentina, Belgium, Spain,
UK, USA (13,2% Int. submissions)
- 46.7% already incorporated start-ups!
- 48.3% from IT&Web
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Unique aspects: So, how do we do we go about building
global innovators?
€0.5M to 4
Finalists
95
Applications
(2010)
20 Semi-
finalists
€0.5M upon
execution
Teams work on
Award
Milestones
Selection
Stage
Venture
Stage
Up to 5
years
March to
November
Copyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IUL
Unique aspects: Selection as a learning process for
teams:
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Copyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IUL
3rd edition (ongoing):- key dates
March 15th Submission period opens
May 31st Deadline for project's submission
July 2nd 20 Semi-finalists' announcement
July 16-19th e-teams Crash Course I
November 13th Track Finals event
November 21-23th e-teams Crash Course II
28th February 2013 Grand Finale event
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Strong & clear Value Propositions: some hints
1. Team: members and fit?
2. How big is the problem you are trying to solve?
3. What is the underlying technology and uniqueness?
4. What makes your product / or service innovative (€)?
5. Market: Is there an opportunity for global impact?
6. What is your business model and entry strategy?
What is the jury looking for?
Copyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IULCopyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IUL
ISCTE-IUL MITPortugal Venture Competition
Evaluated by over 40 International
Judges4 Finalists selected, with access to €500.000Focus on Execution to double award
Lifesciences E&T IT&Web P&S
Track Finalists (2011 ed.):
Copyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IULCopyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IUL
4 Honorable Mentions granted (2011 ed.),
� With access to,– Privileged track mechanism to venture financing– Access to MIT catalysts– Access to MIT ecosystem (invitation only)
Lifesciences E&T IT&Web P&S
Copyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IUL
ISCTE-IUL MITPortugal Venture Competition
Evaluated by 36 International
Judges4 Finalists selected, with access to €500.000Focus on Execution to double award
Lifesciences E&T IT&Web P&S
Track Finalists (2010 ed.):
Copyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IUL
4 Honorable Mentions granted (2010 ed.):
� With access to,– Privileged track mechanism to venture financing– Access to MIT catalysts– Access to MIT ecosystem (invitation only)
Lifesciences E&T IT&Web P&S
Copyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IUL
ISCTE-IUL MITPortugal Venture Competition
Spotlight our ventures (2010 ed.)TV, Radio, Press support
10+ TV interviews, 70+ press articles, 350+ web
citations
Copyright 2009-2010 Audax Center for Entrepreneurship ISCTE-IUL
Thanks for your attention!
Gonçalo Amorim
Program Director, MPP-IEI
Catarina Madeira
Operations Coordinator, MPP-IEI
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