The challenges of European high-tech start-ups Europe needs more innovative high-tech start-up companies who can compete internationally. Through the EVP strategic partnership, four top European technical universities (DTU, TU/e, EPFL, TUM), join forces to develop a unique entrepreneurship program for engineering schools. The envisioned intensive study program will provide master and PhD students involved in spin-off companies with the knowledge and the opportunity to build international success stories from day one. Fostering European Entrepreneurship Further The Eurotech universities are convinced that mutual exchange and cross-pollination could foster ambitious entrepreneurship in the same way that the Erasmus programs helped in changing the attitude and culture of students across Europe. However, an entrepreneur cannot spend a year, not even 3 months far from his company or start-up project. She or he can however certainly invest a few days of his time in intense programs where young entrepreneurs would meet international peers, experts in innovation as well as potential partners and customers through workshops, business developments visits and presentations of their projects that would be challenged by these peers and experts. A European Venture Program The common vision of the Eurotech universities for this program is to make use of their strong alliance to join their support for high-potential companies and help them grow internationally. Therefore the alliance aims at bundling their efforts to improve the entrepreneurship culture, increase the availability of funding opportunities and accelerate the international exposure for their student-entrepreneurs. Almost all programs focus on internationalization towards the US, while the potential of an inner-European exchange is left untouched. We believe that high-potential spin-offs from our universities can find many of the resources and networks they need to succeed within Europe and our vast networks of industry and academia. With European Venture Program we want to increase their readiness for internationalization and expansion. Though this is a long term effort, a first concrete common project is to offer a program to expose and train young (aspiring) student-entrepreneurs on “how to become a European entrepreneur in 12 days” , with the goal of preparing start-ups to grow beyond their national boundaries. Entrepreneurs from the four universities would be selected and mixed for a joint-program of visits, workshops and pitches for their entrepreneurial ventures. The program could include (but not be limited to) the following elements: • sessions (in total 12 days) of visits to the EuroTech locations (and possibly other technology clusters) including their entrepreneurship and incubation facilities • possibly organized in dedicated themes (such as broad ICT or Life Science) • contact to EU market and innovation specialists • visits to local and international companies to brainstorm on market opportunities • contacts with potential international customers / subcontractors / partners • contacts with potential international investors (business angels and venture capitalists) • courses and workshops on entrepreneurial themes • international pitching experience • fireplace talk with seasoned European entrepreneurs • conferences with keynote speakers and role models Ideally, the program would benefit not only the selected entrepreneurs, but also more generally the local entrepreneurial ecosystems as the program would be an opportunity for exposure and communication about high-tech entrepreneurship. Organization In addition to the four universities, the program should include private firms with experience in supporting entrepreneurship. These could be private accelerators (seedcamp, techstars) or firms with experience in the field (e.g. IFJ managing ventureleaders in Switzerland or Leto, the organizers of the Startup Rally - startuprally.org). Other names that are known to everyone include without limitation Microsoft Ventures, Telefonica | O2 (Wayra), Scout24, Deutsche Telekom (hub:raum), Siemens (Technology to Business Unit). As a conclusion Entrepreneurship requires courage and determination. It also needs encouragement from a friendly and ambitious ecosystem. The Eurotech consortium wishes to launch its European Venture Program as a first common tool to foster high-tech entrepreneurship, based on the existing support mechanisms. This is a first step only, with the ambition of creating a more solid and successful environment for our entrepreneurs.
The challenges of European high-tech startups: Europe needs more innovative high-tech startup companies who can compete internationally. Only few companies have been founded in Europe that can be compared to e.g. Google or Genentech and also smaller-size success stories are rare. In contrast, the USA have produced thousands of high-growth companies in the last 40 years. Many of the successful American high-tech ventures have been founded out of universities by bachelor, master or PhD students, such as Microsoft, Yahoo or Facebook. European universities have not been able to transfer innovative inventions into high-growth companies due to a combination of cultural differences as much as a lack of resources dedicated to startup creation.Therefore, Europe has set ambitious goals to become a more entrepreneurial region through its Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan with the objective to remove existing obstacles and to revolutionize the culture of entrepreneurship in Europe.Through the European Venture Program (EVP) strategic partnership, the following European technical universities (DTU, TU/e, EPFL, TUM) and one Entrepreneurship Center (UnternehmerTUM), join forces to develop a unique entrepreneurship program for engineering schools: TUM is one of Europe’s leading research universities, with more than 500 professors, around 10,000 academic and non-academic staff, and 40,000 students. Its focus areas are the engineering sciences, natural sciences, life sciences and medicine, combined with economic and social sciences. TUM acts as an entrepreneurial university that promotes talents and creates value for society. In that, it profits from having strong partners in science and industry. TUM fosters a supportive environment for innovation with a market-oriented approach and to inspire their members – from students to alumni – to awaken their entrepreneurial spirit. It offers Startup Consulting, a 1000qm Incubator and a huge network. The four strategic areas are: CleanTech, MedTech. LifeScience and Information and Communication Technology. TUM is represented worldwide with a campus in Singapore as well as offices in Beijing, Brussels, Cairo, Mumbai, San Francisco, and São Paulo. Nobel Prize winners and inventors such as Rudolf Diesel, Carl von Linde, and Rudolf Mößbauer have done research at TUM. In 2006 and 2012 it won recognition as a German "Excellence University." In international rankings, TUM regularly places among the best universities in Germany. UnternehmerTUM is an affiliated institute and strategic component of “TUM – the Entrepreneurial University”. It is now one of the leading university-based centers for innovation and business creation in Europe. Activities of UnternehmerTUM cover all of the three phases pre-start-up, Startup and growth. UnternehmerTUM has its own venture capital fund, which provides early-stage venture capital. It targets high-technology Startups and supports them with market expertise, Startup experience and an active network of business partners. TU/e specializes in engineering science & technology. The university's education, research and knowledge valorisation contribute to the (fundamental) advancement of technical sciences and the development of technological innovations and the growth of wealth and prosperity both in its own region and beyond. TU/e has named three Strategic Area’s: Smart Mobility, Energy and Health and is well known for its collaboration with industrial partners Therefore, TU/e distinguishes- itself with the motto: “TU/e, where innovation starts“. EPFL is one of Europe’s most cosmopolitan technical university with students, professors and staff from over 120 nations. A dynamic environment, open to Switzerland and the world, EPFL is centered on its three missions: teaching, research and technology transfer. EPFL works together with an extensive network of partners including other universities and institutes of technology, developing and emerging countries, secondary schools and colleges, industry and economy, political circles and the general public, to bring about real impact for society.DTU is one of Europe’s leading technical universities with 19 departments and a large number of specialized centers and facilities. DTU Skylab is the cross-disciplinary hub for student innovation and entrepreneurship organized in the central administration of DTU. We help startups on all levels with coaching, acceleration programs, funding, international mobility, and network. We also facilitate collaboration on innovation between corporations and student and host entrepreneurship/prototyping related courses from all university departments. The main objective is to support entrepreneurship in a learning oriented context and facilitate network and collaboration across disciplines, organizations, and borders. Organizations in addition: big companies, SMEs, mentors, founders, alumni. (Due character limitation please see complete summary in Annex 0_2.project summary complete text)